From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - CEO Of Goya Foods Gears Up For An Inflation Summer

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

This week, Sean and Rachel bring the CEO of Goya Foods, Bob Unanue to discuss how inflation and the war on Ukraine are affecting food supply across the country.   Bob predicts what shelves will l...ook like this summer given the surge in prices and food shortages, and shares his best tips to listeners on how to save money grocery shopping for their families moving forward.    Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk and authorized gaming partner of the NBA.
Starting point is 00:00:35 BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey, everyone, welcome to From the Kitchen Table. I'm your host, Sean Duffy, along with my co-host for the podcast, but also my partner in life,
Starting point is 00:01:19 Rachel Campos Duffy. Thank you, Sean. I'm so excited to be back here at our kitchen table for this podcast. And today we have another really special guest, someone we've gotten to know and really admire. He's going to join us here at the kitchen table in a minute, but I just want to give you just a little background on him. He is the CEO of Goya Foods, which by the way, it's headquartered right here in New Jersey. It is the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S., and you can find their products anywhere you go,
Starting point is 00:01:49 especially in Europe and South America. I grew up on Goya. You got to know Goya. I did through you and Bob. Yeah, I did. I did. Now he's a Goya fan. By the way, I ate Goya but never knew I was eating it.
Starting point is 00:02:03 That's actually true. You were eating Goya Hispanic food, but you didn't know it was Goya and you loved it. We're going to have Bob join us today, Sean, because a lot of people are talking about inflation. They're talking about the war in Ukraine. And it seems like also that there's less and less food on the shelves at your grocery store. It's a huge problem. I think it's going to become a bigger problem. I interviewed Bob Fox and friends not long ago, and I want to bring him back onto the
Starting point is 00:02:34 podcast to give us a little more insight into the food industry, inflation and supply chain issues and how this could affect us. So let's bring in Bob. Bob, welcome to the kitchen table. Hi, Sean and Rachel. Good morning. How are you doing? Really good. I have to say that I went to bed last night listening to Rachel and Shannon and Rachel reading Mothers and Daughters of the Bible.
Starting point is 00:02:59 Oh, on the special last night. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, I'm so glad. Good. every way to destroy itself from Cain and Abel to the smartest people in the world inventing nuclear biological chemical arms to kill each other. And we're escalating every day. Instead of moving closer to God, the only thing that will defeat evil is love. And the only thing that will defeat hate is love. And it's really, you know i made a recent journey to uh the border in in ukraine and it was truly a spiritual journey uh led by the holy spirit i have to say and everywhere along the the way we ended up in krakow where the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy are, and where St. Faustina lived and died at 33, the age of Christ, and what she did of tuberculosis, and what she did when she cared for women. And I asked Sister Teresa, who was the current head of the order there in Krakow,
Starting point is 00:04:23 the ages of the women. And she said, well, 20s and 30s, it used to be now down to 12. And every day we're talking about human sex trafficking, correct? Sex trafficking, you know, and what has been unleashed. And because we don't value, first of all, we don't value things because we're not working. And then we don't value, first of all, we don't value things because we're not working. And then we don't value life. There's been, you know, 70 million abortions since Roe Wade and I think a billion six in the world. And so we don't value life and we're getting younger and younger.
Starting point is 00:04:56 The abuse. When we pulled out of Afghanistan, when we pulled out of Afghanistan, instead of the women and children first, it was the women and children last. That's so true. I noted that, Bob, I saw that on the planes. I was like, why are these planes leaving Afghanistan full of young men? Where are the women and children who have always been the center of so much abuse in that culture? Yes. And what they're doing, you know, Rhonda Santus last week had a law he put out supporting fatherhood. And, you know, Sean, you know, you and Rachel, with nine children, incredible father and mother. And we've diminished fatherhood, motherhood, the family, the child.
Starting point is 00:05:39 And what they're doing in Ukraine is if you're 18 to 65, you have to stay and fight no matter what. And so we're exiling all these women and children. And hopefully, you know, we've in this mercy hut of the Knights of Columbus and Rabene near the border, they had a beautiful tent set up with medical food, a chapel, a play area for the kids, a changing area for the kids. And the women arriving there fell into loving hands. But how many women and so far is thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of women and children that are falling into abusive hands? Because it's 250 million. You talk about a business.
Starting point is 00:06:23 It's a $250 billion business. It's trafficking, human trafficking. 70% women, 25% children, and it's getting younger and younger into the single digits, and it's terrible. And this is what is happening in our age. You know, while I was over there, we were led, it was the novena toward
Starting point is 00:06:46 consecrating the people of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. On the 25th of March, which was a culmination of this consecration, it was a feast of the Annunciation where they announced to Mary that she would carry the Son of God. And this is what it is about. You know, we went over there with a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Faustina, Mother Teresa. And it's all about motherhood and protecting the child, valuing life. You know, we're moving away from motherhood, fatherhood, the family. We're going into this question of gender. No, this is life.
Starting point is 00:07:35 It's a really good point because when we talk about sex trafficking, you talked about Ron DeSantis' bill, which we did a podcast last week with Jack Brewer on that very issue. On fatherhood. On fatherhood. That's right. And so often, this comes down to good men who are willing to stand up and be fathers, whether they're in Florida or anywhere else in the United States, but also around the world. And it's going to be good men who stand up against the evil- Protect. And it's going to be good men who stand up against the evil of sex trafficking and protect their girls, protect their wives, protect their community. And it's troubling that we have diminished the role of men in this culture and of fathers specifically.
Starting point is 00:08:22 But also even what we want to talk about, too, is even food security. We talk about, you know, it's usually men are out there providing, trying to go, how am I going to take care of my family? And it's a role for two, you know, two couples, Rachel and I both think about that. We both are engaged in supporting our family and thinking through the sustenance of our family, but oftentimes it falls, it falls back on men. And again, the sex trafficking concerns me, the food insecurity concerns me. And you're right. There's so many things that are happening right now, Bob, that are so troubling to the heart. Bob, you mentioned on the show, you know, the work that Goya is doing with sex trafficking. I do want to get to that. But I first want to talk to what Sean was talking about with food insecurity.
Starting point is 00:09:00 You're someone in the know about what is going on with the food supply in the country and how Ukraine and Russia, this conflict is actually impacting food supply. Talk to us a little bit about that and what you see coming this summer, for example, in people's grocery stores. Well, you know, with food, thank you, Rachel. With food, we go through cycles. Well, you know, with food, thank you, Rachel. With food, we go through cycles. You know, you have ups and downs in production. In 2008, we had a tripling of the price of commodities. There was a shortage of wheat around the globe. I think Australia had a short crop. In the United States, we started planting corn for ethanol, which is the most inefficient way to make alcohol. Totally. You use it from sugar cane in Brazil. It's a much more higher content of sugar, which converts to alcohol and all this. So we started planting everything corn and things like rice and soybeans and other commodities, beans started to, they tripled. You know, then they came back down to double and they really haven't moved from that
Starting point is 00:10:14 spot. And then, you know, we fast forward to here. So the balance of food in the world is very, is very tight. You know, Russia is the number one world supplier of wheat, producer of wheat, and Ukraine is five. So together they're like 30, 26 to 30% of the wheat production. They're like 20% of corn. They're 50% of the world's production of fertilizer, potash. They have sand for fracking, sand for glass. Two and a half million acres of sunflower.
Starting point is 00:10:54 So sunflower for oil. And their ports have been blocked up. They can't export. So when you put, you know, 30 percent wheat, you know, 20 percent corn in jeopardy, then, you know, it affects. And it's going to affect more the African countries and the countries in the region than ourselves. We're big producers of wheat. So is Canada. But when this balance gets interrupted like this, it's terrible. But one of the biggest things that affected us, and it goes back to 2020, you know, it's shutting down. There's no way we should have ever locked ourselves in. You know, I heard the other day that our life expectancy has been depleted by two years by this lockdown. People become depressed, suicidal, and we take away our purpose to get up every day.
Starting point is 00:11:53 You know, we need a purpose to get up every day. God, family, work, school. You take that away, and you take your spirit away. I know people who have retired and have passed away. I'm 68. Yes. My grandfather passed away. He founded the company.
Starting point is 00:12:12 He worked to the last day. We'll have more of this conversation after this. Upper Canada College inspires boys from senior kindergarten to year 12 to find their passions and realize their potential. An IB World School, UCC offers a supportive environment, cutting-edge facilities, and a best-in-Canada financial assistance program. UCC, a place where tradition, excellence, and innovation meet. Learn more about all that UCC has to offer at ucc.on.ca. Bob, I tell so many men that I meet that are about to retire, never retire. Because men
Starting point is 00:12:54 specifically, when they retire and golf and clean the garage, they die in a couple of years. We have to be productive human beings. You can be retired. I would like you to clean our garage. I could extend your life if you would just do our garage. You know, it's true. That is true. But Goya remained open. You guys were open the whole time, weren't you? You know, I talked to our people. I've been working since I was 10 years old, you know, on and off.
Starting point is 00:13:24 Christmas was my first time in 1964. And I worked a 40 hour week and, you know, working there on the line, you know, as these I was scraping excess product off a bottle so that the cap would go on. And I was there. I thought I was there for like an hour and a half. And I was there for three minutes. It's, you know, when you're a child, your day goes by so slow. So now you take all these kids and these people,
Starting point is 00:13:51 and you keep them home. But Goya, I went around to the people, and I said, look, we need to keep working. And they said, if we don't do it, who will? And we had kind of saw a food shortage coming. We had three months of inventory, which if you talk to the financial people, that's way too much. You've got to go just in time because inventory costs money. But, no, we had three months of inventory.
Starting point is 00:14:16 And when COVID hit, it blew out in three weeks. And so then we started working around the clock. And we were practically one of the only businesses uh open you know the essential why because we're an essential business but all business is essential and they closed down the restaurant industry which quite honestly helped us but it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling because you're putting 16 million people out of work. And so all businesses, and then you take all these people who can't work from home, you know, you can't cook a meal in a restaurant, you can't load a truck, you can't produce a
Starting point is 00:15:00 product virtually. And so, yeah, it was fine for all the people with Apple or all the technological companies and media open. But, you know, we had to work. They could work from home. You guys can't work from home, right? You got to be in the shop producing. We can't do it virtually. We have to be here. And so very courageous. And since we were working and we were the only people on the block, I mean, we had people come and give us everything you got. And, you know, we divv the fact that we're working. Let's give some, the food banks are empty. Let's give, we need to give, as we always do. I mean, but we offered two million pounds to the president of the United States, Donald Trump. We're hoping he came to Texas.
Starting point is 00:16:00 We went to D.C. He named me a commissioner on the Hispanic House, a commissioner on Hispanic prosperity. That year, instead of two million, we went to four and a half million pounds. And it's something I'm thinking of doing this year, which we continue giving. But I am buying up everything I can. Cans went up 64 percent%, glass about the same. Freight from Asia, we bring in coconut water from Asia. It went from $1,800 to $18,000 a container, tenfold. And this is the big thing that killed us, and inflation, the very big thing that killed us was fuel, oil.
Starting point is 00:16:47 Cutting out the development of the Keystone Pipeline and going from energy independent to energy dependent, where now all of a sudden we're buying, we want to buy from Russia or we cut that off from Venezuela, from Iran, from other people. We have to put oil in a ship that we don't need and pay exorbitant amounts of money to transport that because transportation is one of the biggest components in the cost of things. Talk about inflation, it's transportation. And so the pipeline, if you have a pipeline, it's free. The transportation is free. Your ship doesn't run aground. Your truck doesn't turn over.
Starting point is 00:17:29 You don't have a spill. It's in the pipe. And so- It's safer. So you're much safer. And the cost, the biggest component of a product today is transportation. So Bob, on that front, you talked about fathers, right? And Rachel always
Starting point is 00:17:45 mocks me. She said this a number of times during, I think when we had lunch together, she mocked me for this as well. I did some prepping for Y2K because I feel like I had to make sure that my family was prepared if something happened, right? And nothing happened at Y2K. But I think in this moment, to help families look forward, whether it's in June or August or October of this year, and you see when these crops from Ukraine and or Russia are supposed to come onto the market, and they don't because when they weren't planted or they weren't harvested or they can't be shipped out. It's a global supply. There's competition for all these goods in the world. What does that look like for food in America? And what advice do you have to our listeners? For a guy who deals with food every single day, how should they be preparing and planning for what's to come? That's a great question. And, you know, the food supply, we need to, we can't panic. The number one thing is, you know, it's 365 days in the Bible. Be not afraid.
Starting point is 00:18:57 When they announced to Mary, it's be not afraid. And if we panic, so, you know, the just-in-time inventory doesn't work. You have to plan ahead in these days to have enough products. And that's what we're doing. We're planning ahead. We're not keeping three days of inventory. We're keeping as much as six months. And that costs money, but, you know, we have to have it. One of the biggest, the greatest proteins there are food. Well, you have the sweet potato, but you also have the bean, which has protein, fiber, antioxidants, phytonutrients. You combine it with rice. You get a complete protein. And it's economical. One of the almost every United States is the second largest Latino country in the world.
Starting point is 00:19:47 And almost every Latino country has a rice and bean variation. And so it is really a meal in this in rice and beans with all the proteins and fibers, et cetera. Years ago, we did something with the obama administration called which is also the united states department of agriculture called my plate and it takes the pyramid of of food and it puts it into a portion control and so and one of the reasons that as a country we are uh vulnerable is is that of all the abundance you know we more diabetic, we're more obese than any other country. Before I got COVID in May of 2020, and I'm still good, by the way, and I'm not vaccinated. We aren't vaccinated either.
Starting point is 00:20:36 And I'm good, you know, but what I did is I lost 50 pounds before, not knowing I was just working hard. And COVID hit me and I was good. I kept moving. You got to keep moving in this government, by the way, Bob never told people to lose weight. They knew that summer that weight, you know, there were other comorbidities, diabetes and old age, but weight was a factor and they never did anything about it. They used to spend billions of dollars on, on, you know, obesity programs in the government. This would have been, this could have scared the hell out of people into losing weight, which would have been great.
Starting point is 00:21:14 Well, I was 66. I was diabetic. I had sleep apnea obese and I lost 50 pounds and all those blood pressure, apnea, obese, and I lost 50 pounds and all those blood pressure, blood sugar, all that just pretty much disappeared. And I kept moving. And I think that kept me alive. I was fatigued for a couple of months, but you got to keep moving. And the thing is, we can't panic. We can't if we start loading up on toilet paper and that again, which I fear is going to start happening. I fear that we're going to have panic. That's that's it. I shouldn't be afraid. In what? In July? You mean in July? It'll be good for you. Right. But people be buying Goya. But in July and August, you think people might get panicked? I think we're coming up this summer to as as the reality, like Sean was saying, you know, a lot of the fighting is in the southeast part of Ukraine where all these crops are being should be planted.
Starting point is 00:22:20 They've hit the irrigation system. Hey, they've taken the women, millions of women and children and put them into isolation. You know, the it takes work to plant the fields and it's not going to happen. And that's a serious blow to the world's production of corn, of wheat, of oil, sunflower and honey and a myriad of other products and minerals. I know you don't want panic, Bob, but should, I mean, with inflation rising and these kinds of things happening, should families who are trying, I mean, everyday families who are just trying to make it, should they stock up on some basics,
Starting point is 00:23:02 the things you're talking about, you know, beans and rice? Should I get a 50 pound bag of rice and a 50 pound bag of beans? Just let's be really honest about it. No, honestly. I mean, should we? I think we need to tighten our belts. You know, you know, in the United States, let's say in the United States, different from other countries where they don't have this abundance. We have this abundance and quite honestly, a little bit of gluttony, right? We're excess in everything. We're the biggest consumers of sex trafficking. We're the biggest consumers of drugs. We're the biggest
Starting point is 00:23:36 consumers of food. So I'd say we need to reduce, tighten our belts, you know, and this is a wake-up call. This is a wake-up call. You know, back in the past election, I was talking to someone about the future, and they said, you know, God spoke to them and said, the U.S. has to suffer more. Before, we're going to kind of hit bottom like a drug addict or an alcoholic, that, hey, got to wake up to get through this, this year. Yeah. Maybe we'll get through and you know, there'll be, there's going to be famine in other parts of the world, most likely, but in the U S we need to move closer to God and stop the tremendous consumption of this. We can thin down.
Starting point is 00:24:23 We can and eat healthy. You know, I recommend Goya beans, but I'm teasing. That's not an advertisement. We need to cut down in general on consumption and move closer to God. The only thing that's going to defeat hate and evil is love. And we got to love our neighbors. We can't, you know, we're abusing and we're exploiting the child in the womb and out of the womb. And they're getting younger and younger. And we are, you know, sisters, St. Mother Teresa said to us years ago that we are the most economically powerful country in the world, but we're bankrupt morally. We're morally bankrupt.
Starting point is 00:25:10 Well, she also said she never saw more loneliness than in the United States of America. Families who live together but are alienated from one another. And that was all before, she said that all before social media came on board. We'll have more of this conversation after this. Help turn off hesitation, turn off doubt, turn off fears. With your support, the YMCA of Greater Toronto helps people turn off whatever's holding them back so they can let their potential shine. Help turn on confidence and connections and possibilities. From youth shelters to job training, mental health counseling and beyond,
Starting point is 00:25:49 the YMCA offers hundreds of programs that empower people to shine their brightest. See our charity's impact at ymcagta.org slash charity. I think your message on all these fronts is great. I think that America needs to prepare for maybe leaner times. I think you're right that we are a gluttonous country, a country that overconsumes. And we've lost that sense of resourcefulness, that sense of saving for rainy days that we used to have, say, that World War II generation had, of saving for rainy days that we used to have saved that world war two generation had, um, of, of knowing how to live with less when the time is it requires that I think
Starting point is 00:26:31 you're, you're right about that. And I think that there are a lot of vices in this country from, from food to drugs to, to all the things you mentioned. One of the things that Sean and I really admire about you is, you know, you have a very successful company, a tremendously successful company. You're a rich man, let's be quite frank. And you don't have to sit and worry about so many of these things the way you do. And you've taken on an issue that is really the shame of the world, which is sex trafficking, specifically child sex trafficking. which is sex trafficking, specifically child sex trafficking.
Starting point is 00:27:12 And you've lent your time, your resources to helping to eradicate this scourge on the world. I want to give you a little bit of time here before we have to go to talk about what Goya is doing to address this horrible issue. Well, you know, we've been I ran into a friend of mine, Eduardo Badastigi, who did this movie Bella years ago. The very handsome Mexican actor. I'm going to really emphasize handsome. If you haven't looked, you guys can Google Google him. He's a very attractive, awesome actor. Go ahead, Bob. Yeah. And actually, when i was at the white house with the president and eduardo was sitting next to me and the president came into the room the first thing he said he goes that's he looked over in our direction said that is the best looking guy in the world it's better looking than clark gable and of course i blushed but uh good but he he's great. He does the rosary every day. He has thousands of followers.
Starting point is 00:28:08 He does. He's very religious man. And he did the story on Tim Ballard, who goes in and rescues children. And he was a border agent and he goes in and and rescues children. It's called The Sound of Freedom.'re hoping to uh to get that out but it brought to awareness you've been helping you've been helping with that movie bob yes but it gave us awareness as to what's happening i mean we're not aware that this is happening in our own in our schools you know the six steps of of uh trafficking is grooming intoxication alienation isolation desensitizing and then capitalizing but at the end of the day it's all about capitalizing and there is no limit to the evil the exportation of these border bob
Starting point is 00:28:59 it's gotten worse with the open border so yeah. And, you know, they're selling children for food. They're body parts. Who knows blood? It's, you know, the awareness. People aren't aware of this. We're desensitized ourselves to look at the images of war where life has no value and we need to bring attention, you know, to, to this. And that's what we did. We, we started, first of all, uh, supporting, uh,
Starting point is 00:29:37 organizations and people that help these children. But let me tell you, it's, it's, it's a grain a grain of sand it's it's not enough it's a drop in the ocean of water and we cannot keep up with it but we want to do what we want to do is and we've created videos is to create awareness to go into the schools with us so people are aware and sometimes in in your own families i mean we, we have a gentleman that works for his wife, his daughter went off to college, got drugged and and eventually passed away. It happens in. You know, every day to people, he would least expect it's in our homes, it across the border it's afghanistan it's ukraine where are we are moving so far away from god so we just wanted to bring awareness what to what mother teresa said saint mother teresa we need to bring the child back to the
Starting point is 00:30:37 center of our care and concern and if we destroy and someone else said that the children are future, but they're also our present. If we don't do something today, then, you know, the future is, you know, these are biblical times. We're listening to you and Shannon on the stories of the Bible, and this is biblical times. But God is sending us messages after messages that we need to wake up, not be woke, but wake up to and be aware. And we have to, you know, in Easter, Jesus dies and he is resurrected. He leaves behind the death. The only way you can leave death behind is with love because God is love. And we all need to leave that death behind because we leave this earth. And what I believe is that there's an eternity and we better get our act together here. My father used to tell me, he asked my sister, what's your goal in life?
Starting point is 00:31:44 I'm one of six kids. And she said, I want to be a nurse. my sister, what's your goal in life? I'm one of six kids. And she said, I want to be a nurse. And no, what's your goal in life? She said, I want to be a nurse. And she became a nurse. But he said, no, your goal in life is salvation. He died very young, but and my mom also. But they left us with this legacy of faith that we need.
Starting point is 00:32:02 Our goal in life is salvation. You know, Bob, I have a similar I have a similar thing that I say to my kids. I say, when they come to me about something, I'll say, listen, that's not my job. My job isn't to get you into Harvard. My job is to get you into heaven. And that should be all of our goal. And I want to say, again, Sean and I are just really honored to know you, really impressed with how you use your time and your resources to help so many other people and truly the most vulnerable, those who are caught in sex trafficking, people who are hungry. Again, the generosity of your company to food banks around the world is astounding. And you deserve credit for that. And I, and I know you're a humble
Starting point is 00:32:46 man. You don't like to, to, to brag about that, but it should not go unnoticed that you are definitely working on getting to heaven in that way. You know, Bob, I look, I look at basics, right? Basics of, of food, of people's faith and their security. And those three things are all things that you work on and put a priority on and push out there, which I think is so important. Because if you don't have those three things and especially the faith, you're in trouble. And so, again, I look at a guy who could use his talents and resources in a lot of different ways.
Starting point is 00:33:24 You use your talents to actually help the world, help people on the basics, bring them closer to God. You put food in their bellies and make sure that our children are safe. And you are a gem to Goya, but a gem to America. And now Sean's going to go buy his rice and his beans and prepare. Don't worry, Bob. Bob, I'm buying rice and beans. And Goya's going to benefit, but I'm getting rice and beans, Bob, because you know what? It's my job to take care of my family, and you know what? Some rice and beans in the house, we'll use them. That's right.
Starting point is 00:33:53 So just like a little extra toilet paper doesn't hurt. So listen, Bob, I want to thank you for joining us at the kitchen table, and I know we're doing this over the airwaves. Hopefully, we'll be able to do this actually at our kitchen table at And I know we're doing this over the airwaves. Hopefully we'll be able to do this actually at our kitchen table at some point in the future when we could both be together and share that and expand upon this conversation. So I appreciate you joining us and taking the time out of your busy day. So thank you so much. And it's not about me. It's, you know, I'm part of what we call our gran familia Goya, the great Goya family. And it's that because we are a family.
Starting point is 00:34:27 We could not have done this. This is our food is a gift from every single person at Goya and our caring also. And, you know, we went with the team over to Ukraine. So it's all about this great family. And we are part of the family of the United States and the family of the world. And we have to treat each other like brothers and sisters and, and love each other and move closer to God. It's the only way.
Starting point is 00:34:53 Yeah. Well, you, you, you live and embody that. By the way, when Bob went to Ukraine, he brought Goya food and he brought rosaries. He's talking about, you know, physical sustenance, but also spiritual sustenance. You're always on message with that, Bob. So great to talk to you. And such an honor to be your friend.
Starting point is 00:35:13 Thank you, Bob. Thank you, Bob. I'm blessed with you both. All right. So that was Bob Unaway. Just so great having him, the CEO of Goya Foods. And I think we learned a lot.
Starting point is 00:35:26 We did. I mean, he works on a lot of issues and I'm so grateful for that. And he's so passionate, which I love. I do. I love his passion, too. But I also think, you know, when he talks about what is to come, you know, in the summer months. And when we talked to him, we had a lunch with him a few weeks ago. a few weeks ago and he was like, I think, you know, in August time, you're going to start to see a run on food is the, the, the, the flow doesn't come out of Eastern Europe. And so we
Starting point is 00:35:50 should be prepared for that. And he's a little bit reserved. He doesn't want everyone to go out and do a run on food right now. I mean, I could see like he was, he's trying to be very sensible about this, but it doesn't hurt as a family, just, you know, be a little prepared. Maybe if you buy 10 cans of beans, you know, a month, maybe you want to buy 15 or 20. Well, you don't want to get caught in the great, you know, 2020 toilet paper run, right? Yeah. It was. Or the Clorox.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Remember the Clorox wipes? There was a run on that too. So to make sure you have enough in your house to. You're buying stuff you're going to use anyway right yeah to see to sustain yourself is is not a bad thing especially in these trying times and so or start a garden you know plant your own family garden if you have the ability to do that there's nothing I've been trying to plant a garden for 30 years and I just I never get a property that has a well you actually had a great garden and let's be honest and tell everybody what happened to your garden.
Starting point is 00:36:46 What happened to my garden? It was wonderful. And then you ran for Congress and you couldn't... I couldn't tend that garden. You couldn't tend your garden. And you married a wife who does not have a green thumb. It is the most relaxing thing. I come home from work and I love to go check my...
Starting point is 00:37:02 Cucumbers. My cucumbers and my tomatoes. That's right. It was really rewarding. I loved doing it. Did you notice how Bob talked a little bit about just being more resourceful? I mean, there was a time people had their victory garden and they knew how to can and they knew how to do things. And again, this isn't about going and making a run at Costco and buying everything up. It's not about that. it's about buying things you actually know you're going to use being prepared but also as he said tightening our belts a little bit not just in terms of diet but he was saying you know think ahead because we don't know where this economy you've been talking sean you you believe there's going to be a
Starting point is 00:37:39 recession i do well first there's the preppers out there and you see those ads about the preppers then buy the the food packets that can last for a fifth year. I'm not saying that, but I think you're in a bomb shelter. But to have enough food, if there is a run, they can get you by for a couple of weeks because so often we're going, you know, five days by five days, three days a week's grocery shopping. Maybe you have a couple extra weeks of groceries to sustain your family, which is important. Yeah, and I believe that meat prices are going up. And so when you were at Costco the other day, I said, why don't you just buy a little extra?
Starting point is 00:38:14 And we have a big freezer in the basement that we don't really put much in because like I said, we were probably like kind of weekly grocery shoppers. So I said, if you find something on sale, find something that's a good price, buy some extra. And you did, and you did a good job.
Starting point is 00:38:27 And we'll use it. Yeah, we're a big family, we'll use it. Yeah, so I think that's important. I do think we're going to have issues with inflation. This is going to continue to burn. When Democrats say it's going to be transitory or short-term, I think this is going to be with us for some time.
Starting point is 00:38:43 I don't think people in government, in the Fed and at Treasury and in the administration understand the problem of inflation when they say it's Putin, it's everyone else's fault, but the monetary policy is the problem. And if we don't understand what the problem is coming from, you can't fix the problem. So again, I think this burns for a little while longer. Obviously, if we can fix food supplies and the whole supply chain, if we get Ukraine and Russia settled, oil prices can come down as well. Those things will help, but I do think we're going to have a longer run of inflation, higher than the 2% that we've seen over the course of the last 12 years. Yeah. And I think in the third world,
Starting point is 00:39:23 they're already feeling the pain. I mean, there's famine in Afghanistan right now. There's already famine in spots of, of Africa. And he just said he expects it to get worse for those countries that aren't their own producers of, of wheat and corn and, and these basic grains that we use. So one last point before, yeah, and I hope we pray for those people. It's always africa and some of these third world countries that get hurt the heart the worst he mentioned the idea of um ethanol
Starting point is 00:39:51 and joe biden is trying to push more ethanol so again he's looked at all the wrong places he look he's not now said we're not gonna why is he pushing ethanol so he we we're not gonna get oil from russia so he's looked to Iran, horrible country. Venezuela. Venezuela, communist country, horrible place. Or government, not the people. And so instead of opening up American energy of oil and gas and pipelines, he said, let's use more ethanol.
Starting point is 00:40:19 So he's expanded the use of ethanol in a gallon of gas, which means instead of, as Bob says, we have a food shortage on the horizon. Joe Biden's like, let's take more of the food supply and not feed our animals corn, which comes in the form of hamburger and, and meat or, you know, into, you know, our, our, our products with corn, he's going to actually burn it as gasoline, which is not a bigger issue, Sean? I mean, it's because the crisis hasn't hit. When you have a food crisis that comes in the summer,
Starting point is 00:40:52 there'll be a look back to the policy of expanding ethanol in America. And Joe Biden and Democrats will again be holding the bag of policy that they got wrong. And again, all of these bad decisions are being made because he's so opposed to American energy, which makes absolutely no sense. This whole strategy is bad for America. And again, I come from a place in Wisconsin, my old district, they loved ethanol. We had ethanol producers. They wanted to have greater sales for corn and ethanol provided that to them. I get that. There were subsidies for that. But this is a time where you want corn
Starting point is 00:41:28 to go to people's bellies, not into your gas can. Let the drillers and the pipeline makers go deal with that and let the farmers actually feed people, not put it in our gas tank. Again, another failure of the Biden administration. Wow. Very interesting conversation. Again, no one knows the food supply globally better than the CEO of Goya,
Starting point is 00:41:55 who sells food globally. And as he said, he's expanded his inventory because he expects some scarcity to happen in the near future. Great conversation. Always good talking with you around happen in the near future. Great conversation. Always good talking with you around the kitchen table. We'll have to do this. Well, we'll just do it tomorrow without everybody. We do it every day anyway.
Starting point is 00:42:13 But again, next week with all of you. All right. So we enjoyed the conversation. If you did too, let us know, subscribe, rate,
Starting point is 00:42:19 review this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts. Again, we hope to see you around the kitchen table next week. Bye-bye. Bye, everybody. From the Fox News Podcasts Network, subscribe and listen to the Trey Gowdy Podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. congressman
Starting point is 00:42:43 from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Former federal prosecutor and four-term U.S. congressman from South Carolina brings you a one-of-a-kind podcast. Subscribe and listen now by going to foxnewspodcast.com.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.