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Episode #250: Joel’s Secret Food Consortium · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was at a first world international outside the U.S.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: food consortium.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: The reason I'm being a little bit secretive about it is because it was a non-public, a lot of non-disclosure, um, insider, and I was the keynote speaker for these huge food companies.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, everybody.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Beyond Labels podcast with Joel Sallaton.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: That would be me, the farmer, and our favorite researcher, biochemist, and uh everything digging oriented and sleuthing, Dr.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Cena McCullough.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: So uh Cena, and and today we're filming at our farm at Polyface Farm.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're out by the hay barn.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've got pigs over there, we've got tractors going, four-wheelers, but it's a beautiful uh spring day, and um Sena's here uh has just taken a trip to DC to get um uh a fantastic recognition from Maha with her new book, um, Republished Hands Off My Food, and everybody needs to get this.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that's why uh decided to swing by on her way back to Georgia.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um last week, Sina, I was at a first world um international outside the U.S.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: uh food consortium.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: The reason I'm being a little bit um secretive about it is because it was a non-public, uh lot of non-disclosure, um, insider, and I was the keynote speaker for these huge food companies.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've got to be a little bit discreet about the things.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: But there was a lot of really interesting stuff that that happened there.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'd like to just slip we'll we'll just slip through as we go through my notes and and um go through.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So only 19% of people are happy with their health and wellness.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Context.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Only 19%.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Fifty-two percent are trying to do something to help, and twenty-six percent are not satisfied but not doing anything.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was those were interesting numbers.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh got any You think that might feed into the victim mentality?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're not satisfied, they know they're not satisfied.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just too hard.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, too hard.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Intimidated or whatever, uh by or or maybe confused.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: What does free-range chicken mean?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: What does, you know, all this stuff?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And also because it's almost choice paralysis.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many, for example, diets on the market.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like which one do I choose from?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it it's a lot um to be able to slew through that.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe they've tried one and it didn't work or made them sicker.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So then what do you do?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: But think about that.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Fewer than one in five is happy with their health and wellness situation.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Man, that's uh that's really that that's a bummer.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I would hate I would hate to not be happy with my health and wellness thing.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um And that's actually has huge implications too, like even economic impacts on that.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if people because if people are that unhappy about it, about their health and wellness, which is a pillar of your existence, right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the things that you need.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Food, water, shelter, and you do need to be you need if you've ever lost your health, you understand the importance of having health.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you need health to be able to be like productive, for example, on the job, to be maybe creative, to become an entrepreneur.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't do that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: To have enough leftover energy to to uh think creatively.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: To drive to the farm, to get your food, right?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of going to convenience food because you're too too sick and tired.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of impact on our on the United States in general, including the economy, on that.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And to think if you're and if depending on the extent of the dissatisfaction, the unhappiness with their health health and wellness, they're probably fixated on it, right?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And ruminating more amount of negative.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just so ha unhappy.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if your statistics show they're not going towards solutions, when you sit in that space of rumination, it it you're not open to other things, to being, for example, creative.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know what I mean?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're kind of in this deeper, darker space.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: When you're not happy with your health and wellness position, you don't have leftover whatever, leftover capacity.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it it saps your capacity.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: So right along with that, stress.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: So extremely stressed.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Millennials.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: 37%.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Extremely stressed?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Boomers.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Baby boomers?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: That would be me.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: 19%.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's a huge cultural shift, you know, in in in stress.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So stressed about what?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Stressed about what?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Increasing food prices, global conflict, economic downturn, um, increased housing costs.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's it's this it's this news feed, you know, and but but it's you know, it's um it's real.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's there there's there's so and and of course, you know, you and I have talked how many times on this uh on on our program how important stress is.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, if stress is palpable.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when you walk around and you can see almost every single person that I run into, even on this trip or in the in the homesteading and homeschool circles, they're stressed.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's this burden, this weight that constantly sits on them, um, which as you know leads to dis ease.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: But Well and and and a lot of it, don't you think, you know, I mean uh um Brene Brown what's her name?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Brown?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Brene Brown.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh talks about enough.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: We she says, um I wake up in the morning, my first thought is I didn't get I didn't I didn't get enough sleep.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I go to bed at night, and my first my last thought before going to bed is well I didn't get everything done I needed to get done.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's just this this whole um well now you have the digital devices to tell you that you didn't get enough sleep.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like you know, or or enough steps in, or that's right.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're never enough.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're never enough.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's fascinating you bring that up because that is the question that I keep coming to, even with clients who are sick, they never feel enough.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I have struggled with this too, the vast majority of my life.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: That when is it enough?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: How do you know you've done enough?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was just at that Maha event, that echoed in my mind as I was meeting all these different people there.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of them great people, led by passion because of personal experiences.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, for instance, there's a husband there who was with his wife.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: She got really sick from Lyme disease, really bad.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So now it's their mission that they're trying to lobby for the diagnostic criteria to be expanded so that it's recognized earlier on and with a variety of tests so that people can get the treatment earlier on that they need.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You got another one who uh he works for Bank of America and he's really pushing this regenerative soil credits.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um he said it's light carbon credits, but it's not the with the green agenda where they're paying they want to pay farmers to regenerate their land by leaving it fallow.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I know I was like, oh no, Joel would have a like a field day with this one.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, but my point is, and there's another guy lobbying for daylight savings to stop, like stop changing the time.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, he said, you know, we have the health data on it, right?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: We we know that it actually makes people sicker, predisposes you to more heart attacks, like heart issues.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is by making by by extending the evening, by extending the evening longer.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the whole point is to give you uh more daylight when you get home from work, you know, at the end of the day.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so the data's there, and you know who's holding it up?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: The the golfing and tourist industry.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: They are holding the whole thing up, he said.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So my point is you have all these people who are there, yeah, you know, and like they're even at this event, flying in from all these other places, they're pushing these agendas, like it is their life mission.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked away the next day, I thought about it and I thought, wow, you how much of our life force are we expending on these issues?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like there, these people are lobbing.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I know what are the odds that you're actually going to get something pushed through Congress or you're actually gonna get CDC to change this, right?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's like how much of our life force are we spending outsourcing?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So good.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Affective People, he talks about your sphere of influence and how most of us spend 90% of our whatever, you know, um cultural, you know, outreach equity railing or pushing on agendas that we can't actually get done.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I'll tell you, for me, for I coming home to this farm, I'll get teary here in a minute, but being able to go out and actually physically touch something, watch a field respond, watch a tree prune respond, you know, I there's a dramatic uh um effect.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, you know, I can I can but man, you know, being in Congress and just beating your head against the wall all the time.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because it comes back to that question, when is it enough?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when it's for these people is not enough until Congress passes that law or whatever.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So so now they're just spending the life, especially the one who like recovered from Lyme, expending all of this life force's energy on something that sh may not ever be obtainable.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and so I di I started thinking about it and I'm like, yeah, it it really is that question of you you have to know when to stop.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's like the song, you have to know when to fold them, you know.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So Lisa Stokey, who we had on our podcast before, she started Food Democracy Now, she's become somewhat of a mentor to me uh because she came before me, been through this this system, seen a lot, as she shared with us.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And her biggest piece of advice to me was um to never never let it affect your family because it's the biggest regret that she has.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: She was in the movement and she sacrificed and sacrificed because they had a goal, just like these people I I met.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: They had this goal and it was involved Congress and they needed to get it pushed through.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: They got stabbed in the back during the process, but she gave up all these years, she gave up her children's childhood for it.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And to this day, she gets teary-eyed talking to me about it.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so that shifted a lot for me.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, and it doesn't have to be somebody who's a food activist.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: What things are we maybe idolizing in our lives and we're not actually sitting in the moment with our children or with our grandchildren?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where's our focus, you know?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, where are we putting our focus?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, because you also will stress, right?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: This ties back into your stress thing.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't actually achieve a goal, then it's it is this constant low grade stress on you, like I failed, I'm not good enough.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Not not not enough, not good enough, not um, yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, that's right.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: You you you you just can't get to the objective.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, that's right.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um so what people are buying is changing.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Remember the first thing I said about stress was price of food.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um protein is the new darling.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And um And this was after is this a stat that was collected after the guidelines, the new guidelines came out?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well this was not American.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: This was not American.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but their guy but all the those developed nations get affected by our guidelines.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, they they do, they do.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, so um the the the the the love of protein and the cost of food is driving people to just eat protein bars as a meal.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, protein bars.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that you know, this is my breakfast protein bar.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Just you know um 48% growth in the last like two years of all products touting protein.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So if you if you put high pro, you know, i it however you want to call it on the you know, we're labels, okay?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Beyond uh on the label, if you can put anything um showcasing protein, it's a it's a huge marketing strategy.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um let's see.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, part of that might also be because of the weight loss drugs, right?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was one of the things we're saying, eat more protein.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so they're looking for those labels, and so many people on those weight loss drugs now that it's not surprising to me that both would go up in parallel.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um TikTok TikTok shop is now the number one brand influencer in seven countries.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, really, and that includes the US.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is is your farm on TikTok TikTok?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 14:21
  unknown: Okay.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um Yeah.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the the TikTok, um 50 per 56% of Gen Z want to discover you on TikTok.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: So because of TikTok, cottage cheese sales are up 24%.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why what happened on TikTok with cottage cheese?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Cottage cheese.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Someone just started talking about it and now big influencer.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um pickles.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: This country ran out of pickles because of a TikTok.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it it it's just it's just amazing what you know, you know.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm sitting there, you know, I don't have a presence on TikTok.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do any of this stuff.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been on TikTok.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but but I mean, but these these were big, these were big name, you know, normal food companies.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um worldwide, one billion people search Chat GPT for food AI recommendations.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Food recommendations?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like like what should I eat for my health or Yeah, yeah.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And because you're like this, talk about because the US invented Chat GPT, all food recommendations worldwide on Chat GPT are weighted toward American products.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So they're they're actually, you know, they're when you ask GPT what should I eat, you know, it it it should come.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a study just came out where they analyzed AI, Gemini, ChatGPT, you know, I think it may have been five different AI platforms, and they looked at how accurate are those platforms in giving health advice.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So lots of people now are typing in to these platforms.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have such and such symptoms, or da-da-da-da-da.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what should I do?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Fifty percent of the time the health advice is wrong.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's what the study found.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: 50% of the time.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Wrong in what way?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, is it so is it just not right or is it actually some instances it could be harmful.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Harmful, but it's giving, yeah, the advice.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not there yet.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So people are turning to it already, and it's not at that caliber yet, at least 50% of the time.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think it's gonna get better or not?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, AI is advancing so quickly.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's so quickly.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: It it will get better.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll see what's gonna come, but I I would suspect that i we're just seeing the beginning of a movement of people, especially as um mistrust or distrust of medical doctors has been rising.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: People are gonna go toward more of this like empowerment from the convenience of my own home.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's free, it's you know.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they're understanding the doctors get, like you said in a previous po cop podcast, they get um kickbacks on things.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're understanding this now.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking they're gonna go toward the convenience.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um and a lot of a lot of people don't have the same trust issues that you and I might with AI.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean the you know the the the world system is the whatever is is the the core or the foundation of this.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: So what whatever the whatever the uh the conventional narrative is, that's gonna be the you know that's gonna be the place.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and because Trump Trump and Kennedy Kennedy are promoting AI in the food and health space.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's going to happen and probably quickly.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: So then there was a wonderful presentation on uh food waste.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it was really, really interesting.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I know you know this, but it was it was like a light bulb went off in my head.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: There are only five foods up.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um and th this was a first world country, so this certainly is very similar to the US.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Fifty-eight percent of food produced turns to waste.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Fifty-eight percent of food produced turns to waste.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that, by the way, matches the US government's statistics on food waste.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: So where does this waste happen?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: 32% is in processing and manufacturing.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: 32% is in processing and manufacturing.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, 13% of food.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, I'm gonna give you three percentages, they add up to 58%.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, they don't.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, they don't add up, they add up to 100 or close to 100.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Forget that, forget that.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: 32% of food waste happens in processing and manufacturing.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: 13% happens in distribution.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody pokes a forklift through a you know, a crate of something and damages cans.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: 23%, 23% is due to best before dates.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now here is what now you'll laugh at me for not knowing this or not.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think it was in my, it's one of these things that's kind of in your orbit, but you're not really aware of it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I've been reeling on this ever since.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Only five foods have an expiration date.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Can you name one of those foods?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: An expiration date.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, if you eat this after today, it's harmful.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've seen expiration dates on bread.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's not one of them.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You see dates.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wait, those might be manufactured dates.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: You just stepped into the very thing that I'm trying I want to make a big deal about.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: The best before is completely different than expiration.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: So the five foods that have an expiration date that you're not supposed to eat it after this day.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So best before is not an expiration.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's just best before.
• 21:12
  unknown: Okay?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, talk about labels.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, yeah.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that this is so good for us.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: To really bring up the deceptive.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Best before is means it's best before, but there's nothing wrong with eating it after.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Expiration means don't eat it after this day, it might be actually be harmful.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's only five foods.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is remarkable.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Five foods that have a carrying expiration date.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's guess.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you already know.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I know.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: I know what they are.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if I'm thinking toxic, like it actually turns toxic, I'm thinking of something more like meat.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Could that possibly be one of them?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: Nope.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: food i uh i i think i think because meat just me no you're gonna kick yourself when i give you to you oh man i'm looking i'm thinking in the grocery store this is so great everybody i'm still seeing it is that not the coolest thing ever and in the grocery store yeah yeah all right here we go you ready i'm ready uncle all right baby formula oh oh my gosh seriously that one and not like meat that's crazy baby formula that's so highly processed okay all right well there's five all right that's one baby formula protein shakes protein shakes protein bars and two prescription drugs they didn't say what they were but two prescription drugs or or two two prescriptions and they didn't even say drugs just two things that are available only by prescription so you have to tell me the logic behind this like for those to actually have the be the only ones to have expiration dates because these are all very highly processed so you would think of anything like you're not going to have as much microbial growth in there for example as you would with like fresh meat.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: I maybe you'd have a good time with this I know this is crazy it it it it is I mean milk you know yeah that's what I said dairy but you know what I I you know what I well you you you could try to explain the bureaucrats' mindset on this I don't know maybe it's because other things when they spoil they just they go rancered or they smell bad or whatever and so you can still get sick from those things like you can still get sick from like if meat goes fast yeah well even though that the you know when they pump the stomachs of these cavemen or or they you know they they look they look at the you know they found these you know the stomach contents and they've subjected them and it's all uh spoiled meat it's got flies and everything in it I don't know but but anyway um I I wouldn't want to eat spoiled meat but no but those but so so so the so the point is those are the only five things that actually have an expiration anything that has a best before is perfectly fine to consume after.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So is it actually perfectly fine to consume after like does meat have a best before date and they're saying it's fine to consume after or is this like giving them removing liability for the companies?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know it's just it th th this is just what they said.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay so this sounds like when I should go research and get back to you.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah because this that's crazy.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because we all think their expiration dates when we're looking at those when you're looking at a best buy date exactly you say ooh that you know that's um but but it's actually not the the best buy the best buy has nothing to do with with edible with with with that it's edible or not.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know I wonder and I don't know I'll research this I'm wondering if if it has to do something with um if it's a supplement or not because the things you listed would more fall under the category of a supplement than like a food, right?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm wondering if there must be some different terms of regulation in the supplement versus food.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll find out and circle back.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: So the the the the the big deal was the the huge labeling difference between an expiration date and a best before date.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Totally different things.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is this feeds into the whole waste?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes because because people won't buy a a a a best so so the stuff uh where was my notes here the the the stuff I'm pretty sure 23% said.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay so I I think I think her deal what she said was that of the best buy best before dates only four percent ever gets eaten.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Of all so that was twenty that was twenty-three percent of the food waste and um and most of that is best before.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah is oh that that's all i that twenty three percent what twenty three percent yeah is all is all yeah twenty three percent is from best before date and only four percent of that ever gets eaten.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: So nineteen percent nineteen percent of food waste is because best before gets out.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well because they're because you're just assuming it's expiration date?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like are they confused too or no because because they just can't sell it.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh because people won't buy it because people won't buy it.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah pe pe people are confused about what the best before date is.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so distribution and manufacturing processing that white like she showed pictures of like a warehouse full of like um ragu spaghetti sauce okay that was simply um mislabeled somebody hit the wrong computer thing and it and and this particular run of ragoo spaghetti sauce uh did not have um um whatever uh uh some spice in it all right can't sell it it's illegal yeah it's illegal has to match the label yeah yeah so who's gonna go in and change the label I I mean it's just it's just it's just absurd.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well yeah that's too it's cheaper for them just throw it out than change the label.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so it goes to the landfill.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh it just goes to the landfill which is even worse.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's worse.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know this is also why there's companies now in America that have started to take some of these waste products and like the bakery goods at your local grocery store that they just get tossed out.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: They are taking it and repurposing it like even into animal foods and things like that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah because people have recognized how much we as American waste.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Joel just think of how much the typical household in America probably throws out of their of their refrigerator every week.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: You can save so much money if you just only went like you meal planned and you just went in and got the food that's on your list that you're gonna make that that week and you actually eat it instead of going out.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like don't let it go to waste you save a lot of money.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Go to any restaurant and just look at what goes back in on the plates.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's it's it's all it's almost I I just cringe it's immoral the stuff that goes back in in any kind of I mean go to a church potluck and watch what the kids are I mean it's it's yeah they go and they you got this um you know you got this potluck and you know it's a buffet and I'm I'm picking on kids because they're the worst you know and kids go through and they get they pile their plate up with all this stuff and then they eat they take two little bites of it and go.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they leave it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah I know the worst for me is when they throw out the meat.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right because the animal sacrificed its life for that so at least do something with the meat.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Feed it to your own animals or something.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah feed it to something yeah yeah yeah well I remember when um let uh when we had the last um summit here and um the and two days of truth and hunter your your voracious appetite my teenager big big boy yeah ate what was it like three halves of chicken or some such thing?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes it yeah yeah it was and I was sitting there watching but he he took them one at a time went back and got another one went back and he ate all of it.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: I said that kid that kid's yeah he they know my kids know you do not waste the food so he's picking every last piece of meat off that thing and and then I inspected it afterwards like make sure that we got it all because it sacrificed its life like so here are the actual percentage of increases since 2021 in food prices actual percentage increases fresh and frozen beef 41% 41% eggs 23% poultry 20% fruit 21% dairy nineteen percent bakery and cereals twenty four percent um so the bottom line on this was that consumers are adjusting their buying habits in order to pay the light bill.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah well you know it's interesting because aside from the beef the rest of these categories egg chicken fruit dairy the bakery stuff they all rose are roughly the same like somewhere around 20% beef doubled that but yeah well and this is what we're all experiencing is it's and what was interesting is they said that in the US the US is an outlier other countries people are reducing their beef purchases in the US they're not in the the the US is an outlier um are we increasing or staying the same in in 2025 ground beef is up eight percent in the US up eight percent in in weight in other words there are eight percent more volume sales in twenty twenty five than twenty twenty four um the U.S.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: is the one developed country that's not showing a drop in beef consumption because of the price.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Wow so is that keto, carnivore, uh whatever all the I would imagine so it is it is a big movement and it's actually gaining traction here.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: As people are having great successes with it.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody but you know and social media is actually because of that right there you're seeing all these videos and how easy it is to do and they're instructing people on how to do it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we are seeing this huge shift toward more of a you know carnivore.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah I think so I think so um that's that's about it on the food um I I wasn't there I was only there for a portion of it so I didn't hear every single every single speaker um but that gives you a that gives you a little bit of flavor of you know what the what the big you know the big food companies are hearing looking at and listening to and it it it um it drives me to um to think about this this um big Wall Street Journal whole page whole page wall street journal whoops how do I get this well not not a whole page sorry almost a whole page there you go that much of a page on baby's gut health is the news obsession companies offer tests supplements and guidance like I just I mean I I just I I just leaped out of my chair when I saw this like petting zoos and dirt piles with promise of improving infants health and you know I I've you know I drink out of the cow tank um and am known for that and it's this shows well it's it's the it's the Finland stuff it's the Finland stuff that kids that get out in the dirt in nature and um it's pretty it's it's pretty uh it's pretty neat their uh tiny health and alba health are selling gut health tests for babies for 249 and 349 dollars respectively parents are sending in stool samples it it um who's our poop doctor doctor um hazan uh yeah um I mean this this is right down her oh yeah they don't quote her i I was looking for her to be quoted in here yeah and um and she's not quoted in here she would have been um she would have been a good a good addition but so what's the deal there you send in the poops and they test it and then do they then tell you what the baby needs to rebalance yeah the companies also offer recommendations like giving certain supplements or bringing babies to a petting zoo which they said can improve children's microbiomes.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Infant formula and baby food product producers are incorporating more prebiotics which fuel beneficial gut bacteria also adding probiotics to beneficial bacteria itself um you know anyway but you know it starts out with this mom who takes her you know 17 month old son to her sister's house to play she heads straight for the big pile of dirt in the backyard yeah I mean that's that that that's where she goes um and and so I I just think I just think that this whole um um obsession with antimicrobial and sterility um maybe those chickens are finally coming home to roost and people are starting to realize uh this is not the greatest you know I fly a lot and you get on an airplane and the attendant stand there with this you know little tray of um of uh um sandy wipes you know yeah and um I I just lean over to her you know to them and I say um I really want your bugs I really want your bugs and I can only imagine you know back in the galley as they start you know that guy in uh in uh 12C you know he's a odd duck uh he wants uh he wants bugs but you know um when Jared Diamond wrote um uh Guns Germs and Steel you know he talked about he talked about what the the the cultures that were ascendant throughout history were cultures that lived that that had a a very robust domestic livestock um relationship.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the ones that didn't have domestic livestock were were consumed.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: And um that would obviously speak to the Native Americans.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know they they didn't have they were hunters but they didn't they didn't keep anything.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't even you know they they they they eventually had horses when the Spaniards came and brought horses.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: But uh but they didn't you know they didn't keep cows and sheep and they didn't keep that kind of stuff.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it reminds me of the uh you know the hygiene hypothesis from a couple of decades ago I guess or more where all these uh health practitioners signed on to to the concept that your immune system is like a muscle.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't talked about that much but um but that you need these little you know little exercises along to keep it keep it sharp and um and when you when you live in this uh hyper sterile life uh your your immune system becomes lethargic oh I see what you're saying yeah so because you need to be able to it actually atrophies yeah yeah well because I mean it makes perfect sense because 70 to 80 percent of your immune system is actually in your gastrointestinal tract and so this is common sense to everybody.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: You have to challenge your immune system, you know, hence exposure to sick people and whatnot to build a a child's immune system.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah it's that whole concept that like a little bit of what you can call toxicity is actually a good thing.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh you know and that's been proven in in science for a while now.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah I think it's it's interesting that people it's it's exciting to see that people are understanding the power of the microbiome and that they're they're starting to get more to a a root cause and focusing on babies it's fantastic because many of them don't have they're not born with great microbiome.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's great.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: What I liked about that article is that yes they are saying that we're gonna recomm we're gonna recommend supplements and whatnot but the exciting part is the petting zoos and the dirt piles like that's where it's at I mean there's tons and tons of studies now showing that just getting your child out in nature even once a week we had uh Jenny Urick on our on our podcast Thousand Hours Outside I mean um that's right along in the same in the same thing.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you know I remember being at your farm a I think it was a couple years ago for Two Days of Truth and we were telling you at the time like you need to bottle up your soil your compost here into vials.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that you can ship it to people's homes and people would buy that and see look it's true like now we have this kind of money off of that.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's the same concept so yeah you know I mean this is this we when you see the Wall Street Journal carry a full article on this yeah it it it truly is a a remarkable cultural you know where we've come.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah 20 years ago this would have been oh you're you're nuts you're nuts but but um things they are changing you know they are and it really emphasizes I don't I haven't read that article but to me just reading that it emphasizes the power of the environment so a lot of times um so many people because so many people are sick focus on rebalancing the microbiome which is appropriate focus but they focus on doing that in large part through supplements or even like through you know sauerkraut or fermented foods which is great the fermented foods are great.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah um but I don't think a lot of people realize that the microbiome is not stagnant it's very dynamic and it changes moment to moment.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: So even me being out here on your farm today changes my microbiome in real time.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Us having this conversation and when we laugh instantaneously changes the microbiome.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we're back to the whole like almost a pill for every ill if people are going to that solution I don't want to discourage that do what you need to do but understand that probably the bigger impact is the environment in which you're spending the majority of your time.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're inside an office building and they clean with bleach or like sterilizing stuff or you're using that hand sanitizer in the bathroom on top of that and you're breathing in this air that has you know they put Lysol in to sterilize the air or whatever that your microbiome will become like that.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know it it is that dynamic that it will become what your environment is.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: So which is another biblical concept.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you know I was talking um talking to a friend not long ago who has a very small on-farm poultry processing um setup and every year he gets about I don't know what eight um eight young people that come it's not really an apprenticeship I mean it's like a it's like a work study uh thing and they come each year and he said when he started this years ago they'd start you know the first batch of chickens in pastured poultry you know it's seasonal first batch of chickens comes in you know and he said they'd butcher them and everything was fine he said now now half of them get sick after the first go because they're touching intestines and chicken manure and I mean they're they're in this and and he s he said it's remarkable the deterioration he said he's seen in fifteen years um of the uh of the ability of these young people I mean you know they're eighteen to twenty five uh college age to be able to um to just even be in a in a domestic livestock working environment you know where you you're just you're just in there.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean we're sitting here bunch of pigs around us and we're piggerating composting and everything.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you know if you could take an electron microscope and look at the air, there would be all sorts of of things wafting, you know, across us that we're inhaling and and breathing in.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: But but it but it doesn't but it but it's it's not it's not overly toxic like a Tyson chicken house where all that fecal particulate is coming in.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you said it's it's it's it's it's the right balance that just stimulates stimulates the immune system and the microbiome rather than overrunning it.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: Could you imagine me with how sensitive I am to smell standing in a Tyson caifo like I can't I I can't I I you know I can't even do it as as you know as tough as I am with this stuff.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it's it's just um pretty un unbelievable.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah but you're absolutely right like we're you're building resiliency here and not fragility.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what unfortunately a lot of Americans have now is this fragility.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you know and and the great part about it is that the body again is so remarkable in its ability to heal and become resilient that you really just have to make some conscious choices.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're stuck in an office all day that's fine.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe get back to your house and if you have a yard that you don't spray just get barefoot and get on that grass and breathe in, you know put in some beds, get a get a get a little uh verma composting kit under your sink.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean plant some anything.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or even an aloe plant just bring that inside inside your home.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean just bring nature to you.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: What we really need to do Cena is yeah is is is start a subscription service where every quarter you get a little um a little uh like a a a mat, a permeable mat with uh compost and dirt you know uh put in it that you could like go barefoot and stomp on or you know something that you could uh uh touch your you know touch your body with some yes good good stuff.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what we were talking about at the Teenage Your Truth because remember each year you you provide a pile of compost and we literally stomp in it and gr and touch it and well Hilda and I dance in it but you know but that's what we were saying it's it's an opportunity to rebuild your microbiome and you could be shipping that across the country to bless everybody to help them build their resiliency.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so so when we look at questions to ask for the day um I think it I think it'd be interesting for our our listening community to um to maybe chime in on be because food prices are there I mean everybody's got that's got everybody's attention it it it it's really a big deal um have you made you know we just ask our our folks have you made any buying you know intentional buying decisions um you know move from beef to chicken for example uh which is cheaper or I mean that that's one of the things that I see I think is going to happen is is that um that we're we're going to we're gonna we're not gonna stop the animal protein but we're gonna go to cheaper animal proteins.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: So people are going to move to pork chicken turkey uh eggs over over beef uh just because of the you know because of the price but anyway um I think it'd be interesting to know among our people have you made any um you know conscious purchase decisions based on what you've seen at you know at at price price pointing um because it's a you know it's an interesting time we live in yeah okay everybody thanks for joining us on another Beyond Labels podcast and uh we're here live again at Polyface Farm we're glad that you joined us and we look forward to being with you again next week.