Latest / Nutrition Connection by Dr. Kristen Hicks-Roof / 42: Amy Myrdal Miller MS, RDN, FAND - CONSULTING / AGRICULTURE

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42: Amy Myrdal Miller MS, RDN, FAND - CONSULTING / AGRICULTURE · Nutrition Connection by Dr. Kristen Hicks-Roof

• Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Welcome back to Nutrition Connection, the show where science meets storytelling. I'm your host, Dr. Kristin Xroof, dietitian, researcher, and lifelong advocate of the role of nutrition, health, and wellness. Each episode, I sit down with dietitians and nutrition experts all across the food and healthcare landscape, leaders whose work touches nearly every aspect of our lives. So whether you're a student, a seasoned professional, or someone simply curious about food, nutrition, and health, this podcast is just for you. The views, thoughts and comments on this podcast do not reflect those of my employer nor the employers of my guests. So let's go ahead and get connected. I'm really excited to bring on Amy Meardle Miller. She is the founder and president of Farmers Daughter Consulting and the co-author of Cooking a la Heart. Welcome to the show Amy. Amy Myrdal Miller: Thanks, Kristin. I'm really excited to be here today. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: So Amy and I have crossed paths when I got really deeply ingrained in agriculture and Amy, I love how much agriculture is the root of everything that you do and even from your private practice of farmers auto consulting. So I'm excited to really dive deep into what all do you do with consulting because hint, it has to do with agriculture. Oftentimes, I know you love fruits and vegetables and all ags. So I can't wait to really dive deep into that. Let's start from the beginning though. What inspired you and made you want to become a nutrition professional? Amy Myrdal Miller: So I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was seven. So I saw registered dietitians from age seven all the way through high school. And when I was in high school, the dietitian I was seeing, her name was Mary Blaine. Today she's Mary Russell. She also now lives here in California. in rural North Dakota, seeing a dietitian who drove a red Saab, who always had a fabulous handbag, who had sassy glasses and she was just smart and funny. I hero worshiped her and I just wanted to be just like her. And when I was a junior in high school and she said, what are you thinking about for college? And my response was, well, maybe journalism so can write or maybe chemistry so I can make perfume. She said, you should be a dietician. And I went, I should be a dietician. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: That is so funny. feel like everything you just described of Mary is totally you. You're a fashionista. You're big and bold. You're, you know, loud and kind of say what's on your mind, but also just full of energy. And so that's actually funny. Like that was your aspiration. I'll tell you to me, you know, you nailed it right on, right on point. Amy Myrdal Miller: love that so much, Kristin. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: So let's talk about your journey. You ultimately decided that you wanted to be a dietician with one person recommended. So that's always good. Kudos to you, Mary. What has that looked like? And kind of walk us through your career path. What type of roles have you had to ultimately get you to your own consulting business, which is not easy and doesn't happen usually right from the start. Usually there's quite a bit of extensive ⁓ experience that comes before that. Amy Myrdal Miller: Yeah, so I got my undergrad and then I did a 12 month clinical internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital. And I was convinced I wanted to be a clinical dietitian until I did my staff relief. I did six weeks in kidney and liver transplant. And every single patient who I saw during that time who was getting a kidney transplant and sometimes second, third or fourth transplant was there because of diabetes. And I was so massively depressed during that time. I thought, can't do this. I can't stand next to someone's hospital bed and talk to them about choices that probably would have been helpful 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. just, my heart wasn't in it. I found out about a new master's program in nutrition communication at Tufts and I begged and pleaded for an interview well past the application deadline. And I'm not sure why Dr. Gene Goldberg said yes to my demands for an interview and why they accepted me, but thank goodness Tufts accepted me as a student. I was in the first graduating class. ⁓ That master's program didn't require a thesis. It required a 400 hour work experience. And I got to work at General Mills with their nutrition team. So I was like in it to win it with the food industry. General Mills, when I left the internship, they're like, we would love to have you come back when you graduate. Well, during that year, they transitioned from a nutrition department to the Bell Institute. Jobs were cut, dynamics changed, there was no job. So I decided to go out on my own and start Amy Myrdal Consulting. And as a 27 year old with zero experience, that was a big dumb mistake. ⁓ and so a friend of mine got a job in, ⁓ PR in Kansas city. They were wild to recruit more dieticians to the team. So I got recruited, spent ⁓ a whole seven months in that job, but I had a boyfriend back in Boston. And like, just, couldn't make it work. was fantastic bootcamp training for how to like write proposals, pitch business, write well. never make a mistake in your writing, editing things to the nth degree. But I left that job, I limped back to Boston, moved in with the boyfriend and got hired in probably, I mean, I don't know why the universe did this for me, but I got a job working in a cardiovascular research center with a very entrepreneurial cardiologist, Dr. James Rippey, who every time, I said something like, hey, Dr. Rippey, advertising for study subjects in the newspaper is so old school. We should have a website. And he'd say, great, here's some money. Go build a website. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: That's awesome though. Like that gives you so much autonomy and I feel like you, that is your lane though. I mean you started your own consultee when you were 27. Like you kind of knew that you wanted to do this entrepreneurial spirit. You just hit that peak a little early and then you peaked again, right? Amy Myrdal Miller: Yeah. Yeah. mean, yeah, getting to work with Dr. Rippey helped me build skills. You know, I called it an, what is it, an intrapreneur when you're within the confines of a salaried job, but you have somebody giving you, know, sure, there's your goal, go chase it. Here's some funding, make it happen. So I had four phenomenal years with Dr. Rippey and the rest of the team there. The research funding dried up. I ended up getting a job with Dole Food Company, which was really fantastic because it got me back to California. where most of my friends are, you know, then and still are today, because it's where I went to college, right? So working at Dole gave me experience in big corporate business settings. ⁓ I started working there under a PhD RD named Dr. Lorelei DeSogra. She's the fiercest advocate I have ever met. If you know Dr. Lorelei, like nobody says no to her. She ended her career. being the chief lobbyist for the produce industry in Washington, D.C. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: That's crazy. know, there are, I love those pioneers though. Like you look up to them you're like, I want to work for them. I mean, that was something that brought me to the role that I was at, you know, today is working under Kara Belki-Underman. Like she was just this, she was an entrepreneur, but just an advocate. And like, I love those people. Even when I was over in University of North Florida, Dr. know, Judy Rodriguez and Dr. Lori Wright, like. They're just pioneers and there is something special about working for that person that just will push everything out of the way and fight for you and fight for the profession. And that's needed across industries. Amy Myrdal Miller: Absolutely. I will say Lorelai was a really, really hard woman to work for because of her high standards and her, I'm going to say short temper, but after she left the company to go work for NIH, she's been my best advocate in terms of helping me find the next step in my career. So, you know, I owe a lot to Dr. Rippey. I owe a lot to Dr. DeSogra. ⁓ so anyway, Dole, ⁓ I ended up making a big dumb mistake promoting artichokes instead of bananas. That's a whole other story. And since most of the funding for the program I was running came from the fresh fruit division and 80 % of their revenue came from banana sales. I lost my job. Sucks. It was horrible. Humiliating. I just bought my first house was four months into being a big girl and paying a mortgage and I lost my job. Things happened, but I got picked up by the walnut board. And that was a really important job for me because I was working directly for farmers and it felt like I'd found my home. You know, I grew up on a farm in North Dakota. I know farmer values, how they speak, the work ethic. So working for the walnut growers for two years was amazing. Then I got the opportunity to work for the Culinary Institute of America where I took everything that I'd done in the past and rolled it into one job. plus added in the culinary. So my PR skills were essential. ⁓ My research skills were essential. We were doing a lot of partnerships with Harvard School of Public Health. My public speaking skills all of a sudden blossomed because I was on stage all the time hosting conferences. And I also got really smart about global issues in our food system, sustainability, exposure to world cultures and cuisines. I got to work in Singapore. with their Ministry of Health. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: I'm so jealous. would love, my husband and I have talked back and forth. Like at some point we would love to live internationally for a year to just like expose our kids. I know when I was a kid, my dad was opening the Intel factory down in Costa Rica. So our whole family moved down to Costa Rica for a year. I was in second grade and like, it was so eye opening and I loved learning about cultural foods. And like I almost knew I was gonna be a dietician from second grade when I was like, Amy Myrdal Miller: ⁓ my gosh. Well. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: This is amazing. I love trying all this food and I have traveled much of the world because once you go, you get that itch. I'm sure you know that itch, right? And you're like, I gotta feel this itch. I need to go travel abroad somewhere or just, you know, domestic as well. Amy Myrdal Miller: Yes. Yes. Yeah, I can tell you my favorite thing about travel, know, trying the foods, going to grocery stores, markets, but realizing how much I love where I live. It's a real blessing to be grateful, especially today, to be really glad, you know, that I live in the US, that I live in California, that I have access to all of this amazing agricultural bounty here. Okay, so anyway, back to my story. Where was I? I was at the CIA. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: ⁓ yeah. Amy Myrdal Miller: All good things come to an end. I broke my foot and ankle on the job, was dealing with workman's comp, and it kind of broke everything. I just kind of got broken spirit. So I left ⁓ and let's see, my husband and I had bought a home. I left that job and I started Farmer's Daughter Consulting in like a two week period. And ⁓ people have asked me endlessly, how did you develop your business? Well, I spent the first two months floating in a pool going, have I done? And because I'd been at the CIA all those years, I had lots of people in the food industry who knew me and business came my way. So I've been very, very lucky. And over the years, let's see, I'll be celebrating the 12th anniversary of the company in a few months. I mean, I'm so proud of myself for what I've built and I'm so proud that the company is Farmers Daughter Consulting and that I can be an advocate every single day. for the men and women who grow, produce, harvest, pack, ship our foods, that we can all just go to a grocery store and shop, right? So I love what I do. Really, really happy. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: When I think that international experience, I like you said, like you're just so grateful that you live here in the US for many different reasons. But I think when you actually think about food, I mean, I have backpack in rural Africa. I backpack all over South America, Asia, you name it. And we are so lucky, the variety, the options that we have, all the fresh ingredients that are available, depending on obviously where you live. There's so much to be thankful for and I love that you always tie back into farmers and growers and producers because it's something that I've realized that I'm so passionate about. I didn't know because I didn't grow up in agriculture. I didn't grow up on a farm. But once you start representing farmers and producers and growers, you're like, I'm so proud. They work so hard to grow ingredients for your meal and there's just something special about it. So it's cool that your consulting business actually is so you and everything that you do and all your experiences that you culminated throughout agriculture, whether that's food industry or working for the growers themselves. So I definitely think that's special. So walk us through, like, what does a day to day look like? mean, you are an author of a cookbook, so you definitely have that culinary you background, then you also have your own consulting. So give us a day to day. Amy Myrdal Miller: ⁓ you know, there is no typical. Well, I guess what I'm doing right now is pretty typical. I'm sitting in my office in front of my computer. You know, I spend a lot of time doing virtual meetings with clients. I do a lot of mentoring. I do a lot of volunteer service for the Academy. So this is pretty typical. ⁓ I work for clients. I do marketing, just traditional marketing. I do nutrition marketing. I'm the watchdog to make sure they don't make any dumbass claims that are illegal and don't follow ⁓ USDA guidance or FDA FTC guidance. I ⁓ do event planning. A lot of that involves planning events for clients and bringing in chefs and food service leaders. I do quite a bit of public speaking and writing. I just published an article in the March, April issue of Today's Dietitian on the foodways of Iceland after spending two weeks there last year. am from an Icelandic community in North Dakota. great grandparents all emigrated from Iceland. So that was like the biggest passion project of 2025, being asked to write that article and seeing it in print was just so fun for me. So yeah, there's no typical day other than being here in my office doing this. And then I get to travel a wee bit. And the best travel is when somebody says, Amy, would you like to come see our farm orchard processing plant? And I'm like, yes, I will take every opportunity to have an in-person experience no matter how awful the protective gear is, how much the hairnet dampens my big fluffy hair. I love those kinds of experiences to learn from the people who are doing the work every day. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: When and to actually be boots on the ground of like, what is their experience walking through from, you know, planting to growing to processing and harvesting, right? Like there's, there's so much that goes into it that I think you're right. Like people go to the retailer and they're like, Oh, here's a banana. And they're like, don't realize there's this whole story behind this banana being grown. Right. And the farmers behind it of how they're maybe creating new varieties. The other day I saw like a red, red kiwi. And I was like, that is crazy. mean, just like technology and agriculture and science blending all together and how we can have like my daughter loves these cotton candy grapes, which I'm like, that's genius, right? Like kids love cotton candy and all of sudden you put in a fruit and they taste like cotton candy. So yeah, I just, I just think it's so remarkable. Now, Amy Myrdal Miller: Yeah. Yeah. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: For people who are listening and consulting is not easy, It ebbs and flows, your demand is varied depending on what it is. What kind of like tips or advice would you give them if they are maybe just starting out in consulting and trying to figure out how do I accept and what do I accept and how much do I accept if I am working with different companies? Amy Myrdal Miller: When I lost my job at Dole and I was sitting in that new condo and thinking, how am going to pay my mortgage? ⁓ One of my mentors said, you kind of need to map out what you want. You have to figure out what you want and you have to figure out what you don't want. And I did that mapping of things that brought me joy, made me proud as a nutrition professional. And that mapping essentially turned into my business model for Farmer's Daughter Consulting. I wanted to work with really good people who had similar values that I do, who have trust and respect for farmers, trust and respect for people who work in food processing and product development. I recognize that my nutrition credentials would matter to some clients, but maybe not all, and that I needed to be as smart about business as I am about nutrition science and respecting research. So for anybody who wants to go into consulting, know that you are going to be selling a service and sharing your nutrition expertise and other skills, but you have to respect that you are mostly going to be working for other businesses and you're gonna need to respect their business goals and priorities, why tough decisions are made, why budgets matter. why timelines matter, why accountability matters. I don't have a big, you know, magical, mad libs business plan I can hand you. But knowing who you are and what you do really well and what you love to do, it's this Venn diagram, I guess. You know, what do you do really well? What do you love to do? Like, I'm a really good writer. I hate academic writing. I hate footnotes. I hate it so much. I won't do it anymore. I'm like, nope. Mm-hmm find somebody else. So I'm a really great writer, but if it's academic writing No, but like writing that today's dietitian article loved it and then what pays well Sorry today's dietitian. They don't pay well, but it was worth every blessed penny and moment I spent And then you know what pays well, and if you can find stuff where you're the expert you love doing it and it pays well Whoo, that's the sweet spot for consulting. How often do I get that? Mmm, I don't know once in a while, you know Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: When I, you know, I do consulting as well and it's just kind of like, sometimes I do things because it's a passion project. I also did a webinar with today's dietician recently and was I doing it for the money? No, I really wasn't. And was I doing it for invisibility? Also, no, but it was something where it was just like, I think there's a really good message here in the practical applications I felt like would resonate with the, you know, the people on the call. So yeah, sometimes you do things, not necessarily just for the money, but you're, you're part of that Venn diagram in terms of your passion, it aligns with things that you enjoy doing, right? I love giving presentations. So, but let's go a little bit deeper on that science, right? You talked about how you hate footnotes. However, how does scientific evidence and data really impact what you do on a day to day? Amy Myrdal Miller: So early in my career, it was all about like specific nutrients and specific foods and who is the highest in this and, you know, phytochemicals were all the rage and everybody wanted to say their fruit or vegetable product had the most. And so that was very reductionist nutrition. Even though today I may represent, you know, a certain specialty crop item and the client wants to talk about why they're you know, is the most amazing. I always encourage clients and I always when I'm doing public speaking to colleagues, bring it back to what's the eating pattern? What's the sum of the overall eating pattern? And also what are those lifestyle factors that are gonna have an impact on short term, long term, physical health, metabolic health, mental health? So I'm much more of a big picture thinker today and You know, the issue of eating patterns, I know that all of us in our profession, we're all aware of all the lifestyle diets and I'm trying not to roll my eyes too much, but you know, I can respect people wanting to do things based on their values. And if somebody is out there struggling for a lifestyle diet and they've never talked to a dietitian and they've never gotten credible advice and they've never thought about the watch outs, the nutrient gaps or the pain and suffering you go through to follow some of these wackadoodle diets, then come with me. Come with me and let's enjoy ⁓ joyful eating that is delicious, culturally relevant, affordable, accessible, meets your interest or lack thereof in getting into your own kitchen. I'm a super nerd. I love grocery shopping. I love prepping produce. I love listening to smooth jazz and working two hours to make a dinner that my husband and I will eat in 12 minutes. I love the process of food prep, aromas. Man, made a dish last night, my husband got home and it was like watching the cartoon where the aroma, you know, the nose is falling because it made the house smell so good. I love moments like that. So I think I lost the thread on what the question was, Kristin, but you know, I'm back to the science and what's the larger picture of what people are doing. versus that individual ⁓ choice meal nutrient. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: When I think you're seeing, mean, I've been in science for well over 10 years and you've seen it move, you've seen it move that direction where it used to be, okay, how does this food impact your blood sugar or whatever? And now it's like, okay, how does this dietary pattern, which includes all these different foods, impact your blood sugar? Because I think that's us as clinicians. It's like, we've always known that not one single food is this rising star and hero that's gonna save you. It's the culmination. It's the synergy of food. you one of the things I love talking about and I was able to write a write an article about the other day is can we talk about food and like how delicious it should be? Because I can't tell you the amount of times that I've said I'm a dietician. You know, I used to be in corporate wellness and they'd be like, ⁓ like I don't want to eat a plain salad. I'm like, wait, no, you don't have to a plain salad like that. That sounds miserable. I don't even want to do that. Right. And like Amy Myrdal Miller: Nobody knows. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: How do we show that taste and flavor should be, we know that that's the driver of where people or why people are eating. So how do we meet them more that direction rather than this hypothetical like, hey, this sounds great in theory to eat whatever, five fruits and vegetables and X amount of proteins and dairy or whatever. What if we built this really nutritious, delicious that actually people wanted to eat? Amy Myrdal Miller: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what Cooking All A Heart is all about. That cookbook with 512 recipes is all about thoughtfully choosing ingredients, mindfully preparing meals, snacks, whatever, and striving for flavor that makes helpful eating something you want to do again and again and again, because this frickin' delicious item, oh, by the way, is also good for you as part of your overall eating pattern. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Yeah, no, I mean, I think it's awesome. And I've really moved a lot that direction. I remember when I was a faculty member, I'd really try and teach students like, I know you have your agenda of what you need, you feel like you need to tell them, but like, let's take a step back. What are they already eating? Because clearly they like those flavors. They like that's part of their culture. How do we go there and then add on? You know, so I think there's a... big opportunity for our profession to kind of lead and lead other health professions and lead the food industry and agriculture industry. Like, let's keep moving that way. Like, let's get people to enjoy their food and stop being miserable with their quote unquote eating healthy. So Amy, you've had a, you've had quite a career. mean, I knew you had a pretty diverse career, but not as diverse as what you've showed. And you've definitely hit some, you know, some rocks and you've fallen down, but you've gotten yourself up. So Amy Myrdal Miller: Yeah. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: What's been your favorite or that you've had the most impact so far? Amy Myrdal Miller: Well, I can tell you there was a seminal moment ⁓ shortly after I started Farmer's Daughter Consulting where colleagues from the Food and Culinary Professionals Practice Group said, we would like to nominate you for what was then called the Lena Francis Cooper Memorial Lecture. Today it's called the Academy Distinguished Lecture Award. I won it. I got to give my talk on success in dietetics inspired by farmers, flavor, and fun. at ⁓ FENCY in Nashville in 2015. And the process of preparing the lecture, the article for the journal, getting on stage and sharing that with about a thousand colleagues, it happened, I mean, this all happened my first year of business, then into my second year, I gave the talk and it really helped me figure out who I was. ⁓ who I wasn't, it helped me talk about the failure. And I remember using the term failing forward, that I had these failures in my career and, you know, hitting a rock that makes me think of like, my brother's swearing about breaking, you know, equipment in the spring when they're preparing fields for planting. I'd never thought of that analogy before. But yeah, you get all upset and you're like, what could I have done differently? And then you say, learn from the mistake, pick yourself up. admit that maybe you did something wrong. wasn't all them, the evil overlords in the HR office, but maybe something it was you did and be accountable, recognize it, move forward with grace. And, ⁓ you know, I just, I feel so incredibly grateful to all my colleagues in FCP for that opportunity because it was much more than just the award, you know, and giving the lecture. helped me accept some things and move forward with more grace. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: When I love this red thread, so we're gonna dive a little bit deeper on here. I love nominating people and also going myself for awards because I think so often we have this imposter syndrome, like we're not good enough. We haven't had the success of an Amy or we haven't had the success of whoever it is that's your aspiration. So what kind of tips or advice would you give someone who thinks that they actually wanna apply for the award or they think they wanna be nominated, but they are are hesitant and they're kind of like holding back. Amy Myrdal Miller: Hmm, well, you know what? I mean, I'm so glad you're bringing this up. As a member of the California Academy, you know, we didn't get enough people applying for awards. And this has been many, years in a row, right? And I'm thinking, you know, we have these amazing practitioners throughout our state and throughout our profession who we particularly as women, you know, tend to think we're not doing enough, we're not trying hard enough. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: all the time. Amy Myrdal Miller: Blah blah blah right all this negative self-talk and imposter syndrome and I think it's really important once in a while You know quiet time you're out on a walk. You're commuting your you know grocery shopping whatever and just think what's the most amazing thing I did the past week the past month, you know when we start meetings with icebreakers You know the one that I like to use is what are you most proud of? Do you know what most colleagues talk about? Their kids and I have to say no no no no no What are you most proud of that you have done, that you have accomplished? It's really hard for people to answer that. So, you know, to everybody out there listening today, think about what are you really proud of? What have you done recently? You, you know, I have an example of something I'm really proud of. And it was really hard for me. I had an intern last fall. She had to do 60 hours of work with me to finish her distance internship. And God bless the interns out there doing the distance programs and finding their own placements. But she was probably the brightest, most amazing intern that I've had in 25 years. But she submitted one of her projects and I read her report and I went, what the what? And I put a prompt into Gemini and it was pretty much spit. And I was like, no. Mm-hmm. And so I had to call her and I said we need we need to meet immediately she she you know has a an infant and I was like so when you put her down for a nap you need to call me back and we need to have a talk and you could hear her voice quivering and when she called me back a few hours later I said, okay, I just read your report ⁓ It is not okay to use AI and not disclose it It is fine to use AI and disclose it, but you also need to use your brain And I think this issue of using our brains. ⁓ We're gonna be irrelevant as a profession unless we do more to use our brains and our expertise and our unique talents as nutrition professionals, you know, because the easy answers in nutrition are everywhere if you just put it into the prompt, right? So I was really proud of myself for immediately handling that. And this was a young woman who'd done her undergrad. She'd done every other rotation for internship and nobody talked to her about this. And I'm really glad that I did. She was very upset, understandably, because I was pretty stern and scary that day. But I hope it has impact on her moving forward. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: One, think you do bring up a good point. remember, so when I left academia, that's when AI was really starting to grow. And there's definitely, I'm still on a lot of academic mom threads and things like that. And it is a challenge. How do you have independent thinking and critical thinking? Because nutrition has so much nuance. But I love that, I want to circle back to how you talked about, we have to be able to celebrate the successes that we have. I know a lot of dietitians, these type A, they're go-getters. And they're super accomplished. And then when you ask them, they're like, ⁓ yeah, I did this small, menial task. You were just an awardee of this huge award or you just published in a high impact journal or whatever it is. And it goes back. So the other day we were on a call and someone was like, what's the most unique thing about you? And I was like, honestly, it's something that I'm most proud of. I was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest pot of chili. It was almost 5,000 pounds. And it was like, is that my expertise? Absolutely not. But it was so fun, you know, and it kind of like aligns with me and like, I love these like random jobs, like how to integrate nutrition across these different niches and spaces. And so I always say that when I, when I, when I comment that and then people are like, but you, you have all these accolades. Like, why do you say that? Like that isn't even really an accolade. You know what I mean? And I'm like, I don't know, it's just something that's my favorite. I challenge if you're listening, think about it. What have you done? What are you proud of? Because you probably have this long list and that way you're kind of ready to go in the future. So, okay, let's keep going here. What suggestions or tips do you have for someone who's interested? And you gave a few, but maybe who's someone interested in agriculture and agriculture connections and then also creating a cookbook. What tips do you have? Amy Myrdal Miller: If you're interested in agriculture, ⁓ meet and talk to as many farmers, ranchers, farm workers as you can. Get out there and talk to people and meet with them. ⁓ Recognize that agriculture is business, that when it comes to sustainability, you have to be financially sustainable or you can't continue operating. ⁓ But yeah, it's not enough to think that you have some expertise because you've been to one farm. you know, go to as many as possible. If you've been on like an influencer farm tour, congratulations, go on a thousand more of them and then come talk to me. ⁓ I think, you know, there's a lot of finger wagging out there from our profession about what farmers and ranchers should be doing or shouldn't be doing. And everybody operates independently. Farmers are so highly educated and independent. And my three brothers who are farmers, They don't all farm the same way and they're farming land that's contiguous, Fields right next to each other. One does no till, low till. The other tills the hell out of the soil, because that black rich soil adjacent to the Red River Valley is gorgeous. And he doesn't want to see a single freaking weed. My other brother, I call him the tree hugger, he'll turn 160 acres into pollinator habitat because he's married to a former honeybee queen. He'll give up. They'll give up the land to the honeybees. Okay, God bless them, right? So, yeah, you need a lot of experience. And then there are really great conferences that happen around the country where you can learn about the issues and what's happening in farm policy and what's making farmers grumpy or what they're celebrating. Go to those conferences. Sometimes the registration, you know, maybe you can get somebody who works for one of the entities supporting it to give you one of their tickets. often here in California, I often say, guys have any extra tickets staff not joining? Yeah, here you go, aim. And I don't do that to be a schmuck and get free stuff. It's just I want to be there and learn. if I don't have to pay, yay. Yeah, it's a great perk. OK, your other question was about the cookbook. OK, I did a webinar for USA pulses. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Yeah, that's a perk. Amy Myrdal Miller: and was talking about peas, lentils, chick beans, beans. And a woman was listening to the webinar and she said, that's who I want for my co-author. So Linda Hackfeld, who ⁓ created Cooking All A Heart in the mid 80s and did a second and third version, wanted a fourth edition co-author. She heard me speak. And what she said to herself and then later said to me is, she's like my sister from another mister. Linda and I grew up about two hours apart, but she's 20 years older than I am. She grew up on the Minnesota side of the Red River Valley. I grew up on the North Dakota side. So we were both one of five children, farm families. We are so similar in our values, our attitudes. ⁓ If you have cooking all heart and you look at recipes, if a recipe has tarragon, it's Linda's. If it has rosemary, it's mine. If it has rhubarb, all bets are off. We both have an insane love affair with rhubarb because why? First fruit of the spring. know, so anyway, that's how I got that. I didn't have an agent. I didn't write a cookbook proposal. I had an invitation from somebody looking for a co-author. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: When I think it goes back to, remember you talked about that Venn diagram that sometimes you do things because you're passionate about them? And what's wild is you never know the doors that are gonna open when someone hears or sees you. I know I was giving a talk with a mental health counselor and we were giving a webinar talking about like how to be more inclusive in counseling. And then all of a sudden the WIC Hawaii, was on the call and they were on and they were like, we would love to fly you out to Hawaii to give a talk to the state of Hawaii and WIC. And we were like, that is so cool, right? Like you just never know. And yeah, it was all inclusive trip. They brought us out there and we gave this in-person workshop about like how to be inclusive in communicating and like what kind of language you use. Amy Myrdal Miller: Wow. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: It was so cool. Even the, you know, I've been very fortunate to have a lot of opportunities because I do a lot of speaking engagements, but my co-presenter, she'd never been approached by something like that. And she was like, this seems like a scam. I was like, it's not a scam. This is real. These are the doors that open when you start, you you speak and then people, they feel you, they feel your passion. And they're like, yeah, that's who I want to work with. So there's definitely a little nugget of advice there. Like, Amy Myrdal Miller: Yeah. Yeah. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: You may not make book who bucks with the engagement that you're in, but you never know who's listening and can be there to connect with you. So my final question, Amy, if you had a crystal ball, what do you think is coming next in nutrition? Amy Myrdal Miller: Well, you know, I think the big threat for us is AI, right? ⁓ But the big opportunity for us is AI so that we can climb our career ladders and work at the highest level of our expertise. You know, my friends who work for Nourish, for example, love the AI note taker, love, love having a system that quickly identifies the resources that could be shared with the patient or client right after an interaction. And I think that's great. How can AI help us be more effective at our jobs and use more of our brain power and expertise to help people in organizations? So don't be fearful of it, be ready for it. If you are using it, disclose it. I'll often use it for a first draft of something or give me three bullet points on this if I'm thinking about issues and then I'm like, okay, here's where I wanna expand. and share my expertise on these important issues for an advocacy matter or something like that. ⁓ Yeah, so I think we all need to be ready for it. We don't need to fear being replaced by it, but we have to understand that it can be exceedingly helpful for us in being more efficient in our roles and having more professional impact. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: What I like how you said, disclose it, especially, ⁓ it drives me nuts sometimes. I mean, I'm very active on LinkedIn and there are some posts that I'm like, that's totally AI generated. Like it doesn't even sound authentic. There's no personal aspect of it. You know what I mean? And so I think there is something there and I had noticed, so I've, done some like little, you know, private testing where I would put some content that's AI driven and LinkedIn actually drops it in the algorithm. So. If you want bigger reach, like be authentic, be yourself. But I think that there is a lot of opportunity for AI, even in agriculture, right? We're seeing AI to help with efficiency and reducing waste and a lot of these things. And I think we can see the same crossover no matter what niche or industry you're in as a health professional or a clinician is learn the technologies, learn where you could kind of have an edge that maybe can make you more efficient in your job. Amy Myrdal Miller: I have a quick agriculture story for you on AI. There's a startup company that is working on using machine learning and AI to give. Okay. Backing up. There are a huge amount of farm advisors across the country who are retiring, leaving agriculture and the brain drain is incredible. So you're a farmer out there trying to deal with a new pest management issue or. know, weed issue and you no longer have a farm advisor who is, you know, has 40, 50 years of experience in that site specific, you know. So now they're using machine learning and AI to share all of this research from the land grant universities across the country so that a new graduate who, you know, has the latest information coming out of a university, but has this tool that can quickly pull out the research to help a farmer address an issue here and now. So there's an example of how it's shifting the workforce and helping the newest graduates who are working as farm advisors help farmers every day. huge opportunities. We need to be not fearful, but embrace it and be joyful that it is ⁓ making our world better in many ways. Kristen Hicks-Roof PhD, RD: Yeah, no, I agree. like your positive spin and that is again totally you. You're very authentic and happy and you look at the, you know, glass half full, which I'm the same way. I'm what I call an eternal optimist. So I'm always like, ⁓ yeah, there's a good thing in here. So Amy, thank you so much for being on the show. If you liked the show, make sure you like, subscribe, leave a review, but most important, check out the next episode because every episode I bring on a different dietician or nutrition expert to share their. career experience and give you tips and advice on how to be successful.