so I’m really an entrepreneur who
thought that age 45 it’d be a great time
to go from 20 years of white-collar work
sitting at a desk to farming in the
Texas heat the Hurricanes that we have
the storms that we have before we get
started
did did everybody here eat breakfast
this morning okay did anybody have any
nutritious breakfast not the Shipley
doughnuts or the jack-in-the-box do you
buddy have nutritious breakfasts that’s
good good anybody have eggs eggs
wholesome eggs milk milk okay yeah if
you’re like most people you probably
went to Kroger or h-e-b or maybe you’re
out of eggs so you ran down to the
Valero and because we’re we always want
to do the right thing you know we might
have picked up the carton of eggs that
said cage-free hens because who wants
chickens in cages that’s crazy we want
cage free happy chickens because there’s
nothing better than a happy chicken
because we don’t want our chickens
harming any other animals in the process
of eating you might have been led to buy
the eggs that said vegetarian fed who
buys the vegetarian fed eggs it raise
your hand again you do that okay okay
you know if you were if you’re gonna
upgrade your game on your your eggs you
might have picked the one that said
organic okay and if you’re you’re like
me and most other people we all have bad
things that we eat and we know we’re
eating them and that’s okay we want to
try to do the right thing and balance
out what we’re eating was something
healthy every now and then so if you
were like me I’d go to the store and I’d
say oh look at all these vitamins and
all this fancy stuff that I’ve heard of
but I don’t really know exactly what
but it sounds good this carton says that
they are most trusted by shoppers so
somewhere you took a poll and you voted
these guys the best most trusted eggs
and then maybe you saw this fancy carton
says ethical eggs chickens living in
fresh air and sunshine there’s an
important word on here though that I do
want you to remember and that’s
pasture-raised ok that’s something we’re
looking for that’s good but the question
that I would have on this carton is will
where’s the farm like how did I see
these chickens okay so to give you a
little tip if you look on the back of
any carton and this tape is here to
protect certain people’s brands but if
you look on the back of a cart it’ll
tell you the locations and the plant
numbers and the states where these eggs
came from so this one has about 6 or 7
different states that the eggs could
have come from ok I like milk
my favorite milk is actually raw milk
from a raw milk dairy in Northwest
Harris County but if I run out it’s not
convenient for me to drive 15 or 20
minutes to that raw milk dairy even
though I love the milk it’s a different
product than regular milk so I go to the
store because I want to do the right
thing I buy the organic milk kind of
knowing what’s behind the curtain
but ignoring it a little bit and because
I saw this has DHA in it I thought well
I’ve heard a DHA it looks like some
vitamin things probably good for me but
sure I’m gonna get the milk with the DHA
now this is a month ago
so I get home and I’m thinking about DHA
what is DHA where does that come from so
I do what you would do but google it you
know I could have just looked on the
back of the label but DHA comes from
refined fish oil and I thought to myself
I don’t
want fish in my milk like in any any
form or fashion I love fish fish is
healthy fish is great I like fishing but
I don’t want fish in my milk plain and
simple and so you know if you ate fruits
or berries or strawberries again you
might have up your game and you went to
Whole Foods and you got the organic
strawberries you’re trying to do the
right thing get the cage free chickens
so what is it that we’re we’re really
eating you know what’s really going on
so when you go and you buy something
that says USDA Organic that does not
mean no pesticides no fungicides and
herbicides the organic manufacturers
review Institute will compare a
company’s pesticide product fungicide
whatever it is against the rules
established by the USDA for organics to
see if it meets that criteria it doesn’t
represent the purity that in our brains
we’re thinking okay because in your mind
when you buy the cage-free eggs the
organic eggs you’re thinking this
chicken laid eggs out in the grass and
Leslie went and hand-picked these eggs
and she wiped off each egg and she put
it in a carton where she conveniently
delivered it to Kroger and you went and
picked it up so that that’s our
perception okay but but what is the
reality well here’s the reality of
cage-free turn to your neighbor and say
congratulations your cage free as long
as you never leave this room and you
never see sunshine you are cage free in
in this room so when you see these terms
on a carton they’re just that it’s mark
it’s food marketing it’s you know words
like farm-fresh well what does that mean
well I know one thing it means it means
that if I get
great a eggs they can at least be three
weeks old okay if I get great double-a
that’s zero to three weeks so what does
farm-fresh means it means nothing what
does natural mean absolutely nothing
animal welfare rated okay one of these
cartons is gonna have animal welfare
rated okay what’s the welfare that we
see here there’s some great people with
the USDA the Farm Service Agency NRCS
that really try to help farmers and I
think genuinely their heart is in the
right place they’re trying to do the
right thing but like any system that we
have in government is many businesses as
many farmers it’s very difficult to
police what’s going on
non-gmo it’s a big movement for a non
GMO but non GMO doesn’t mean no
pesticides it just means it can’t test
positive for pesticide residue when they
test it so whether I’m by an animal feed
or you’re by and human feed you know you
have to take these terms with a grain of
salt okay because it’s not it’s not
clear you know what are we supporting in
America when we eat chicken we eat a lot
of chicken everywhere you go chicken
Taco Bell restaurants wherever store
when we are buying organic milk what
does that mean okay if you go to
cornucopia org cornucopia org they
attempt to list and kind of police and
to establish an independent rating on
brand names whether it be you know
Costco Borden whoever it is to give it
an actual animal welfare rating and then
to you know open up and display any
problems or practices that may be going
on in my mind when I think of an organic
dairy I think of cows on grass but
that’s not necessarily what we’re
getting when I think of Turkey I try not
to think of this picture or the American
meat
you know we grow chickens in America in
a warehouse and we have 50,000 at a time
every eight weeks 50,000 chickens is
rotating from chick to finish through
this this process you know the
environmental disaster is the runoff the
manure you know what are we supporting
and what’s the problem the problem is
it’s so easy it’s easy to go to the
Valero to the Kroger to the h-e-b you
want a lime go to any of those places
you can get one food-like substances
we’ve become so used to just taking for
granted wherever we go that someone’s
gonna give us food that we don’t think
about is it healthy is it doesn’t even
taste like food is it is it real and
most important that there’s a there’s a
lack and a detachment of us from our
farmers okay which is the big key of
what’s missing everybody needs a farmer
you got a doctor you got a lawyer
you got a plumber you got a childcare
person when’s the last time your friends
went on Facebook and said hey can you
give me a reference for a farmer it’s
crazy
why who would do that there’s farmers
all around here okay you may not see
them you probably would never see them
because they don’t we don’t spend money
on advertising we don’t spend money on
marketing there’s not gonna be any
full-page ad there’s a lot of farmers
markets down here in the Houston urban
area there are farms all around here
okay if you don’t have a relationship
with a farmer get a relationship get a
referral relationship okay come out and
actually see a farm how crazy is that
that you would actually drive to the
farm to actually see what goes on to
look at the ground to look at the
practices of how animals are being
raised to look in the barn if you find
10 drums 10 55-gallon drums of Roundup
you might want to ask some questions
okay if you know your farmer you know
what you’re getting you know what you’re
eating you know what you’re putting in
your body okay you need to literally see
that ground with your eyes
things that you can do in your community
if you need organic chicken will grow
your organic chicken if you need non soy
eggs for a hundred people because you’re
part of a cancer survivors group ask
where can I get in on soy eggs they’re
around
if you eat duck eggs whatever you need
it’s available to you again when you go
to a farm look at the ground look at how
the animals are raised talk to the
farmer okay this this can make a big
difference and the health of the food
that you get your family gets to balance
out the things that we like to do that
maybe aren’t as good for us and again
these farms are all around so we
encourage you if you need a relationship
contact us we’ll refer you vegetables
eggs ducks whatever it may be my name is
Mike and I’m a farmer
[Applause]
you
thought that age 45 it’d be a great time
to go from 20 years of white-collar work
sitting at a desk to farming in the
Texas heat the Hurricanes that we have
the storms that we have before we get
started
did did everybody here eat breakfast
this morning okay did anybody have any
nutritious breakfast not the Shipley
doughnuts or the jack-in-the-box do you
buddy have nutritious breakfasts that’s
good good anybody have eggs eggs
wholesome eggs milk milk okay yeah if
you’re like most people you probably
went to Kroger or h-e-b or maybe you’re
out of eggs so you ran down to the
Valero and because we’re we always want
to do the right thing you know we might
have picked up the carton of eggs that
said cage-free hens because who wants
chickens in cages that’s crazy we want
cage free happy chickens because there’s
nothing better than a happy chicken
because we don’t want our chickens
harming any other animals in the process
of eating you might have been led to buy
the eggs that said vegetarian fed who
buys the vegetarian fed eggs it raise
your hand again you do that okay okay
you know if you were if you’re gonna
upgrade your game on your your eggs you
might have picked the one that said
organic okay and if you’re you’re like
me and most other people we all have bad
things that we eat and we know we’re
eating them and that’s okay we want to
try to do the right thing and balance
out what we’re eating was something
healthy every now and then so if you
were like me I’d go to the store and I’d
say oh look at all these vitamins and
all this fancy stuff that I’ve heard of
but I don’t really know exactly what
but it sounds good this carton says that
they are most trusted by shoppers so
somewhere you took a poll and you voted
these guys the best most trusted eggs
and then maybe you saw this fancy carton
says ethical eggs chickens living in
fresh air and sunshine there’s an
important word on here though that I do
want you to remember and that’s
pasture-raised ok that’s something we’re
looking for that’s good but the question
that I would have on this carton is will
where’s the farm like how did I see
these chickens okay so to give you a
little tip if you look on the back of
any carton and this tape is here to
protect certain people’s brands but if
you look on the back of a cart it’ll
tell you the locations and the plant
numbers and the states where these eggs
came from so this one has about 6 or 7
different states that the eggs could
have come from ok I like milk
my favorite milk is actually raw milk
from a raw milk dairy in Northwest
Harris County but if I run out it’s not
convenient for me to drive 15 or 20
minutes to that raw milk dairy even
though I love the milk it’s a different
product than regular milk so I go to the
store because I want to do the right
thing I buy the organic milk kind of
knowing what’s behind the curtain
but ignoring it a little bit and because
I saw this has DHA in it I thought well
I’ve heard a DHA it looks like some
vitamin things probably good for me but
sure I’m gonna get the milk with the DHA
now this is a month ago
so I get home and I’m thinking about DHA
what is DHA where does that come from so
I do what you would do but google it you
know I could have just looked on the
back of the label but DHA comes from
refined fish oil and I thought to myself
I don’t
want fish in my milk like in any any
form or fashion I love fish fish is
healthy fish is great I like fishing but
I don’t want fish in my milk plain and
simple and so you know if you ate fruits
or berries or strawberries again you
might have up your game and you went to
Whole Foods and you got the organic
strawberries you’re trying to do the
right thing get the cage free chickens
so what is it that we’re we’re really
eating you know what’s really going on
so when you go and you buy something
that says USDA Organic that does not
mean no pesticides no fungicides and
herbicides the organic manufacturers
review Institute will compare a
company’s pesticide product fungicide
whatever it is against the rules
established by the USDA for organics to
see if it meets that criteria it doesn’t
represent the purity that in our brains
we’re thinking okay because in your mind
when you buy the cage-free eggs the
organic eggs you’re thinking this
chicken laid eggs out in the grass and
Leslie went and hand-picked these eggs
and she wiped off each egg and she put
it in a carton where she conveniently
delivered it to Kroger and you went and
picked it up so that that’s our
perception okay but but what is the
reality well here’s the reality of
cage-free turn to your neighbor and say
congratulations your cage free as long
as you never leave this room and you
never see sunshine you are cage free in
in this room so when you see these terms
on a carton they’re just that it’s mark
it’s food marketing it’s you know words
like farm-fresh well what does that mean
well I know one thing it means it means
that if I get
great a eggs they can at least be three
weeks old okay if I get great double-a
that’s zero to three weeks so what does
farm-fresh means it means nothing what
does natural mean absolutely nothing
animal welfare rated okay one of these
cartons is gonna have animal welfare
rated okay what’s the welfare that we
see here there’s some great people with
the USDA the Farm Service Agency NRCS
that really try to help farmers and I
think genuinely their heart is in the
right place they’re trying to do the
right thing but like any system that we
have in government is many businesses as
many farmers it’s very difficult to
police what’s going on
non-gmo it’s a big movement for a non
GMO but non GMO doesn’t mean no
pesticides it just means it can’t test
positive for pesticide residue when they
test it so whether I’m by an animal feed
or you’re by and human feed you know you
have to take these terms with a grain of
salt okay because it’s not it’s not
clear you know what are we supporting in
America when we eat chicken we eat a lot
of chicken everywhere you go chicken
Taco Bell restaurants wherever store
when we are buying organic milk what
does that mean okay if you go to
cornucopia org cornucopia org they
attempt to list and kind of police and
to establish an independent rating on
brand names whether it be you know
Costco Borden whoever it is to give it
an actual animal welfare rating and then
to you know open up and display any
problems or practices that may be going
on in my mind when I think of an organic
dairy I think of cows on grass but
that’s not necessarily what we’re
getting when I think of Turkey I try not
to think of this picture or the American
meat
you know we grow chickens in America in
a warehouse and we have 50,000 at a time
every eight weeks 50,000 chickens is
rotating from chick to finish through
this this process you know the
environmental disaster is the runoff the
manure you know what are we supporting
and what’s the problem the problem is
it’s so easy it’s easy to go to the
Valero to the Kroger to the h-e-b you
want a lime go to any of those places
you can get one food-like substances
we’ve become so used to just taking for
granted wherever we go that someone’s
gonna give us food that we don’t think
about is it healthy is it doesn’t even
taste like food is it is it real and
most important that there’s a there’s a
lack and a detachment of us from our
farmers okay which is the big key of
what’s missing everybody needs a farmer
you got a doctor you got a lawyer
you got a plumber you got a childcare
person when’s the last time your friends
went on Facebook and said hey can you
give me a reference for a farmer it’s
crazy
why who would do that there’s farmers
all around here okay you may not see
them you probably would never see them
because they don’t we don’t spend money
on advertising we don’t spend money on
marketing there’s not gonna be any
full-page ad there’s a lot of farmers
markets down here in the Houston urban
area there are farms all around here
okay if you don’t have a relationship
with a farmer get a relationship get a
referral relationship okay come out and
actually see a farm how crazy is that
that you would actually drive to the
farm to actually see what goes on to
look at the ground to look at the
practices of how animals are being
raised to look in the barn if you find
10 drums 10 55-gallon drums of Roundup
you might want to ask some questions
okay if you know your farmer you know
what you’re getting you know what you’re
eating you know what you’re putting in
your body okay you need to literally see
that ground with your eyes
things that you can do in your community
if you need organic chicken will grow
your organic chicken if you need non soy
eggs for a hundred people because you’re
part of a cancer survivors group ask
where can I get in on soy eggs they’re
around
if you eat duck eggs whatever you need
it’s available to you again when you go
to a farm look at the ground look at how
the animals are raised talk to the
farmer okay this this can make a big
difference and the health of the food
that you get your family gets to balance
out the things that we like to do that
maybe aren’t as good for us and again
these farms are all around so we
encourage you if you need a relationship
contact us we’ll refer you vegetables
eggs ducks whatever it may be my name is
Mike and I’m a farmer
[Applause]
you
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