Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report with your host, Vance Crowe. This week, we dive into the complexities of the agricultural world with our guest, Doug Whitehead, a Canadian farmer and trucker. Doug, a former ice trucker, running a trucking company, and farming in Canada.
Our discussion takes a deep dive into the deescalating trade war between the US and Canada. We examine the impact of tariffs on both sides of the border and the perspectives of Canadian farmers like Doug, who are navigating the uncertainties of trade policies. We also discuss the accusations from New Zealand, Australia, and US dairy farmers against Canada for dumping cheap milk globally, highlighting the tensions surrounding Canada's supply management system.
We then shift our focus to the US, where Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins is spearheading a billion-dollar initiative to curb egg prices amidst the bird flu crisis. Doug shares that there is no bird flu prevalent in Canada.
In a segment on Canadian patriotism, we question whether the recent surge in national pride is genuine or performative, especially in light of external pressures like US tariffs. Doug shares his thoughts on the political landscape in Canada and the potential implications of these tensions.
We also explore the Bitcoin land price report, comparing the value of Bitcoin to the cost of farmland in Canada. Doug, a Bitcoin enthusiast, shares his journey into cryptocurrency and his views on the future of digital currencies.
Finally, we delve into the Peter Thiel paradox, where Doug challenges the conventional thinking within his farming community, and discuss the importance of questioning scientific consensus in agriculture. We wrap up with a conversation about raw milk and its potential health benefits, reflecting Doug's commitment to personal and agricultural health.
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 are Legacy Interviews guests, Mark and Stephanie Mendenhall, on the unexpected ease of their experience.
[00:00:18] Unknown:
What'd you guys think? How was it? Much easier than I expected. Yep.
[00:00:22] Unknown:
Much easier. You made us feel very comfortable. Was this something that weighed on you for a while? He had her ideas. We looked at it and said, well, we'll just wing it. Because, you know, you give this list to figure it out, this out, and figure this out. Oh, well. We didn't get that done. What what we remember, we remember, and what we forgot, we tell the kids later. Tomorrow, I'll say, god, why didn't I tell this story? Or why didn't I tell them about this? You do a good job of asking questions.
[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.
[00:01:06] Unknown:
Welcome to the Ag Tribes Report. I'm your host, Vance Crow. Each week, I bring on a co host that represents one perspective of the many ag tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This week, we have the one and only only Doug Whitehead, a Canadian farmer and trucker who sold peas at church, rants about grain prices and Trudeau, and believes the food system's rigged unless you fight back. Doug did some ice trucking in the past and is one of my favorite people I met as a result of starting my podcast more than five years. Doug, it is my great pleasure you to welcome you to the Ag Tribes Report. Well, thanks for having me, Vance. It's awesome to be here. So how are things in Canada?
[00:01:47] Unknown:
Well, it's, starting to warm up, so it's nice now. It's been a long winter. It felt like I said, I don't know if I'm getting old or soft or what, but felt like it was a long cold winter. And, it's nice to see the other side of it. Days are getting longer and the sun's feeling warm.
[00:02:01] Unknown:
And to warm yourself up over this winter, you did, not one, but two fifty k's.
[00:02:07] Unknown:
Well, the first one didn't warm me up because I did it in Falcon Lake, Manitoba. So that was 50 k outside. And then the second one I did a couple weeks ago in Alabama.
[00:02:17] Unknown:
And so, day in and day out, what do you how do you spend your time, Doug?
[00:02:21] Unknown:
Wintertime is a little bit slower. We me and my younger brother run a trucking company. We have seven trucks on the road full time. So I do all the dispatching. He works in the shop. He keeps things rolling. And, then we've we've got some jobs on the like, we're hauling our own grain, and we, we do some intercrop, on our farms. We go oats and peas together, and we're separating that. That took, I had to wait for the nicer weather for that. So that took about two or three weeks, I guess, separating intercrop. And that's all done now, and we're kinda ready to get some grain cleaned up and then think about seeding in month and a half here, I
[00:02:56] Unknown:
guess. Wild to think that seeding is just around the corner. Alright. This week on the Ag Tribes report, we are going to explore the deescalating trade war with, Canada. Trump at the last moment changed all my plans to talk about tariffs, but we still got a lot to say. We're also gonna dig into claims that from New Zealand, Australia, and US Dairy Farmers accusing Canada of dumping cheap milk globally, spotlighting the tensions over their supply management system. Then we're gonna look at, ag secretary, Brooke Rollins, one billion dollar push, to curb egg prices, due to bird flu. And lastly, we're gonna talk about, Canadian patriotism sparked by Trump's tariff threats. We're gonna ask the question, is this, hype or is this a gen a a genuine thing going on with Canada? We're also going to explore, the Bitcoin land price report. We're gonna hear Doug's take on the Peter Thiel paradox and ask about his worthy adversary, and we're gonna do that all in just thirty minutes.
If you are watching the podcast live, don't forget you can comment, on x and, and other platforms, and we will include your comments on here. So let's get started. Trade war tariffs, impacting ag on both sides of The US Canada border. What I was preparing to talk about was the fact that we were gonna see massive 25% tariffs and then retaliatory tariffs and then maybe even, moving them up again, between The US and Canada. And, everybody knows The US, sells a lot of commodities up to Canada. Canada sells a huge percentage of their commodities down to The United States. And, and, of course, The United States needs a lot of inputs from Canada in order to be as productive as we are. But, Trump said just a few hours ago that the they're gonna put a pause on these tariffs.
So let's talk a little bit about what Canadians' perspective was on these tariffs. How did they feel about what was going on? What did you expect was gonna happen, Doug?
[00:04:57] Unknown:
Well, to to really expect anything, it's kinda hard because was this the third time we've had now from tariffs on, tariffs off, tariffs on, tariffs off? I mean, just personally, I guess, like, we have some oats for sale, and I'm trying to sell them, but they can't get a bid on old crop oats. That's typically our oats go to Minneapolis to the millers general mills or quaker oats down there. And and the buyers, they aren't fully bought up through summer, but they're not they're no bed right now waiting on tariff concerns, I guess. So maybe that'll change tomorrow. I don't know. But, yeah. That's
[00:05:34] Unknown:
Well, I definitely saw American farmers talking about, you know, you you bring up milling. Greg Gunthorpe, Jason Mach, all these people were talking about how potentially the tariffs make it possible for small scale US milling. So you could start to have people that are growing smaller scale being able to mill, but at, the current, you know, global trade made it so Canada could produce,
[00:05:58] Unknown:
things like flour so much cheaper that it didn't pay to have milling here in The United States. I think there are some American farmers that are a little bit disappointed that the tariffs aren't on. Yeah. Maybe. I'd I'd I wonder how much that is just a function of American farmers don't wanna change their their cropping plans. Like, that's maybe a different category altogether, but, like, guys grow corn and soybeans because that's what the government pays them to grow. And they're not gonna grow wheat just because they can mill their own wheat. Like, that's hard work and low margins, and you gotta find your own you make your own business and find your ends end users. And it it's no different than the guys that are, like, how many guys have started their own, butcher shops and it didn't work out because it's either the government gets in the way or you don't you don't find the markets or you're competing with JBS and the big boys. Like, there's big boys in the milling space too, and they're not gonna they're not gonna take kindly to somebody else stealing their margins.
[00:06:49] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, I think that, tariffs, my impression of tariffs is that it can really help a country for a short amount of time. And then all of a sudden, the tariffs, instead of helping make you be like, hey, we're gonna start up our own milling process, hey, we're gonna change the the butchering laws, all of a sudden it also means you don't have competition. So you can get lazy, you don't necessarily have to produce. So to me, my read on economics is that tariffs have a short term impact, and long term, it it causes, stagnation.
[00:07:20] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, I wonder, like, the the goal of the tariffs is that you and then the idea is that they can lower taxes, right, in in the states that they can they offset one with the other. So in Canada, we love taxes, and we love love high taxes. So that's maybe that's why we hate tariffs is because they don't wanna lower taxes from our government's perspective.
[00:07:40] Unknown:
Well and from what Americans talk about, they say Canadians have a ton of tariffs on things and that when we try and send stuff over to you, you guys do make it more expensive for our producers to be able to make it work in your country. Yeah. That's true too. Yeah. There has been the the all the supply managed systems are all all tariffed, and they've been those tariffs have been on for for decades. Well, speaking of price changing, let's move on to headline number two, Canada accused of dumping dairy products by rival exporters. From Bloomberg, as of January 15, dairy companies in New Zealand, Australia, and The US have accused Canada of dumping low price milk products into global markets, urging their governments to intervene. The Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand along with industry groups from the other nations claim that Canada's supply management system artificially under prices surplus milk, disrupting dairy markets. This follows reports of Canada wasting nearly 7,000,000,000 liters of milk since 2012 valued at, 14,900,000,000.0 while exporting 500,000,000 in dairy products in 2023.
So the other countries are saying, hey. You guys are making it so your prices are are artificially propped up. And, when you talk to US Dairy Farmer, Dwayne Faber, he says Canada will literally push their entire country into a depression before pulling the 280% tariff off of, imported dairy products. Dairy Doug, you are a consumer of dairy in Canada. Does Canada supply management, how does that feel to you?
[00:09:14] Unknown:
Well, I mean, it it's I don't know. It's been that way my whole life, so I guess I don't really I don't know. No. I I've been drinking raw milk lately, so I have a source for that. I guess that maybe I shouldn't shouldn't say that publicly, but it's it's supposed to be it's supposed to be good. I haven't got sick yet. So it's good. Yeah. I mean, one thing I can say about the, the managed dairy is that,
[00:09:36] Unknown:
it is a very small but very vocal group of people. And whenever you bring it up, they I will I will hear from people for weeks after this about how I need to talk to this person or that person in order to get a fair shake on the on the, what they call, the, you know, the dairy cartel. Yeah. But it seems like they are definitely propping up prices by, one, putting out tokens. My understanding is there's basically a system where not just anybody can start dairying. You have to get a token from the government. A quota system, I call it. A quota system. Yeah. And then that quota making it so they can't over produce. Whereas in The United States, if you get a dairy farm, you're gonna try try and produce as much milk as you possibly can, and that's gonna bring the price down to the the marginal cost of production. Yep. For sure. It's it's got a lot to do with Canada being so split between the East and the West because the majority of that dairy
[00:10:25] Unknown:
that they have all the political will power on their side. There's there's dairies across the West as well. And I guess I should have looked up what the percentages of that are, but you always hear it's the dairy, the Quebec dairy farms that let it go, and they have all the pull in the government.
[00:10:41] Unknown:
Yeah. I did. I have a a Canadian friend that told me one time that, she thought that, there was a chance that the tariffs actually would really rip Canada apart because if Quebec lost something like its supply management, it would cause them to, to further put fan the flames towards secession, and then that secession push would make the broader government vulnerable to, say, the West going into secession. And so some of this push by Trump might be a way to, continue to sow, disunity inside of the country. How does that fit with your understanding?
[00:11:17] Unknown:
It feels right. I mean, the the you hear all about the Alberta secession. Just talk of it, I guess. And, like, Quebec had a referendum in the nineties, I think, to to leave and narrowly stayed within Canada. So that's been ongoing for thirty years now. Yeah. I mean, everybody gets mad about the fifty first state propaganda and then but it's already had been happening for thirty years talking about breaking up the country. So I don't know. These lines on the they're just lines on a map. They're made to be redrawn.
[00:11:51] Unknown:
Oh, boy. You are saying some fighting words to some Canadians. We'll get back to that because I wanna talk about, about whether the the wave of patriotism is real or not. But moving on to headline three, secretary Rollins is plans to bring down the price of eggs. I wanna play this clip here. This is, played at the White House, just yesterday regarding secretary Rollins.
[00:12:16] Unknown:
Egg crisis in this country. The president is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring we're increasing our egg supply, and we're also bringing down cost. And secretary Rollins has been all over this issue. She comes from an agricultural background and family. That's why she's leading that very important department. She wrote an amazing op ed in the Wall Street Journal. She's been all over the media talking about her plan. She has a real plan. The president endorses it. And he even, you know, gave her an off the prompter shout out last night to say, Brooke, I'm counting on you. It's an important issue, and this White House is working with secretary of agriculture every single day, to address this issue.
[00:12:52] Unknown:
So when I hear that, it just kinda further the flames of my belief that so far secretary Rollins has only been a super FFA officer, and I don't know if that means anything to you. But, she's been going to a lot of places. She's been waving, her hand a lot. She's been saying, hey. We're working on things, and we're so so excited to be working together, but not a lot of plans. However, she is gonna get a billion dollars to spend on this. So last week, we brought this up. There's been a little bit more details about it. 400,000,000 to, help farmers, repopulate flocks that have been killed, 500,000,000 for biosecurity, 100,000,000 for research including vaccines, and, and they're gonna try and do just a ton more build out. So, this is all going on with the backdrop of Elon Musk tweeting that, the Biden administration is the cause of the bird flu, saying that, it was the Biden administration basically being way overzealous on how many birds they killed, egg laying hens, and, that's why we have, an egg shortage. It's, not necessarily something we need to spend a billion dollars on. It's just something that we caused ourselves.
What about, Canada, Doug? Is are you guys experiencing wild prices in eggs due to bird flu?
[00:14:07] Unknown:
No. It hasn't changed anything here. Like, eggs are a supply managed system in Canada. They're under the quota system as well. So and I've never heard any talk about bird flu in any of the barns that I I don't firsthand talk to any egg producers, but I know
[00:14:23] Unknown:
egg prices are just it's it's never really been talked about here. It's wild to me that it is not a not a problem there that you guys aren't hearing it talked about. I mean, here, you run the spectrum of people being like, this is a catastrophic problem. I wanna I heard a guy talking about how he went on, a bird hunt a couple of maybe a month or two ago, and that everywhere they went, there would be all kinds of dead, wild, fowl and then waterfowl. And then on the other hand, you hear people on x saying, hey, no. This is just a a man made crisis. Either the government is the one that killed all those or they're faking the disease. And then even more than that, you hear people talking about this is a man made disease that came out of a law a lab in, in Georgia. They wouldn't do that.
What do you think? What's what's your sense on the realness of this issue?
[00:15:16] Unknown:
I I I there probably is a disease go up that's gotten into like, you get into those, those barns, like, they're any, like, close confinement barns or whatever. There's there's million chickens in a small barn. You get one little bug that goes through. It can spread through that like wildfire and how to determine where you start your call and where you end your call. You probably gotta be overzealous on calling to get them all. You kill a bunch of healthy birds to kill the bob, kill the sick ones. I think it probably makes sense from a a standpoint of if if the disease is there, that that's how you call things. You you gotta kill them all, basically. Like, next barn because then you just you just it's just a it's a wildfire literally, right?
[00:15:59] Unknown:
Yeah. And and there's something truly dark about, needing to cull animals. I remember during COVID when they had to kill all those pigs because there just wasn't anybody there to cut them up. Yeah. With bird flu, you gotta say, are, you know, are we, erring on the side of caution in order to preserve this, or can you go too far? I know I heard people complaining about, how the circles drawn around these, egg laying hens was so large that that, you know, they're doing major biosecurity where they don't allow people to work in multiple barns, and so why are you killing these birds and maybe they went over the top, but Yeah. You know, I'm I'm I'm also understanding of, like, if you're gonna nip this thing in the bud, you gotta go all the way.
[00:16:39] Unknown:
Yeah. It's really hard to know how how severe this this, virus is or whatever it was that was going through. I remember, hundred colony in Alberta and they had to call a bunch of birds because, there's no demand for the eggs for their laying hens and they had to they had to call birds that were of laying age because there's no use for them.
[00:17:00] Unknown:
Man, I don't have you seen the way they call birds for this bird flu where they put that foam in there? No. Oh, man. It is truly out of, like, a dystopian Oh. Movie because they start putting the foam in on one side of the barn and it rolls just like the fog or the mist over these birds, and then it basically suffocates them. And it's supposed to be the most humane way to do it, but I I watched one and I was like, that's the stuff of nightmares there, right, because you the sound of a of a of a hen house is really loud, and then it just gets quieter and quieter and quieter. It's dark. It's dark. Yeah. Alright. On to headline number four. This was suggested by Doug. So Canadian audiences, I have very little opinion here. I mean, yes, I mean, when he's about to say You have no opinion.
It is controversial. Canadian patriotism over tariffs, is it real or is it hype? There has been a noticeable surge in discussions about the newfound Canadian patriotism, especially in response to external pressures, like The US President Trump's policies, like the 25% tariffs in the fifty first state. The Calgary Herald on February 14 highlighted a title wave of national pride with Canadian flags selling out and patriotism becoming a buzzword, then but on the other hand, the the globe and mail, they also wrote dramatic changes in a short time with Canadian historically favoring quieter patriotism now waving flags more feverantly than ever. The hub, however, takes a more skeptical stance, site arguing that patriotism feels performative, more like tourists jumping on a trend than a sustained commitment to national responsibility.
Doug, you are there on the ground. Is it fake or is it real patriotism?
[00:18:49] Unknown:
Well, yeah. Every with everything there's nuance to it. Right? But I think one thing our government is really good at is speaking in platitudes and, and talking down to its citizens. I don't know if you maybe didn't see Trudeau today. Just today, he was he was on something and he was crying, crying, literally crying on it, saying how he has Canadians' backs and he always has. And for the last ten years, he's done everything to, preserve Canada. And and then, now we've got these tariffs. And one of the funny things about these tariffs is that so it it's 25% tariff and say it costs it makes everything cost 25% more. We also have a carbon tax in Canada that's going up April 1 by another $15 a ton.
It's at $90 now and goes up to $105 in in April and that could be canceled with the stroke of a pen. So they were truly worried about Canadians' pocketbooks and and having some sustainability in this country. All they had to do is cancel this carbon tax. It it does absolutely nothing. It
[00:19:51] Unknown:
Yeah. And it's gonna get wild in The US if they really can cut out a lot of the carbon, nonsense that's gone on that's really hampered a lot of industry. You're gonna watch US companies just rocket forward while your companies and just individual taxpayers are being, you know, knuckled down by this, carbon tax, which is I mean, I think it's bad in The US, but Canada's is way worse. Yeah. It's insane. I I I saw it did a lot of 3 or 4¢ a liter to price a gasoline
[00:20:18] Unknown:
at the pump, once it goes up. So that's in addition to what it is now. It's 20¢ a liter or whatever it is right now of carbon tax on price of gas. So the people that are, you know,
[00:20:29] Unknown:
booing at the national anthem and, pushing back against the fifty first state. Is this, you know, is it could it be split between right and left, the west and east? Is there a semblance of order to it? Does it make sense? Is it is it a growing thing or just kind of it hit a fever pitch and it's gone now? Yeah. It's it's it's hard to I don't know. It sure seems like it's you always wanna blame the left and you wanna blame
[00:20:54] Unknown:
the the East, I guess. But, I mean, that that is where they were booing the national anthem. But I don't even go to hockey in Winnipeg, and they would do the national anthem there too because that's where all the left leading people live in in in Manitoba. I don't know. It just doesn't make sense to me. It just it feels so fake. Like, I I like referencing the book catcher in the rye and Holden. He calls everybody phonies. Everybody all the people in charge are phonies. They're all phonies, and it feels like that in our government. They're just they're just they're just fake. Everything's fake. Like, it's all performative. And, there's just so many things that we forgot about now too. Like, the the one note I made was just the the fiscal deficit. They they're supposed to come up with the the budget in November, I think it was. And and it was a $45,000,000,000 deficit.
And the finance minister Freeland quit or got fired or however that went down just before reading out this budget. So then there are a couple more days after that getting out, and it came in at $62,000,000,000 deficit. So they're 50% over their deficit, and nobody wanna do it. Nobody's taking accountability for that. Like, it's that's brushed under the table, and now we're just booing The US national anthem because it's just platitudes. Like, it's something we can do that doesn't mean anything. Nobody's gonna have to erase. It's like having a Ukraine flag in your Twitter
[00:22:13] Unknown:
bio. And you can just I stand with Ukraine. Okay. Do you? Like Yeah. You sending your kids over there to fight? You're gonna put boots on the ground? Nobody is. Right? Yeah. You know, everybody talks about Trump potentially either being, you know, like like, see people perceive him as being a bumbling idiot or playing four d chess. But the guy I think is playing four d chess is Trudeau because he went from being completely ousted to being like, for real guys, I'm gonna quit. To now, it's like your elections aren't scheduled. He's still running the country. Is it like it it seemed like the pressure came off of him because he was retiring. This is a guy that has figured out how to play that game.
[00:22:51] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, it's hard to argue with that. It's it's it's crooked and awful as it is. And then they'll they'll bring Carney in who is just part of the the group. Like, he's he's the he was the central banker in Canada for a while, and then he went to the Bank of England and ran that central bank. So he's you know, all about central banks and how those people operate. So he's coming back and he's probably gonna become the PM next, I guess. Like, I don't know if we have an election. I don't know when that like, that was one thing that Trump had said. Like, he was mad at Trudeau. Like, you can't even tell me when your next election's gonna be. How's that a democracy?
[00:23:23] Unknown:
Yeah. One of the biggest things that I've learned is I never really comment on Canadian politics because I can't explain how any of your parliament works, your elections, nothing. So what do I have to say about it? Alright, that's gonna do it for our headlines this week. If you have headlines, it is so helpful if you send them to me on x at Vance Crowe or [email protected]. Now we are going to head to the Bitcoin land price report. This is where we, really discover what is the price of land. Last week, Bitcoin was down all the way at $84,369 at that low, low price on sale. Today, we're sitting at $89,295 which is up 6%.
And, if we convert it for Canadian friends, one, Bitcoin will cost you a hundred and 27,589, Canadian dollars. And so when we start to compare that to farm ground, Doug, how much is an acre of high quality farm ground in your county?
[00:24:26] Unknown:
We're, our province of of Roland is in the Red River Valley, Manitoba. So it'd be somewhere around $12,000 Canadian an acre here.
[00:24:37] Unknown:
And so, in other words, 1 Bitcoin oh, so one acre of ground will cost you 0.094 Bitcoin. In other words, 1 Bitcoin will buy you 10.6 acres of land in the Red River Valley Of Manitoba.
[00:24:52] Unknown:
How does that, how does that sit with you, Doug? That's cool. I mean, you can buy a nice yard nice yard site for for 1 Bitcoin. Are you a Bitcoiner in the Canadians around you? Is anybody into Bitcoin? Yeah. A few guys. I've got a few of my friends that are shitcoiners. So I've we have the con we have the chirps about that. I'm a I'm a maxi Bitcoin maxi for sure. I don't I don't touch shitcoins. I've lost so much money on pump and dumps and all the other bullshit investing that I've done that I'm I'm not playing with with any of the other ones. So, yeah, I I own I've been I started buying Bitcoin about three years ago, I guess, and I've been stacking it and I I have it off chain on the cold wallet. And I know when it's Oh, you're singing my language. I should give you some for for all because I haven't got into the raspberry or the, nodes. I haven't gotten that far yet.
[00:25:39] Unknown:
So for anybody that doesn't know, what Doug is saying about shitcoins is and I think if you're not a Bitcoiner, you're like, wait, that's not being fair. How can you say that? Why would Bitcoin be the good one in these other ones? But what most Bitcoiners, once they've really studied it, begin to understand is these other coins that are out there, they are issued by somebody or a group of people. And the group of people will say, all right, we're gonna issue a coin. We're gonna do, like an an an initial coin offering, but we're gonna do some pre mine. Meaning, we're gonna keep back 10%, twenty %, fifty % of the of the coins that we're gonna put out there. We're just gonna hold those ourselves. We aren't gonna pay for them. We're just gonna have them, And then we're gonna put these out to the market. And then when they decide, hey. We're gonna try and run this up, and then we're gonna dump our stack. So they make these they call them pump and dumps. And there's all these stupid games that these people play. Whereas Bitcoin, that can't be done. Bitcoin started as they call it the immaculate conception.
It was, once the paper came out, people could go mine Bitcoin and there was no, no group that it's got the certain pre mine, nobody can control it. And, another interesting fact about Bitcoin is since there is no central issuer, if a transaction happens that people don't like, there's no reversing it. Whereas in all these other coins, Ethereum, Ripple, if they don't like a transaction that's happened, they can go, oh, why don't we rewind the tape and we'll do it another and and move these coins over here or reverse that transaction. And to Bitcoiners, we say that makes it not safe. It makes it always vulnerable to either a group of individuals or a government coming in and dominating that thing. And so if you compare Bitcoin to all the other ones, they are shit. Bitcoin is the only one. Yeah. Yeah. You How does that strike you? Good explanation?
[00:27:27] Unknown:
Yeah. I love it. Yeah. You you don't get the opportunity to roll it back. It's the guys in charge that do, and you're not gonna be the one in charge.
[00:27:34] Unknown:
Exactly. And, I mean, we're gonna see tomorrow, what the White House is gonna say about, you know, how they're gonna have a crypto strategy for the future. I am, not hopeful. I'd I'm not excited about this. I think that it's likely there's gonna be a bunch of, these shit coins getting propped up by the US government. I don't really know how I feel about the government spending US dollars to buy, Bitcoin, but I do think, like, it just goes to show that Bitcoin is here to stay for a very long time. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Are they still auditing Fort Knox then and trade some of that in for Bitcoin or what? Gosh. I hope so, man. Who knows what's going on with Fort Knox? I do think they are gonna do that. I think it's been a fun thing for everybody to keep in the news. Alright. Now if we're gonna keep on schedule, let's do the Peter Thiel paradox. This is where I asked Doug, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody in your tribe agrees with you on? Well, I wrote down here
[00:28:28] Unknown:
farmers are farmers are largely hypocrites, but maybe maybe I should say, like, lazy thinkers cause that's Woah. But I I I'm gonna include myself in all of this too. So, like, we we we one of the big ones is we don't trust any of the COVID science. Like PCR testing, that was the wrong test at the wrong time at the wrong cycle thresholds. We, the masking, you know, one mask, two masks, no mask, all the masks. However, whatever, And then, like, ventilators, are they good or they bad or like, all the science around it. Did did it come from a lab? Is it, like a leak or how did how did it show up? But then we go and we spray chemicals on our fields and there's labels on them. And the chem company says it's safe. So we spray that chemical on our field and it's good. But I mean, all through history, you can go, like, I've, I've read silent spring this winter about the history of DDT essentially, and, like, that was used on everything at one time in the sixties. And then it was it was banned after it was killing people. And and now there's a chemical, Gramoxone with the active paraquat that's been banned in Canada to have linked linked to Parkinson's, and it's still used in The States.
There's Atrazine's another big one. Like, we use that up to two, three years ago. It's still legal. You guys are still using it in your corn as as a herbicide. It's it's an option. That's it's legal. Like it's on label. There's no FDA required or I guess I should say, whatever the Canadian version of FDA is that it's it's all legal. It's all on label, but I don't know. Like how how can we trust one set of science, but the other set that's not convenient to us?
[00:30:12] Unknown:
I think you're bringing up a really good point. And, you know, there was a time there where, I worked a lot in this space with, hey, we as a society have to come to some agreement about how we will decide what is the evidence that we have that something is true. And if we don't have that, then it's just a free for all. Then it's just, hey, whoever is the strongest gets to make the choice or whoever is the loudest. And the problem is that trust the science got horribly abused. Yeah. And, so it's very easy for whether it's farmers or people like me to be like, you know what? I don't believe in any of that shit. Like, maybe I don't believe in, you know, I don't believe in mRNA vaccines. Maybe I don't believe in vaccines at all. Maybe I don't believe, you know, to your point earlier about, you know, they said pasteurized milk is really good. Well, maybe raw milk is really good. Yeah. So I think it's good to be able to question things. That's the core of science. But at the end of the day, we there is got there's got to be a thing that we agree on that leads us to an, answers to complicated questions that we can say, this is we're doing the best we can with what we know. And right now, science has been put in a wood chipper, and it it may be generations before we get that back. Yeah. And it's it's a it's a reputation I deserve too because I was wrong on a lot of it. And
[00:31:31] Unknown:
and, just very wholly about how there it's the science. The science is settled. Right? That's the that, like, you heard how many times did you hear that? It's the trust the science. And the science was wrong. I mean, glyphosate's the next big one to to go down. I mean, we're still using glyphosate on our farm, but we're trying to use we're trying to use less. We're we're growing different crops where you can use less. We're using fulvic acid and and other strategies where you can you can cut back your your percentage of actives on your on your crop and doing fewer passes and but we're still using it. And Yeah. I mean, we like, there's something going on with our food system, and people are looking around and saying, is it this, is it that? And I think my hypothesis I'm not sure if I said this in the egg drives report yet or not, but
[00:32:16] Unknown:
I think that farmers may not get glyphosate banned. But what may happen is that the FDA says, you know, you can only have, you know, one part per trillion of glyphosate in your Wheaties or in your Cheerios and, oh, nope. All of these Wheaties get thrown out. And what that will mean is anybody that's growing wheat north of, I don't know, Nebraska is not gonna be able to do it because they use glyphosate to do dry down and there's always gonna be a little bit of residuals. It's going to radically change agriculture, even if it isn't banned, even if it's legal to use, but just not,
[00:32:52] Unknown:
acceptable in food grade systems. Well, I'm not assuming people are gonna follow the rules then too.
[00:32:58] Unknown:
Yeah. That's right. And I mean and then there's just so much going on that once we broke our trust in science,
[00:33:06] Unknown:
there's there's no telling where things will go. Even things that are safe will get thrown out with the bath water on this one. Yeah. This is almost like calling the chicken herd. Right? We're gonna throw out all the chemicals that and some of them are fine probably. And and but it's it's the fact that, yeah, they they they ruined everybody's trust in their system and and that you just you can't trust what you heard or to hear.
[00:33:29] Unknown:
Yeah. I guess, that's kinda like the slow foam coming towards us. We're all gonna get choked out. Well, I think that you did a good job on that one. I initially did not agree with your bombastic statement, but I think, I think you get an eight seven on this one. It's good. Yeah. Crosby. I love it. Alright. So now headed to the, worthy adversary. This is where I ask Doug, who is one person that you respect but strongly disagree with?
[00:33:58] Unknown:
So, yeah, this is always a fun one too. It's it's fun to see what people come up with and why they why they pick certain things. But I I I said, Gabe Brown, I guess. Farmer from Bismarck, North Dakota. Do you know who he is? No. Go on. Tell me about him. He's he's like a pioneer in the regenerative ag movement. He's got a I think they call it 5,000 acre farm with livestock integration and, intercropping. And I I don't know intercropping, but, cover cropping and, farm to gate, like, sales, like selling flower and, lives like, pasture raised lamb and beef and pork and all this Doing a lot of great things.
But I went I went and listened to him speak once. I don't know. Pre COVID days. So it's funny how you mentioned things as COVID and pre COVID now. And he's just, like, a overweight, unhealthy looking guy, and he's there lecturing me on how to farm and make healthy things. And, I did I did and then and it just it just rubbed me the wrong way. Like, he's he always had a slide that my farm here's my my field is, like, how green and healthy it is, and here's my neighbors, and it's terrible because he doesn't farm the way I do. So I just don't think that he was selling the the message of regenerative ag properly. It's just it just turned people off. He turned me off, and I'm in the same same space as he is. Like, I believe a lot of the same principles in soil health and how you regenerate regenerate your land and grow healthy crops and but you you can't do it by talking down to people and and then they're just gonna argue with you and and, disagree.
[00:35:37] Unknown:
I can Wow. That's a that's a good one, and it's one that you believe in. I I saw these kinds of things. Like, when I was working at Monsanto, they had hired a a dietitian to go out and talk with other dietitians about the health of, you know, certain types of pesticides and GMOs, and the guy is super nice but morbidly obese. Yeah. And you would say, like, any any, like, mom that you're trying to talk into that you're kind of making fun of, these yoga moms or these crunchy moms that are, you know, believe in all the pseudo science. Well, they're fit and and healthy, and you're not, and it's very difficult for you to be able to stand on anything, because,
[00:36:16] Unknown:
you know, your your figure, your physique is giving you away. Yeah. I mean, it's the first thing people look at. Right? And it's go back to, like, there's a Rogan episode with that Peter Hotez, the the, vaccine guy, and Rogan grills him on, like, what are you do you work out? Do you eat well? And he's like, no. I like Twinkies and but take the vaccine. You need the shot because that's the only way. And for for me, I have a I have a, like, a autoimmune disorder of arthritis and something I've dialed my whole life. And so I kinda take it a little more to heart, like, how you need to look after your own health. Like, I spent a lot of years not being healthy, like party in and doing that kind of stuff through my twenties and a lot of my thirties. And then I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. So I did something about it. I started lifting weights and eating healthy and looking after what you put in your body. And and then it just kinda transformed my mindset with the farm too. I couldn't have one without the other. I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't farm conventionally and and then also complain about having a health ailment. Like, I I just couldn't
[00:37:13] Unknown:
square that that, circle or whatever, I guess. And you said you've been, drinking raw milk. I I'm super interested in this, but I've not yet tried it. Could you tell in a blind taste test raw milk?
[00:37:25] Unknown:
I don't think so. I I honestly haven't drank regular milk for years. I haven't been it's you probably could because it's a little bit creamy. I yeah. I don't know. It'd be I think you probably could because it's it's quite fat. So I think you'd be able to tell the creaminess. Maybe if you had, like, a whole like, what's, like, 3% or whatever pasteurized milk, it might be similar maybe. But it doesn't taste it doesn't taste it doesn't have a gamey taste or, like, it doesn't that's what some people warned me about. It has a raw milk taste, but I couldn't couldn't tell that. And what made you decide to make this decision? Actually, before you say this, you may not be able to tell from Doug. He ran 50 k's.
[00:37:59] Unknown:
I got to meet him up in Canada. He is a monster of a man, like, super physically fit. So this is no joke here. I'm I'm and whatever Doug's doing, I'm I'm open to learning about for myself. But what made you decide to do raw milk? Just that it's got the healthy
[00:38:15] Unknown:
microbiome to it. Like, it's not pass the pasteurization process kills all the all the, enzymes and the any any kind of, biology that's in milk that like, that's the whole point of milk is that is that it it, feeds young animals, like, gets them growing. Right? That's the the whole point of milk in the first place. So when you're pasteurizing that you're killing all the enzymes out of it and then you just have a, adult products that that doesn't have the biologically good things that we go getting back to the science where you don't. It's hard to really quantify a lot of that stuff because we don't know a lot of these microorganisms and that's getting into the soil health side of things too. There's so many, bacteria and fungi that we don't even know in in the soil. And we're sterilizing the soil a lot of the times and killing all that stuff that we don't even really know exists. But that that's just that's why I started drinking the raw milk and I have a a a person I know if she's able to get it for him so it's quite easy.
[00:39:09] Unknown:
You got a dealer.
[00:39:12] Unknown:
Is it illegal in Canada? I guess I think so. Yeah. I think they're not allowed to sell it. Like, there's I I don't know. Because I don't the cops come here and catch me drinking raw milk. I don't know what's gonna happen. But
[00:39:23] Unknown:
Well, I think that, the raw milk problem in The United States definitely turned the tide of, quite a few Amish people and brought brought them out. So it changed the course of the future and I think that, it's gonna be a bigger and bigger part of,
[00:39:36] Unknown:
certainly US Agriculture and it sounds like maybe Canadian agriculture too. It's just that that's a one of the biggest things is the endocrine system in people and having unhealthy endocrine system because that that's what controls your hormones. And then I mean, there's certainly no shortage of of hormonal problems in in the world these days, whether it's, gender dysphoria or or depression or any anything like that, any kind of mental issues. It's all it's it's all hormone related. It's a hormone due to hormone imbalance, and hormones are all driven by what's in your gut and and your your endocrine system, your intestines. And so anything you can do to get better bacteria, healthier bacteria in your in your gut health is
[00:40:15] Unknown:
Well, Doug, this has been absolutely fantastic. I will add your worthy adversary to my, to my list of worthy adversaries on x. If, people wanted to follow you, interact with you, decide to run a 50 k with you, where where should they go?
[00:40:30] Unknown:
I'll come to my house probably the easiest way. I go on I'm on Twitter. Right? I don't post that often. I think I'm Doug w zero three three on Twitter. And I post on Instagram most of my fitness stuff. In Twitter, I try and keep the farm stuff. It seems like those platforms are more meant for that, meant for each other. But yeah. That that's yeah. Follow me on Twitter, I guess, if you want. Well, I needed a Canadian for this big day that was going on. And, man, I'm so excited to hear you, continuing to go with, Bitcoin, and this has been a blast. Thanks for coming on, Doug. Yeah. It's been a blast, Vance. I've it's it's been awesome getting to know you and through the legacy interview process and my Oh, that's that's right. Your parents did it. Yeah. My my parents still talk about it. It was I gave it to them for Christmas a few years ago, I guess, and they made a whole adventure of it and toured down to Saint Louis and hung out with Vance for a day or maybe two days even, and they they still talk. It was the best thing best present I've ever given anybody.
[00:41:23] Unknown:
Well, wonderful. I'll I'll take that. And, if you're interested in learning more about legacy interviews, go to legacyinterviews.com. And if you're interested in taking me up on getting some Satoshis, download the River app. You can do that by, I'll I'll post a link to River on my, on the end on the show notes. And there, you can download the app and send me a receive address, and I will send you a hundred and 25 satoshis. And, then you can have them, you can play them with them, you can shoot them over to your friends. Check it out, river.com has been a great partner for the show. That's gonna do it for this week. We will be back next week.
Not sure who we'll have on. We're gonna focus on whatever's going on in the world. But, as always, feel free to disagree.
Introduction to the Ag Tribes Report
Meet Doug Whitehead: Canadian Farmer and Trucker
Deescalating Trade War with Canada
Canada Accused of Dumping Dairy Products
Egg Price Crisis and Bird Flu
Canadian Patriotism Over Tariffs: Real or Hype?
Bitcoin Land Price Report
The Peter Thiel Paradox: Farmers as Hypocrites
Worthy Adversary: Gabe Brown and Regenerative Ag