We all need to eat - thoughts on resiliency

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December 12, 2020

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The 2008 financial crisis swept across the globe like a swift wind, knocking over every frail financial institution in its path. The chilly breeze blew into the lives of families all over our nation in the form of foreclosures, frozen credit and skyrocketing energy prices. All of this taking place just moments after our leaders promised that “the housing market will never go down.”

We all settled in for a “new normal”. Gas prices hitting $4.00, adult children and their families moving back in with their parents and wages being smashed by what was being called “The Great Recession.”

I remember it and its teachable moment well. I was a Vice President at a global fitness equipment company, traveling the world on a weekly basis. One day in Los Angeles, the next in London followed by a week in Japan. What I witnessed over this decade-long chapter of my life being a hot-shot, bigtime business-man served to shape the lens through which I see the world today.

The entire thing is holding on by a thread, and it could snap at any time.

Fast-forward to today and that sentence will sink in like a stone cast into still water. Just as a boulder sends out ripples across a smooth lake, Coronavirus 2020 is reshaping our perceptions of a “new normal”. Six months ago, “social distancing” was not in our vocabulary. Sixty days ago we could shake hands and -- Wait for it – buy toilet paper! That was yesterday. Today, we wear masks and hand sanitizer is nowhere in sight. Today, headlines herald the closure of meat packing plants, farmers dumping milk, vegetable crops being plowed under and shortages at the supermarket shelf. Our world we once knew seems turned upside down.

The entire thing is holding on by a thread, and it could snap at any time.

Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen and backseat drivers can always second guess. The reality is, however, we’re in the driver’s seat and the vehicle is hurdling forward. We don’t need a tinfoil hat or a loud voice in our left ear telling us that we made a wrong turn. The windshield needs to be clean and the headlights on bright to see what lies ahead. What can I do TODAY to soften the landing should that thin thread suddenly come unraveled?

In 2009, I took up the study of global financial institutions. Fractional-reserve lending and fiat monetary policy fascinated me. It’s much the same today as everyone becomes the neighborhood’s most well-informed virologist or epidemiologist. Suddenly, we all know how viruses are spread and how to contain them. We become experts at understanding hospital bed capacities and population-based pandemic statistics. After all, we flattened the curve!

A decade ago is the same as today. Becoming an expert on what just happened
is a mental merry-go-round that gets us no further ahead in preparation for the next shockwave to inevitably hit our fragile society. Ideas need to get out of the head and onto the ground. Intelligence needs to be actionable. The common denominator that I discovered over a decade ago has become even more glaringly obvious today.

We all need to eat.

True one thousand years ago. True today.

While technology has brought us marvelous advances like Zoom rooms and remote worksites, it has not solved this age-old biological reality. In the wake of The Great Recession, our family listed out the necessities of daily living and set forth a plan to secure a buffer supply of each item on that list. Ultimately, I left the global fitness equipment business in disgust only to find myself today as a farmer. If you would have told me in 2011 that today I would be making a living from the land, I would have laughed at you. On that same day, however, many laughed at me when I told them I had a one year supply of food and – wait for it – toilet paper!

Coronavirus 2020 may have changed everything, but one thing remains the same: we all need to eat. Suddenly, a deep freezer and a well-planned pantry seems less like a laughing matter, and more like a life insurance policy.

A Subject in Regenerative Farming Not Discussed

There are two struggles in regenerative farming. One is visible. The other is hidden. The visible struggle is obvious. Small farms like ours compete against companies with enormous marketing budgets, national distribution, investor backing, and public relations teams. A company like Vital Farms has a market capitalization measured in billions of dollars. They buy placement in grocery stores across the country, dominate advertising channels, and repeat carefully crafted messages nationally until they become accepted as truth. For years, terms like "pasture-raised" have been used because chickens were actually being raised in green, abundant pastures. Corporations like Vital Farms practice something entirely different. These details matter. Definitions matter. Transparency matters. Yet large companies have enormous resources to shape public perception. That is the visible fight. It's the proverbial “David versus Goliath” story everyone recognizes. Vital farms packs 50,000 birds in a barn with some doors open on the sides. They call it "pasture raised". They are trading off of the good will created by farms like us who DO IT FOR REAL. The hidden struggle, however, is far more important. Farming is heavily dependent on debt. Equipment, land, livestock and operation loans. Production seasons are financed and insured. Interest and insurance payments become significant cost centers. These payment schedules create a difficult reality - many farms spend a significant portion of their energy servicing financial obligations. Farming becomes less and less about stewarding land and animals and more about generating enough cash flow to satisfy lenders. This pressure, without doubt, changes behavior. It changes the way decisions are made and what priorities are highest. When debt becomes large enough, nearly everything becomes secondary to the repayment schedule. Erin and I recognized this hard reality early on. We decided that if we were serious about building a truly regenerative farm, it needed to be a financially regenerative farm as well. That meant refusing to finance our operations. No investors. No shareholders. No operating loans. No one sits at a table across from us explaining why we should relax our standards to improve profitability or efficiency. It has taken us three years to finish this structure without debt. We planned to construct the bare necessities first, then we prioritized the biggest needs as money became available. It is now fully functioning with ZERO debt. If we have a slow season, we simply slow down rather than cutting corners to pay loans To be clear - this decision has never been easy. Every year, peak production season is May through October, and we barely scrape by. We’ve nearly lost everything – several times. In many obvious ways, it has made our journey significantly harder. Growth is slower when you don't borrow your way forward. Infrastructure takes longer to build. New projects take patience. Expansion happens only when the resources actually exist. But there is a tradeoff that we found to be worth everything. Freedom. Freedom to tell the truth. Freedom to make decisions that align with our mission rather than someone else's financial model. Freedom to reject shortcuts. Freedom to say no. Investing in soil biology, grazing systems, animal welfare, local processing, and employees in alignment with our mission takes years. We remain free to serve the people who matter most. Our patrons. That is our secret weapon. Not marketing. Not venture capital. Not investor funding. Our patrons. Our relationship with our patrons remains rock solid because they provide the financial freedom for us to pursue our mission without distraction. Every food dollar entrusted to our care directly funds the farm itself. Food money pays to keep our mission going and growing, not servicing debt. Our patrons have become our shareholders. They may not own a piece of the business, but they make the business possible. Their support allows us to remain financially independent. We realized a valuable truth early -- the relationship between our farm and our patrons forms the symbiotic financial backbone of truly regenerative farming. As we invest in better stewardship, our patrons receive better food. As our patrons continued supporting the farm, we can invest in the resources to become better stewards. We strengthen one another. The cycle continues. It’s regenerative finance serving regenerative farming. This relationship has created something highly resilient. A farm that answers to no investors. No shareholders. No bankers. We are free to serve our mission and the One who has called us forward into discovering the riches of a food production design centered on healing rather than exploitation. A special thank you to all of our patrons who make this possible. ❤️🙏 Dustin and Erin

Bigger Than Growth

We could make a living if the farm was a fraction of its current size. We are not chasing growth for growth’s sake. We are not trying to become a national brand. We are not looking for outside investors. We are not building this business so that one day....

The Foundation of Regenerative Farming

Every characteristic that makes food desirable—flavor, aroma, texture, color, and nutrition—begins with sunlight. Plants are nature’s solar collectors. Through photosynthesis, they convert solar energy into sugars, proteins, fats, antioxidants, and countless other compounds that ultimately become the building blocks of every grazing animal on earth.

We all need to eat - thoughts on resiliency

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