Alexis 0:01

Hello everybody and welcome to the Smoko Podcast. My name is Alexis Armstrong, your host. Nice to meet you. The MoCo Podcast is a place to celebrate and highlight women working within stem and trades occupations. And today we are really, really lucky to be joined by the lovely Natalie Corick, who's coming all the way from central Nebraska to talk all things agriculture and ranching. So please join us. Tune in, take a break. We're on Smoko. Natalie, thank you so much for coming out today.

Natalie 0:31

Thank you so much for asking me on. I am honored. I'm so excited when a new podcast is getting started. I love the podcasting today, so welcome to it. and this will be fun.

Alexis 0:41

Thank you so much. I appreciate it coming from you and discover ag. I really appreciate it and thank you again for coming out. This is gonna be a lot of fun. And so to kind of start us off now, could you give us a little bit about your background? So you've been a rancher your entire life, and specifically in my understanding, cattle ranching for those people unaware of cattle ranching. Could you kind of give us a Coles nuts description of what it is and what does the industry look like?

Natalie 1:09

Yeah, I will try my hardest because, sorry. you asked probably to deliver a simple answer on one of the most complex questions you could ask, but yes, I did grow up in agriculture. I grew up on a ranch in southwest Montana, so it has been a part of my life for a very long time. I did. I don't wanna say lead the industry, but I ended up getting my education in pharmacy and so when I graduated, I did not return back to our family operation. I ended up, you know, moving to a bigger city in Montana, which is relative to finding, you know, maybe where you're tuning in from, but, It was a bigger city in Montana and I was, you know, working in a hospital. and I kind of thought that would be my life. And it wasn't until I met my husband that I kind of came back to the ranch. and like you said, we ranch here in central Nebraska. You are correct. It is a cattle ranch. It is a beef ranch. And so for everyone tuning in who's very unfamiliar with agriculture, that is, you know, the meat you get in the supermarket, the meat and restaurants, you know, it comes from ranches like my husband and I. So, You know, CliffNotes version of what ranching looks like. I think what's most important for everyone tuning in and, and why I say I have a hard time giving a, simple description for ranching is, or even farming and agriculture in general, is that nothing is the same in the industry. And so it makes it really, really hard to explain it. You know, I can. Very confidently say that there are probably not two operations in the US that are going to be exactly the same, ran the same way, ran the same way, just from so many different standpoints. Geography being a really big one. Obviously a ranch in Florida. Would look a whole lot different than a ranch in Montana. you know, whether it is rainfall or soil type or the amount of land you have to work with. I mean, there are so many variables that go into it that, to kind of give that, here's a broad description of what, you know, your US farmer and rancher does and looks like is just so variable. so to answer it, I guess from my viewpoint, we're on our ranch in central Nebraska. It is my husband and I, and we have three boys and then one full-time employee. And, we run pretty much cattle. We don't do a lot of farming, so no crops. and we are a type of the beef industry that, Does produce the beef that goes into, you know, restaurants and, grocery stores. So we're kind of the first part of that. There's about five, steps it takes to kind of go from pasture to plate. and we play kind of the beginning one.

Alexis 3:44

Well, thank you very much for that wonderful answer because I did kind of set you up for the impossible task of please describe a huge industry in two seconds. That is, you're correct. It's so different, independent of ranch to ranch, and. Landscape. Right. The sandals is gonna, again, look very, very different than Florida. And even within your pasture and within your land, I bet you you have different pockets that look completely different to each other. Right?

Natalie 4:08

And I'm glad you brought that up because, yeah, from, even if you talk to a producer, if they're really good at their job, which a lot of farmers and ranchers are, they may manage, you know, the. Part of their operation different from the other part of their operation. Mm-hmm. Just because again, ground can vary. and there's different variables or, so it, yeah, it's a very complex industry, which is why we discarded, you know, created our, our podcast, discover Ag is because, we wanted to have these nuanced conversations around the food system.

Alexis 4:39

I love it. From a nerdy geoscience perspective, I absolutely love like the nuanced conversation of soil science and different in weather patterns and. I don't know. I just have so much respect for what you guys do because I think that you have to be a jack of all trades and you have to be a scientist in so many different terms. You have to be a veterinary scientist, you have to be a soil scientist, a weather and climate. You have to be a mechanic, an electrician. You kind of have to do everything. I guess that's my understanding of ranching is just like you guys are superhero people and do everything

Natalie 5:15

well, maybe that's what I'll start giving as my cliff notes version. Yeah, that can be answer we,

Alexis 5:21

yeah, honestly, please take it cuz that's what I've always thought of people in ranching and farming. And growing up as a geologist, I had one professor that was like, if you wanna know anything about quer geology, find a farmer and just pick their brain. So just go talk to them and they'll know it all. You're kind. Thank you. You're welcome. I guess we've already talked a little bit about this. Part of it is that you and your husband and your three sons, you run the Covert Cattle company and it's in central Nebraska. You're from Montana. You went and worked in the hospitals for a number of years as pharmacy, and then if. I understood this correctly. You met your husband when he was in Montana to try to buy a cow, and from that you guys created this cattle ranch. Is that true?

Natalie 6:08

Yes. It's a very like country redneck love story,

Alexis 6:14

but

Natalie 6:14

yes. so my husband is Nebraska, born and raised. I, I'm very jealous of my husband. He has been the type of person that from, and maybe like you, maybe from a very young age, you guys were the type of people that just knew what you wanted to do. You know, you knew where your passion lied, and it just never wavered. I am not one of those people. I have always just kind of adapted and everything looks shiny and new and fun, and I'm just drawn to so many different things that, I'm always envious of those people that just at their core, you know, knew what they were meant to do or. To be, and that was my husband and it was ranching for him. So he did not grow up on our ranch. It was in, you know, ranching was in his family. We're obviously in rural Nebraska, and so we're just in agriculture territory. We're in rural America. So his grandparents ranched, but his parents didn't, he grew up in town, you know, his parents, one of his dad's and I doctor, his mom also worked in the medical field, so he, he brought up that way, but still exposed to the ranching industry. And he went to college at U N L I. And then after he graduated, he came back and, started the ranch and his parents really deterred it from him. He was supposed to go to be a, a dentist, which is hilarious if you know my husband cuz they were just like, there's no, you know, there's not money in agriculture. There's kind of that narrative. At that time, his parents went through, you know, the eighties was a really hard time for anyone listening to agriculture that wasn't in it. It was a a, a pretty hard time for a lot of families. And so there was kind of coming outta that, that mentality that there's not money in ag, it's not a safe, you know, industry to be in. It can be hard to. To make a living in, definitely hard to start. It's very capital intensive and so his parents kind of deterred it from him. But again, Luke, that's what he wanted to do. So he came back after college, started our operation, we're technically first generation and then amazing. I met him when he came up to Bibles, from my, my dad. That's, The ranch I grew up on, was a genetic operation. It's called Seed Stock. And, and we breed for other producers to buy our genetics. And so he was up buying a bowl and we always joked that he came for a bowl and left with a wife and, and that's how I ended up in Nebraska. I absolutely

Alexis 8:12

love that redneck love story. I think it's so freaking cute and I love the two different sides that, that you ended up. Being from a ranch and going into a medical field first before you came back to ranching and he was from a medical family and ended up going into ranch. It's a, this beautiful kind of opposing story. It's a very lovely thing that it's full circle that you guys found each other and through him buying a bull from your dad. Love that story. Love the redneck story. It's absolutely amazing. And your ranch now in central Nebraska in the sand hills. It's fairly large, if I'm correct. And just from looking at your amount of calves last year for babies, I think you guys had 450 new babies, was that correct? We

Natalie 8:59

did. so yes, the, we are a larger, operation. My husband loves cows. To put it a little bit in perspective, and again, going back to you know, the complexity of, of how many producers it takes to get, you know, beef to, to the end, product. There is about 700,000 beef producers in the us and the average herd size is only 43, so it's pretty small. So when you get, you know, into numbers of my husband's, which is, you know, in the multiple hundreds, we are definitely going to be a larger operation. Which again, is interesting because it, like I said, it's just him and I and then our one full-time employee. We do, you know, Like the, we had a, intern help us through calving season, and we'll have an intern this summer, a college kid. And so we do bring in extra help, but, the idea that, you know, big is bad and ag, just isn't true. Like we are definitely a bigger operation. I, I don't know how much more, I guess I can say that bluntly, but again, it's just us. It's just my husband and I as an employee. And so, you know, if you are afraid of your food system because you feel like it is big or that you think the number. The bigger the number, you know, the more, factory it is. People love to say factory farm, you know, the more industrialized it is, the more mechanical it is. You know, the less human, the less family. That's just not true, especially in the beef industry side of it. Mm-hmm.

Alexis 10:19

Yep. I completely like you can see it because you guys do literally everything. Like with like if you look at your content, you guys are busy 24 7. Yeah. It's just your husband and your little ones doing everything. And I think that's a good point of the general public does us have this idea of the larger herd size and the larger farms being more automatic and being more people. Less people dependent. And I think you guys are a testament that it's actually the opposite in bigger operations. And maybe this kind of is a segue to this next question is because you guys do everything, what has been the most rewarding and then the most challenging aspect of running your

Natalie 11:03

guys' ranch? Yeah, I, you mentioned that my littles are with us a lot. It's my husband and I and, my oldest is in school. He's a teenager, so, he's hardly ever in my content, you know, embarrassing mom on social media. And so, but you will see my two littles with me a lot cuz it's just hard not to, to show them when they are with us all the time. And so, That is probably my favorite aspect though, is that we are together as a family all the time. You know, really living and working at the same time. It's, it's not like an or, it's very much so like a bled into each other, which probably is my answer for what is the most challenging thing. but answer that in a second. But it's just, as a mother, it's really rewarding to get, to spend so much time with my kids and, I believe personally, I'm probably a little bit biased, but I, I do think that there are a lot of wonderful skills. There's a lot of wonderful mentalities. There's a lot of wonderful things that are instilled in kids who grow up on a working farm ranch. You know, just a couple weeks ago when we were kind of in the thick of calving, you know, my littlest ru who is two. so not very old at all. He was helping his dad bottle, bottle, well, they bottle feed all the time, but he was helping actually Tubic calf, which kind of looks like a bottle, but, you know, he was holding there and, and he was helping Dad and I just kind of stepped back and I thought, wow, it is just so cool, you know, he's barely talking, you know, he's walking, but he is not this, you know, fully functioning human and he's doing something that, you know, not. Not even close to half of the population will ever do or witness or see. I just feel like they really live as kids. It's really cool to immerse them. I just feel like they feel the pulse of, of life really deeply, and so that is definitely what's most rewarding for me as a mom. what is challenging? I think about operating in agriculture. Is we are, as you mentioned, we do, we wear a lot of hats and so there's a lot, out of our control. and it's hard to be in an occupation where, or even with life, when you want to exert control and you can't, you know, we're up against mu mother nature weather all the time. If you. To think about what's going on in California right now with all the flooding. I mean, all those producers are up against something that will absolutely wipe out their entire crop. it will affect replanting and that is their income. And as a nation, that's our food source. And so it's a pretty stressful when we are completely out of control of something so big, whether it is snow, you know, blizzard, drought, weather, you know, wind, hurricanes, like whatever it is. We're just really at the mercy of. Weather and it, it's really challenging and we're at the mercy of, you know, market prices. So I think a lot of people think farmers and ranchers are maybe price makers, but we are absolutely price takers. We, do not have a very big say in that. And so that could be really, really stressful. And, Employment is really hard. And I mean I, the list could go on, like you said. Mm-hmm. Stuff breaking down, you know, I'll ask my husband what he is gonna do for the day and you would laugh if you tried to make a plan and execute it to-do list because so many variables that are outta your control exert themself into it. And so I think that is what is really challenging. And I also think that's, Why mental health is such a problem in agriculture is because of that uncontrollable stress load. for people tuning in. AG has one of the highest suicide rates, which I don't think is talked about very much. No. Yeah, it is. it's terrible in the industry and I think it is because they, farmers and ranchers feel the stress of everything going on. But it is out of their control to try and fix it.

Alexis 14:39

Shame. Natalie, I had no idea that that stat existed, and that's a very, very sad stat and I'm sorry to hear that.

Natalie 14:45

Yeah, there's, I have a, I think there's definitely a movement of trying to create more awareness around it as well as destigmatize the industry from talking about it or seeking help. Mm-hmm. There's, I think there's a lot of, it's actually social media has done a great job of that. I think there's a lot of people who are starting to, stress the importance of mental health and awareness in the industry, and I definitely think. you know, if you look at decades wise from like sixties, seventies, 80, you know, I think mm-hmm. This is probably the best generation that is trying to move the needle forward on making some real progress in mental health for the ag industry

Alexis 15:19

and talking about it and just having resources in community because I. I mean, it's crazy. The amount of stress, again, I think I mentioned at the very beginning is just how much respect I have for you guys, because you do it everything. But that was just really from a science perspective that wasn't even talking about economics and the fact that it's a pure business. And you're right, everything's outside of your control. It's it's standard field work that like you can't control the weather, you can't control. What's going to happen or what's gonna break. But then on top of it, you also have changing government policies. Again, you said your price takers, not price makers. It's true. And you have no idea on international trade too, if they're gonna flood the market, you have no idea. It's completely outside of your control. So it's. Yeah, I'm, I'm really sorry to hear that, but I could also imagine how stressful that would be if I was in that situation. I think I would be a ball of nerves. And thank you again for like sharing and for being so realistic with it. I really appreciate it. I think it's an important conversation.

Natalie 16:18

Of

Alexis 16:18

course. The next is maybe a little bit of a pivot. You and your friend and co-host Tara Andrew Ducen. You guys have started this wonderful podcast called Discover Ag, which is the top in the Topal of Apple Podcast. In the food space and congratulations. That's absolutely huge. And this is a weekly podcast which really highlights and talks on the top trending topics in the agricultural and food space. And before we kind of dive into the content of it, could you kinda walk us through how you and Tara met, because she's from New Mexico, you're out in Nebraska, and how did you guys meet? Become friends, and then say, Hey, we're gonna create this wonderful platform, discover Ag.

Natalie 17:01

We met online, like any good millennial friendship does. Love it. Yeah, so we both had been sharing. On social media. she was sharing even before I was, I think she's probably sharing closer to like eight years now. Wow. I'm sharing closer to about five years and I, there's always been like homesteading accounts on social media. but when we were sharing, I feel like there was very far and few between of like production, agriculture sharing, and so we kind of just naturally gravitated toward each, each other. It was actually a small group of us about 10 to 15 that were women, you know, in agriculture on working farms and ranches. And we kind of had this little, you know, message group on Instagram. It all started on Instagram. So we'd known each other through that for quite some time. And I think I'd always been drawn to her. She's, a go-getter, you know, she's got a great personality and, you know, I am not a natural born entrepreneur. Again, going back to when you're little, I was not like slinging lemonade and selling my rocks and erasers like some kids tell stories about, but when I kind of stepped away from pharmacy and. Started, you know, dipping my foot into this online entrepreneurship like social media world. I recognize that I kind of had, you know, a little bit of a drive and spirit in me as well. And I think that could, you know, Tara and I, I think we have that in common. We really connected about that from like our drive and our passion, and so we were. Friends for quite a while online. And then we finally got to meet and then, and that really just kind of snowballed what we had experienced online connecting. when we finally got together in a room, it was just instant, like our friendship really escalated very quickly. Our husbands are friends now. You know, we take trips with our kids and so it escalated. Pretty quickly from like a personal level, but then from a professional too, I think we just recognized that we would be good business partners. You know, we have a lot in common as far as work ethic and drive and really wanting to make a splash and do some things in the agriculture industry, and so we just thought. you know, why not start kind of maybe teaming up and doing some projects together? And that's kind of how, you know, it was very organic for us to start the podcast. That was not our first business together. We actually have Elevate Ag, which is a producer forward company where we created an online course for anyone who was in ranching and farming who wanted to do what we did, which is, you know, make money from online by, you know, whether it's professionals. Or brand partnerships or you know, maybe direct to consumer beef business, like whatever that business is they wanted to build. We created that course to help them use social media as a marketing tool, which is what we were doing. And, that was our first business together. And, we love it. You know, it is our first baby together. But, I think we realized through creating that we, cuz that's actually where our podcast came from, we had created a podcast to pair with that, to kind of, you know, as another. Mm-hmm. We, you know, there are people who wanted to share online could, and so if you scroll back, you'll see where we went through a rebrand. Like our old episodes are actually more social media content driven. But we really quickly realized that what people love to hear us talk about is the industry. You know, we mm-hmm. We love to have deep conversations about it. We have opinions and beliefs and, and you know, we're not afraid to say 'em. And, and so we recognize people are craving that, and then we recognized we were craving it too. You know, again, while I am so passionate about helping producers, Utilize the online space to kind of further our industry as a whole, or their operation individually. I'm really passionate about having, you know, thoughtful, thought provoking, conversations about agriculture and really trying to connect with like our urban counterparts and people who want to feel reconnected to the food system but don't really understand how to, or maybe, you know, I. Look at the other news sources that are out there for ag and I don't even wanna read them and I'm in agriculture, you know, so for a consumer to go and try and understand, like for instance, we talked about the dairy fire. I don't know when your podcast will air, but one of our more recent episodes is about the really big dairy fire that's making news. You know, it was 18,000 dairy that, 18,000 dairy cows. They're all killed in the fire. And, and to, you're a consumer and you're wanting to try and understand why a barn is that big. Why would the producer make that choice? How did this fire happen? What, why can't they have sprinkler systems? You know, all of those questions that I feel like you would naturally have and you wanna go to someone you relate to, that talks about it in a way you can understand it. I just didn't feel like that was out there, and I really felt like Tara and I could. Do that for our industry. And that's, I think what I am so passionate about doing is just reconnecting people to the food system, making ag relatable, making it fun, making it sexy, you know, like making it cool again, like I want people to want to learn about their food system again and want to understand it. And I just didn't know where they would go to get that feeling and connection right now, besides until we just started discover.

Alexis 21:42

I agree like Oliva, cuz I don't think it did exist until you guys started discover ag. Like I really don't know. Where you could go. I don't know where you would start. As someone in the public who is not related to ag. If you wanted to learn anything, you would start this big search of news articles on news articles. Probably understand maybe 10% of them get confused. Mm-hmm. Stop. Right? Like you wouldn't really know where to go, what they're saying. I think your guys' platform is so wonderful for so many ways, but one of them is just how digestible it is and how you guys do such a good. Job of leading us down the pathway to be like, this is like we understand your questions, say with the fires that you would have these first sprinklers and production related questions. We understand that you have those and this is how we're gonna lead you down to the answer and explain to you kind of our world. So I love that peak behind the curtain of an industry. And also, Food systems that are so part of our lives, but we really have no idea. Unless you're within the community, you really have no idea how they function. So it's. It's such a wonderful platform. I do. I think one thing that really stuck out with your answer was the fact that you and Tara never met each other for years. That you were just online best friends, and then didn't meet each other for years later. I did not expect that. That's crazy.

Natalie 23:05

And even now, it's funny cuz sometimes she'll, I mean we're obviously such a big part of each other's lives. We talk, I would say pretty much every single day. It's very odd if we go a day without talking, whether it's personally related or business related. and so it's funny, so sometimes she'll reference peop you know, Natalie or whatever, you know, Luke and Natalie or you know, the boys or their names or whatever. And they'll be like, who? You know, because I've, you know, I do very know little in her, you know, I know her. Immediate family, her husband and kids, and I've met her parents and, his parents, but mm-hmm. I haven't met like her friends or like their friend group very much. I'm like, not obviously not a part of their community or anything. And so when she so casually drops my name all the time, they're like, Natalie and Nebraska, like, what are you talking about? You know, like, who is this person?

Alexis 23:47

It's like you're her like secret family in Alaska. You know what I mean? Like it's that type of life kind Life, yeah. Like this alter ego life. Like who? What are you talking about? She's like, I promise she's real.

Natalie 24:01

We're like the new age

Alexis 24:02

pen pals. I love that you guys met each other and created two businesses, elevated ag originally, and then this pivot to discover ag and kind of this platform that's been so lovely. Getting into kind of the podcast and into the content of it, one thing that resonated with me while I listened to a couple episodes was just how. Nuanced the conversation was, and the depth of the conversation. And again, that this platform was created by Farmers For Farmers. It's truly a community placed platform, and it's good by leading the public step, by step down a conversation, and along with this nuanced discussion, but just the spectrum of discussion, the nuance of it. Could you kind of walk us through how you choose which topics to talk about? Because you guys talk about everything. You talk about, like, strikes in Italy, Hz ketchup, labeling of beef in America. You talk about fires, you talk about literally everything, sustainability. how do you decide your topics and are there any topics or trends which you are the most interested in?

Natalie 25:09

Yeah, so it's funny you say it's built or built by farmers, for farmers, because I do, at our core, who we would love to have tuning in is actually non-farmers. And so you're right. I think it highlights though how some of the conversation we talk about is maybe only understood or picked up on quickly by, you know, within the industry. And so it's hard to kind of walk that line, which is, you know, Being educational and informative about the industry, but relaying it to people who are so removed from it, you know, that they can understand it and be interested in it. And so we do pay really careful attention to what we talk about because we are again, trying to walk that line of, you know, discussing things that are relevant to the ag industry. There's a lot of food articles out there, things that are talking about that, I wouldn't necessarily like want to put on our podcast and talk about. but at the same time, you know, so to. To respect, the industry that we're from. But also appeal to the people that are outside of it. You know, it has to be kind of an attention grabbing thing or, you know, something. It's just, it's an interesting line to walk, I would say. And so we are really, picky and choose, you know, choosy when it comes. That's not, that's not a real word, but that's what we are. when it comes to the articles we pick and basically all week long we just spend time perusing the different platforms, you know, whether it's Twitter, Twitter's, I've become, Like head deep dive. I know I'm like 20 years late, but I am just now like becoming obsessed with the Twitter as a platform., and so we'll kind of peruse, you know, major news articles like New York's Time, you know, wall Street, like what are they talking about when it comes to, you know, food and environment, and climate and. We look on the different platforms. Lots of times our community has now started sending stuff to us. So people will, I love that. You know, I love it too. I love it so much. And, and you asked how we know what to choose. One of that is sometimes it's that we'll get sent the same thing over and over again. We'll be like, okay, people clearly want us to talk about this and give our 2 cents on it. And so, we just, you know, pretty much scroll all week long looking for things we could talk about that we think is interesting. And then we. Like brain dump it onto each other, and then we just sort out the three that we think are the best out of that. And yeah, it ends up being a conglomerate sometimes, and we try and balance so that one episode isn't all about the dairy industry or, you know, fake meat or milk or like whatever it is. We try and, and bring that, I guess diversity even to every single episode so that you're not tuning in and hearing three news sources or three news stories about kind of the same thing. We, we try and stay clear of that redundancy. Mm-hmm.

Alexis 27:39

Thank you for the answer. That was very lovely. I apologize for the farmers. By Farmers. What I meant by that is just. I could just see from even being an outsider, like I could learn so much about it. And there has been so many new things with policy that I went on a deep dive that I was like, what is this about labeling beef? This is crazy. Does Canada have this? Is this just in the us? Like I could understand new things. That I didn't know about five seconds beforehand, right? Like from a, from the public. But what resonated with me is just the sense of community. And if I was in agriculture, that this would be my place to go and I could learn like what's going on, all the resources, like new connections, I would have like a bunch of people to follow. It would just be really for me. So that's what I meant by it, that farmer by farmer.

Natalie 28:27

That makes sense. So I am sorry. That I misinterpreted that, so thank you. Yeah, it is, we do, and I attribute that our, you know, we've had quick success, quick growth, when we rebranded to talking about what we are now. And I, like you said, I do, I think it is because, if you're the industry, you relate to us and you crave that information. And because we do talk about. So many varying things. I mean, I am not an expert on half of what we talk about. I have to research so much. because when you're in the industry, you just, I think people think that when you grow the food, you know, everything there is to know about growing food. And it's like, I know nothing about what it takes to grow avocados or almonds or grapes or mm-hmm. Oyster farming. We just talked about Texas and oyster farming. You know, it's like, I, there's so much to learn and so. I think if you're in, in the industry, you relate to us, because you're in it with us and you wanna learn more about, you know, your own industry and then yeah, if you're outside of it, hopefully you relate to us. I think you do. And then the same thing, you want to learn more about what you know absolutely nothing about, you know, so it is, it is, I would like to think hopefully appealing to, to, everyone because like you said, that community of just wanting to find that space that informs you, but in a relatable way.

Alexis 29:39

I, I think it relates to everybody. I just think it's so cool and like the amount of research that you guys do and that, like, I'm completely convinced that you know everything about all food. I'm like, I could talk to you about oyster farming and you could be an oyster farmer tomorrow. Like, you guys just do your, do your research. It's meticulous. it's so lovely to see that breadth of conversation too. It shows you how complicated agriculture is because again, we're talking about one of the major industries of the entire world, and it's such a heterogeneous industry. It's also so different by production. By production. There's just so much that goes to it. This brings us kind of to our next topic, is because you guys do so much research and. You guys have really tuned into so many different things. What has been something that's been the most surprising or really interesting? What is one rabbit hole that you went down that you were like Two months of my life I decided to look up oyster farming and I don't know why. Didn't expect to, but it was a crazy news. I went.

Natalie 30:42

Yeah, I,, it's hard to pick. I do think I have fun with every single episode and, you know, you mentioned the research and the learning about it, and that is something I actually truly enjoy. And I think that's why there's the longevity for Tara and I in it because n neither of us dread that. It actually kind of fuels my, my cup. You know, it refills it to sit down and kind of learn and do that., That research, and maybe it's like my pharmacy background coming out in me, a little bit of that science. And Tara's actually an environmental scientist by education. Okay. And so she kind of has that same, I guess maybe a little bit of, Keira you know, curiosity for the factual side of things. so it's hard to pick because I do love everything we talk about. I, I, a big rabbit hole. I went down, Probably a couple weeks ago now, maybe a month ago, was we talked about, China owning farmland and Bill Gates a little bit. And I learned so much about foreign ownership of land in the US that I was not really aware of. It was very interesting to read about and talk about because,, I just. Never really thought about it. and everyone likes to hone in on China and Bill Gates, and there's a lot of other things to bring to the conversation when it comes to foreign land ownership. We recently talked about, you kind of mentioned it earlier about, Italy banning lab-based meat. And that's kind of been a recent favorite one for me that we talked about. It really, not so much from an information standpoint, but from, I almost like a. Perspective, viewpoint, I guess, changed things a little bit for me. I kind of went down like a food sovereignty rabbit hole and it just made me kind of have a different little bit of a lens maybe about the way I think about the food system or, from like maybe a global aspect actually. And so I enjoyed that episode. And then, yeah, like I said, I mean, what I know well is. Cattle ranching. I know beef well. And so every other topic and episode is fun and exciting for me because I do just learn something crazy different that I never learned before. I learned so much about California agriculture when we, you know, covered the flood and I learned so much about marine and aquaculture when we talked about Texas, you know, oysters. And so, you know, if we talk about chicken or pork or whatever it is, it's like I learned something new and so. I don't know. They're all fun. They're all near and dear to me.

Alexis 32:58

I think I would have the same, answer that I'd be like, I have no favorite. I love all of the rabbit holes that I went down. And, I do think one thing that's really interesting is that Italy episode and the banning of lap meat and with your sory, and please jump in with more, but, I think what was really cool was how cultural it was based. The argument was based on food culture of Italy and who we are as a people defined by our food and defined by our agriculture. So they also, I think were moving towards band alternative dairy. Was that also a thing as well? Mm-hmm. They were protecting both dairy and meat because they were like, this is crucial to us being Italian. Mm-hmm. And I thought that was just something very different that I didn't

Natalie 33:40

expect. Same. And it's funny that I didn't expect it because I always say that food is very personal. You know, it's tied to core memories. It is part of, you know, family around the table. It is part of your heritage. I always talk about that and yet for somehow I miss the big puzzle piece, that it truly is a representation of culture. And, I, like I said, I just think it opened up my eyes really. Truly to, I think maybe the need of preserving that more than we have. I don't know if that's really the forefront of maybe anyone's mind, but Italy's and, and that's a bold statement. You know, I'm sure there's a lot of. Places that are trying to, but I think as a, when we are such a global market mm-hmm. The idea of protecting food heritage is not tip of mind or top of tongue for anyone. And I think that really made me shift a little bit of how, you know, if I had control or had a, you know, larger. Platform and voice to say things that maybe that is something I would advocate for. Like that Prime Minister, I really related to her making the choice to sign that petition because of food heritage and wanting to honor that. And I thought if I was in her footsteps, I think I would do the same thing. Yeah,

Alexis 34:52

completely. I mean, we always talk about food in our family cuz we're polish like I was raised by two hippies, but they were like, we'll never be vegetarian because we're polish like we, it's, we can't, like, you know what I mean? Like, it is so tied to culture and so tied to families. So you're right. It, it shouldn't be surprising, but it was definitely something that stuck with me after listening to that one episode that it was just, it was very different.

Natalie 35:18

I, the, where we live in Nebraska is actually a huge Polish, Czech community. And so, yes, chicken and dumplings and,, kolaches and all of your Polish food. I have become fully aware of the importance of it to you guys now that I have married my husband in, in living here in this community, so, oh.

Alexis 35:37

Oh my goodness. It's like literally our culture. When I was a kid growing up, my grandma would just make me like vats of mashed potatoes for my, birthday. Like that was what was my gift, was just food. Like, was just happy's your birthday? Yeah, I would take that. Even now though, I'd be like, thank you. Honestly, it was the best. I was like, no one has ever been able to like stand to her level of mashed potatoes for her birthday, but it was just because of Polish heritage. This is probably something that we've already kind of touched on a little bit, and also about the, the founding of the podcast and the reason why you guys started this whole platform. But are there any misconceptions of the agricultural industry by the public, or misunderstandings by the public? And if so, where do you believe that the public would need the most education? Like where should we start to reeducate ourselves to agriculture and production?

Natalie 36:27

Yeah, I think what comes to mind for me, on my personal page, Natalie Cavor, I, devote time and energy to cattle and the climate. I, I think there is, a lot of misinformation out there about The negative effects of it, how we should avoid it. I don't think there's enough discussion around what would happen if we did, what would happen if we went, you know, all plant-based or vegan or vegetarian, implications of the good things cattle do. And so I think that's what first comes to mind for me. And I don't, know if it's Sometimes, I don't know if it is as loud as I think it is,, like it maybe be just getting fed kind of this narrative. it's like you can kind of create your own rabbit hole, right? Yes. Especially on social media when you are, you know, for you pages and the content you get served to you is what you wanna see right there. They're, it's designed to be that way, but, then I'll. You know, go to a museum in Chicago or something and see, you know, a narrative about how, you know, cattle are killing the climate. We should eat less meat to save our planet or mm-hmm. You know, I'll see someone will send me something from their teacher that was done. And, you know, we covered, actually on the podcast, we covered a, a Utah teacher that was teaching that in the school system. And so it's like every time I kind of think that, you know, maybe it's not as loud or as big of a narrative as I think it is, stuff like that happens. And so, I, I, I still devote time and energy to bringing awareness around the conversation that, you know, the data shows, if you get into the science and the numbers, you know, the ag industry accounts for less than 4% of, you know, greenhouse gas emissions. And, if we went plant-based diet would only re decrease our gut, you know, greenhouse gas emissions by 2.6%. And so I dig into those numbers and I talk about what would happen to, you know, cattle. Upcycle. They're the only ruminants are the only animal that can take grass and literally turn it into a protein, which protein is very, very important. I don't, I'm not a dietician, so I don't spend a ton of my social platform on dietary things because I don't feel like that's my area of expertise. But, we need protein. Like protein is very, very important. And if you have an animal that can take. You know, grass cellulose, which covers a lot of our planet that can't be done for anything else when it comes to our food system. And can turn it into protein for us, which is one of the most nut, you know, meat is one of the most nutrient do nutrient dense proteins you can get. It's just, it blows my mind. And, and then on top of being up cyclers cattle, Consume byproducts. So if you're over 86% of what they consume at actually inedible to humans, you know, a large part of it is either grass or byproducts like, you know, they'll consume almond holes, orange peels in our area. We do distillers grains cuz we're in the corn, you know, we're in the Midwest and so they're. Taking all those byproducts and their studies to show that if they weren't consuming the byproducts, at best they would be composted, which would never happen in our society. But that would increase our greenhouse gas emissions by five times for those industries. And if they were just taken to a landfill, which is what would happen, you know, if cattle weren't eating them, it would increase those industries. Greenhouse gas,, footprint by. 49 times. And so there's these implications of removing cattle. You talk about they're used in medicine, you know, they're used in gelatin, they're used in crayon. I mean, they're used byproducts. Every animals are used in so many things. And so I think I just spend so much time trying to draw conversation around the benefits of them upcycling and grazing and you know, airing our soils and. Fertilizing our soils and all the really good things cattle can do for soils, as well as, you know, bigger picture of what would happen on the negative side if we removed them too.

Alexis 40:07

I think that's such a fantastic answer and also such a fantastic thing, to support. But it's also a wonderful thing coming from you, coming from an expert in cattle ranching because I do think that we need to have a more nuanced conversation of cattle ranching. I think it is unfortunately, a loud tunnel. It's probably louder on your page with your algorithm, but it is a, a loud conversation and I think sometimes what's lost in that conversation is. Like you said, what are the good things that cows do? What are their impact in terms of like nitrogen cycling or soil consistency or helping with. The Sandlands and that type of ecosystem, how do they interact with that ecosystem? And then on an economy side, like you said, with like all of the substrate that they're eating, right, all of the byproducts that they're eating for you guys, it's corn husk. How are they impacting us there and what are they saving us from? so I think that it is just a very nuanced conversation and I think that's a fantastic one to dive into. And I think the public their hearts are in the right place, but maybe that that resource doesn't exist yet, or maybe that science isn't as wildly available.

Natalie 41:18

I'm smiling cuz I feel like you get it and it's fun to have those conversations with people who get it. And like you said, I fault no one. I absolutely do not fault anyone for not understanding these implications or thinking beyond the headline of. Or the small picture of if we got rid of cows, there'd be less methane, you know? Mm-hmm. It's like, There, there's so much more beyond that, and I don't fault anyone for just seeing that and stopping there. yeah. But what I'm passionate about is putting the comma there and then just having the rest of the conversation. And I see where we got to, where we are, where people, not just with the food industry, but every industry. I mean, I don't think much about what it takes for me to switch up my light bulb and have lights in my house, you know, are modernized. You know, the convenience where we've gotten in society has segmented us from so many industries, not just our food industry. And so it is absolutely no one's fault. It's just mm-hmm. Happens to be where we are as a society now.

Alexis 42:07

Yeah, I kind agree more and like, yeah, thank you for saying that. I get it. But it's just something that has always like resonated with me as well when it comes to sustainability and climate change. Because people are on, they're on board and they're, do they wanna do the right thing? Mm-hmm. But maybe that it, they just don't know. Right. And you're right, there has been a disconnect in all industries and a disconnect and knowledge. So I think you having your platform, you and Tara. Creating discover Ag and having these nuanced conversations is just so refreshing and does such a good, so it's so wonderful to see. Thank you. You're welcome. And I'm about to, we have a couple minutes left and I'm about to hit you with another lofty question, so please try your best, maybe just choose one, one thing if it comes to you, but for, agriculture, where do you kind of see the future of agriculture? And again, it's super lofty, so maybe what's one thing for your hopes and the future improvements of the industry?

Natalie 43:04

Yeah. this is actually a favorite question of mine because it's something I've been thinking a lot about with our podcast, but I do not have an answer for it. So as much as I love that you asked it, cuz I think it's really important, and like I said, I've been devoting a lot of my own brain energy to thinking what the future of agriculture looks like. I just don't know. I feel like we're kind of at a juxta, jux a point of juxtaposition where we have a lot of. People, a big movement, I would say to scale back almost de mechanize a little bit and return to, just a lesser, you know, I don't know. I mean, what I wanna. Wanna say is what would happen if we did it, which is a, a, you know, a less productive, less efficient food system is where I feel like people wanna get back to, but without realizing that's what would happen if we kind of reverted back to smaller, you know, more local. And, and I get the push for that. And so I see that on one hand that maybe, and I see the, in, you know, the problems with getting to where we got to. And so maybe on one hand it would serve us to. You know, go back to a little bit more local and small and, and that train of thought, but I don't, I don't know if it's possible with, again, going back to war, global food system, like there's importation and exportation and to think about changing that even just feels like, I, I don't even know where you would start to go back to, Reverting in a different direction than where we have progressed over the last, you know, decades. And on the same breath, I feel like we, I mean, we just interviewed someone that was talking about, you know, self automated tractors, and so I feel like there's so much of technology that is coming into agriculture in our food system well beyond where we even are now, which I think, again, people think that we're like factorized and it's, you know, No, no, it's not humans growing your food. It's machines and stuff. And we're so far beyond, you know, from that of where technology, you know, the, the tech boom could, could take us in agriculture. Mm-hmm. And so I don't know what the future looks like. It, it'll be interesting. I.

Alexis 44:58

I think like, again, it's such a lofty question and it's such a big question of who knows what the future's gonna be, because it could be all of a sudden a new change in technology or new change in market, something could happen, something change in policy could instantly affect it so on one hand you don't really know what's gonna happen. Two, it's a huge global, scaled industry in agriculture. I could see of just this unknown of where are we gonna go? What's gonna happen? And I think you are right that there, there is a movement of moving back to something smaller and how that would affect productivity without the general public kind of knowing. I think that is true and definitely a movement there. And I know we're, we're running outta time, so I'm gonna skip to the very last one. And this is the question, Natalie, that I was actually the most excited about and I can't wait to hear your answer, is, what are the next steps for Discover Ag? What do you and Tara have cooking up?

Natalie 45:54

Yeah, we, I mean, we are funneling, so our podcast is not even a year old yet. From conception and then looking at our point of rebranding to what we talk about now, we're only a couple months into that, and so we're still funneling a lot of time and energy into our podcasting space. So anyone who's tuning in now, if you, I'm assuming you're a podcast person, if you found, you know, today's conversation. Fun, entertaining and informative. We'd love if you'd hop over and follow us and listen to us on Discover Ag, cuz that is where we're funding a lot of our 2023 energy. And then we're also in the works on like a behind the scenes, a docu-series that would pair with the podcast where, you know, we could go out to these farms and ranches and have these conversations with actual producers and stuff. So that is hopefully on the you know, forefront of where we'll be headed in 2023 and 2024.

Alexis 46:40

Oh my goodness. I absolutely love that and I am so excited. A docu-series sounds fantastic. I can't wait to listen to all of your podcasts. I'm gonna link everything into our channels and, I'm just so excited to see what you guys have cooking up. So thank you very much. Natalie, thank you very much for coming up today on the Smo O Podcast Podcast. It's been absolutely lovely having you and learning so much about agriculture

Natalie 47:04

and ranching. Thank you. It was so fun, and I wish you the best of luck with, all your upcoming guests and all the upcoming really important topics that I know you're gonna dive into.

Alexis 47:13

Thank you very much. That's very kind. Okay, byebye guys, thank you again for tuning in. I'm gonna link Natalie into our channel and discover ag as well. And thank you again for watching.