22 August 2025
ATR: Tariff paperwork blocks combine at border with Tim Hammerich - E455
In this episode of the Ag Tribes Report, host Vance Crowe is joined by Tim Hamrich, a prominent agricultural communicator and host of the Future of Agriculture podcast. They delve into a trade dispute that has left harvest equipment stranded at the US-Canadian border due to steel tariffs. They also discuss the USDA's controversial decision to close a major research center in Maryland, sparking concerns about the future of agricultural innovation.
The conversation continues with a focus on the USDA's efforts to combat the threat of flesh-eating screw worms with a new facility in Texas, and the acquisition of FarmTest by GrowersEdge. The episode wraps up with a discussion on the potential of Bitcoin in agriculture, the challenges of organic standards, and the importance of investing in ag innovation.
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The Ag Tribes Report is brought to you by Legacy Interviews, a video service that captures people as they really are so the future knows who they really were. Here is Legacy Interviews guest, Carol Hensley, discussing the opportunity for a quiet person to speak their mind.
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How was it for you, the experience? Very comfortable. Tried to sit down every morning for a week or two and reflect on my life, and I'm recalling well over seventy years. I may not talk very much, but I think a lot, and I listen to other people. If they don't talk a lot, they're surely thinking. And if you ask them their opinion, they may share it with you. You've asked for my opinion. I don't mind sharing that. I think I probably talked more than I should have. No. Not at all.
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Welcome to the Agtribe's report, a breakdown of the top stories affecting the culture of agriculture with your host, Vance Crowe. The report begins in three, two, one. Let's begin.
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Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a cohost to represent one of the many ag tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have the distinct honor of having Tim Hamrich. Tim is a West Coast agricultural communicator and host of the Future of Agriculture podcast, connecting farmers, innovators, and agribusiness leaders. As a storyteller amplifying ag's diverse voices, he's interviewed everyone from biotech pioneers to regenerative farmers. His insights spark crucial conversations across ag tribes, And I personally have felt this as I was recently on his show talking about how Bitcoin would demonetize farm ground. And, man, I heard from, nearly a dozen people, from all over the spectrum. It was absolutely fantastic.
So, Tim, welcome to the show.
[00:01:57] Unknown:
Hey, Vance. It is a an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Live show is it's a little bit added energy. I kinda like it. So what have you been paying attention to lately? Well, thanks to you and not blowing smoke at all. I mean, your points on Bitcoin, really got me seriously thinking about it. And I will say I have not purchased any Bitcoin yet, but I have started the conversation with my better half about, let's just figure out how this works and and and see how it's done. I mean, you made some excellent points on that interview. So you got me thinking a lot about that. But, other than that industry wise, I I have been doing a podcast called Agriscience Explained with Corteva that's going into some really interesting kinda cutting edge science, things like gene editing, hybrid wheat, biologicals.
That's been on my mind. And then personally, gearing up for a backpacking trip next week. So I think a lot about that and coaching little league.
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Wow. There you go. Well, tonight on the Ag Tribes report, we're gonna dive into a trade dispute stranding harvest equipment at The US Canadian border. We're gonna look at the USDA's plan to close a flagship research site and talk about a new Texas facility that is there to combat the, flesh eating screw worms. And we're gonna finish out by talking about a game changing acquisition in AgTech that I think is probably the most underreported in all of agriculture. We're also gonna compare farmland and Bitcoin prices. We're gonna hear Tim's take on the Peter Thiel paradox, learn about his worthy adversary, and we are gonna pack this all into just thirty minutes. So let's get started.
Alright. Story number one, trade red tape strands harvest equipment at The US and Canadian border. So there's a weird story. Oklahoma farmer Ryan Sorrells is battling US customs officials over a used New Holland, combine stuck at The US Canada border. Purchased from Saskatchewan, the combine is held up by section two three two tariffs requiring proof of steel origins to block dumped foreign metal, especially from China. Sorel's put a out a a viral x video on August 18, and I I'm just gonna go ahead and play a little clip of it right here. So so I bought this CX eighty eighty out of,
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out of Waymoore, Saskatchewan. It's 40 miles north of Canadian border. Cannot get this combine across the border because as of 11:01 last night on 08/18/2025, the Trump administration and some of them decided that to get this machine over the border, we need to know where every ounce of steel on this combine built in Zenderland, Belgium. We need to know where every ounce of steel was, where it was, smelted, where it was forged, and where it was cast. So that's anything from the mainframe, the pulleys, the engine block, the rods, the crank, the cam, the pistons are aluminum. Every piece is still on this combine. We need to know where it come from, and I cannot get this combine across the border, and they're telling me I'm screwed. But if you're a farmer in The United States and you're gonna buy something used out of Canada, whether it's a auger, a piece of tillage, a combine, a header.
Hell, probably even any, like, car, SUV, a semi, a trailer, anything. They they will not let it across the border because they need to know where every ounce of steel on that thing was manufactured, and it's bullshit. It is a crock of shit. My entire life, everything I've worked for for the past twenty years hangs in the balance. This has turned into a battle all of a sudden, and I want every farmer in North America knowing in The United States knowing what they're faced up against, and it's gonna be a bitch. And, they called this morning and said the deal is off. I was like, oh, the deal ain't off. There's a way, and we're gonna find a way. So I'll keep y'all posted, but just wanting you guys to know what's going on.
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So Sorrell actually had a post this morning talking about how more senators, even the president himself, knows that this is going on, but he did not have resolution as of press time. So, Tim, what do you think about this?
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This is wild, Vance. I mean, I I think, in the video earlier in a section that we weren't able to show, he he talked about it it sounded like this had gone into effect, like, overnight. Like, it this is something brand new. It happened at that exact time. I couldn't find many details about where what exactly that's stemming from other than, you know, the trade war that's kind of going on, the tariffs and everything, sort of an unintended consequence. Whenever any of the anytime these things happen, you're gonna have unintended consequences, and, these are the types of things that are very hard to predict. But I gotta think that there is some outrage, out there because not only have farmers been squeezed by this trade war on the pricing side, but now here trying to get equipment, and inputs in on on the supply side, getting it from both sides. And I I I just have to think that something's gonna be done quickly here because this is obviously an unintended, consequence.
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Yeah. And, I mean, with, harvest coming, you you can't delay. You delay. You kill the guy. And, what's interesting to me about this so, I have had a chance to get to know a lot of Canadian grain farmers, and they have been just spitting mad about the way The US has been treating this tariff war. Jay Curtis is talking all the time about how the Americans are really screwing this up, and I've kinda blown it off. I haven't taken it very seriously because it's really just been a one way problem. It's not been a problem for us, but this could be the start of major harvest problems or another situation where Trump holds a magic wand, and he approves this one and that one. And anybody that can't get their issues brought up to the national level just gets sunk.
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Yeah. And those types of kind of one off magic wand, situations as you call them, it just does not seem like a viable solution here. It seems like there's just enough of these that are gonna keep popping up. We've gotta figure out something that's more long term. We can't just say ninety days from now or two weeks from now. I mean, we've gotta start getting some some real answers, is my opinion.
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Yeah. I mean, I even know people that have been holding off on making purchases because of the tariffs and, like, it just screws everything up. Uncertainty
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is bad for markets. It doesn't help our country. So figure this shit out is what I think. Absolutely. Yep. I get the chance to talk to a lot of pulse growers, and, obviously, pulses are huge in Canada and the Northern US. And there's there's a lot you know, always been a really good relationship there. And I I hate to see things like this that that constrain relationships.
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Moving on to story number two, the USDA plans to close a flagship research site, and it has sparked outrage. On the July 25, the USDA announced plans to close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, a 7,000 acre hub for pest blight and crop genetics research as a part of the reorganization moving staff, to North Carolina and Utah. Critics, including senator Chris Van Hollen and the National Grape Research Alliance, warn that the closures threatened critical research with twenty twenty three whistleblower complaints citing unsafe conditions at bark. The USDA claims cost savings but lacks data to support this. And, per an August 14 letter from house Democrats, staff fear scientist resignations and disrupted projects with economies of scale being lost.
I could go on and on about this, but it seems to me, Tim, anytime somebody tries to close down a USDA, project, people are screaming bloody murder, but you gotta cut budget somewhere, don't you?
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I think so. Of course, me being very biased towards ag innovation, I hate to see it happening in in terms of research and and innovation. I I wasn't familiar with this particular research center in Maryland being from the Western US. One of the articles I read, about this, I think, indicated that it was the largest in the nation, like, the largest ag research, center in the nation. So this is obviously a big one. But, again, you know, similar to the the last story where you've got farmers getting hit on both the price side as well as now on the equipment side, you've got agricultural research that's already taken some major blows.
One thing I think about is is venture capital. There's a significant drop in venture capital going in to fund agricultural innovation, and now we're seeing, you know, continued cuts on the public side for agricultural innovation. So you're right. You have to cut somewhere. But, how much can you cut before it really does impact, you know, the future of our industry and of our economy?
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Yeah. And I think, like, you won't find out until until you actually see the consequences, and the consequences are gonna take a long time. It's not just gonna be weeks or months. It could be years. To me, I strongly suspect that anytime it's just straight government research, it is not efficiently done. However, with the way the ag system is set up, you really are reliant on the USDA to conduct certain types of studies. So, I mean, to
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like, I am a cut cut cut kinda guy, but, it it does seem like, whenever you start cutting research, you just you really aren't gonna know the consequences for quite some time. Yeah. And one of the articles on the air out there indicated there hadn't been a study done of how much savings this is really going to achieve. The idea is to move folks to Utah and, I think, North Carolina and to just move this, this research elsewhere. But it it, it's hard to really think it through objectively without some sort of study done of where what savings is this going to achieve and at what cost,
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especially what long term costs for Yeah. But knowing the government, the amount of money that they will spend on getting that research done will probably vastly exceed however much money they were getting saved by shutting it down. Totally. And the question is like, oh, well, will will these scientists move? And I think that's the that's the wrong question. Obviously, it does matter that we retain,
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you know, the scientific talent, but but the question is, like, what what are we striving for here? And, in terms of can it just be cuts at all costs? Because I really think we need to think through how rapidly the problems in agriculture are changing. I think our next story speaks to that. Right? How much, is constantly being threatened to our farmers and, hence, our food supply and what we need to do to proactively, invest in ag innovation because it it's a big concern of mine. Cuts in USDA, cuts in extension, drops in overall investment in funding, I think is a a major issue that none of us are talking enough about in in the long term impacts, both in terms of domestic food security, but also just in global competitive advantage.
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You mentioned, that,
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VCs are cutting back their expenditure here. What do you know about that? Oh, boy. The numbers, I don't have fresh right in front of me, but it it's something like a we're down, I wanna say, more than 50% from where we were on an annual, basis, when the high was, and I wanna say the high was probably 2022, down significantly in annual VC investment into to food and agriculture in general. That coincided with an overall kind of VC, bubble, for lack of a better term, that burst, but certainly is not recovering the way I think a lot of people wanted it to. You know, we had some darlings at that time. And when I say darlings, I should put those in quotes because VCs love them, although commercial viability wasn't probably an option. Things like, you know, vertical farming, things like, alt meets, that that sort of imploded with the lack of VC money that was propping it up. But there are also are very real solutions that are now struggling to get funding the same way they might have a couple years ago. So, again, so where's the money come from, to to innovate?
[00:14:04] Unknown:
Yeah. I don't know. I'm it it's it's a funny thing. As liquidity dries up, all of a sudden, ag doesn't seem like such a great spot, and it does seem like the VC expenditure there has not brought anywhere near the innovation that, you would think you'd get for the amount of money there. Alright. Alright. Moving on to story number three. The USDA to build a Texas facility to fight flesh eating screw worms. This has been a story that we've been covering for weeks. But on August 15, the USDA announced a $750,000,000 facility in Edinburgh, Texas to produce 300,000,000 sterile screwworm flies weekly, combating flesh eating pests moving north from Mexico.
The new world screwworm, which each livestock alive threatens US cattle with Texas governor Greg Abbott warning it could, quote, crush the industry. The USDA halted Mexican cattle imports in July tightening supplies as beef prices hit records. Companion dispersal facility at Moore Air Force Base and a $100,000,000 for new tech aim to push the past south on x. Ranchers applaud the move, but worry about delays as the plant may take years to open. The USDA's Mexico facility set for 2026, ad support. With The US cattle herd at 86,700,000, the stakes are high. Tim, pathogens are, are always scary. Look at avian flu and just how far the government went there.
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What are your thoughts on this? Is this just hype to get money spent on facilities, or is this a real thing? No. I don't think so. No. I I think, well, first of all, I think if you would have said, you know, flesh eating screw worm a year ago, you would got a lot of funny looks. Right? But this is just an example of how these threats can emerge. So, no. I don't think this is just some, you know, empty threat to try to get some pork barrel spending done. I I really think this is a a real threat. I think it is, likely to be even a a bigger threat than a lot of people are are letting on from what I can read about this.
I do think the innovation is interesting of of looking at ways through kind of sterility, to combat these pests. If I remember right, I think, was it pink bollworm? There was a cotton pest. Now it might have been pink bollworm where they where they did this with a lot of success. And I know they're talking about it in California to try to, target naval orange worm the same way through kind of, sterile males. So I I think it's an interesting approach. I hope we're not too late, though.
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You know, what are your thoughts on that? Well, it's funny you mentioned that. I had a chance to talk with some people that are really well acquainted with the story, and they said, look. By the time the USDA is doing this, they are already actually signaling capitulation. It is that they believe that it is, it is going to cross the border. And so they're building facilities knowing that this is not gonna stem the tide, but it may be what they use to try and get rid of it or contain it, more once that it once it's here. So there was a lot of cynicism about this and, and really, people gearing up just starting to make, the pharmaceutical, path, which people are gonna need. You know, what medicines can you give your cattle,
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to prevent them from having their flesh eaten? It's a pretty pretty nasty virus from the veterinarians I talked to. Awful. And I from what I understand, it's not just cattle. I mean, it can spread to other, animals and livestock as well. So so, yeah, big issue. It it sounds like then what what you're hearing is that, they they don't foresee a scenario where we just prevent it from ever entering.
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I don't think so. I I think these guys were, like I mean, I I don't think they were happy that it was coming, but it was definitely like, oh, yeah. Everybody knows that this is this is already across the border. In fact, one of the things I heard was that the cartels, which actually have a lot of control over the, the Mexico cattle industry, are, starting to look into pharmaceutical resolutions for their cattle problems. And it just kinda made me chuckle to to think these drug cartels are now getting into the animal pharmaceutical world, but we live in a wild world. We absolutely do. Yeah. I,
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yeah, I'll just harp on it one more time, which is, like, we we need these investments in in research and innovation. And I know they don't always pay off right away, but, this is one of those places where I think it's a very worthy investment. I just wonder if something like this were already behind the ball, and it's gonna be hard to recover.
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Moving on to our fourth and final story, GrowersEdge acquires FarmTest, empowering farmers with game changing technology. On July 29, GrowersEdge acquired FarmTest, an automated platform for field trials in a move that may be the most underreported story from all of this last year. The company, founded by Nick Cieszick, a former AgTribe's Report guest and leading ag scientist, FarmTest enables precise plot and strip trials using GPS enabled equipment, giving farmers data. This type of research could previously only be done by, seed and chemical giants, and this is a democratization of information that could change farming as we know it. I I deeply believe in this technology and am just absolutely shocked that Grower's Edge got it. The acquisition with Cizek joining as vice president of innovation of op innovation operations bolsters Grower's Edge crop plan warranty covering 1,000,000 acres.
The deal follows their $25,000,000 funding round for Agcore acquisition, solidifying their fintech agronomy fusion. On x, AgTech enthusiast enthusiasts called it game changing, though mainstream coverage is sparse. By democratizing performance data, FarmTest is going to empower growers to optimize inputs and boost their profitability, not to being able to tell what actually is working on their fields and what's just marketing. Cizik's leadership ensures innovation aligns with the farmer needs, making this potentially the most impactful ag acquisition of the year, if not, maybe even the decade. Tim, I believe you had Nick on your podcast. Did you have any idea Grower's Edge was gonna, put together a deal and and acquire this company? No. No. Not at all.
[00:20:17] Unknown:
It it does it doesn't surprise me that, Farm Test had a market for someone who'd want to acquire it. I all the credit goes to Nick. I mean, he he, from what I can recall, bootstrapped this idea, worked on it himself. I don't even know if he had any employees at the time of the acquisition. He was starting to roll it out commercially, so he may have hired since the last time I spoke to him. But, fantastic for Nick. Very, very legit though because when I had him on my podcast, we also had someone from, Iowa State on who was using the technology, for nitrogen use efficiency, studies to actually understand kind of, nitrogen use in in Iowa. So it's a useful technology.
Credit to Nick for, putting it together. The surprise to me though was Grower's Edge. You know, Grower's Edge, I knew as a financial products company, not an agronomic technology company. From reading about the acquisition, you know, they're trying to blend the two. They also acquired Agcore, which used to be called Aquaoso, which actually, does kind of water data for ag lending in California and and other Western states. These are interesting acquisitions. I don't fully see the vision for on the part of Growers Edge, but I I love that for Nick. He's getting to go to, take this technology to a company that has such a national presence.
[00:21:39] Unknown:
Yeah. I had the chance of getting to know Nick as he was starting this company, and, like, the potential of that technology, like, is to me, it's it's deeply important. I mean, for so long, you'd have to to have a seed salesman show up on your farm and say, oh, if you put this on there, you're gonna get the these kind of bushels off it. Or the the if you spray this chemical, you're gonna get this out of it. And Nick said, why don't we give this technology to farmers? They already have GPS. They already have these precision planters and combines. Why don't we actually give them the ability to know not just like, oh, did it work on the on those 40 acres back there, but do strip by strip, testing, incredible technology, and to see it, going to a large company that can hopefully, use it across millions of acres, you just absolutely I think it's fantastic.
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Yeah. And you really can use it across millions of acres. You know, in this Iowa example, it's like, we need something that just kind of the farmer basically turns on for lack of a better term, and it runs in the background, and it gives us all the data collection we need. It's like, oh, well, that would be nice if it existed, and and now it does with FarmTest. And so I think there are a lot of applications for this. I'm very curious to see how GrowersEdge
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chooses to to use it. Well, we will follow-up on that as they get a chance. Alright. That's gonna do it for our headlines today. If you have headlines that you think I should cover, all of the stories came from listeners this week, and, I would love to get them. So you can send them to [email protected], or you can always tag me at Vance Crowe on, on x. Alright. Moving on to the Bitcoin land price report. Bitcoin is down more than 5% from last week at a 112,400, but that's okay. That's what Bitcoin does. It goes up and it goes down, but over the long term, it goes up. So, Tim, what county do you live in, and how much does an acre of high quality farm ground cost there? I live in Ada County, Idaho,
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and it's not a super straightforward answer. Number one, we're in the West, so water is really what is gonna determine value of farmland. But number two, it's a rapidly growing county. But I did call, or text rather my friend Sky Root, who is a farmland manager and very, very, plugged in the area. He said just for basic farmland, farmland for farmland stake stake farmland for farmland stake, sake, excuse me, without del development potential, he said about $20,000 would be an acre here. Alright. Way higher than that for development. That is one of the highest,
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per acre values that we've ever had. I mean, you know, we we think 19, 18 is a lot, in Iowa, Illinois, but 20,000. I mean, I'll take it. I believe it. When you have when you're coming up against developers, that's what's gonna happen. So at 20,000, that means that, point $1.07 7 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of ground, or in other words, 1 Bitcoin would buy 5.62 acres in Ada County. How does this strike you, Tim?
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It makes me wish I would've, you know, been on the Bitcoin train a long time ago.
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So, you know, you're you are in tech. You are you've, heard me make the case. Where do you think Bitcoin could be in, let's just say, the next three to five years?
[00:24:55] Unknown:
Yeah. I gotta think that at some point, we'll be talking more about Satoshis than we will about Bitcoins because the price will seem just so, you know, unattainable. But, yeah, if if it starts to be where people want to hold their value and how they want to exchange their life energy, there is just no telling. I I you definitely have opened my eyes in our recent conversation. Not that I didn't know anything about Bitcoin before, but looking at it in a different way of, the one kind of finite, currency that can exist out there, it's
[00:25:33] Unknown:
it's definitely appealing. But I don't know. As far as the pricing go to, I have no idea. You know, I have started to say, I think that every membership driven organization that is helping farmers, quote, unquote, is, being, almost a Luddite if they aren't bringing somebody in to do a small tutorial, teach people how do you buy it and how do you move it to a wallet. This is going any group that does that for their membership is gonna give them an advantage, and their members are gonna flourish. And a year from then, five years from there, ten years from there, those members are gonna be so grateful that they were they were a part of that group, but it's not happening. I I'm talking to ad groups all over. There are very, very few groups that are doing Bitcoin,
[00:26:13] Unknown:
tutorials right now. Yeah. I think the mindset shift that I went through when talking to you is going from thinking, okay. This is just one way to speculate on a future to, okay. This is a way to engage with what could potentially be the new economy. And so, you either want to engage with that or you don't want to, and and I want to. So
[00:26:31] Unknown:
Well, there's a lot more to say here, but, we've got a hard deadline in thirty minutes. So let's move on to the Peter Thiel paradox, which is where I'm gonna ask Tim, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody you know agrees with you on?
[00:26:45] Unknown:
Yeah. I struggle with this. I thought about it a lot. I realized I have a lot of unpopular opinions, but opinions where I can find kinda little groups here and that that probably agree with me. One thing that came to mind, I honestly don't know who agrees with me, who doesn't, but I don't hear this talked about very much is, I actually think that organic standards are too low. I think the bar for organic is is too low. I think if we really wanna make the case that we can farm without chemicals and that, there is a market out there for people willing to pay it, I think we need to drastically raise the bar for what is considered organic, and that would include eliminating some of the kind of, like, fine print of, like, oh, but you can use this. Oh, but you can use that. Oh, but you can use this. And also restricting it to only domestic supply that we can actually, monitor, on some reasonable basis.
Then I think number one, organic premiums will go way up. It'll be harder to obtain certification, but it'll also mean something. And, I I don't know. I I'm not someone who shops at Whole Foods and eats strictly organic food, but I think if we're going to say there is a superior way to farm, then we should have to prove it with really higher standards. And that's probably unpopular with some people.
[00:27:55] Unknown:
Well, I tell you what. I I had never thought of that or hadn't thought of it in in that way, but I'm totally with you on this. You you've certainly won me over if I wasn't there to begin with. And, there are some really dirty secrets in the ag world. So, like, you mentioned, coming from without of the outside of the country, you know, there are tomato seeds that leave The United States. They go to Mexico. And surprise, when they come back as tomatoes, they went over as conventional, and now they're organic, and they're being sold for even more. You couldn't do that in The United States. You US farmers can't do that. So now you're participating in this, like, greenwashing cleaning. And I think a lot of people in the organic world say that the standards got lower when the USDA got involved, when it was the USDA set rules up, and then they set those rules up that made it so that the people that, you know, controlled policy were able to get their products through. Yep. And look. I if there's somebody out there farming by hand, using no chemicals whatsoever,
[00:28:54] Unknown:
to me, they deserve a higher premium than some, you know, corporate mega farm that is able to kind of color within the lines. And let's let's reward that for them. On the flip side, I think it will, take away some of the wind in the sales of, like, oh, if you're just organic, you're, you know, a 100% great because it it actually will have some bite behind the standard.
[00:29:15] Unknown:
Yeah. Alright. Well, I, I I appreciate that. That's a good one to think about. I'm gonna give you a a solid 7.5
[00:29:22] Unknown:
on that one. Okay. I'll take it. I'll take it.
[00:29:25] Unknown:
Moving on to the worthy adversary, Tim, who is one person that you respect but you strongly disagree with?
[00:29:33] Unknown:
Yeah. You asked some great questions because I struggle with this one as well. The the one that came to mind and he's the one who because on my Twitter feed, I always see posts that I'm like, oh, I don't is that is that what I I don't know that I believe that, is a guy, who goes by Aspiring Peasant. His name is Dave. We started following each other because we're both huge fans of Posterity Cider Works. Shout out to them, the best cider in the world made in, Calaveras County, California. But we are both kinda advocates for them, and so I started following him. He started following me. And I his first pinned tweet is, like, a 100% I agree with. It's like, my politics are grow your own food, be a good neighbor, buy local, read old books, strive less, simplify, slow down, make compost, cultivate earnest empathy, spend as much time with your family as possible, find the others, make friends, and support them, and don't be a dick. That that's his pinned tweet. I'm, like, okay. 100% on board with all those things. But, as he's tweeting about some political issues, I realized, like, how much my bubble is, is very, very limited. And he he's seeing things from a totally different angle. He's also a former Navy Seal. Seems like a great guy, but with some ideas that I sometimes struggle to to, resonate with fully. So it's it's good for me, the type of people I wanna follow on a on a platform like Gex. What are some of the types of ideas that you don't resonate with? Oh, you know oh, gosh. So I would say on the on the, political spectrum, certainly, the some of the localism ideas, I think, are a little bit idealistic as far as, like, we're all just gonna grow our own food and live locally and be happy.
And that's a bit of a straw man. That's not that doesn't encompass his point of view exactly, but that would be some places where I think we would probably disagree. On the political spectrum, you know, certainly,
[00:31:13] Unknown:
he would lean quite a bit further left, I would think, than I I would. I hate to I hate to make up somebody's argument for them. But, as I see posts I looked at his post. You Yeah. You're not just you're being fair. Yeah. Alright. I know that you have a hard stop, so I wanna quick throw this out there. If people wanted to learn more about your show or get involved with you, some of your other, work, where would they go to do that?
[00:31:37] Unknown:
Sure. Best place is just, you know, check out the podcast Future of Agriculture. Find me on LinkedIn or on x, or on x, Tim Hamrich. And, yeah, I would love to connect if, you're looking to kind of engage with more sort of independent ag media, advance while we're on that topic. I love what you're doing here. We need more media like this, and so I hope you continue doing this. Well, this is absolutely the truth. When I did your podcast, I heard from very serious people from all throughout agriculture, and I was like, man, Tim commands
[00:32:07] Unknown:
a, a really strong audience. So, I was honored to be on your show, and I'm glad you were willing to come on mine. Absolutely. It was fun. Have a good day, man. Alright. Well, we had a wonderful show. I am going to wrap up. I actually have a new video to show you. Many of you know that when I'm not doing legacy interviews, I'm, engaging. I go get give speeches about communication, about resolving problems that you can't see. And right now, there are a lot of conferences that are coming up. You know, you're if you're on a planning committee, if you're on a board, if you're a member of an organization, then, I would really appreciate it if you found that some of the things I talk about would be worthwhile to your organization to have me come talk about them. I'd love to do that. So I'm gonna show a video on the closeout of this. Also, legacy interviews, these are really speeding up. We are gonna have a very, very busy August and September, into October. And then, you know, as the holidays get started, we'll be doing more selling than recording interviews. But if you have been thinking about it, let me highly recommend, get on the list now. We are really getting busy. The other day, we had a couple of phone calls, and people were like, you really have that long of a wait list? Like, is there any way I can get in sooner?
And, I I hate talking to people like that because, you know, we wanna get those. We don't wanna make you feel the pressure of, like, you know you want it, but you haven't gotten it yet. So, definitely, if you are interested in having us do your legacy interview, go to legacyinterviews.com to find out more. Alright. I'm gonna show you this video of, the topic that I speak on called the man on the box, and then we'll see you next week. And as always, feel free to disagree. I was in the Peace Corps teaching Kenyan villagers how to prevent malaria. When one day, I was out competed by a snake oil salesman who stood on a box in the town square and told a better story.
I was devastated and spent the next ten years learning why people listen to him instead of me. In this talk, I share what I've found. I'll teach you how to tell your story, how to introduce yourself, how to talk about your organization and what you have to offer in ways that make people want to listen. So we will never again lose to the man on the box.
The Ag Tribes Report is brought to you by Legacy Interviews, a video service that captures people as they really are so the future knows who they really were. Here is Legacy Interviews guest, Carol Hensley, discussing the opportunity for a quiet person to speak their mind.
[00:00:18] Unknown:
How was it for you, the experience? Very comfortable. Tried to sit down every morning for a week or two and reflect on my life, and I'm recalling well over seventy years. I may not talk very much, but I think a lot, and I listen to other people. If they don't talk a lot, they're surely thinking. And if you ask them their opinion, they may share it with you. You've asked for my opinion. I don't mind sharing that. I think I probably talked more than I should have. No. Not at all.
[00:00:50] Unknown:
Welcome to the Agtribe's report, a breakdown of the top stories affecting the culture of agriculture with your host, Vance Crowe. The report begins in three, two, one. Let's begin.
[00:01:05] Unknown:
Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crowe. Each week, I bring on a cohost to represent one of the many ag tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have the distinct honor of having Tim Hamrich. Tim is a West Coast agricultural communicator and host of the Future of Agriculture podcast, connecting farmers, innovators, and agribusiness leaders. As a storyteller amplifying ag's diverse voices, he's interviewed everyone from biotech pioneers to regenerative farmers. His insights spark crucial conversations across ag tribes, And I personally have felt this as I was recently on his show talking about how Bitcoin would demonetize farm ground. And, man, I heard from, nearly a dozen people, from all over the spectrum. It was absolutely fantastic.
So, Tim, welcome to the show.
[00:01:57] Unknown:
Hey, Vance. It is a an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Live show is it's a little bit added energy. I kinda like it. So what have you been paying attention to lately? Well, thanks to you and not blowing smoke at all. I mean, your points on Bitcoin, really got me seriously thinking about it. And I will say I have not purchased any Bitcoin yet, but I have started the conversation with my better half about, let's just figure out how this works and and and see how it's done. I mean, you made some excellent points on that interview. So you got me thinking a lot about that. But, other than that industry wise, I I have been doing a podcast called Agriscience Explained with Corteva that's going into some really interesting kinda cutting edge science, things like gene editing, hybrid wheat, biologicals.
That's been on my mind. And then personally, gearing up for a backpacking trip next week. So I think a lot about that and coaching little league.
[00:02:49] Unknown:
Wow. There you go. Well, tonight on the Ag Tribes report, we're gonna dive into a trade dispute stranding harvest equipment at The US Canadian border. We're gonna look at the USDA's plan to close a flagship research site and talk about a new Texas facility that is there to combat the, flesh eating screw worms. And we're gonna finish out by talking about a game changing acquisition in AgTech that I think is probably the most underreported in all of agriculture. We're also gonna compare farmland and Bitcoin prices. We're gonna hear Tim's take on the Peter Thiel paradox, learn about his worthy adversary, and we are gonna pack this all into just thirty minutes. So let's get started.
Alright. Story number one, trade red tape strands harvest equipment at The US and Canadian border. So there's a weird story. Oklahoma farmer Ryan Sorrells is battling US customs officials over a used New Holland, combine stuck at The US Canada border. Purchased from Saskatchewan, the combine is held up by section two three two tariffs requiring proof of steel origins to block dumped foreign metal, especially from China. Sorel's put a out a a viral x video on August 18, and I I'm just gonna go ahead and play a little clip of it right here. So so I bought this CX eighty eighty out of,
[00:04:12] Unknown:
out of Waymoore, Saskatchewan. It's 40 miles north of Canadian border. Cannot get this combine across the border because as of 11:01 last night on 08/18/2025, the Trump administration and some of them decided that to get this machine over the border, we need to know where every ounce of steel on this combine built in Zenderland, Belgium. We need to know where every ounce of steel was, where it was, smelted, where it was forged, and where it was cast. So that's anything from the mainframe, the pulleys, the engine block, the rods, the crank, the cam, the pistons are aluminum. Every piece is still on this combine. We need to know where it come from, and I cannot get this combine across the border, and they're telling me I'm screwed. But if you're a farmer in The United States and you're gonna buy something used out of Canada, whether it's a auger, a piece of tillage, a combine, a header.
Hell, probably even any, like, car, SUV, a semi, a trailer, anything. They they will not let it across the border because they need to know where every ounce of steel on that thing was manufactured, and it's bullshit. It is a crock of shit. My entire life, everything I've worked for for the past twenty years hangs in the balance. This has turned into a battle all of a sudden, and I want every farmer in North America knowing in The United States knowing what they're faced up against, and it's gonna be a bitch. And, they called this morning and said the deal is off. I was like, oh, the deal ain't off. There's a way, and we're gonna find a way. So I'll keep y'all posted, but just wanting you guys to know what's going on.
[00:05:56] Unknown:
So Sorrell actually had a post this morning talking about how more senators, even the president himself, knows that this is going on, but he did not have resolution as of press time. So, Tim, what do you think about this?
[00:06:11] Unknown:
This is wild, Vance. I mean, I I think, in the video earlier in a section that we weren't able to show, he he talked about it it sounded like this had gone into effect, like, overnight. Like, it this is something brand new. It happened at that exact time. I couldn't find many details about where what exactly that's stemming from other than, you know, the trade war that's kind of going on, the tariffs and everything, sort of an unintended consequence. Whenever any of the anytime these things happen, you're gonna have unintended consequences, and, these are the types of things that are very hard to predict. But I gotta think that there is some outrage, out there because not only have farmers been squeezed by this trade war on the pricing side, but now here trying to get equipment, and inputs in on on the supply side, getting it from both sides. And I I I just have to think that something's gonna be done quickly here because this is obviously an unintended, consequence.
[00:07:06] Unknown:
Yeah. And, I mean, with, harvest coming, you you can't delay. You delay. You kill the guy. And, what's interesting to me about this so, I have had a chance to get to know a lot of Canadian grain farmers, and they have been just spitting mad about the way The US has been treating this tariff war. Jay Curtis is talking all the time about how the Americans are really screwing this up, and I've kinda blown it off. I haven't taken it very seriously because it's really just been a one way problem. It's not been a problem for us, but this could be the start of major harvest problems or another situation where Trump holds a magic wand, and he approves this one and that one. And anybody that can't get their issues brought up to the national level just gets sunk.
[00:07:47] Unknown:
Yeah. And those types of kind of one off magic wand, situations as you call them, it just does not seem like a viable solution here. It seems like there's just enough of these that are gonna keep popping up. We've gotta figure out something that's more long term. We can't just say ninety days from now or two weeks from now. I mean, we've gotta start getting some some real answers, is my opinion.
[00:08:09] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, I even know people that have been holding off on making purchases because of the tariffs and, like, it just screws everything up. Uncertainty
[00:08:17] Unknown:
is bad for markets. It doesn't help our country. So figure this shit out is what I think. Absolutely. Yep. I get the chance to talk to a lot of pulse growers, and, obviously, pulses are huge in Canada and the Northern US. And there's there's a lot you know, always been a really good relationship there. And I I hate to see things like this that that constrain relationships.
[00:08:36] Unknown:
Moving on to story number two, the USDA plans to close a flagship research site, and it has sparked outrage. On the July 25, the USDA announced plans to close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, a 7,000 acre hub for pest blight and crop genetics research as a part of the reorganization moving staff, to North Carolina and Utah. Critics, including senator Chris Van Hollen and the National Grape Research Alliance, warn that the closures threatened critical research with twenty twenty three whistleblower complaints citing unsafe conditions at bark. The USDA claims cost savings but lacks data to support this. And, per an August 14 letter from house Democrats, staff fear scientist resignations and disrupted projects with economies of scale being lost.
I could go on and on about this, but it seems to me, Tim, anytime somebody tries to close down a USDA, project, people are screaming bloody murder, but you gotta cut budget somewhere, don't you?
[00:09:40] Unknown:
I think so. Of course, me being very biased towards ag innovation, I hate to see it happening in in terms of research and and innovation. I I wasn't familiar with this particular research center in Maryland being from the Western US. One of the articles I read, about this, I think, indicated that it was the largest in the nation, like, the largest ag research, center in the nation. So this is obviously a big one. But, again, you know, similar to the the last story where you've got farmers getting hit on both the price side as well as now on the equipment side, you've got agricultural research that's already taken some major blows.
One thing I think about is is venture capital. There's a significant drop in venture capital going in to fund agricultural innovation, and now we're seeing, you know, continued cuts on the public side for agricultural innovation. So you're right. You have to cut somewhere. But, how much can you cut before it really does impact, you know, the future of our industry and of our economy?
[00:10:44] Unknown:
Yeah. And I think, like, you won't find out until until you actually see the consequences, and the consequences are gonna take a long time. It's not just gonna be weeks or months. It could be years. To me, I strongly suspect that anytime it's just straight government research, it is not efficiently done. However, with the way the ag system is set up, you really are reliant on the USDA to conduct certain types of studies. So, I mean, to
[00:11:10] Unknown:
like, I am a cut cut cut kinda guy, but, it it does seem like, whenever you start cutting research, you just you really aren't gonna know the consequences for quite some time. Yeah. And one of the articles on the air out there indicated there hadn't been a study done of how much savings this is really going to achieve. The idea is to move folks to Utah and, I think, North Carolina and to just move this, this research elsewhere. But it it, it's hard to really think it through objectively without some sort of study done of where what savings is this going to achieve and at what cost,
[00:11:47] Unknown:
especially what long term costs for Yeah. But knowing the government, the amount of money that they will spend on getting that research done will probably vastly exceed however much money they were getting saved by shutting it down. Totally. And the question is like, oh, well, will will these scientists move? And I think that's the that's the wrong question. Obviously, it does matter that we retain,
[00:12:08] Unknown:
you know, the scientific talent, but but the question is, like, what what are we striving for here? And, in terms of can it just be cuts at all costs? Because I really think we need to think through how rapidly the problems in agriculture are changing. I think our next story speaks to that. Right? How much, is constantly being threatened to our farmers and, hence, our food supply and what we need to do to proactively, invest in ag innovation because it it's a big concern of mine. Cuts in USDA, cuts in extension, drops in overall investment in funding, I think is a a major issue that none of us are talking enough about in in the long term impacts, both in terms of domestic food security, but also just in global competitive advantage.
[00:12:58] Unknown:
You mentioned, that,
[00:13:00] Unknown:
VCs are cutting back their expenditure here. What do you know about that? Oh, boy. The numbers, I don't have fresh right in front of me, but it it's something like a we're down, I wanna say, more than 50% from where we were on an annual, basis, when the high was, and I wanna say the high was probably 2022, down significantly in annual VC investment into to food and agriculture in general. That coincided with an overall kind of VC, bubble, for lack of a better term, that burst, but certainly is not recovering the way I think a lot of people wanted it to. You know, we had some darlings at that time. And when I say darlings, I should put those in quotes because VCs love them, although commercial viability wasn't probably an option. Things like, you know, vertical farming, things like, alt meets, that that sort of imploded with the lack of VC money that was propping it up. But there are also are very real solutions that are now struggling to get funding the same way they might have a couple years ago. So, again, so where's the money come from, to to innovate?
[00:14:04] Unknown:
Yeah. I don't know. I'm it it's it's a funny thing. As liquidity dries up, all of a sudden, ag doesn't seem like such a great spot, and it does seem like the VC expenditure there has not brought anywhere near the innovation that, you would think you'd get for the amount of money there. Alright. Alright. Moving on to story number three. The USDA to build a Texas facility to fight flesh eating screw worms. This has been a story that we've been covering for weeks. But on August 15, the USDA announced a $750,000,000 facility in Edinburgh, Texas to produce 300,000,000 sterile screwworm flies weekly, combating flesh eating pests moving north from Mexico.
The new world screwworm, which each livestock alive threatens US cattle with Texas governor Greg Abbott warning it could, quote, crush the industry. The USDA halted Mexican cattle imports in July tightening supplies as beef prices hit records. Companion dispersal facility at Moore Air Force Base and a $100,000,000 for new tech aim to push the past south on x. Ranchers applaud the move, but worry about delays as the plant may take years to open. The USDA's Mexico facility set for 2026, ad support. With The US cattle herd at 86,700,000, the stakes are high. Tim, pathogens are, are always scary. Look at avian flu and just how far the government went there.
[00:15:31] Unknown:
What are your thoughts on this? Is this just hype to get money spent on facilities, or is this a real thing? No. I don't think so. No. I I think, well, first of all, I think if you would have said, you know, flesh eating screw worm a year ago, you would got a lot of funny looks. Right? But this is just an example of how these threats can emerge. So, no. I don't think this is just some, you know, empty threat to try to get some pork barrel spending done. I I really think this is a a real threat. I think it is, likely to be even a a bigger threat than a lot of people are are letting on from what I can read about this.
I do think the innovation is interesting of of looking at ways through kind of sterility, to combat these pests. If I remember right, I think, was it pink bollworm? There was a cotton pest. Now it might have been pink bollworm where they where they did this with a lot of success. And I know they're talking about it in California to try to, target naval orange worm the same way through kind of, sterile males. So I I think it's an interesting approach. I hope we're not too late, though.
[00:16:36] Unknown:
You know, what are your thoughts on that? Well, it's funny you mentioned that. I had a chance to talk with some people that are really well acquainted with the story, and they said, look. By the time the USDA is doing this, they are already actually signaling capitulation. It is that they believe that it is, it is going to cross the border. And so they're building facilities knowing that this is not gonna stem the tide, but it may be what they use to try and get rid of it or contain it, more once that it once it's here. So there was a lot of cynicism about this and, and really, people gearing up just starting to make, the pharmaceutical, path, which people are gonna need. You know, what medicines can you give your cattle,
[00:17:16] Unknown:
to prevent them from having their flesh eaten? It's a pretty pretty nasty virus from the veterinarians I talked to. Awful. And I from what I understand, it's not just cattle. I mean, it can spread to other, animals and livestock as well. So so, yeah, big issue. It it sounds like then what what you're hearing is that, they they don't foresee a scenario where we just prevent it from ever entering.
[00:17:38] Unknown:
I don't think so. I I think these guys were, like I mean, I I don't think they were happy that it was coming, but it was definitely like, oh, yeah. Everybody knows that this is this is already across the border. In fact, one of the things I heard was that the cartels, which actually have a lot of control over the, the Mexico cattle industry, are, starting to look into pharmaceutical resolutions for their cattle problems. And it just kinda made me chuckle to to think these drug cartels are now getting into the animal pharmaceutical world, but we live in a wild world. We absolutely do. Yeah. I,
[00:18:12] Unknown:
yeah, I'll just harp on it one more time, which is, like, we we need these investments in in research and innovation. And I know they don't always pay off right away, but, this is one of those places where I think it's a very worthy investment. I just wonder if something like this were already behind the ball, and it's gonna be hard to recover.
[00:18:31] Unknown:
Moving on to our fourth and final story, GrowersEdge acquires FarmTest, empowering farmers with game changing technology. On July 29, GrowersEdge acquired FarmTest, an automated platform for field trials in a move that may be the most underreported story from all of this last year. The company, founded by Nick Cieszick, a former AgTribe's Report guest and leading ag scientist, FarmTest enables precise plot and strip trials using GPS enabled equipment, giving farmers data. This type of research could previously only be done by, seed and chemical giants, and this is a democratization of information that could change farming as we know it. I I deeply believe in this technology and am just absolutely shocked that Grower's Edge got it. The acquisition with Cizek joining as vice president of innovation of op innovation operations bolsters Grower's Edge crop plan warranty covering 1,000,000 acres.
The deal follows their $25,000,000 funding round for Agcore acquisition, solidifying their fintech agronomy fusion. On x, AgTech enthusiast enthusiasts called it game changing, though mainstream coverage is sparse. By democratizing performance data, FarmTest is going to empower growers to optimize inputs and boost their profitability, not to being able to tell what actually is working on their fields and what's just marketing. Cizik's leadership ensures innovation aligns with the farmer needs, making this potentially the most impactful ag acquisition of the year, if not, maybe even the decade. Tim, I believe you had Nick on your podcast. Did you have any idea Grower's Edge was gonna, put together a deal and and acquire this company? No. No. Not at all.
[00:20:17] Unknown:
It it does it doesn't surprise me that, Farm Test had a market for someone who'd want to acquire it. I all the credit goes to Nick. I mean, he he, from what I can recall, bootstrapped this idea, worked on it himself. I don't even know if he had any employees at the time of the acquisition. He was starting to roll it out commercially, so he may have hired since the last time I spoke to him. But, fantastic for Nick. Very, very legit though because when I had him on my podcast, we also had someone from, Iowa State on who was using the technology, for nitrogen use efficiency, studies to actually understand kind of, nitrogen use in in Iowa. So it's a useful technology.
Credit to Nick for, putting it together. The surprise to me though was Grower's Edge. You know, Grower's Edge, I knew as a financial products company, not an agronomic technology company. From reading about the acquisition, you know, they're trying to blend the two. They also acquired Agcore, which used to be called Aquaoso, which actually, does kind of water data for ag lending in California and and other Western states. These are interesting acquisitions. I don't fully see the vision for on the part of Growers Edge, but I I love that for Nick. He's getting to go to, take this technology to a company that has such a national presence.
[00:21:39] Unknown:
Yeah. I had the chance of getting to know Nick as he was starting this company, and, like, the potential of that technology, like, is to me, it's it's deeply important. I mean, for so long, you'd have to to have a seed salesman show up on your farm and say, oh, if you put this on there, you're gonna get the these kind of bushels off it. Or the the if you spray this chemical, you're gonna get this out of it. And Nick said, why don't we give this technology to farmers? They already have GPS. They already have these precision planters and combines. Why don't we actually give them the ability to know not just like, oh, did it work on the on those 40 acres back there, but do strip by strip, testing, incredible technology, and to see it, going to a large company that can hopefully, use it across millions of acres, you just absolutely I think it's fantastic.
[00:22:26] Unknown:
Yeah. And you really can use it across millions of acres. You know, in this Iowa example, it's like, we need something that just kind of the farmer basically turns on for lack of a better term, and it runs in the background, and it gives us all the data collection we need. It's like, oh, well, that would be nice if it existed, and and now it does with FarmTest. And so I think there are a lot of applications for this. I'm very curious to see how GrowersEdge
[00:22:46] Unknown:
chooses to to use it. Well, we will follow-up on that as they get a chance. Alright. That's gonna do it for our headlines today. If you have headlines that you think I should cover, all of the stories came from listeners this week, and, I would love to get them. So you can send them to [email protected], or you can always tag me at Vance Crowe on, on x. Alright. Moving on to the Bitcoin land price report. Bitcoin is down more than 5% from last week at a 112,400, but that's okay. That's what Bitcoin does. It goes up and it goes down, but over the long term, it goes up. So, Tim, what county do you live in, and how much does an acre of high quality farm ground cost there? I live in Ada County, Idaho,
[00:23:31] Unknown:
and it's not a super straightforward answer. Number one, we're in the West, so water is really what is gonna determine value of farmland. But number two, it's a rapidly growing county. But I did call, or text rather my friend Sky Root, who is a farmland manager and very, very, plugged in the area. He said just for basic farmland, farmland for farmland stake stake farmland for farmland stake, sake, excuse me, without del development potential, he said about $20,000 would be an acre here. Alright. Way higher than that for development. That is one of the highest,
[00:24:09] Unknown:
per acre values that we've ever had. I mean, you know, we we think 19, 18 is a lot, in Iowa, Illinois, but 20,000. I mean, I'll take it. I believe it. When you have when you're coming up against developers, that's what's gonna happen. So at 20,000, that means that, point $1.07 7 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of ground, or in other words, 1 Bitcoin would buy 5.62 acres in Ada County. How does this strike you, Tim?
[00:24:38] Unknown:
It makes me wish I would've, you know, been on the Bitcoin train a long time ago.
[00:24:45] Unknown:
So, you know, you're you are in tech. You are you've, heard me make the case. Where do you think Bitcoin could be in, let's just say, the next three to five years?
[00:24:55] Unknown:
Yeah. I gotta think that at some point, we'll be talking more about Satoshis than we will about Bitcoins because the price will seem just so, you know, unattainable. But, yeah, if if it starts to be where people want to hold their value and how they want to exchange their life energy, there is just no telling. I I you definitely have opened my eyes in our recent conversation. Not that I didn't know anything about Bitcoin before, but looking at it in a different way of, the one kind of finite, currency that can exist out there, it's
[00:25:33] Unknown:
it's definitely appealing. But I don't know. As far as the pricing go to, I have no idea. You know, I have started to say, I think that every membership driven organization that is helping farmers, quote, unquote, is, being, almost a Luddite if they aren't bringing somebody in to do a small tutorial, teach people how do you buy it and how do you move it to a wallet. This is going any group that does that for their membership is gonna give them an advantage, and their members are gonna flourish. And a year from then, five years from there, ten years from there, those members are gonna be so grateful that they were they were a part of that group, but it's not happening. I I'm talking to ad groups all over. There are very, very few groups that are doing Bitcoin,
[00:26:13] Unknown:
tutorials right now. Yeah. I think the mindset shift that I went through when talking to you is going from thinking, okay. This is just one way to speculate on a future to, okay. This is a way to engage with what could potentially be the new economy. And so, you either want to engage with that or you don't want to, and and I want to. So
[00:26:31] Unknown:
Well, there's a lot more to say here, but, we've got a hard deadline in thirty minutes. So let's move on to the Peter Thiel paradox, which is where I'm gonna ask Tim, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody you know agrees with you on?
[00:26:45] Unknown:
Yeah. I struggle with this. I thought about it a lot. I realized I have a lot of unpopular opinions, but opinions where I can find kinda little groups here and that that probably agree with me. One thing that came to mind, I honestly don't know who agrees with me, who doesn't, but I don't hear this talked about very much is, I actually think that organic standards are too low. I think the bar for organic is is too low. I think if we really wanna make the case that we can farm without chemicals and that, there is a market out there for people willing to pay it, I think we need to drastically raise the bar for what is considered organic, and that would include eliminating some of the kind of, like, fine print of, like, oh, but you can use this. Oh, but you can use that. Oh, but you can use this. And also restricting it to only domestic supply that we can actually, monitor, on some reasonable basis.
Then I think number one, organic premiums will go way up. It'll be harder to obtain certification, but it'll also mean something. And, I I don't know. I I'm not someone who shops at Whole Foods and eats strictly organic food, but I think if we're going to say there is a superior way to farm, then we should have to prove it with really higher standards. And that's probably unpopular with some people.
[00:27:55] Unknown:
Well, I tell you what. I I had never thought of that or hadn't thought of it in in that way, but I'm totally with you on this. You you've certainly won me over if I wasn't there to begin with. And, there are some really dirty secrets in the ag world. So, like, you mentioned, coming from without of the outside of the country, you know, there are tomato seeds that leave The United States. They go to Mexico. And surprise, when they come back as tomatoes, they went over as conventional, and now they're organic, and they're being sold for even more. You couldn't do that in The United States. You US farmers can't do that. So now you're participating in this, like, greenwashing cleaning. And I think a lot of people in the organic world say that the standards got lower when the USDA got involved, when it was the USDA set rules up, and then they set those rules up that made it so that the people that, you know, controlled policy were able to get their products through. Yep. And look. I if there's somebody out there farming by hand, using no chemicals whatsoever,
[00:28:54] Unknown:
to me, they deserve a higher premium than some, you know, corporate mega farm that is able to kind of color within the lines. And let's let's reward that for them. On the flip side, I think it will, take away some of the wind in the sales of, like, oh, if you're just organic, you're, you know, a 100% great because it it actually will have some bite behind the standard.
[00:29:15] Unknown:
Yeah. Alright. Well, I, I I appreciate that. That's a good one to think about. I'm gonna give you a a solid 7.5
[00:29:22] Unknown:
on that one. Okay. I'll take it. I'll take it.
[00:29:25] Unknown:
Moving on to the worthy adversary, Tim, who is one person that you respect but you strongly disagree with?
[00:29:33] Unknown:
Yeah. You asked some great questions because I struggle with this one as well. The the one that came to mind and he's the one who because on my Twitter feed, I always see posts that I'm like, oh, I don't is that is that what I I don't know that I believe that, is a guy, who goes by Aspiring Peasant. His name is Dave. We started following each other because we're both huge fans of Posterity Cider Works. Shout out to them, the best cider in the world made in, Calaveras County, California. But we are both kinda advocates for them, and so I started following him. He started following me. And I his first pinned tweet is, like, a 100% I agree with. It's like, my politics are grow your own food, be a good neighbor, buy local, read old books, strive less, simplify, slow down, make compost, cultivate earnest empathy, spend as much time with your family as possible, find the others, make friends, and support them, and don't be a dick. That that's his pinned tweet. I'm, like, okay. 100% on board with all those things. But, as he's tweeting about some political issues, I realized, like, how much my bubble is, is very, very limited. And he he's seeing things from a totally different angle. He's also a former Navy Seal. Seems like a great guy, but with some ideas that I sometimes struggle to to, resonate with fully. So it's it's good for me, the type of people I wanna follow on a on a platform like Gex. What are some of the types of ideas that you don't resonate with? Oh, you know oh, gosh. So I would say on the on the, political spectrum, certainly, the some of the localism ideas, I think, are a little bit idealistic as far as, like, we're all just gonna grow our own food and live locally and be happy.
And that's a bit of a straw man. That's not that doesn't encompass his point of view exactly, but that would be some places where I think we would probably disagree. On the political spectrum, you know, certainly,
[00:31:13] Unknown:
he would lean quite a bit further left, I would think, than I I would. I hate to I hate to make up somebody's argument for them. But, as I see posts I looked at his post. You Yeah. You're not just you're being fair. Yeah. Alright. I know that you have a hard stop, so I wanna quick throw this out there. If people wanted to learn more about your show or get involved with you, some of your other, work, where would they go to do that?
[00:31:37] Unknown:
Sure. Best place is just, you know, check out the podcast Future of Agriculture. Find me on LinkedIn or on x, or on x, Tim Hamrich. And, yeah, I would love to connect if, you're looking to kind of engage with more sort of independent ag media, advance while we're on that topic. I love what you're doing here. We need more media like this, and so I hope you continue doing this. Well, this is absolutely the truth. When I did your podcast, I heard from very serious people from all throughout agriculture, and I was like, man, Tim commands
[00:32:07] Unknown:
a, a really strong audience. So, I was honored to be on your show, and I'm glad you were willing to come on mine. Absolutely. It was fun. Have a good day, man. Alright. Well, we had a wonderful show. I am going to wrap up. I actually have a new video to show you. Many of you know that when I'm not doing legacy interviews, I'm, engaging. I go get give speeches about communication, about resolving problems that you can't see. And right now, there are a lot of conferences that are coming up. You know, you're if you're on a planning committee, if you're on a board, if you're a member of an organization, then, I would really appreciate it if you found that some of the things I talk about would be worthwhile to your organization to have me come talk about them. I'd love to do that. So I'm gonna show a video on the closeout of this. Also, legacy interviews, these are really speeding up. We are gonna have a very, very busy August and September, into October. And then, you know, as the holidays get started, we'll be doing more selling than recording interviews. But if you have been thinking about it, let me highly recommend, get on the list now. We are really getting busy. The other day, we had a couple of phone calls, and people were like, you really have that long of a wait list? Like, is there any way I can get in sooner?
And, I I hate talking to people like that because, you know, we wanna get those. We don't wanna make you feel the pressure of, like, you know you want it, but you haven't gotten it yet. So, definitely, if you are interested in having us do your legacy interview, go to legacyinterviews.com to find out more. Alright. I'm gonna show you this video of, the topic that I speak on called the man on the box, and then we'll see you next week. And as always, feel free to disagree. I was in the Peace Corps teaching Kenyan villagers how to prevent malaria. When one day, I was out competed by a snake oil salesman who stood on a box in the town square and told a better story.
I was devastated and spent the next ten years learning why people listen to him instead of me. In this talk, I share what I've found. I'll teach you how to tell your story, how to introduce yourself, how to talk about your organization and what you have to offer in ways that make people want to listen. So we will never again lose to the man on the box.
Introduction to the Ag Tribes Report
Trade Dispute at the US-Canada Border
USDA's Controversial Research Site Closure
Combating Flesh-Eating Screw Worms
GrowersEdge Acquires FarmTest
Bitcoin and Land Price Report
The Peter Thiel Paradox and Worthy Adversary
