Barn Talk - The World Needs 24 Billion Meals a Day and a Good Story Won't Feed Them

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Welcome to Barn Talk! In today’s Hot Topics episode, Sawyer and Tork are rolling up their sleeves to dive deep into the biggest issues facing rural America, the agriculture industry, and the world at large. Kicking things off with a market update spoiler alert: there’s not much sunshine the guys get real about the uncertainty shaking up everything from commodity prices to oil futures, and what that means for farmers on the ground. Then, they jump into the hottest debates on Ag Twitter, from the regenerative farming “math problem” and the illusion of feeding the world, to the grocery store realities and the hard truth about how most Americans buy their food. No topic is too controversial, including weighing in on Joel Salatin’s take on “the glory of the pig” and the practical limits of farm-to-table. The episode also brings you straight talk about America’s ballooning $88 billion monthly interest bill, Lowe’s surprise $250 million play to boost the trades, and a look at the complex, messy geopolitics around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Plus, Sawyer shares his new “Spotlight” segment diving into personal development, entrepreneurship trends among Gen Z, and tools for finding your tribe and learning from real operators. Pour a glass, pull up a chair, and get ready for raw, unscripted conversation full of honest takes, hard questions, and practical insights, farmer-to-farmer. Let’s get into it! JOIN THE BARN TALK NEWSLETTER & GET LIVE EVENT ACCESS: We're on a mission to get 10,000 subscribers, and once we do, we're hosting a live event at the barn! Sign up to get exclusive access to tickets and details.👇🏻 Help us get there: https://www.joinbarntalk.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● Barn Talk Instagram ➱ https://www.instagram.com/barntalkshow  ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS    ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4    ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS ● Sawyer’s X ➱ https://x.com/SawyerWhisler  ● Tork’s X ➱ https://x.com/TorkWhisler       00:00 Supporting the podcast's growth 09:12 Struggling to balance adult responsibilities 12:56 Viral ag tweet discussion 19:17 Resistance to change in farming 21:14 Finding common ground in farming 30:42 Joel Salatin and local food systems 31:57 Glorifying pigs through better farming 38:18 Criticism of expensive food standards 47:33 $88 billion monthly interest 49:35 Why Bitcoin could replace currency 54:39 Discussing future economic crises 01:04:24 Talking about the Iran situation 01:05:39 Ongoing conflict and global response 01:12:54 Discussing unwavering belief systems 01:17:47 Finding community and staying grounded 01:21:48 Younger generation adapting to AI changes 01:26:58 Booking expert advice on Mentor Pass 01:33:12 Building the Barn Talk brand ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to go electric without sacrificing fun? That's the Volkswagen ID4. All-electric and thoughtfully designed to elevate your modern lifestyle. The Volkswagen ID4 is fun to drive with instant acceleration that makes city streets feel like open roads. Plus a refined interior with innovative technology always at your fingertips. The all-electric ID4, you deserve more fun. Visit vw.ca to learn more. S-UVW, German engineered for all.

of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms farms are different in type in size and even in name welcome to barn talk what happens at the barn stays in the barn but not today we're going to let it all out for you guys today is going to be a barn talk hot topics episode we haven't had one of these in a while so we want to bring you all the hot topics that are going on in the world and in the country and the world of ag but before we get into it you guys know the drill if you get any value from the show all that we ask as you share it out with the people that you know. The more that you guys do that, the more you help this show grow,

the more you grow our impact, the bigger we can make this show, and the more guests we can have come to the barn to have some great conversations with us. So we really appreciate all of you that do share the show, and it's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is to leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more reviews that pile up on Spotify or Apple, the more credible you make our show,

which in turn allows us to have more guests come to the barn, like we talked about earlier. I need all the credibility that I can get. You really do. We got to make TORC credible. That's another benefit of leaving reviews is making TORC credible because we definitely need it and he definitely needs it.

I need it. So we just appreciate you guys doing that. We love seeing all those reviews come in and we just honestly love hearing your guys' overall feedback on what we can do to improve the show or what you love about the show. And last thing you can do to help us out at Barn Talk is subscribe to our weekly newsletter. You can go to join BarnTalk.com to sign up today.

We want to throw a live event right here on the farm right in the barn and have you guys actually come and see what we're doing here and get to meet all you guys. And if we get to 10,000 subscribers for that newsletter, we're going to throw a live event here at the barn. So will there be snacks? they'll be snacks. I'm sure they'll be meat. I'm sure they'll be bourbon. I'm sure they'll be whiskey. There will be a lot of your bullshitting going on. It sounds like exactly the kind of place that I would enjoy. I think you would absolutely love it. And I think we could throw a kick-ass event. We just got to get to that number.

Do I have to do anything or can I just show up? All you got to do is run your mouth, which you're, you do that pretty, pretty good, I'd say. As long as you get capable people to do all of the background work and I just can do what I do best. I wasn't planning on having you manage the event. That's a good idea on your part. Yeah. Yep. But all right. Yeah.

That's, those are all the ways you can help us out here at Barn Talk to get things going for us. I'm looking forward to today's topics. I think there's a lot of good stuff. But before we get into that, we got to get the market update. Yes. The market update, I don't know. The market update is not, is not, I wish there was a little more sunshine in it. what it is, but hey, with everything else going on in the world, the markets, they don't really

know. There's one thing markets don't like, whether you're talking about stocks, bonds, commodities, they don't like uncertainty. They can handle bad news, they can handle good news, but when they really don't know, they don't like that very well at all. So May corn 444 on the board locally, the best price I found was 433, and in Cedar Rapids, you got 437. So the basis spread is not very much. May beans, 1165, ADM in Burlington, 1130. If you go across the river to Quincy, 1153.

Bean meal, $3, $317 a ton. Wheat, $5.74. Wheat crop, not in very good shape as far as the amount of dry areas out west, but that hasn't really materialized into much higher prices yet. There's still plenty of time with that. So April hogs, 90 bucks. April cattle, $249, $100,

and feeder cattle, $372. Crude oil, $99. I don't know, this crude. It's anybody's guess. I mean, is the star. open, is it not open? We'll get into that a little bit, but just an incredible amount

of speculation. Tesla, $345 a share. I threw deer in there, $617. Nothing seems to, they just got a ruling against them on their right of repair. They had to pay $99 million. I kind of feel like $99 million

of deer is kind of like a, it's kind of like me getting detention in sixth grade. Doesn't mean a whole lot. Doesn't really... Doesn't move the needle. It doesn't affect them much. Look at a 10-year chart on deer. It's...

Yeah. The stock's doing just fine. So, Bitcoin, 72,000. Gold, 4792 and silver, 76 bucks. There's a Wopsy report. I say it Wadsney. Guys, they say it better than I do. But anyway, Acreage report coming out.

So the market kind of doesn't know what to do with that. Planning progress. They said last week, corn planning is at 3%. The five-year average is like 2% or something like that. So we're a hair ahead. Texas is at 59%, as you would expect.

And everything's running on oil. Because the crude oil market, it runs up, and then commodities run up. And then they think the straight, it's going to open, oil goes down, commodities go down. So I don't know where it all ends up. And, you know, I got to thinking with the price of everything, today's market update, sponsored by our good friends at Contera. And, you know, you may be a guy that you're not really looking for another banker, and you may have had the same line of credit for the last 10 years,

and you may not need it very much. But this may be the year that you need a lot bigger line of credit than what you've had in the past and your bank may or may not be too responsive to your needs. And if you feel like you're getting the, you're getting the cold shoulder on that or you want to explore your options, get a hold of our good friends at contera ag, contera ag.com and see if they can help you with that. Let's get into all of the nitty-gritty. Let's get into it. How are you doing today? I'm better now. I'm better now. We're shooting. this. We're doing an afternoon edition.

And my morning was kind of hectic. I got my seed corn today, showed up, got that unloaded. So my net worth went up because now I'm in possession of my seed corn. And got a load of pigs in today. Had to get them in. I had a hard time counting today for some reason. Have you showered yet? No, not yet. I can smell you.

Smells like opportunity. Yeah. I got 1190 pigs in today. and then went over the outline, and yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. There's just a lot of uncertainty, I think, for all of us. And I try not to even listen to the news of late because... Sometimes it's just get you down.

Well, it's like, I don't know, they just keep talking. It's like nothing seems to be moving the needle on this whole deal over there. And so, you know, is there a ceasefire? Is there not a ceasefire? I guess Israel now is going to have talks with Lebanon because Iran threw a hissie fit that they were bombing Lebanon. Well, I mean, I don't even know what the government of Lebanon looks like at this point. I think it looks about as rag tag as what the government of Iran is.

So I don't know. And I don't really know why we're letting Iran dictate anything at this point. But, hey, that's probably something to get in. We'll get into a lot of more of that later, but I'm just glad that we don't switch chairs. I'm glad that that's your only chair that you sit in because... Why? It's going to have the hog shit smell. It's ingrained in it.

Yeah. Well, I change clothes. Oh, that's good. Yeah. But your ass still smells like a huck shit. A little bit. Well, you're no... You're not exactly...

You're no French flour. No, I'm not claiming to be. So... I'm not claiming to be. For me, you didn't ask... how I was doing. I was going to and then you insulted me with my odor. So how are you doing, Sawyer? I'm doing all right.

For me, it just sometimes feels like how do you get it all done? You don't. You don't. And like when you sit down and like you add, like I'm a list guy. And so when you have meetings or you have

all these things you got to do and you start to just compile this list of everything you have to do and you get into an afternoon where you just compile and compile and compile and compile. You start to look at that list and you're just like, holy shit, how do you do it all?

How do you get it all done? And then still manage to clean your house or, you know, your tile line on your sump pump is broken and it's pouring all into the grass and it's getting muddy and it's fucking up the yard and you don't have time to fix that. It's like all the responsibility,

being an adult, like at the end of day, there's just a lot of shit that you got to fuck around with. And sometimes, like, that's the hardest part for me is I suck at making time for all the adult stuff outside of work. Yeah. It's really hard to, like, do it all. You also have a really hard time not having this massive, massive plate

because, you know, I think that at one point when you made the decision of, rolling up farmer grade. This episode is brought to you by Tellus Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst. You mean hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms.

But I've got Tellus Online Security. It helps protect against identity theft and financial fraud so I can stress less during tax season, or any season. Plan started just $12 a month. Learn more at tellus.com slash online security. No one can prevent all cybercrime. or identity theft, conditions apply.

For about 10 minutes, I think you had the thought of, you know, I'm going to have, I'm going to have some time. Yeah. And then in about what seemed like two days, you were like, you're like, you know, we should do a newsletter. And, you know, and now then, I don't know how you got it done before because now then you have, not only have you filled the voice. that you had, but now then you've added even more on top of it. And I mean, you're just, you're your own worst enemy. We all are a little bit, but I think especially you, because you love, you love building things.

You love coming up with ideas and building things. And it drives you, but then it also drives you crazy. And today's one of those days, I feel like it's driving you crazy. It is driving me crazy a little bit. And I did say that to myself the other day. I was like, I don't really know how I did it before. Really? I don't.

I'd help you. I'd help you. You do help. But I'd probably just do it wrong and then you have to redo it anyway. You're not the most techie guy in the world, which is okay. Yeah. That's all right. Well, that's enough of our bullshit.

Let's get into the real shit that matters that you guys came here for. That's the hot topic. So our first hot topic is, is the regenerative farming math problem. That's the topic we're going to talk about first. So if you guys didn't know this, Dad and I are really starting to get on Twitter. We're starting to really, or X,

and we're starting to put out posts and our thoughts on things and just stuff that we've talked about on the podcast, but anything that's going on, we like to just say what we think. And dad put out a tweet, which if you've been listening to the show for a while, you kind of know where we stand on the whole regenerative movement. we're pretty open-minded,

but at the same time, I think there's a lot of people that go a little too crazy with it and say that this is the only way you should ever farm, period. And dad just put out a tweet that was, we all respect what the regenerative guys are doing, but we need to have an honest conversation

about the math. The world needs 8 billion meals a day and a good story doesn't change that. Kind of some polarizing shit. I didn't realize how polarizing it was until I put it out there. So that tweet, that tweet blew up and it had over 139,000 views and it got over 120 plus replies,

shitload of retweets. It was a really great conversation starter for Ag Twitter or AgX. I mean, pretty much every known figure in, you know, the Ag Twitter space was talking about this subject and got involved in the conversation. And so we just wanted to talk about it with our own thoughts and go a little deeper with it because obviously it struck a nerve with all of ag. And no matter if you were a conventional guy or a generative guy, somewhere in the middle you find yourself between regenerative and conventional.

Everybody kind of got involved in the conversation. So I think it's a really great first topic to talk about. And I think the most popular comment that people got was, or said was, Tork, we don't need to feed the world. Right. We need to get away from this idea that farmers here in America, need to feed the world. We need to just feed our neighbors.

We need to just feed America. And that's probably the most common response I saw was that one. Yep. Which I don't disagree with that ideology. My only thing is, is it realistic in the climate that we find ourselves? Will that mindset ever, ever apply to all of ag? Will D.C. ever get behind that. Will our government ever get behind that?

Will there be enough incentive, enough profit for the American farmer to be able to do that? We get away from this commoditized market and we go to a local centralized market. Can that ever happen or is that just talk? Well, I think you had a good, I think you had a good, I think you had a good, tweet about part of the answer to your question. I don't know if it was today. Within the last couple of days, you said something like, maybe we were just talking about this, actually.

I don't know if you tweeted this. You should tweet this. You were basically like, we were talking about how when the government sends you money, it isn't because the government is trying to help you they're sending you money because somebody greased the wheels in government. They're giving you money on their behalf, like the chemical companies, the banks, all that. That's why we got that handout.

Well, okay, so would we ever get there? I don't know, ask Cargill and ADM. Do you think they're interested in not trying to dominate the food market around the world? Of course not. They make huge, huge profit trading around the world. So in turn, they have developed, I mean, not just them. I mean, it all, it just finds its way. Like, the market system that we're in today, it has just found its way by people. I don't want, I don't know if you want to say exploiting the system. The system has just been built in a way. driven by people that have found a way to make a profit doing something, which led to this huge specialization in corn and soy and wheat that we produce,

but then big conglomerate companies export that, both raw and processed around the world, and they make a shitload of money, and they turn around, and they incentivize farmers to grow those products, but then in turn what happens is all of the industries that grow that have sprung up to support that from a chemical side, a seed side, a fertilizer side, the banking side, they don't want, that's what they know and they've invested heavily in those products. They don't want to change. There's no incentive for

them to change. And so while regenerative makes sense, I want to do it. Like, I want to do what Jason's doing on his farm. Jason Monk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it totally makes sense because for us, it is more profitable.

Yes, it's a little more, you know, it's a little more time, and it's not as easy as just going out and no-telling beans after corn and corn after beans and all that. But the payoff is more value per acre with less import. cost. That works for me. But if you're the guy that is set up that you're running, you're running big acres, big equipment, and you're set up to do that. And you're rent and ground that you didn't inherit. Like, you're, you're, you don't have any tie to the land. Yeah, I mean, that's the other part. Yeah, like, you can talk about that. I mean, that's, that's part of this regenerative thing is, and that's, I think Jason said that on X,

part of it is mindset. Yeah. Well, I mean, I would just say that sounds great, right? Localized food system sounds awesome. That dream sounds great. But like I pose the question to you, can that mindset ever take over agriculture? I think there's too many hands at play

that want the commoditized system that we have today to stay the way that it is. Now, I think it's awesome. like what is sparked on ag, Twitter, and X is like there's just so many ideas out there, so many people doing different things, which I think is awesome, which shows you what's possible. And like for our farm, like you said, like we farm 400 acres, doing something different is probably what we need to do. We can't probably do the conventional way.

I mean, we can, but we probably could make more profit if we did something different. And we're looking into those things. but you, I just don't feel like this, that this mindset shift is going to realistically happen across all, like, that's going to be like the new wave. Like that's going to be the new movement across all farmers or most farms. Because like the big guys around here that farm thousands upon thousands of acres, that their dad has always done it the way that they've done it. And they have paid off ground and paid off equipment.

and they have hog barns to subsidize, get some supplemental income outside of the grain farming operation. Do you really think that they're going to fucking change what they're doing? Hell no. We're not changing what they're going to do. It's worked. It's going to continue to work. I'm going to just,

it's simple to them. I have the equipment. I just got to buy more ground, rent more ground, put up more hog buildings. I'm going to make money. I got my semis. I know I'm going to haul it. I've been here,

done this. I'm not going to change. Yeah. And that's, going to be, there's a lot of those guys. There's a lot of those guys. That's this the way that it's going to be. And so I'm not anti-regenerative ag. I'm not 100% for regenerative ag. I think it really depends on your farming operation, what you're set up for, where you live, what your soil type is like. Do you have livestock? Do you not have livestock? What's your financial situation? There's a

shitload of factors to play into how you go about running your farming operation. But I'm not going to sit here and say all regenerative agriculture is bad and all the ideas that they have are bad. But I'm also not going to sit here and say that every idea that

a regenerative ag comes up with is fucking the Bible and that every farmer should do this, this way. Because sometimes that's the vibe that I get from regenerative people. Is they think my shit's better than your shit, my way's better than your shit. My way of farming is better than yours. So just do it my way.

And I'm sure there's some guys on the other side that probably say the same exact thing. So it's a hard, it's a hard ground to find. I guess it's a hard conversation, but it's, I think it's a really important one. And I'm glad that you kind of sparked it on ag, on X, because I think a lot of good ideas and a lot of good conversation came from it. I think for us on our farm, we are open to, we're open minded. I mean, we're open, open minded, 100% into what can we do differently? How can we make our farm more profitable? How can we control our own destiny a little bit more? How can we create our own market? I mean, those are all things that we're interested in. And I'm sure a lot of, a lot of farms are interested in, especially with the times that we're in. And like, I personally love Jason

mock. We've had him on the podcast before. His ex account, I love looking at the videos that he posts. I love his ideas. Do I necessarily agree with everything he says? No, but he probably doesn't agree with everything we say either. But I can learn a lot from him. I have learned a lot from him. And I think what he's doing is pretty fucking awesome. And we're probably going to go to his field day in, in the summer to go check it out and see what's going on because he's, it's innovative. It's really innovative and I'd love to see it in person. Well, there's people that are, there are people,

there are people that are gifted in the fact that they have a way of explaining things. Like, they're willing to, they're willing to show what they do and it's not like a hill they're going to die on. In other words, it's not

like a belittling, just because we do it this way, you know, this is what we do and this is what works for us not saying that everybody has to do it. But I will say this. You know, necessity is the mother of all invention. Well, when you're sitting here like this year, I can tell you, I can tell you all those guys that you talked about that have a bunch of hog buildings. They're feeling pretty good because I can tell you that manure that we pumped out of those pits last fall, pretty valuable now.

I'm pretty thankful that I got that. I'm pretty thankful that I've got that nitrogen because look at the disparity between what you pumped out, put on your fields versus if you were buying commercial. So, I mean, that's just one example of, you know, different practices that, you know, there's a lot of people that bag on production agriculture

as far as the contract hog business. Well, I don't know. I'm pretty thankful I got those buildings this year. I think another thing to me just be said is like, you know, getting regenerative meat on the shelf is going to be a, it's a premium product and there's premium markets to exploit. But if you want, if, I mean, do these, do you think like, again, it goes back to the conversation of everybody think those guys's mindset

is we just got to create a localized system. But will the consumer? be able to afford that though? Yeah. Will they be able to afford that? Because you're not going through... The other thing that makes the meat so affordable at the grocery store is not even just the way that we raise the livestock.

It's also the efficiency on the packing side of it. I mean, they get the meat costs down to nothing because they can sell everything on that animal. They sell it. That's how they can sell the head. They can sell the eyes. They can sell the organs. They can sell everything.

And they can make very little to nothing on the meat. And that's how it's so cheap at the fucking grocery store. And right now it doesn't feel cheap. But if you were to go buy farm fresh meat, it's more expensive than the grocery store. It's always going to be more expensive than the grocery store. And it probably is a better quality product. But in a fresher product,

but not everybody can afford that. And so, like, I love the idea of the localized food system, but let's be realistic. Can Americans afford it? Can most of America afford premium farm fresh products? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if the masses really can. I don't know. But you don't even have to go that far. They won't, though. They won't. And you and I both know they won't. because we played in this game. And you know what? The most common question that I got from every Tom, Dick, and Harry

in my local town that found out that we were shipping meat all over the country, oh yeah, I need to get on there and look at some of that stuff. I mean, it's got to be like, you got to be able to get it like cheaper you can at Fairway. Yeah, that you would be a surprise. There was a shitload of people that would say that. Yeah. You're cheaper in the grocery store, right? Right.

And they don't give a shit. What they care about is what they care about is cheap. And you can talk all you want about, you know, how that would be a great system. But the truth is at least half, probably more than half, probably a great deal more than half the people, they talk a good game, but at the end of the day, there's what they want to spend their money on and what they don't want to spend it on. and they're not going to spend one penny more on a product that they can buy somewhere cheaper. Now, then there is that group of people that will pay a premium and they're health-driven.

They're health-driven and they're perceived value-driven as far as this is higher quality, fresher, da-da-da. And that's growing. That sector... It is growing. I mean, my generation, I feel like, is definitely leaning more towards that way. but again, will it be the mass population? I don't know. So at the end of the day,

I think what it all comes back to is we're headed for a time where there's going to be a divergence. You are always going to have that large-scale production. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja,

or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa. is like playing Russian roulette with a flame thrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero? More like habanier, yes.

Save the everyday with Amazon. Whether that be for meat or whether that be for grain, whatever, you were going to have that. But I do think that the opportunity to do different products, different practices, has never been greater than it is today. And it's because of the people that are out there doing it and showing what they're doing that make it much easier because you don't have to go through the learning curve that other people did. I mean, look at how many people Jason's probably personally helped. I mean, I'm sorry to pick on him,

but he's such a great example because he shows what you do. He shows how he built his planner. He shows how they combine the wheat, you know, without cutting off the soybeans. Like, he shows all that. So at the end of the day, if you're going to start up something like that, you're not starting at zero. You're starting at 70% there because you know what you need to do.

And that's what makes it kind of like the golden age for innovation. And I think that's great. I just don't think we're ever going to get... Those two worlds are always going to be at odds. I think they'll coexist, but I think they'll always be separate. I feel like it's an either-or. I mean, it's...

Or it's not an either-or. I think it's just like they're both going to coexist. Yep. I think it's just going to be the way agriculture is, and I think we should embrace it. and I get tired of everybody hating on each other. I wish we have more. Farmers can be ruthless to one another, but I guess maybe people in every form of social media

can be ruthless to each other. But yeah, I like the conversation at sparked. I like being on X, and I think if you're a farmer, get on X, because there's a lot of good stuff on there right now. So, yeah. farmers are just like the power stroke duramax guys they just just beating on each other all the time until until they see a gas guy

and then they join up and they all beat on them you know it's like true very true yep uh next topic is we're gonna go we're going to keep kind of on the regenerative side Joel Salton he's like the face of regenerative agriculture I would say one of the faces of agriculture and say what you want about him.

There's some things that I think he's got some good points on. There's some things that I look at him and I look at him as he's a marketing guy that wants to push his ideology or the way he does it as the Bible and that it's the end all, be all. And if everybody else does it a different way, they're idiots. And that's where he kind of loses me. but what I like about Joel Salton is his idea of trying to figure out how to get a localized food system. He's very proactive with that about allowing, you know, allowing your not being able to like raise chickens, cut them up, put them in a pot pie and sell it to your neighbor.

Why can't you do that? The government regulation is insane on a lot of stuff. And I think he's a great advocate for trying to. to encourage a localized food system, which I don't think is a bad thing. But sometimes he goes a little crazy on other stuff that he just loses me. Yeah.

But he was recently on Glenn Beck, and he talked about the glory of the pig. And, you know, somebody asked, somebody asked Dad on X again, you know, what did, Torque, what do you think about what Joel said about the glory of the pig on Glenn Beck? So I think that was good what you said about, you know, he thinks that regenerative is kind of like the Bible. Well, he kind of like, he kind of made a religious, he made a religious statement about the pig,

basically saying that the way that they were raising hogs was to glorify. the hog because in the Bible, glory is used so many times, and we talk about the glory of the mountains and the glory of the trees and the glory of this king and the glory of that. And he took that, saying, the glory of the pig that basically the way they were raising their pigs was to bring the pig to its ultimate glory. In other words, it's best possible, best possible life, best possible diet. which equals meat quality, which equals health for the people. And that's fine. I don't know quite what to think about that.

But he also said right in that same conversation that most of the meat they produce, they sell to high-end restaurants, which would make sense because their cost of production, they've got to get that. and it's a premium product that people are paying premium money for. That product will never be at a point where the average consumer is going to buy it. And I also have a little bit of trouble.

Well, no, I do have trouble with this. So I don't know where all this started, but this idea that we need to feed these pigs to the diet that they have lived on for centuries. Like what a pig was supposed to eat? Well, first of all, a pig's not native to North America. The pigs that we have today all came from Europe because what happened is when the Europeans came over,

clear back to Christopher Columbus, they brought hogs with them to eat. And some of those, we don't know if those hogs like escaped or whether they like brought them on shore and they were trying to raise them, you know, keep them growing here. And they escaped that way or they left them or whatever. And they are not native to North America. They adapted. They adapted. They adapted. very, very well to the point that they do millions, if not billions of dollars of damage every year in the South and the amount of money that's spent to kill off hog populations, which I don't think they can get ahead of it. But I mean, they're a nuisance to say the least, but they're not a native species. So the idea that we're feeding them the way that they were intended to be fed on the

North American continent is bull because this isn't where they were native to and they adapted by living in the timber and eating what they had to eat. And a pig is a very resilient animal. So it can live off of anything. It's a scavenger and that's what it did. But if you go back to the way they were raised in Russia and by the Europeans, they were fed, they were fed a scrap diet. They were fed whatever people could find to feed them. Some people had them on, if they had land that they could let them run, they would let him run, and then they would supplement that with, you know, whatever. And the pig has always been a source of food to a population, but it's always been a scavenger,

and it's always adapted to whatever. So this idea that somehow, you know, if I'm raising my pigs out on pasture and they're running in timber and I give them acorns, that that is them being fed to their glory, if you want to use that, I think I can say that my pig fed in my hog billing is fed to his glory and that pig didn't have to work near as hard. And another thing that he brought up was this idea of stress that, you know, part of the problem with animals is they're under this constant stress and that's, you know, why the meat is the way it is. That's where he fucking loses me because like I said, we had a directed consumer meat business. We sold pork out of the pigs

that we raised in our hog barns. We would get people that would say that is the best fucking pork they've ever ate ever. They are not buying their pork anywhere else or only going to buy it from farmer grade because it's so good. Pork chops are great. Bacon's great. Pork briskets great.

Everything's great. Meat quality is fantastic. Yeah. So that, that, that will forever stick with me for the rest of my life because that's that's all the that's all you need to say like my thing is I think locally processed fresh pork yeah is always going to be better yep and I think that yeah

you know certain breeds of pork have more marbling or more fat content but the diet we fed those pigs was no different was no no different and people are really fucking enjoy it. And I think the, the butchering process is probably just as important, if not more. I mean, it's pretty freaking important because like the little things of leaving a fat cap on the pork chop. That makes a hell of a lot of difference. Yeah. And the fact that, you know, most of that meat from the time that animal was butchered till the time it was, at somebody's door was much shorter than the supply chain of, you know, most meat coming from a packing plant.

Yeah. The one last thing I'll say about this is what I, probably the thing that bothers me the most, not specifically what that conversation was with him on Glenbeck, but that group of people specifically is what they're doing is they're creating a product that most people can't afford, and then they're, shaming everybody else that produces uh produces pork or whatever meat you want or whatever commodity

basically that what you're doing is substandard. But then I don't think they think that through because then as the consumer for the mother out there, for the single mother that is trying to feed her family, well, okay, now if you can't afford pork chops raised on acorns in old growth timber, that, you know, has got classic music piped into the pen during the last two weeks of their lives and his hand rubbed down by a monk or whatever. Well, then you're a horrible person because you're feeding your family substandard stuff. I just, I can't, I just can't do it.

I just can't do it. So, I mean, I'm, I think it's great. Like, I think that it's great if you can raise pork that way, if you can raise, you want to grass feed cattle, you want to, you want chicken tractors, you want to do whatever. I think that's great. And if you can find somebody that wants to pay for it

and you can make money doing it, that's great. But we have to be able to feed everybody. And you will never replace, You'll never replace production agriculture. I don't care what great idea you have. There is just a limit to how many pounds of food can be produced in these niche ways to cover all the consumers. You can't do it.

And every time you ask them about it, we've talked about this. Every time you ask these guys about it, how you do it at scale, they don't answer that question because they know you can't do it at scale. You cannot do that at scale. And, dang it, you should have got me going on this. The other thing I'll say is, if you're going to have the conversation about water quality

and you're going to have the conversation about soil washing off into your rivers and whatever, there is no animal more devastating to land than a bunch of pigs. I mean, a pig is a four-legged power shovel. And, you know, here in Iowa, if we're raising pigs on pasture, yes, you can rotate them. They're just turning over soil constantly, you know, looking for worms and bugs and everything else. And every time they turn over that soil, if you're talking about carbon that we're trying to sequester carbon, guess what they're doing? They're turning that soil over all the time. So, I mean, you can't have it.

You can't have all of this. You know, if you want everybody to know-till, but you want to raise pigs outside, I mean, I don't know. I don't know how you do it. So I guess pick your poison. I really think it comes down to just the whole, it's the broad brush conversation. Yep. What I don't, what I respect about Joel Salton is, I think he's educating a lot of people

to get interested in agriculture. I think it's great. I think his stance on government regulation and agriculture and his, fight back on that is great. But what I like about Will Harris is Will Harris has found a way to create his own market and run his entire farm through a direct-to-consumer channel and not have to rely on the commodity market. I respect him a ton for that.

But when they go on Joe Rogan or they go on Glenn Beck and they say exactly what you just said, where they broad brush how they do shit and say that this is the end-all be-all and that everybody should fucking raise their animals like this and that you should, as the consumer, support this and eat this, you're exactly right. It alienates some of the consumers because they feel like shit. Oh, well, I just listened to this podcast with Will Harris on Joe Rogan, and I'm not feeding my family this because I can't afford it.

I can't afford $10. And now I feel like shit because my boys aren't getting the best quality shit, you know, whatever, right? And then you isolate all of the farmers that don't do it that way, that like, For our situation here, we don't have a lot of woodlots in southeast Iowa. We have a lot of crop ground and we don't have a lot of timber. Our weather sucks.

We don't have Georgia weather a lot. We don't have that. We have purrs up the motherfucker in this county where we live and in this state. Purrs is insanely, it's insane right now in the state of Iowa. There's so many pigs raised in the state of Iowa that if you put pigs, on pasture outside, I think you are ramping up. They would get purrs faster than, I mean, don't you think? If you put pigs on pasture outside in this county, you think, I mean,

they're going to fucking be dead in minutes. I don't know about that, but it definitely is not, it's definitely not an ideal situation. And all I'm trying to say is like, that doesn't work for us. That would not work for us here. And so you're calling us, you're basically saying what we do sucks and that what you're, what you do is superior and that we're piss poor farmers because what we do, we can't do what you do.

I mean, you're saying that without saying that. Yeah. And that's a thing that drives me nuts about those guys. And they know it. They totally know it, but it helps their brand. Right. It elevates their brand. It helped, like, Will Harris knows exactly what he was doing.

he's on the most popular podcast in the world. You really think he's going to say that you really think he's going to be neutral? No. On farming practices that he doesn't versus the farming practice practices he does do. 100% he's going to be more biased on the farming practice. He does because guess what? His e-commerce Shopify stores got White Oak Pastures online live all the time. He knows exactly what he's doing when he's on Joe Rogan.

He is going to try to get as many fucking customers to buy White Oak. Oak Pastor shit as he possibly can. More power to him. Did you just do a promo for White Oak Pastor? No, but I'm just saying he's not a fucking idiot and his daughter was the same way. She knew what she was doing. She came on there and you're like, Dad, we got to really sell this. We got to come on here and make it so our farm shit doesn't stink because we're going to be talking to the most powerful podcast in the world. Yeah, and I think people just need to realize that. I just get tired of the not, it's not honest. Yeah. It's very picky, choosy. We're going to pick and choose.

We're going to pick and choose to make our claim and what we stand for and what we say, we're going to pick and choose the shit to make our shit sound better. Yeah. It's not cut and dry. It's just not a cut and dry thing.

And all this stuff's been co-opt. You know, every buzzword's been co-opt. It's like sustainability. You know, well, for us, sustainability is being able to keep farming, like, Sawyer's going to be the sixth generation here farming. So we're a sustainable farm

because it's sustained six generations. I mean, regenerative. Well, regenerative, to me, you know, recycling your manure from your pigs through the crop ground another year, that's regenerative to me. I mean, all these words get taken and used for this and used for that.

There's room for everybody to do it the way they want to do it. It's just you don't need to do it at the expense of everybody else. Yeah, and it's like, Okay, let's say we implement what Jason's doing with intercropping and we plant, we do maybe some cover crops and, but we still raise pigs inside in hog barns. Are we fucking regenerative? Are we, are we, are we, can we classify ourselves, classify ourselves as regenerative farmers? You're the devil. Or are we still conventional? That's, that's the shit I can't stand. It's these titles. It's these, it's these broad brushes. It's these, it's these end-all be-alls. It's, how about you just like, look at good ideas and implement them on your farm and what you can do, do the best that you can with what you got. Yeah. Because you can't broad brush agriculture. It's too complex. There's

too many different geographical locations, soil types, financial situations, family dynamics. So stop painting shit with a broad brush. Period. That's what I think. So all right. Anyway, go with that. Topic number three that we got is the $88 billion monthly interest bill. So we all know the national debt is bad, but the math just hit a breaking point. The U.S. government is now spending $88 billion a month just to pay the interest on the debt. The U.S. national debt is ticking over $39 trillion. For the first six months of this fiscal year, the government paid $529 billion just an interest. That breaks down to over $88 billion every single month. To put that in perspective, the interest payments alone are now roughly equal to what the government spends on the Department

of Defense and the Department of Education combined. What do you think? I'll give up. It's time to quit. Can we file for reorganization? I don't know. Might be too big of a number to file for reorganization. I did see this guy though on TikTok that just said, he just said, give me all the debt. He's like, America, I'll do it. He's like, America, I'll do it. Just put all the debt on my shoulders, put it in my name. I'll take it. He's like, I'll do it. I'll do it. Just put it all on my shoulders. Bankrupt me. Well, I'll take it all. We've talked about it. And it's kind of, I saw, I can't quote this off top of my head, but I saw an article probably two or three months ago and a guy just kind of made the point like

his point was that it's pretty much pointless because the entire world the entire world is in a deficit to the point that there is not enough there is not enough money in the world not even that like there isn't enough however you want to value it there's not enough currency or value that like we're not talking like

can you just print money out of thin air and say oh I'm paying the debt because you can't do that because it devalues your currency but at you know at the level that value of currencies are around the world the total of that

you can't like reshuffle that in a way that it pays everybody's debt So, you know, a lot of people, I mean, that's the bull, that's the bull case for Bitcoin, is that eventually the world economic system that has existed since World War II, Brenton Woods, is going to fail. And when it fails, the dollar will be worthless, and most currencies will be worthless. Bitcoin is the only true currency because it can't be devalued, because it is a finite, finite amount of it. Edit that.

I think I said eight finites there. But I don't know where it ends, but there's no politician. I mean, every both sides of the aisle, they talk about it, but they're not going to do anything about it. Yeah, I mean, Trump, that was what, I mean, he was the whole Doge thing. Wasn't this the whole idea was we're going to take all this government spending and all this, all this fat that we were spending on bullshit programs and bullshit this and that? And we were going to just cut the government waste out.

And that was going to help us get back to positive paying down debt. But also, but it's look at where we're doing now. We're going to war. We're spending money on war. Yeah. We should have done it. I mean, we could have done it. Changed his tune.

He didn't do it. Well, he didn't support Elon. and it got to where nobody did. Because everybody was all for cleaning all this up until it was their program that they figured out was a bunch of waste. Basically, I think the consensus was the end of the day, half the money the government spends. Like supposedly 30 to 40% of every program within the government,

every program in the government spending program is roughly 30 to 30. 40% waste. Well, if that's true, it's probably more like half. I'd say it's probably half. So the budget of the United States government should probably be half as big as what it is. But I just talked about this today because I was listening to All In podcast and Josh Shapiro was on there. And he's the governor of Pennsylvania. He's a moderate Democrat. He's Jewish. He's the guy that somebody tried to burn his house down. Do you remember that? Like, I don't know, a year ago, two years ago. and smart guy, and he's done a lot, he's very popular in Pennsylvania, he's cut, he's cut, he's done a lot for cut and waste, he's done a lot for streamlining, permitting within the state of Pennsylvania, he's cut taxes, which is odd for a Democrat, but he has, and a lot of people think that he should run for president, and he was, he was the person that a lot of people thought that, Kamala Harris should have picked, but she didn't.

And there was a big to-do that the reason that she didn't pick him was because he was Jewish. And he downplayed that and said, no, that wasn't the reason that he backed out at the last minute and just said, no, I'm not interested. I'm not going to do it. Basically, you know, he was kissing ass of the rest of Democratic Party. And that was my point was in that conversation, he really, I thought a lot of him. he really had a good grasp of what was going on. He had a lot of good points. But there's one thing that every politician, no matter what side of the aisle they're on, can't seem to do. And that is,

they cannot ever admit that their side has made any mistakes. He was more than happy to talk about everything that he's doing right in Pennsylvania. He was more than happy to talk about everything that Trump is doing wrong. But when they were talking about all the things that the Biden presidency and what's going on in California, what's going on in Chicago, what's going on in New York, he would not, he would not say boo about that. And that's the problem with politicians is they're all just as flawed as we are, yet we put them all on a pedestal like they're going to fix our problems. They're our savior.

Only they're just, they're not. They're just as, they're just as screwed up as the rest of us. And this, this deficit, they're not going to fix that because they don't have. Well, Grant, Hilbert, we've talked about it. I've said this on the podcast many times. He's like, Sawyer, when the next COVID happens, when the next disaster happens that affects the entire world or the next war break, out that we're supposed to get involved in. Is the sitting president of the United States, we're going to need to print money to fight whatever the world's facing or our nation's facing that's so dire and it's a crisis

and everybody's screaming out from the rooftops, how we need to do something about it. But we need to print more money. You think he's not going to print more money because he's going to try to not inflate the dollar more? Or is he going to fucking print money because he knows his asses, his head's on the chopping block if he doesn't. Right.

He's 100% going to print more money. Right. Every time he's going to print more money. Yep. So, yeah. It's just, I just don't think people know that. Like, that doesn't get talked about enough how many trillions of dollars were in debt and just the sheer amount of interest that we're paying.

I mean, we're paying billions of dollars in interest, $88 billion every single month. Yep. An interest. But. I mean, do you feel like that's the, like, is that going to be the downfall? Like, what, like, is, or do you just keep kicking? Do you think we can just keep kicking the can? Well, or what?

So the best analogy that I can give you is, and I don't know who said this, but you know what? An investment guy, I think, said this to me. He just said, well, you know what, here's the deal. He said, uh, the world's in the time. toilet and the United States is the floatiest turd and the whole bowl. So you know what?

I think that's the mentality is that we're we're the best of all of the countries out there and we're all just going to muddle through it. We're all just going to run on... We're the best damn turd there is.

Yeah, we're the floatiest turd in the bowl. We're the hoo-hot turd. Ooh. I don't know about that. I mean, lucky if that one even makes it to the bowl. Or the Chipotle turd, that one that's just the biggest and just floats at the top. Explosive. Oh, I don't think we want to be that.

I guess you could argue that we've been explosive lately. Maybe we're going to get all the oil out of Iran. Because we're getting the oil out of Venezuela. Maybe we're going to get the oil out of Iran and that's going to pay all the bills. And maybe that's the plan. I don't know. It's just, it's awful. It's awful.

Yeah, it's depressing. think about. So let's think about something else. Okay. Well, this is a positive one. So Lowe's, Lowe's dropped $250 million on the trades. So while everyone is panicking about AI taking jobs, Lowe's just bet $250 million that the future belongs to the guy with dirt on their boots. Lowe's just announced a massive $250 million investment to train 250,000 skilled tradespeople by 2035. The demand of trades is exploding partly driven by the massive infrastructure needed for AI data centers. The construction industry alone needs nearly 500,000 new workers this year just to meet demand. Shout out to Lowe's for putting up.

I think that's very on brand for Lowe's to do. something like that. My only thought process is, and I saw somebody say this on X, was, is Lowe's going to are they really doing this to train all these people out of the kindness of their own heart? Or are they going to form a sub-division of their company that is going to basically go do service work for, like, are they going to train Lowe's trades people to then go do services in the trades under the Lowe's umbrella.

I don't think so. They can't even train, they can't even train cashiers because when you go to Lowe's, you have to self-checkout because there's nobody there. So, I mean... How do you feel?

Do you feel like Lowe's actually... Do you think they're actually gonna be able to do this? I mean, I think it's good. If their heart's in the right place, I don't know the details on it, but it, I mean, it totally makes sense because your livelihood is based on... Their livelihood is based on the trades.

And they can, know there's a huge demand for skilled labor in the trades, which in turn will help their business. And so it only makes sense that they should do everything they can to help more people get into the trades. This kind of reminds me of like Michelin tires. So they're part of that Michelin, what's the Michelin, uh, you'd drive around the country and they'd have these Michelin stars on the map. or whatever and they'd be locations.

What is that called? Those are restaurants. Yeah, but they invented that. Oh, the Michelin Star. They wanted people to drive their cars. Oh, really? To use more tires. They created that.

Are you serious? Dead ass serious. Look it up. I thought, well, you really pulled, you got me because I thought. Yeah, you thought I was talking about two different things. No, I just have always thought that they were not related at all. Yeah.

That the Michelin Restaurant Star, rating was an entirely different. I'm pretty fucking sure that I saw, but they started it. I'm pretty sure they started it. To incentivize people to drive. To go look for these places to see. Well, while you're looking... Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids, and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I would wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams.

Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. That up. I think that's a good idea. And I think that you'll see, like, I think you'll see more companies do it. Like, I think you'll see Milwaukee do it. I think you'll see DeWalt do it. All of these companies that are tied to this infrastructure buildout, I think you're going to see them make investment into the trades.

Did you find it? Yep. The Michelin Guide, which awards Michelin Stars, was created by the Michelin Tire Company in 1900 to encourage automobile travel and increase tire sales. The Star Rating System for Restaurants began in 1926, evolving into the prestigious three-star system that we know today. That is amazing.

Yeah. I didn't know that either. That's something I learned, though. And I always thought, man, that's, that was fucking genius of them. But this is kind of the same idea. Yeah. Because it's like, it's kind of a PR play, but it's everything that you said. I mean, they're going to sell more shit.

The more people know how to, the more people that know how to use their hands, the more tradespeople that we have, the more they're going to sell more shit. Yeah. And we need it. I mean, we need people investing in the trades, the way that in the past, people have invested in universities. I mean, that's what we need. We need the kind of investment in trade schools that you saw people who have left huge money and endowments to colleges. The only difference is those trade schools don't really need it because they make money

because the people know they can actually get a job when they're done. Yeah. But no, I think that's great. Yeah, I think it's pretty awesome. That's good because I had no, I didn't think that. I thought they were two separate things. So I learned something today. Yeah, so. Well, I teach you something every once in a while.

Woo, that's pretty good. Yeah, no, I think that's awesome. I think that you should, we should, there should be more companies like that actually put up and try to make a difference. I wish him nothing but success. And we'll see how it plays out. I mean, we'll just see how it all ends up.

But I think you're right, though. There definitely needs to be, I always said, I think it'd be so cool if there was a movement of people that were teaching just regular people how to, just how to do shit. Again, with their hands. We're not doing that, Sawyer. I know.

We're not starting that yet. I don't want to start it. I'm just saying, I think it's, I think that that is a need. Like, I think if you had a pop up in a city and you were saying, and you sold tickets and you had influencers and people that could promote the event a pop-up that was like,

we're going to teach people how to weld today. Yeah. You could easily, I guarantee you there would be a hundred, there would be plenty of people that would be like, fuck, I want to learn how to weld. I don't know how to weld or how to fix basic shit in your house. How many people don't know how to fix basic shit in their house.

Yeah. That they'd be like a three-way switch. Yeah. I guarantee you went to a city, you could sell a pop out, a pop-up like that. people would totally pay to learn how to do that shit, but there's just nobody doing it. Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe, I mean, I haven't heard of anybody doing it on a massive scale.

Outside of like trade school, you know, like, there's just people aren't learning that stuff. Well, I think that's a good idea because we damn sure are going to need more. You're going to have, and the other thing is you're going to have to learn to do some of that because there is not enough plumbers. There's not enough electricians and there's not enough framers, welders, any of that. So for all you married guys out there or soon to be married, you're going to have to learn to do this because you ain't going to be able to get anybody

come to your house and do shit. Or if you do, it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you out the ass, for sure. For sure. So you better go to Barnes & Noble and get yourself that book of HomeWire. Or go to Lowe's. Go to Lowe's and they'll train you up. Maybe.

I don't know, maybe. Well, last subject is probably the most complicated one, and I really don't know whether we're going to give you any good answers on it, because honestly, I try to stay abreast of, you know, what's going on around the world pretty well. I mean, I try to read every morning, but this Iran thing, and this ceasefire or not ceasefire or whatever, I can't make it. I don't understand. I need somebody to explain to me. Because for one,

for the life of me, I do not understand how it is that the United States has let Iran keep

the straight and Hormuz closed. Like, in what world is that not upside down? And I don't know whether it's a, I don't know whether it's a case that they have just managed to hide. I don't know if it's a deal where you've got all these, all these missiles that they're launching into these countries surrounding and into Israel, whether they're just individuals that are just out where there's

only a handful of missiles in this guy's garage or buried underneath this, you know, old building or whatever, and we literally just can't find them all? Or have they done that damn good a job of concealing launchers? But how is it that they're still able to do this? And I haven't seen anybody like explain that. And I think at this point, you can tell us in the comments,

but I am really surprised that the United States, has not put boots on the ground in some of this territory right along the Strait of Hormuz to guarantee that

shipping can flow through there. And I mean, I know that's not popular, but at the same time it's going to get to be a big deal. And I guess the other thing that I'll say is, I am absolutely appalled that the countries that rely on getting oil from the Middle East that come through the strait, whether that be Japan or whether that be the Philippines or Europe, why are they not, why have they not done more to help with us?

Because I think they think this is United States doing and they're going to reap all the bad publicity from it and they're okay with that. Well, I think they're totally okay with us hurting our look and our image and looking like anytime countries can make the United States look like dumbasses, I think they're all about that. And I think the, I think those two things that you said about,

the longer this drags on, the more it makes Trump, look like at that mass. Yep. I mean, it's just the truth. Because he was very, very cocky about, oh, we're going to fuck get this thing,

going, we're going to shut this down. We're going to blow these motherfuckers up. And we're going to, they're going to be under our thumb. Yep. Real quick. Well, that's not really happening. But at the second,

the other piece is, well, if you put boots on the ground, you're going to get a freak out no matter what. Yeah, there's no. The longer it drags on, it's bad press for you. You put boots on the ground. It's bad pressed for you.

Yeah. So it's like, choose your poison. Well, I think the only thing, the only, the only, uh, the worst case scenario is you put boots on the ground and it doesn't end quick. That's the worst case scenario. Because you can't have a situation where you put boots on the ground and then you're still doing this another, another month from now.

Well, I don't, I personally don't want boots on the ground. I don't think anybody does. I just don't want to get pulled into another war. Yeah. Right. I don't think anybody wants to get pulled into another fucking war. Nobody does. Military industrial complex might want it, but we as human as citizens of the United States, I think most would agree we do not want a war. Yeah. And I mean, all the points we talked about on the last hot topics about all the reason he might be doing this and all the reasons he's been doing all the shit he's been doing across, you know, the world.

I'm meaning Trump, the United States, and how we've moved with Venezuela and Cuba and letting Ukraine and Russia still duke it out and all the shit. It makes sense that you have bargaining chips with China when you go to sit down at the table. But also it's like this is probably not going the way that seems like this Iran conflict is not going the way. I think he thought it was going to go. And it's, I, you're playing with fire. You're playing with fire a little bit, I think. I mean, you're, nobody wants a war. Nobody wants a war.

No, that's right. And I think we can all agree. I think if you put boots on the ground, I think everybody's fear is how long are they going to stay there? Yep. Are we going to just live another, they're going to stay there for 10 years again? Right.

I mean, they got to stay in the Middle East. Are we going to just do another cycle of this bullshit? Yep. And lives die for what cost and spend all this money and... Yep. For what? I don't know. I mean, it's...

And the thing is, it doesn't seem like it should be this much of a problem. I just... I really have a hard time understanding what it is exactly that we can't... how we cannot control that area, but for some reason they can't seem to get a done. Well, Iran ain't fucking Venezuela. No, they're not. You know, I mean, that's the thing.

He kind of, I feel like he, I don't know, he kind of had the same mindset, like we were going to just come in there and fuck shit up like he did. Well, and it worked because the difference is, the difference is that when they did that in Venezuela, that woman that was the vice president, she didn't, like, she was a pragmatic person and was like, all right, well, this is the hand I'm dealt.

I'm going to make a deal and I'm going to make it work because that's what's best for the people. And they did. The problem you get into at the Middle East, and I just, I was just, I was in at Cat's grain today and I was talking to John Greiner about this. and I catch myself forgetting about this. When you're dealing in the Middle East, you got to remember, you know, a lot of people like to talk

that this regime has been there for 47 years. You know, the American hostage deal when the coup went, the Shaw got shipped out, that happened when I was a kid. So this group of people that are running Iran have only been in power for 47 years. However, the culture of the Middle East you just, they do not view the value of human life

anywhere near what the Western world does. I mean, they're still killing each other over something that somebody's grandfather did to them eight generations ago. And they don't have, they don't have the value for women. They don't have the value for children. those things are commodities as much as people would like to say that, you know, we're all the same. We're not all the same as far as our worldview goes. And so it's just a whole different, you know, you would have thought that when we went down the line and we offed all of these leaders,

that you would get somebody to be like, wait a minute, I think we should probably, you know, change course. Not necessarily. because in their mind, those are all martyrs. Those are all people that have died for the cause. And there is no better way to die than die in a martyr. And, I mean, if you're a true believer, if you've got the Jim Jones T-shirt and you're drinking the Kool-Aid, then you don't care.

And I think that's the deal. I think they found out there's way more of them that are the true believers than what they thought. So, I don't know, it's a mess, but it ain't going to help your, it's not going to help your in hydris price. And, uh, not going to help oil. I mean, if you're ConocoPhillips, if you're American oil producer, you're pretty happy. Because $100 oil in the fracking world, I mean, you're making money every day.

But if you're outside of those industries, it's tough on a lot of things. Okay. I think we're going to, we're, yeah, I don't really have a lot to say on it. I don't I don't have any... I don't feel like there's a lot to say. We not... I just don't think there's a lot of known... There's not... We can't...

No, there... That's exactly what I said. It's a shit sandwich. You don't know if they're going to have the ceasefire. If it's going to end up happening, if it's not, doesn't seem like it is. It just gets work... The longer this goes on, the worst it looks on America in all ways.

It makes Trump look, makes them look dumb. And, uh... You better figure it out. I mean, he just better. They better fucking figure it out because it's not looking good right now. And it's everybody's pissed off. And this just makes things tougher for people. My hope is that by the time you get this edited and it comes out,

that we've had a breakthrough and everybody's like, boy, those guys, they didn't get that right. I hope so too. But I don't know. I don't think that's going to be the case. Yeah, I don't think so either. I don't think so either. You know what?

but it's been it's it's yeah it's enough to drive a man to drink him and i think i'm going to have one well that's good you pour yourself up one so you can do a whiskey minute but i have you forgot my spotlight oh well no go ahead you forget in my spotlight yeah i make sure to dub you up on all your segments be forgot mine gosh dang this is how it feels to be soyer you're making me feel bad Just kidding. Okay, I got, so Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes.

Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws.

Hey, I just won. Woohoo. Feel the fun. Play Ojo. Honey, forget about the lasagna. Let's celebrate. 19 plus, Ontario only. responsible.

Concern about your gambling or that of someone close to you, call 1-866-5-3-2-6-100 or visit Connexonterio.ca. Well, we're doing a segment every hot topics now. I got my own little section here to talk about just some things that I've observed or seen or want to share with you guys. And so for Sawyer's spotlight this week, my favorite thing that I consumed was actually, I didn't really consume a piece of information that really stuck with me. But I wanted to put this out in the world that so every month for the last,

I guess start of 2026. I meet with a group of four other guys. We meet virtually online every month and then we meet in person once a quarter excluding summers because everybody's busy as shit in the summer. And we get together and we talk about real shit together. And I mean, when I say real shit, we've talked about leadership. We've talked about how to stay grounded. Like, what do we do to stay grounded and be grateful for the lives that we have. How do we go about organization and being productive and scheduling and like basically having an operating system for your life? We've talked about, I mean, just deep shit, right? And like we only talk for about an hour and a half, like I said, once a month. But and we talk about it. We make sure to like ask each other,

you know, how are we doing? You know, how is everybody, is anything, anybody got anything they want to get off their chest, whatever. And it's just, it's a really awesome thing that I have implemented with my really close good, good buddies that I can trust with with everything that I have. And it's just iron sharpen and iron. And so I encourage anybody out there, whether you're a guy or a woman or whatever, find a group that you can sit down with and have meaningful, deep conversations with and make each other better and just help each other and be there for one another. Our philosophy and our little group is we don't, what's set in the group, stays in the group. If we can't trust each other, this whole thing, it's for not, right?

It's not worth doing because if you can't bring something to that group and trust them, it's not worth being a part of it, right? So that's like been really awesome to do and be a part of. And it's like this past week, we talked about how to be grounded. And every single person brought up different ways that they ground themselves and look around and look at the things that they're grateful for. And then what are the ways that they struggle on not feeling grounded? And I mean, it's just deep stuff. And so I think if you can find that, that is.

really powerful for you. That's really impactful and it can be a really great thing for your life. And especially in this day and age today where community is lacking, we're the most connected we've ever been before, but somehow we all still feel so isolated and alone most of the time. This is a great way to really, to really have some sense of community in your life. And it's been really positive for me. And I know it's been really positive for the guys that are a part of that group. So I encourage it for any of you out there to go find that yourself. I'm also doing a Bible study once a week, which has been great virtually, which is, which is great. So I would say that. That's been my favorite thing that I've consumed this month was the meeting that I had

with those group of guys to iron sharpens iron. That's kind of my thing. My young man thought of the week is the Polly employment trend, a new report, Polly employment trend. A new report just came out showing that Gen Z is leading a massive shift toward Polly employment, which is working multiple part-time jobs or side hustles instead of a traditional nine to five job. Over half the people doing this are Gen Z. The media is spinning it as young people wanting flexibility, but the reality is that traditional full-time jobs aren't offering the stability or the pay to buy a house or start a family anymore. Young guys are hustling with three different gigs just to build a foundation.

And yeah, I mean, I kind of touched on that at the back half of that whole thought. But, I mean, I think the main drivers of people with that philosophy is, I think, number one, money and status has never been pushed more in culture than ever. I mean, it's pushed all the time. Make a lot of money and have status is like the MO of what's online. every guy wants to provide for their family. Every guy wants to make money. And there's a lot of influences out there that push you further,

deeper and deeper into that hole and push you closer and closer to those things. And if you're not careful, you can lose sight of the things that really matter. But like, that's pushed more than ever before in our culture. And there's more success put on the internet than ever before. You know, there's people that are actually wealthy that are showing their lifestyle

and how they accumulate their wealth, you're able to see that. And so that's very inspiring and also... Dangerous. It can be dangerous too, right? But number two is, I think there's never been more opportunity than right now,

and there's so much free gaming tools out there to learn and do multiple things. You know, I think that young guys, young people are looking around at what's going on, and they're like, I can build my own thing. Why am I building this other person's shit when I can build my own six-figure side hustle

and be on my own terms and have a little bit of freedom in my life? I mean, that's what people are seeing. And there's never been more opportunity and there's never been more tools available to you to be able to do that. And I think my generation has grew up seeing that. And it's just continues,

to evolve. The third reason I think this is, is the economy and world being where it's at. Inflation, job security and the uncertainty of AI displacing people. If you're a young person today, you're looking at going to four years in college and you're like, fuck, dude, getting this degree, like, I might get this degree and I won't have any job opportunities because the degree I got, AI is just going to displace this entire industry. So if you're like, if you're, if you're thinking about that, which I think every young person is thinking that, taking matters into your own hands becomes more and more appealing as time goes on because it's like at least I can control my skill set and the skills I have available

and control my own destiny a little bit and not put all my hope into a college degree and then hope into a job that's displacing people left and right as AI evolves. So I think it's that. And then the last thing I would say, is I think it's really, it's cool to be an entrepreneur in today's world. Again, it's never been, entrepreneurship is pushed more and more, and it's never been more pushed than today. I mean, being able to see and witness entrepreneurship at this scale, it's become cool to be an entrepreneur.

It's hard as fuck, but it's pushed and it's shown. And I mean, I'm guilty of it. I think outside of being a fucking athlete or an artist, being an entrepreneur is pretty awesome. I think it's, it's very glamorized, though. I mean, it's very glamorized. There's a lot of people that there's a lot of people that make it seem like it's easier than it is. And for those people, I don't like those people. But entrepreneurship is kind of a cool thing now.

And so if you're a young person, you're like, I want to work for myself. I want to do something cool, you know. So I think those are the reasons why that's why Gen Z's heading that way. That's why they want the side hustles. That's why they want to work for themselves. All those reasons, I think, is that's why those are the statistics. I saw an interview with Kevin Costner and somebody asked him about his, you know, he's produced movies and directed movies and all that and asked him about entrepreneurship. And he said that entrepreneurship is way overrated in today's society.

and a whole generation has been fed, you know, all of the possibilities and all of the, all of the glitzy side of it and the money side of it. And he said, entrepreneurship is all of those things until you wake your wife up at two in the morning after you haven't slept and told her that you're not 100% sure whether or not she'll be able to sleep in this house next month because you haven't made the mortgage payment in like three months. He said, that's when entrepreneurship hits home because you've poured everything into this venture because you believed in it,

but it hasn't worked yet. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, anybody that tells you entrepreneurship is easy, do not fucking listen to them. Because they're not real operators. They're not somebody that has ever been there, done that, gone through some shit. If you want structure,

if you want structure and you want, certainty. You need to work for somebody else. Yeah, I mean, it's, it is, it is a big, it's, it's, it's risk it to get the biscuit. I mean, a lot of those guys, anybody that is successful, basically a lot of them, I mean, most of them own businesses in some capacity. A lot of people that are wealthy will tell you, you got to own a business, period. But it's hard as fuck. That's why there's a, there's a, there's a, small chunk of the population that are business owners, investors, work for themselves, right? It's hard as shit. And so you just have to be willing to take on that hardship. And if you can't

handle that, then it might not be for you. But again, it's pushed. They don't, the people telling you that it's easy, again, don't listen to those people because there are real operators that tell you how hard it is and you should listen to those people because they've been. they're done that. And so just know what you're getting into if you're somebody on the sidelines wanting to figure out. But those are the reasons. I think those are the statistics. My last thing that I want to say is my favorite tool, one of my favorite tools that I haven't used yet, but I've heard really good things and I'm going to use very soon is this platform called Mentor Pass. Basically, real-time operators from companies that have exited or have been, I mean,

basically you can find an expert in anything that has been there done that and you can book a call with them and literally they'll mentor you for 30 minutes an hour 45 minutes whatever and they have an hourly late or hourly rate and a 30 minute rate and you can basically you literally can book a call with these people like you can book a call with the founder and operator and CEO of bloom of bloom which is a which is a almost i think it's a billion dollar company you can book a call with you can book a call with them. And I'm not shitting you. Go to Mentor Pass and you can book calls with all these people, with all these qualifications and experience that have been there, done that, working in brands, built brands, or the, where's the head of marketing for X and YZ brand, whatever, like,

you can book calls with these people. So if you're an entrepreneur, you're somebody in your business, you need, you need help with something. Book a call with some of these people. And I'm not, I'm not a fucking spokesperson for mentor pass. I just literally am going to book a call because there's a podcast or a well-known podcaster on there that I think I could get a lot of value from to improve our podcast. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to totally do it. But it's just one of those tools that I don't think talked about near enough.

But dude, mentorship will, that will, that shit, real mentorship, getting getting knowledge from somebody that's been there, done that will speed up your learning curve and you'll avoid so many more, you'll avoid so many mistakes if you get the right information from the right people. And so the fact that that's available as a tool

and that's out there is fucking crazy, in my opinion. You know, you can just call you? You can just come up to my house. You don't have to pay the fee. Yeah. I just do that for, you know, extra flashcast. Well, I feel like I've done that quite a bit.

I still do. I still do. I do plenty of that. Maybe I could get on there. Maybe you could. I don't know. Somebody might want to pick your brain on something. It's got to be more than $5 an hour though.

Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, the higher achievement level that somebody's had, I mean, it's going to be what it's going to be an hour. But it's still crazy you can have access to these type of people. Yeah. So that is Sawyer section for, or Sawyer's spotlight for this hot topic.

I feel like that was a lot of value. Did you? Yeah, I do. I think that... Sometimes I just think I talk too much. Well, that's my job. Okay. Talk too much.

But I thought it was... I thought it was good. Did you ever pour up that? I didn't. I was waiting. We're getting a little boozy today. I realize that. This is not...

I mean, you can find this around. I got this when we were down in Tennessee because I've seen some... You can get some well, You can usually get well or 12 year around here, but getting fullproof. I've never seen it. So this is well or full proof.

Shout out to S&B Farms from Bankroft, Iowa. We were up there when we spoke at Buffalo Center, and they've got a distillery in that little town. It's a nice place, real nice place. And so I'm just going to pour a little... Is that right for you? I'll just pour my own. Oh, shit.

He doesn't trust my poor. you're going to like this. I'm going to give me too much. I like Weller. Some people kind of bag on Weller, but I haven't had anything from them that I that I don't like.

Did you say how, what's the proof on that? Read it. It's under the thing there. 114. Yeah. So it's a little it's, well, it's right where it should be. So, did you smell it? What do you think? Smells pretty good, doesn't it? Smells smoky. Yep.

Smells good, though. I think that's pretty good. It is pretty good. I like it. Burn's not bad at all. The flavor is good. And the flavor is good on the front end. You know, a lot of times I feel like the flavor kind of sometimes lingers on some.

You know, like it won't come until the back half. But I feel like I got really good flavor on the front half and not that bad of a burn. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's good. I would drink that straight. I would drink that straight. I would drink that on the wrong. rocks. I did it in prompt to...

Or a little bit of water. Yeah. No, it's very good. I mean, I don't know. Well, there's a good brand. It is a good brand. I mean, it's from Buffalo Trace, but it's some of their... It's some of their better stuff. We have four... We have four bottles, not just this one. Yeah, so we have the 12-year. We have the... This is the full, the full-proof. I can't remember what the... I can't remember what the red is. We got the red and the green. the only one we don't have is the

is the build your own bourbon, the white bottle. That's pretty expensive. And you don't usually find it around here. I'd give that, like, an 8.5. Yeah, I think I would too. That's a good, that's a good bourbon. And if you, you know, if you like bourbon,

if you like whiskey, I would say that 2026, as we go through this year, I think is going to be a really good year for you because as it's not a great year for the distilleries, because demand is down. Everybody peaked there in COVID, and it's been a slide. Young people aren't drinking alcohol as much,

and I think there's going to be a lot of bottles that have traditionally been very hard to find that you're going to be able to start to find. And so if there's something you've been looking for, this might be the year that you actually get the chance to have some. I would recommend you buy that bottle. I think that's a good one. That's been one of the better bottles we've had on Barn Talk.

I think all the topics we talked about or talked about today, feel a little bit more at ease now with the weller that I had. Yeah, pretty tasty. Pretty tasty. I would recommend you guys buy it. But we appreciate you guys so much for tuning into the show weekly. We are really trying to go all in on this thing this year. And we're making baby steps on making things more efficient.

We're adding team members. We're trying to add and just better the quality of everything that we're doing. So thank you so much for all of you that support us and support what we're doing here at Barn Talk. We want to truly make this one of the best brands in agriculture and maybe even go further than just ag. and represent the rule just represent rule America and without you guys

none of it would be possible so thank you so much we love you guys we appreciate you go go share the show if you got any value leave review on Spotify or Apple sign up for that newsletter

and we'll see you back here next week for another episode