Kent Boucher (00:00.27) hurts you outside right now. Like the heat just cr crisps you up. Nicolas Lirio (00:04.455) Riley Rozendaal (00:07.692) All the moisture just evaporates. Kent Boucher (00:10.39) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (00:11.916) No, there's plenty of moisture in the air. Riley Rozendaal (00:14.19) That's true. Kent Boucher (00:15.691) Yeah, that's true. Kent Boucher (00:19.776) I dumped out that trash can this morning. The water in it. We should go check on it after lunch. Really? It was already before Garrett and I went out to the field it was already this full in the bottom. Nicolas Lirio (00:34.018) Why don't we just hook a hose up to that thing and throw the hose in the Riley Rozendaal (00:37.003) Alex Alex already told me he has a plan. He was gonna P V C it out to the concrete pad. Nicolas Lirio (00:39.48) Okay. Nicolas Lirio (00:43.072) Even we could just tape up if you stick the hose far enough up it, you just tape it around so it doesn't and it'll just all the way. And you c we could drive over that hose, you know. We could drive Kent Boucher (00:53.87) I think that's a good idea though to make it go out that part of the building because that goes down gradient. Riley Rozendaal (01:00.622) That was that was his plan was to go down gradient and then the it'll leak down the concrete. Kent Boucher (01:04.279) Yeah, little bit of constant mud over here. Riley Rozendaal (01:07.79) So he said he's got some P V C and when he gets the other one hooked up. But yeah, I dumped it last night, if if you believe that. I dumped it before I left. Nicolas Lirio (01:16.462) Crazy. Kent Boucher (01:17.854) It's so humid right now. Riley Rozendaal (01:19.48) Water. Nicolas Lirio (01:20.258) That's what we're doing. We're dealing with humidity. I cannot sorry. Kent Boucher (01:23.246) Okay. I'm gonna do our icebreaker. Yeah. For the rest of your life, there's no financial compensation. You just have to survive. This is this is what the climate has changed to. For the rest of your life I mean you'll have sunny days, cloudy days, rainy days. That that doesn't change. But the average temperature of where you live throughout the year is thirty seven degrees Fahrenheit. The average hottest point of the day temperature. Thirty seven degrees. Or average hottest part of the day. Nicolas Lirio (02:01.174) Could I survive? Depends on how much energy. Kent Boucher (02:08.559) Is ninety seven degrees. Nicolas Lirio (02:10.232) Ninety seven degrees. That's manila. Do I need to say anything more? That's Manila. what about you guys? Kent Boucher (02:16.63) Yeah. Riley Rozendaal (02:22.348) I would pick thirty seven all day long. Me too. You can always add layers. Yeah, you can always take layers off, but Nicolas Lirio (02:28.598) I think people habituate to really hot stuff really quickly. Kent Boucher (02:33.004) I think they do the really cold stuff too. And plus I mean if it's if it's thirty seven, that doesn't that it's the average. So you're probably gonna still like in your summer months, it's probably gonna be like in the forty eight. maybe fifties. Which would just be wonderful. Riley Rozendaal (02:34.606) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (02:43.842) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (02:48.918) Yeah, that would be pretty nice. Kent Boucher (02:51.118) Do you take cold showers this time of year? Nicolas Lirio (02:53.774) yeah. Yeah. I I mean it depends. Yesterday I went on a run and I Kent Boucher (02:58.521) Did you take a hot shower when you got done? Nicolas Lirio (03:00.906) No Kent Boucher (03:02.478) To me, nothing annoys me more than a hot shower this time of year. It's like, man, it's so hot out. I'm gonna you what I think I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go make myself hotter. You know? Nicolas Lirio (03:10.818) My I my wife I I got her on something the other day. I kept she would always be like, You're not drying off your back enough and like, babe, I just got out of a hot shower. That's sweat. I did dry my back. It's sweat. And the other day she like snatched the towel away from me and she's like, I'm gonna dry your back and then by golly, twenty seconds later, it was it was glistening. Kent Boucher (03:31.694) I hate that. That to me is that to me is of all the so I hate the heat. To me s fall, spring, winter, then summer. That's those are the best months or best seasons. Nicolas Lirio (03:44.482) What if you couldn't hunt? Would it still be fall first? Kent Boucher (03:46.764) Yeah. 'Cause fall is fall is a lot of like high pressure days where you know, it's a sunny nice day, but there's no humidity 'cause all the vegetation is crispy for the year. Yeah. Whereas spring you get a lot of rain, so it could be pretty humid and and you also get those random like like trifecta of of high humidity, maybe even some rain. And low temperatures where it's just like we're in Anchorage, Alaska right now in in well, July. Nicolas Lirio (04:23.438) Okay, all right, a thousand dollars a month for each of you, but every morning you have to get in the sauna for five minutes, then polar plunge or ice plunge or whatever. A thousand dollars a month. So it's not nothing, but it's not life changing. Kent Boucher (04:33.198) For how Not like not not a ton. Yeah. Yeah. I think I would say yes starting out, but I'd quickly get annoyed by the extra hassle that it created. Like having to wake up extra early and ha you know what I mean? Be Yeah, that's an easy extra thousand dollars but I don't think I would stick with it. Nicolas Lirio (04:57.218) Riley? Riley Rozendaal (04:57.792) I think I'd try it. I think that the sauna would be doable. The whole polar plunge thing, I n going from one to the other, no. No. I my my genes are adapted to a place where if you fell in cold water you would die. Nicolas Lirio (05:06.456) You're not into it? Kent Boucher (05:15.0) I just escape, escape. Riley Rozendaal (05:19.886) Yeah. Just not not a fun experience. It's a fight or flight response. Yeah. Kent Boucher (05:22.124) Selection escape. Nicolas Lirio (05:28.183) It actually I start getting panicky if I have ice in my water when I'm drinking. Kent Boucher (05:31.608) Swimming pool temperature water is nice. You know what I mean? So that's kinda how I view it. When I take a cold shower, I'm like setting it. Okay, does it if I'm like really dirty, you know, if I got like barren grease on me or hydraulic oil. Which fun fact on hydraulic oil, if you ever get that on yourself in the summertime, learn the hard way last year with Riley. Yeah. Get it off ASAP because it works like baby oil. Nicolas Lirio (05:37.848) Like Riley Rozendaal (05:54.52) Do you remember that? Kent Boucher (06:01.462) And and it gives you the worst like sunburns. right wherever you had like a globule of that of that hydraulic oil on you. Even Alex is very careful about it. Alex is pretty hardcore dude. He just pressure washed a significant portion of his hand off. Yes, I said that correctly. His hand off. He said he just saw the hunk of skin go flying. Nicolas Lirio (06:12.718) interesting. Interesting. Kent Boucher (06:30.06) Yeah. When he when he he had the most aggressive tip on his on his power washer and he he was trying to like clean out this car part or something and he actually went pfft like that and just swapped off a huge part of his back of his hand. Nicolas Lirio (06:45.004) I'm just imagining some leathery old person putting those things on as their shower head. Just trying to feel the pressure. man. man, all right. We should get started. Welcome back to the Prairie Farm Podcast. Coffee time Wednesday. I'm your favorite host, Nicholas Lirio. Favorite co host, Ken Boucher. Favorite co host to the co host, Riley Rosendahl. Riley, doing some last second last second mixin'. How's that going for ya? Kent Boucher (06:49.838) There you go. Kent Boucher (07:04.311) Hey, hey, hey. Riley Rozendaal (07:07.928) Howdy howdy. Riley Rozendaal (07:13.378) Good. I'm I'm pleasantly surprised by what diversity we still have on the shelf. Like sometimes this time of year things start getting a little lean and but no I'm still putting together really good mixes. So That's cool. That's that's nice. Kent Boucher (07:29.942) What's what's blooming right now? Nicolas Lirio (07:32.396) man, Ohio Spider War and every year I think I could make a fortune going through those ditches and getting that man, it but you have I mean you have like a thirty hour window, you know, to get it. So if you guys do hand harvest a bunch of Ohio spider war and you have the means of cleaning it, give us a call. Kent Boucher (07:38.794) I was firework. Kent Boucher (07:52.152) What else are you seeing out there? It's kinda fun to talk about. It's still good. Yeah. Still good. Nicolas Lirio (07:57.582) The Pentstamon was unbelievable. Well, I really Pennstemon blooms quite a while. You know, and I appreciate that about it. Obviously the prairie spider war is in bloom. Golden Alexander is just dwindling down, just getting out of it. And you're just now I'm just now starting to see cone flowers not the flower, but like the the roots of it up. I haven't seen any cone flowers. Kent Boucher (08:03.854) Yeah. Kent Boucher (08:19.966) No no volunteers in our World Milkweed and they are in full bloom. Nicolas Lirio (08:28.152) No. I kinda go by what can I see from the side of the road. Like I can see them shooting up, you know, but I haven't seen any flowers. Kent Boucher (08:35.17) Got wild quinine that's blooming now. Yeah. Ways coming in. I didn't realize how early which I should 'cause we grow it, but Riley Rozendaal (08:37.966) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (08:43.438) Cream wild then it goes like a month before this even. Yeah, super early. Kent Boucher (08:46.258) really? Yeah, there so that I I think there's a reel coming out on our Hoxy Instagram page, which is different from the prairie farm. So if you're not following the Hoxie one, make sure you go. There's more It's the it's a lot of the just practical farm stuff, what we're up to, that kind of thing. But that video that I sent you from that really old reconstructed prairie, I I almost wonder if that was Nicolas Lirio (08:57.644) In my opinion, way more interesting. Kent Boucher (09:13.528) cream that was up there because that was pretty early. That was Memorial Day weekend. Yeah. And it was in full bloom. But it might just be white. but also butterfly weed has just started to turn orange. Nicolas Lirio (09:30.302) Purple prairie clover is just about there. I you start to see the little heads kinda going around. But I wonder like in Missouri, like where are they at with their bloom period? Because I know their harvest period when you go further north or south are different. But would the bloom period, which is kind of right in the middle of its lifespan, is that kind of dead center still? blue eyed grass. Kent Boucher (09:50.38) Yeah, yeah, good question. That's a not a grass. I have not seen any of that this spring, but very Nicolas Lirio (09:56.94) It's very hard to find. You see it more in people's yards 'cause I mean Kent Boucher (10:00.684) luck. Coriopsis. we have do we have prairie that we we grow here? Yeah, prairie Coriopsis. I always mix it up with tall Coriopsis. it's it's blooming right now. Also Canada an enemy is kind of di winding down. yeah. Nicolas Lirio (10:20.408) Columbine's done. Allum root has isn't like flowery, flowery, but what it does have is done. Kent Boucher (10:28.108) No, Hory Vervaine is just starting over the weekend. Nicolas Lirio (10:31.608) Hory Vervain, that's a fun one. I I like and something really cool about Hory Vervain, it's a good or bad thing depending. If you put it in your pasture, cows don't eat it. So what's cool is that it just it sticks around. I mean obviously you don't put a ton of it in the mix, but it's cool to see like little hoary vervanes in a pasture field. Kent Boucher (10:50.902) Yeah. But yeah, some cool stuff that's out there. Keep your keep your eyes open. We're getting into that Pask flower color rush time of the growing season. We're good. Riley Rozendaal (11:00.054) We're coming up on common milkweed too. Nicolas Lirio (11:01.986) Yeah, common milk. What a what a what a absolute Kent Boucher (11:03.382) Yeah. Yeah, you can see the buds forming there, but it's not quite there. Nicolas Lirio (11:08.6) The Tim Brown, good friend of ours, bearded uplender on social media, he posts really cool th he's got a cool remnant prairie that he's keeping a close eye on and he's found really cool species in there. He's already he's at thirty something, I think. Now think about this. If it's a reconstructed prairie and you're in the first of June, I don't know any reconstructed prairies that thirty something species that are you know what I mean? That's truly a remnant. So by the time and you can't identify ast at this point, especially he's not a botanist, you know, and and he's doing a great job with identifying, but he's not a botanist. So and even botanists look at Asters and they're like, you know, it's hard to tell the difference. Yeah. But that's been really cool. So follow along with that guy. He's got cool stuff going on. Kent Boucher (11:50.55) Okay, one more question. Yeah. If you had a backyard prairie that you planted three years ago and if you could have one species show up this year that would just make you like over the moon and you planted it, it wasn't like, I didn't know I had this reminder, whatever you know. What would it be? Rough Nicolas Lirio (12:08.908) Blazing Star, dude. Rough Blazing Star. Rough Blazing Star is an absolute queen. It is the dark royal purple. I just love it. I know we talk about it a bunch here. I mean, it's maybe our favorite that we grow. Yeah. It's just cool. It's just awesome. Kent Boucher (12:20.948) It is awesome. Riley would I Riley Rozendaal (12:22.926) I like I like Wild Berg. I I know it's pretty common but but on year three I found my Wild Berg and that was that was good for me. Kent Boucher (12:31.756) Yeah. For for me it'd be a compass plant. If I if I could have like one compass plant that was showing up, Nicolas Lirio (12:40.142) That would be wild on year three. Kent Boucher (12:42.235) I know. It would just but I'm sure it's happened, you know. It'd be really cool to see. Nicolas Lirio (12:47.438) the thing that I would I don't know, some things that I'm like, my goodness, that's so fun to see. Like World Milkweed seeing that 'cause it's such a it's a gypsy of a plant. Kent Boucher (13:01.09) Did I plant that? Yeah. It just travels around. Nicolas Lirio (13:03.596) You'll see it move through. But all right, friends, we are not talking about University of Iowa's water in independent water research thing that they're doing because probably while you're listening to this, we will be hanging out with Larry Weber to actually pick his brain, get more information. And I didn't want to do because we should, like Truly w today's coffee time should be about their big announcement. If you haven't seen it, go look it up. They're putting like ten million dollars into independent water study to actually track what's going on, where where the issues coming from. but I didn't want to talk about it here and then just be made a fool when I asked those same questions to Larry and he's able to answer way better, you know. So that'll be out not this Friday, but the Friday after that is the plan, unless something changes. and Kent came out, we were talking to Mattala last week, who will be coming out this Friday, because I guess was Kent Boucher (13:56.384) D did you hear my little bit of audio at the end telling you what to do for coffee time this week? I totally forgot about Nicolas Lirio (14:00.6) I don't know. I I literally I trans no, I transcribed it and yeah, it it was good. So Kent came up with a great question. We were talking about with Matt Hatalla like the phrase the bread basket of the world or Iowa feeds the world and I d I didn't want to just do Iowa 'cause Illinois and the some of the states surrounding us do like just as much corn and beans. I Kent Boucher (14:24.43) Pick your pick your midwestern ag state and you'll get the same busy feeding the world. Nicolas Lirio (14:30.74) Midwest does Midwest feed feed the world? I spent like three hours doing this math. I'll try to explain it as we go, but it was kind of complicated. And be to be clear, the information I got was very credible. USDA, World Health Forum, the ERC, the Economic Resource Something Something Committee. very credible. The way I put the math together is just straight up Nicholas brain. You guys you guys take it for what it's worth. I you know, so a lot of this is very credible and a lot of it is Nicholas and good luck figuring out the difference there. But we'll start with point blank, the Midwest calorie-wise does about five percent of the world's calories, produces it. And that does not double count what like if we grow corn and beans that end up being turned into feed for an animal that goes onto someone's plate. It doesn't double count that I was really careful about that. Kent Boucher (15:28.0) Okay. But it does count that once. Nicolas Lirio (15:30.42) Counts it once. Yep. Yep. the Midwest biggest contribution calorie wise is soybeans. and and what we're doing. And it would be corn. Like we produce more calories of corn, but so much of it goes to other stuff. Like alternative food. Yep. Exactly. and another big one, not in Iowa as much, but wheats and oats. So we send a lot of wheat to Southeast Asia. Kind of interesting. and then obviously you've got some ranching more when you get to western Midwest, but y and in southern Ohio there's there's quite a bit. there's some fairly large dairy operations, but that's not like the Midwest big thing. Poultry, especially eggs, not as much meat for the poultry. And then of course in Iowa, hogs. the let's go through this. Corn almost exclusively shows up as an ingredient. Soybeans, corn gets processed Kent Boucher (16:17.89) Right? Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (16:29.782) at more levels than soybeans do before soybeans show up on plates for the most part. the livestock, I want to actually pull up because I I put some charts together. calorie wise, Illinois is at 0.8 of the world's calories, 0.8% of the world's calories. Iowa's at 0.77 and those are the leading two in the Midwest. Yep. And it was really across the world. Kent Boucher (16:52.718) Yeah. Kent Boucher (16:57.676) Is that because Illinois grows more soybeans than Iowa does? Nicolas Lirio (17:01.07) Well, Illinois is much bigger in just terms of overall calories. Kent Boucher (17:07.157) Land I mean, I would say a you mean like surface area? They're more ag a Really? I would think they're pretty close to the same, but I could be wrong. Nicolas Lirio (17:11.734) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (17:16.046) I think well Riley Rozendaal (17:18.061) Well there's portions of Iowa though that are less conducive, like southern Iowa. Less conducive to growing road. Kent Boucher (17:23.715) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (17:25.23) Illinois like forty percent bigger than Iowa as a state. Kent Boucher (17:29.228) We could we can find this forty percent bigger, no way. I I'm taking the under on that. Nicolas Lirio (17:34.23) right, Illinois does seventy point five trillion calories a year. Iowa does sixty eight point one trillion calories, then it's Minnesota at forty eight point eight, Kansas at forty seven trillion, North Dakota, then Nebraska, then Indiana, South Dakota, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, and last and maybe least, Michigan at fifteen trillion calories. Kent Boucher (17:59.244) Okay, listen this. Yep. This is from Gemini. Illinois and Iowa are very close in size. Illinois covers roughly fifty seven thousand nine hundred and fourteen square miles, where Iowa is slightly smaller at fifty six thousand two hundred and seventy one square miles. This makes Illinois just about three percent larger than Iowa. I think it goes back to that first thing you said, which was you you said that and this was surprising to me at least, soybeans Nicolas Lirio (18:05.227) Okay. Kent Boucher (18:28.68) are used more in food than corn is and I believe Iowa is number two or number three for soybean production and I believe Illinois is number one for soybean production. Nicolas Lirio (18:42.392) So first off, I should say I was very wrong on that, on guessing. That's why I tried to look these things up and and do the math. But Iowa so a third of corn is used in ethanol, roughly. Thirty five, thirty seven percent. But of Iowa's corn, fifty seven percent traditionally is used for is used for ethanol. So that probably has something to do with it as well. Kent Boucher (19:04.822) So so not only are we growing less queens but we're we're more of our corn that we're growing. Plus they are three percent bigger. I bet it's all those things. Which is why they they produce more well 'cause I was just I would have never I would have I would have guessed wrong on a trivia question if they said who I Nicolas Lirio (19:07.384) Beans and more Nicolas Lirio (19:20.462) I would have guessed with more KFOs 'cause there's a lot more calories per but I I'm you know, I guess Kent Boucher (19:25.528) That's it's it it was worth belaboring because that was a shocking statistic to me. Nicolas Lirio (19:29.74) Also, the of plant versus animal, it is like eighty twenty or ninety ten On each of these states of how much of the calories leave as a plant, like a soybean or a corn product, and how many of them how many of the calories leave as animals, which I've heard. I've heard that if you stop feeding all the animals that we do so we could have meat, you would have way more calories in the world than you need. It's kind of like a net negative. But also, we don't want to eat corn syrup. Like there's a lot of calories in corn syrup, you know. so I want to go to where. So okay, field corn. Corn starch, corn sweeteners, meal, grits, flour flour flakes, is kinda where the field corn, right? 'Cause we're not getting our food and corn from corn on the cob. That's not coming up to be one percent of the world's, you know, food. It it you know, it just shows up in all the things you could think of if assuming you cook. Kent Boucher (20:31.288) Wasn't it when they did the Field of Dreams baseball game with the Yankees and the was it the Yankees and the White Sox? And some of the the players who came from not Corn Lot the Corn Belt, they were like peeling ears off the stocks out in the field and trying to eat and so like everyone from I was like, Yeah. Riley Rozendaal (20:56.078) It's gonna take more than butter to fix that one. Nicolas Lirio (20:58.99) Yeah. Yikes. Now a lot of the soybeans do go to pork, poultry, eggs, dairy and beef, and aug aquacultural products. So like fish farms. Bean meat. Yeah. Yeah, dude. Cod is so expensive right now, it's like frustrating how expensive it is because it's so delicious. Riley Rozendaal (21:09.784) Is pretty versatile. Kent Boucher (21:11.778) Like for tilapia and catfish and stuff like that. Kent Boucher (21:21.282) Are those held up on the on the Straight of Horror moves as well? Nicolas Lirio (21:24.031) You know, I don't Riley Rozendaal (21:25.23) That's probably Kent Boucher (21:26.734) I don't think Cod come from that region. I think they're in I think they're an Arctic you know, circle type. But it probably is the diesel, you know, for the ship the ships and stuff. Riley Rozendaal (21:33.304) Little warm for the Nicolas Lirio (21:35.136) Alaskan but Nicolas Lirio (21:39.34) I think it's been expensive since before. I just remember telling Judd that my wife and I were spending like eighteen dollars per meal when we have cod. and that's home cooked, you know, cod. And he was like, That is way too expensive. Traditionally it's way cheaper. Kent Boucher (21:54.926) He p pulls out a pack of fish sticks. Nicolas Lirio (21:59.182) Well we buy the frozen like Alaskan cod and then my wife batters and fries it. It's so good. She makes her own tartar sauce. Ho ho ho ho. It's good. Kent Boucher (22:07.904) Right. Change of dinner plans for Nick tonight. He's talked himself into Cod again. Nicolas Lirio (22:13.866) I love spending thirty dollars per and there's these really good beer battered fries that Hive has right now. They're frozen and you like you buy the pack. it's so good. It's so good, dude. Kent really wanted to know where do the calories that the Midwest produce show up. Kent Boucher (22:30.104) When we feed the world, what part of it are we feeding? Nicolas Lirio (22:32.53) You know, and we're kinda cynical about the feed the world conversation. And the truth it's it's kinda true. You know, five percent I you know what I should have looked up? How much Yeah, especially for what percentage of landmass we actually have. Kent Boucher (22:44.158) Yeah, that's a huge percentage. What's five percent of eight billion? I got two numbers guys here. Nicolas Lirio (22:51.532) Well, divide by ten and then divide by two, one more. eight hundred million, forty million. No. So four hundred million Kent Boucher (22:59.17) No four hundred million. So we feed four hundred million people? Basically the United States. Nicolas Lirio (23:04.812) Yeah, out of the Midwest. That that's not nice. Riley Rozendaal (23:06.808) Fe call it feeding America instead of feeding the world. Nicolas Lirio (23:09.302) That would be better, but I'm about to list all of the major all the places where we have major exports to major trade relations with food. Corn. Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, European Union, Taiwan, Guatemala, Vietnam, Canada, and Honduras. Soybeans. China, Mexico, European Union, Egypt, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Vietnam. Soybean meal, so already processed. Philippines, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Japan. Wheat, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Nigeria, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Colombia, and Vietnam. Remember that Southeastern Asia. I don't know why they get so much wheat from us. and then other by products basically are a copy of the countries that I just said. But it's like E every continent, yeah. It's except for Australia, I don't think was mentioned. There's a lot of places on there. I mean Truth is we put out a lot of calories. Now, our argument from this does not change our argument. The quality of calories that we're putting out is globalism globalism leading to consumerism? Is that the way that we want to go? You know, there's a lot of these questions. Now, I want to be the first to say that there is a strong argument for efficiency on how we do food. It is not I'm not I'd also be the first to say it's I'm it's not an Kent Boucher (24:39.81) Efficiency efficiency leads to security and that's something that a lot of people have very high on their list of priorities for what their their nation can provide them is food security. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (24:51.84) And and part you know, with the whole the whole oil thing with the Strait of Hormuz, like who knows what's going on there? But the truth is, yeah, we're paying more for gas and diesel. We don't feel it like Laos feels it. You know what I mean? Or Cambodia or or some country that gets the leftover ships in in in Central Africa because it's such a hassle to get it there or they don't have the means to pay for it. They're turn they're allowed to turn in some of those places allowed to turn their power on for two hours a day and we are going on a couple less vacations. It is a little tighter, but people aren't going without you know or they're not they're not at the risk of starving here. Kent Boucher (25:36.782) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (25:39.698) And and I know that as soon as you start talking about people's wallets, it's really easy to to whip out anecdotes. What about the single mom who blah blah blah? My mom was a single mom for a while and she really struggled. It that is just those individual anecdotes are not how it it takes away from the wealth that America actually has and it it like diminishes it. And I don't ever want to do that. Like America's unbelievably wealthy. And in like my biological dad. grew up in the Philippines, actually my mom did too. And dogs are like deathly afraid of people and they pack up to and and shy away and are scared of humans. Why? Humans eat the dogs because those are the calories available, even though they're not great tasting calories, you know? And so we haven't had to dip into that in the United States. And so when we talk about efficiency for feeding for feeding the world, I'm I'm trying to be the devil's advocate for the corn beans that we do have, which is Not my natural position. But when we talk about those things, yeah, it makes Walmart purchases a little cheaper for us. But there are some countries where it might have brought their average intake from sixteen hundred to eighteen hundred fifty calories, you know, where they're going from being on average deficient to on average sustainable. and that's not a small deal and it can't be overlooked. But yeah, I I don't think that the way we're doing it has to be the way that we're do it. Has the be the way that we keep doing it in order to put out as many calories as we do. Kent Boucher (27:11.906) Well, and I think the other so first of all I wanna say four hundred million people is a lot of people, but as we kind of w what did we just learn that the the updated US population is three hundred and ninety million now? Somebody was just telling us that. And so we're basically producing enough food here in our own country to feed the population of our own country. Now I understand it's not a it's not a direct correlation, right? Because we're able Nicolas Lirio (27:25.848) Something it's it's upper three hundred. Kent Boucher (27:40.834) Because it opens up trade avenues, w other people around the world are are able to use the things that we grow and we're able to use things that they provide back to us through trade, whether that's just money or other goods and services. so I understand it's not just a direct replacement type of thing. But So I guess my remark would be that's actually kind of less people than I thought. that when we when we use that phrase feeding the world. yeah, our food goes into a lot of places, maybe. Maybe that's a good way to if if you're gonna say, yeah, we literally are feeding the world, our our food ends up on a lot of shelves around the world. Okay. But as far as like the tot the total transformation of the center of our of our continent in order to do that and the number of people that it it goes to feed is kind of underwhelming to me. you know, if I guess if if I had a gun to my head and said, can't tell us how many people you think depend on all the the commodities that American agriculture produces, I would have guessed over a billion people. And so I'm I'm I'm not even to half of that in my guess. And so that that's kind of a that I I find that interesting. but also as far as really the best line, and it maybe it's oversimplifying, but when we interviewed Molly Gleason what was that, a couple months ago now already? Two months ago, three months ago. so you can go back and I can't remember the title of that one, but But Molly Gleason was a guest. So if you look back, you can hear that interview. But she said, We hear all the time about feeding the world here in Illinois. Why can't we just worry about feeding Illinois? And I think that there is some truth to that. Now I think it's good, like you you made some really good points there, Nicholas, when you talked about, well, for somebody in in a third world country, this can take from just the barely enough calories to stay alive. Kent Boucher (30:01.548) to giving them a little bit of margin to where, you know, they're healthier, their kids are healthier, less malnourishment. That's good. I'm I'm I'm in favor of that for sure. we have, however, gotten to a point where we we are linking this mass production of of these products to significant problems that that threaten the health of the people who live here in order to have that trade off, right? Of being able to to help out these other countries. And that I just I I'm I can't say it's worth it at that point. Yeah. You know, where where you start to harm yourself by it's kind of like the old lifeguard thing, you know, the terrible situation, someone's drowning, the lifeguard jumps in, now the person they're saving is because they're panicked. they're holding their the lifeguard's head under the water, right? And and so you so I I would say that we've we've gotten to that point, you know. I don't think we've always been there since agriculture has been utilizing a global market. but I think we are there now. I think I think a lot of the issues we talk about on this podcast are are directly correlated to that and not just human health, right? But the whole ecosystem. There's a lot of things in our ecosystem. That have that belong here as well, that can't be here because of how we've we've directed our resources. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (31:39.278) Mm-hmm. Riley? Riley Rozendaal (31:40.842) I think that it's easy to it's easy to criticize the system we know and the the phrase feeding the world. But I think what it comes down to is choices, production. But something I've always kinda wondered is we talk about feeding feeding the world, how much of the world doesn't farm? Obviously there are places in the world you can't. They're just the soil's not there, the weather's not there. But how much of the world sees these large commodity crops that are so dirt cheap in comparison to anything they can produce that they then do not produce food on their acres? Or they produce another commodity crop, whether it be something that is not edible or something like that. So commodity markets are such a strange concept, because we can say, okay, well, all this corn and and beans that are being exported are Nicolas Lirio (32:30.108) Riley Rozendaal (32:40.992) are feeding people, but the effect that they have when they hit that market is also something that's almost unknowable. You know, it's so situation by situation. Nicolas Lirio (32:51.864) I was listening to a couple of people on a podcast complain about California's was it sixteen billion dollars they spend on a railway that doesn't exist or whatever. Yeah. Kent Boucher (33:01.895) yeah. San Francisco, isn't it? Isn't that where we're supposed to Riley Rozendaal (33:02.584) High speed rail project. Nicolas Lirio (33:06.426) I thought it was so cow. I d I I don't know much about it, but I understand. Easy to complain about. We spent all this money and got nothing in return. Totally. Totally. The reason is because there's so much red tape. And I hate red tape. For anyone for anyone listening, I do not like red tape. But Nope. No, red tape. All the all the tapes on on both sides. are we still talking about tape? The Kent Boucher (33:25.186) What about blue tape? Green. Nicolas Lirio (33:36.51) I I don't like it one bit, but most of that tape was environmental. The the or at least anecdotally, I heard, most of it was environmental. And so the question becomes if we're gonna do right by the environment, maybe we don't maybe we don't get a railway system. And my whole point with saying this is with the efficiency, we're talking about ROI. On land, on time, not just on time on the farmers, but on ROI on the time of the people who work at John Deere. And we're not talking about ROI in their personal bank account, we're talking about ROI in the overall macroeconomics of a community and or the globe, the full full blown GDP. If we keep going down this environmental rabbit hole that says, hey, we as efficient as we are, it's destroying us. Which I'm going I'm currently on a journey going down. So I'm not against it. If we keep going, the only solution is to be okay with less. And I I'm just worried as a civilization, like, what if they say, hey, you're gonna have no health pro you're not gonna have any health problems in Iowa that have to do with glyphosate or nitrates, but you're giving up an air conditioning. What if that was the trade off? Because I'm not saying that that's what actually has to happen, but they're Kent Boucher (34:43.459) Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (35:01.346) We have to give up something. We can't have everything that we want plus some and have it and still give the same amount of energy. We have to give more energy, right? And and so that that's kind of what it boils down to. And I don't know if we're willing to do that on on you know, when it comes to producing food here in the Midwest. I'd like us to be willing to. I talk about hey, we need to be tougher, we need to habituate to weather more, we need to, you know, maybe it's better to own less stuff or whatever, but then like the truth comes comes down to it. I don't always make those choices. I don't always do those things. I still use single use plastics most days. Yeah. Kent Boucher (35:37.358) Yeah, disgusting human being. no, you're right. The th that is the whole part of it. But I think that's been our consistent message since the earliest days of this podcast. We used to say it all the time, you gotta see find value beyond the dollar. And until we do that, you know, it's gonna be it's gonna be more of the same, I think. But also I think too We're talking like we have more room to go environmentally. Like we don't. C could we double could Iowa double its corn production? No. We w we can't. We're Nicolas Lirio (36:17.89) Yeah, yeah, great question. Could we could we even twenty five percent increase? You know what I mean? Kent Boucher (36:24.482) We're there. We've we we're tapped. Like we literally have outside rows going over the crown of the ditch now in a lot of the fields around the state. You know what mean? The the literally every last square inch of arable land, Riley taught me that word. they they were using it. And so to me we're in the the last days of not the last days, but the last days of of like getting s getting the stern talking to from nature before we have some pretty some pretty big dis disruptions, you know what I mean? And and you know like hey, you know, diet's are getting pretty high. yeah, we do this thing, it's called the wave. After the first quarter, all the little kids that have cancer up there in the hospital in our state, we wave to them. You know, how about we, I don't know, stop having cancer. You know, but we're we're like at that it's like we're we're putting tape over the indicator lights on the dummy lights on our dashboard. And and so it's it's not just well here we are. Are we gonna have are we gonna keep having more? Or are we going to choose to go without some things? It's like, no, eventually the choice will be made. You're gonna be without some things because these other problems have demanded so much of your resources. I mean, my own since I've only been living in my house for five years and I believe in that time my homeowners insurance has tripled because there's been so much storm damage done across the state over the last few years. We've had What, two or three Derechos in that time, something like that? And I Kent Boucher (38:18.264) Yeah, but that's not yeah, but that's always been the case. Insurance fraud or insurance you know, leveraging your insurance has been around for a while. But but I don't know, there's there's there's not much more room, like there's not much rope left to give, you know. Riley Rozendaal (38:36.406) I'd I'd argue though that it's not I'd argue we're at a turning point currently. If you look at the advancements in grazing technology, the the fact that we're so long in the tooth on commodities. prices are low, inputs are high. I feel like we're about to turn a corner here on asking just because we can feed, you know, quote, feed the world with with soybean and corn's Corn, what if we can do better for our state? You know? Whether that be producing everybody has a larger vegetable garden. I think it's just a part of ongoing conversations that Kent Boucher (39:16.766) Yeah, I think towards absolutely. I think you can't subtract innovation and new efforts out of it either. Like there's a way to to technically have less of something but more of something else. And I think that absolutely that and you know what? I think that's seeing value beyond the dollar. turns out I just celebrated my thirteenth wedding anniversary yesterday. Turns out after you've been married for thirteen years, a time well spent is pulling weeds in your garden. And kinda like last night, my wife and I were walking around at sunset in our yard and checking out my prairie plot and checking out her gardens and stuff and and there's a ton of satisfaction that comes from that, you know? And and it in a way it is over the over the years I'm kind of a snob when I go to the grocery store now, see what everyone else is buying. And I just Nicolas Lirio (40:13.198) Special Ben and Jerry's. Kent Boucher (40:14.734) That's a process That's an interesting rendition of corn you have there. but what do they call that? Jack's pepperoni pizza? But don't you dare they are delicious. They are delicious. But no, I mean the I'm gonna virtue signal here for myself, but my wife deserves all the credit. She has made such an effort over the last Nicolas Lirio (40:28.014) We all got the other shit. Kent Boucher (40:43.01) handful of years especially, to just we're an ingredient family now. We're not a Nicolas Lirio (40:49.388) the Genevieve thing that kicked it off. Kent Boucher (40:51.776) No, she I honestly my in laws deserve a lot of credit. They they were always an ingredient family. Cool. and and Caitlin then, you know, added to that with what things she learned from Genevieve. Yeah. Yeah. And the PFAS episode, if you want to go back and listen to that, microplastics and PFAS. But it it it's amazing how much I have benefited from that, and I was thinking that. Yesterday while we were grocery shopping and and so in a way y I have gone with less. I don't eat as much corn anymore. In fact, I eat very little corn now. But I eat a lot of chickpeas and I eat a lot of a lot of lentils and rice and other things, you know, that's a little bit more you know, you're you're not making it such a strip mine operation for our state in order to fill my plate. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (41:52.147) Absolutely. The the whole Economics is a little bit like you have a couple options. You either produce more or you produce more efficiently or through innovation. and I think you know, there's been a lot of innovation one step in front of another with corn and and soybeans. And that's just I dunno it wasn't like this big long sixty year scheme to it was just one Kent Boucher (42:19.862) I don't think people were trying to hurt people in the past. Nicolas Lirio (42:21.998) No, in fact I think even today f for the most part they're not no one's out there trying to hurt other people. But there is a little bit of protecting the wallet. and that's not Kent Boucher (42:31.786) Absolutely. There's a ton of protecting the wallet. To the point of of carrying s incredible political sway in order to protect the wallet. Yeah. Nicolas Lirio (42:41.962) Absolutely. And the I I'm a big fan of like the Lobe Rangers 'cause they're doing they're on the they went back in time and Yeah, they're awesome. They went back in time and then they started innovating, if that makes sense. So they pulled the technology back aways and now that they pulled it back they're innovating again. But where we branched off and went less econom or less ecologically safe, they're Kent Boucher (42:53.23) Lobe Rangers. Nicolas Lirio (43:11.372) they see those mistakes and they have the, you know, the benefit of hindsight and they're like, okay, we'll innovate in a different direction, but it's still innovation. And I think that that's a great way to do it. Kent Boucher (43:20.364) Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that's really good. Yeah. I and like I said, I don't think we're in our last days by any means. I'm not I'm not a Herald camping, you know. Quit your quit your mic. Liquidate your four one K to buy a billboard billboard that says the end is near. Yeah. Call this number. Nicolas Lirio (43:39.235) Ken's actually putting together care packages you can order on Kent Boucher (43:42.35) He comes with a a a crimson robe and Nicolas Lirio (43:46.05) Dude, it's crazy. You whenever the news gets really crazy or World War Three comes up, you start seeing those ads for the boxes. The like everything Riley Rozendaal (43:53.826) Meals five gallon buckets filled with like oatmeal and macaroni. Yeah. Kent Boucher (43:59.048) my goodness. But yeah, the my my point is I think the environment is giving us those you know, those maybe some of those last few warnings of hey, make some significant change or I will change it for you. You know? And and I think we'd do well to instead of just singing ourselves to sleep with, Yeah, we're too busy feeding the world, then let's let's actually step back and be like, man, we've done a lot of good for a lot of people. Yeah. But now we're kind of doing a lot of not so good for ourselves in order to do good for other people. Let's pull back, retool, readjust. And that's not there's not enough farmers left for them to do that. You know what I mean? Like they don't have the I remember it was laughable. The Corn Growers Association sent a a The Iowa Corn Growers Association sent a letter to I think it was Brooke Rollins or might have even been the president. Nicolas Lirio (45:05.954) Was it about E fifteen or something? Kent Boucher (45:07.99) Yeah. Or no, I think it was about the input cost. Yeah, maybe it's terror. I can't it was a while ago, maybe six months ago. And and at the beginning of the letter it said on behalf of the seventy five hundred members of the it's like, yeah, that just got thrown into the circular file. You know, there's there's just not that's not a lot of people. And seventy five hundred people counts for exactly seventy five hundred votes. Yeah. And so the we can't say Nicolas Lirio (45:11.054) I don't know. Kent Boucher (45:36.84) We can't be standing around here and say, Yeah, farmers, do something, fix this for us as we're eating our bowl of corn flakes, you know, like w standing there watching. It it does come down to where am I going to be willing to reward those in the market who are growing something that is better for me and better for Iowa? And where can I go even with less? And and how do I beat that that monster of Of consumption and excess out of myself. Nicolas Lirio (46:07.422) F farmers markets, friends. If you hate big tech and Walmart and all these big companies they feel like and the government, no joke. A lot of it can be traced back to like just spending your Kent Boucher (46:18.604) You can get oatmeal in a 50-gallon bucket. Nicolas Lirio (46:23.694) man. Well, I the the the truth is it it's not great for our branding, but it's fairly accurate to say that the Midwest at least helps feed the world. That that is an accurate sentence. Does is that the only part of the Kent Boucher (46:37.822) Come on. I'm not it just sounds too much like ninety six percent of Illinois farms are owned by families. We help feed the world. Nicolas Lirio (46:45.742) World. Yeah, but I just listed like thirty different countries on five different continents that we s we send a big chunk of food. Kent Boucher (46:51.68) Let's say how about the Midwest has food on a lot of shelves around the world? No four hundred million people is just underwhelming to me. Nicolas Lirio (46:56.529) I I I'm I'm sticking with it. Nah, yeah, but it's still it's it's a part of it, five percent. Yeah, we're in disagreement. I I think it is I think it is appropriate to say that the Midwest helps feed the world. I think Kent Boucher (47:02.958) All right, we are in disagreement. Kent Boucher (47:11.912) But that's not the saying. The the saying is the Midwest feeds the world. Nicolas Lirio (47:15.254) I know, but that's what I was just saying earlier when you correct me. I was I was saying it's appropriate to say the Midwest helps feed the world. Yeah, I'm no I mean it you're right. I'm with you if it doesn't make sense to say Kent Boucher (47:20.792) Helps for one. Kent Boucher (47:25.454) I'm not trying to be a butt. I'm just saying it just reminds me of like it's just such a I mean help is just such a a wide open, very big subjective term. Nicolas Lirio (47:36.65) I it's it I th that's true. But it's just it's not the only part Riley Rozendaal (47:39.326) It's like some Kent Boucher (47:42.348) Seven farms in a little way are owned by families. Nicolas Lirio (47:45.548) That's by yeah, by families. I I think ninety six of all businesses in America are by families. Kent Boucher (47:52.738) Wait, you have a family? I was born It's like Judd I appeared out of the wilderness Nicolas Lirio (47:55.541) I wanna know who the four person with no mom and dad. Nicolas Lirio (48:05.056) I got it, dude. That dude did. man. All right. Well, before we go, thank you everyone who's been coming on the forum. Those have been fantastic questions. And I've had the privilege of having really great conversations with experts about your questions. And I'm really enjoying that. So keep that coming. if you haven't and you're on social media, make sure you check out this reel. it is the Lion King reenacted with excavators. And it is one of my favorite videos of all time. They set up like forty excavators. Kent Boucher (48:38.348) I was just I was very impressed with the operator on that. Nicolas Lirio (48:41.592) There was only one guy in the whole video. Like there's no other humans to be seen. And I don't it's an incredible anyway. Lion King reenacted with excavators. Great video. We will talk to you again. Kent Boucher (48:51.298) Good. That w that was pre Hormuz diesel prices, I'm sure. Next time. Nicolas Lirio (49:00.376) That was good. I really enjoyed that. Kent Boucher (49:04.834) That is just so underwhelming to me. Four hundred million people? I mean it's basically like we feed ourselves. But we go through all this rigma roll to get it around the c around the globe. Nicolas Lirio (49:14.592) And it's the worst calories that the globe eats, you know. Kent Boucher (49:18.656) I I was already disappointed with the phrase. Now I'm really disappointed. So so if we did one if it was one billion, that'd be one eighth. So we're about probably what one twentieth of the world. Riley Rozendaal (49:24.642) What is that? Nicolas Lirio (49:33.57) Yeah.