123. Think Grass-Fed Is Just a Trend? This Farmer’s Perspective Will Change Your Family’s Plate

Dr. Tony Ebel interviews Joe Wanda, founder of Wanda Farms in Harvard, Illinois, about his transformation from conventional dairy farming to regenerative agriculture. Joe shares his journey from managing a 1,400-cow industrial operation to discovering Joel Salatin's principles and starting his own grass-fed operation.

This conversation reveals the striking parallels between Big Agriculture and Big Pharma - both industries that shifted from natural approaches to chemical-dependent systems. Joe and Dr. Tony explore why grass-fed meat matters most for family health, the hidden costs of conventional farming, and how regenerative practices restore soil, animal welfare, and human health.

Listeners will discover practical steps for accessing quality food and learn why this movement is essential for future generations. The episode perfectly combines Dr. Tony's "50% Iowa Farm Boy and 50% neuroscience health nerd" perspective with Joe's real-world farming expertise.

Key Topics & Timestamps

([00:05:00]) - Joe's Origin Story: From Chicago parents to Harvard, Illinois farm life

([00:08:00]) - The 7-Year-Old Entrepreneur: Shining shoes at car dealerships with dad

([00:14:00]) - College Agriculture Awakening: Conventional training meets early skepticism

([00:20:00]) - Getting Shut Down: Questioning hormones and chemicals in agricultural school

([00:26:00]) - Industrial Dairy Reality: Managing 1,400 cows and the daily grind

([00:27:00]) - Discovering Joel Salatin: First hearing "regenerative" changes everything

([00:31:00]) - Regenerative Agriculture 101: Nutrient density over mass production

([00:36:00]) - Why Grass-Fed Meat Matters: The science behind cleaning up your meat first

([00:40:00]) - The True Cost Analysis: Hidden costs of conventional farming

([00:44:00]) - Action Steps for Families: How to access Wanda Farms and support regenerative agriculture

([00:48:00]) - Farmer Values for Kids: Why future generations need farm character and work ethic

Get Connected with Wanda Farms/Place an Order:

www.wandafarms.com

Use code PWC15 for $15 off youy order of $160 or more (one per customer)

Follow on instagram: @wandafarmsfamily

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Dr. Tony Ebel: Meat, grass-fed meat, the way you raise it. Why does that matter so much? I'll be honest, when I was first starting, I was skeptical of the grass-fed. I was like, okay, you know, college background, industrial ag, what's the big deal? What's the difference?

Welcome to the Experience Miracles podcast, where we help parents find hope, answers, and drug-free help to overcome your child's chronic health challenges.

I'm your host, Dr. Tony Ebel, and I'll be sharing my experiences as both a dad and a doctor. On every episode, I can take the latest science and neurology of healing and break it down in the most simple and relatable way possible. We'll take on the toughest topics and answer your biggest questions through interviews with other amazing parents and leading experts.

Leaving you with practical action steps that you can take to help your child heal and thrive. It's time to expect and experience miracles. Let's get started.

[00:01:00] All right, everyone. If you have been listening to the podcast much at all, you know that I come from an Iowa farmer background, and so you get a lot of farmer analogies and metaphors and concepts mixed together with this neuroscience hope-dealing, answer-giving, drug-free healthcare takeover mentality.

So today's interview was a blast for me, and it will be for you too because it's a topic we haven't tackled yet and we brought in an expert in the field. Ha ha. Pun intended. Field. We brought in another farmer, Joe Wanda from Wanda Farms is the interview you are about to listen to. So Joe is still farming.

Boy, is Joe and Hannah and his incredible family still farming. They have an incredible regenerative farm here, local to, really close to where our practice and our life is in Harvard, Illinois. And they just took this and, I won't get into usually obviously when we read a bio, we go into their backstory.

[00:02:00] But I was so intrigued by how Joe got to where he is with this massive operation. And let me tell you this, knowing farming, it's not easy to have a massive operation that feeds so many families healthy, grass-fed, organic regeneratively farmed food. It's easy to have a massive operation that is built upon big machines and chemicals and fertilizers and pesticides and growth hormones pumped into your animals and antibiotics given to them. And I know that, because I grew up as a farm kid in the era where it went from organic farming that you didn't have to call organic farming because you just raised food before chemicals and fertilizers and pesticides and genetically modified everything came into our existence in the name of, quote unquote, you know, feeding the world and mass feeding and driving down prices, which on the surface it can do that. But so can this option we're going to talk about [00:03:00] with bringing it back to the communities, bringing it back to families, bringing it back to the earth as God designed it and making it regenerative. But the world shifted, as did healthcare around the same kind of concepts where it's like, oh, we're going to live better with chemistry injected into everything, right? Wrong. And Joe will teach us that. This is an incredible story. There's incredible impact for the health of your family and action steps that comes with that.

And it's been a wild run for me in my 43 going on 44 years as we release this one because. Again, I grew up as a farm kid where we shifted from what today would have to be called organic, but back then it was just food, and now it needs this organic label. It needs this grass-fed label. It needs this regenerative label.

Those labels actually shouldn't be on there. Of course, as healthy families, we need to have those labels today to be able to choose between, you know, craptastic, chemically laced, chronic illness inducing food and then health and vitality and healthy, happy [00:04:00] families inducing food. Well, Joe and his crew is bringing us so much of the latter.

That's the only thing that goes on our grill and in our plates around here is Wanda Farms food. In fact, if you're really within many states within the Midwest, you're actually going to be able to learn that you can order from Joe's Farm and really support this incredible man and his mission. And I guarantee by the time you get to the end of this episode, not only will you learn a lot about incredible healthy food and regenerative farming and how much it means to your family, but I think you're going to fall in love with Joe and his story and want to order from the farm. So make sure you hit the link in this one. We've got a special offer for you in that way too, that they bring to the table and they're just incredible. His story is incredible. We get, we have a lot of fun. We share a lot of stories, and we share a lot of action steps that will really help your family find your way to what true actual healthy food is and how much it matters. I know our audience. I know our [00:05:00] Experience Miracles podcast family. You're going to love this one. Let's dig in.

So my story, humble beginnings. Yeah. Harvard, Illinois. There you go.

Joe Wanda: So my parents both were from the city of Chicago. And I am the fourth child.

Dr. Tony Ebel: And like full baby of the family, or there's one more after you?

Joe Wanda: There's six total. Let's go. And so they had three kids and then they were both talking. My parents are like, we got to get out of Chicago. We can't live here. It's not safe for our kids. Yeah. And so they were pregnant with me. They moved out to Harvard, Illinois.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Wow.

Joe Wanda: And bought a little five-acre like hobby farm. And so that's all you, that's where it started. You were, you were literally born. Yeah.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Alright. Yeah.

Joe Wanda: So quickly, that was such a tiny little home. They grew. We started in, you know, we were, it was like sharing the bed with my sister and five of us in one room type thing, and they [00:06:00] eventually went ahead and built a home on a 27-acre plot of land nearby.

And that's where my mom really started to live out her dream of having a milking cow and some pigs and chickens and let's start a garden.

Dr. Tony Ebel: And I love details. I'm going to be annoying, I'm going to be the annoying interviewer. So this is, as a pediatric chiropractor, we're so trained into root cause. We ask all these like detailed and granular questions clinically, and I just, I can't get away from it. Even when I get into stories. I love the details. When you guys were on the five-acre farm and your parents were just getting started, what components of farming and food raising did they have there first? And then did they kind of hang on to a city job and do that? Was it kind of two wheels at once until the 27 acres?

Joe Wanda: Yeah, so I, so we moved out of that place when I would have been six. So I don't have a ton of memories there. We had a big pond. I remember playing lots of hockey. [00:07:00] We had a beautiful strawberry patch. And gosh, there's not a whole lot else I can remember, to be honest. Pretty sweet tree house. Which got destroyed pretty quickly because it was a willow tree, so it did not last at all. So then the 27 acres. Cool. Yeah. Then they built a new home on the 27 acres and that's really where they had the acreage to really kind of grow and do everything. It was my mom that really loved the animal husbandry, like she wanted to do the livestock.

My dad was totally like hands off. He had nothing to do with it. He was more focused on fruit trees, the garden.

Dr. Tony Ebel: And that's a great mix because the best farms have both. Right. You know, it was so if one is obsessed over here, and my dad was the breadwinner. Yeah.

Joe Wanda: He was, he had his own business, repairing interiors on cars and so he was still traveling into the city of Chicago and the suburbs doing that business. And so I still got into the city quite frequently. I would go to work with them actually once a week. And [00:08:00] actually my first gig was I had a shoe shine business. So I was actually shining shoes for car salesmen at the car dealerships.

Dr. Tony Ebel: And so do you for what age? I would go. What age did you start this?

Joe Wanda: I started at seven years old.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Oh goodness. Great.

Joe Wanda: And so I actually would go down to City of Chicago with my dad once a week and we were homeschooled. We were really blessed to be able to do that. And so it was pretty cool going to Loeber Motors, Mercedes dealership, and shine all these salesmen's shoes. And then, you know, they'd be like, you know, I think one time I shined Scottie Pippen's shoes.

Dr. Tony Ebel: That's awesome. Well, they had the trust of your father, right? Your father built a business and built trust that did, yeah. And provided one service. You're coming along to spend time with dad to, yeah. That is so good that that really is what sparked my entrepreneur journey and just kind of the ability to learn to converse with people and be willing to talk and that's awesome. It was a really great experience, dude, I tell you, that changes the dial for me. I always thought I was an early starter. I started my [00:09:00] first hay baling business at 14, so I'm the youngest.

Joe Wanda: Oh really?

Dr. Tony Ebel: I grew up a thousand, you know, my dad corn soybean. About a thousand, anywhere between like 500 to a thousand head of cattle at any time. We only had hogs for summer 4-H. Right. Take him to the fair. And so he had this 28-acre alfalfa field and I was the youngest of four and he was starting to scale back a little bit, you know, at that stage in age. And so he didn't want to keep the alfalfa going anymore because him and all my neighbors and uncles who would come over and bail it, right? This is back like actual small squares and everything else. So he was going to no longer have it. He was just going to turn it over to soybeans. And my buddy and I, my best friend, also one of my farmer friends, we saw an opportunity, and I have no idea how this landed in my head that it was an opportunity. But we went to the bank, we got our first loan, I'll never forget it. $3,000 covered the fertilizer right to, to again. Different decision nowadays. I, we're going to get into fertilizer. Sure, sure, sure. So it was the conventional way of farming. Yeah, absolutely. So we, I took my first loan [00:10:00] at 14. It was the greatest business ever, Joe, because I had all my dad's equipment. I had the lowest overhead. Right. Because he let us use all that. Sure. We had buddies do all the manual labor for us. My mom just made them, you know, cheeseburgers for payment. That's awesome. And every Wednesday now I live in Bull Valley where all these fancy horse farmers are. So there was this Bull Valley-esque area, and my buddy and I would load up a fifth wheel. My grandfather had a hoop barn. We'd put them all in there. Every Wednesday afternoon after school, we'd go sell hay to horse farmers who loved to overpay for good alfalfa. Right. I'm telling you brother, man, that is still the best thing I ever did those years of high school.

So how long did the shoe shining make it before you were pulled into full time farm work?

Joe Wanda: Oh gosh. You know, probably not long. I kind of went back and forth between whether I liked animals [00:11:00] or cars. Still love both today. And but yeah, I always loved helping my mom with chores. And so it was kind of one of those things where I could do both, you know? And we would wake up at six in the morning, go milk the cow and do the chores. And, you know, by the time I was like 10 or 11, I pretty much could run the show for my mom. And it was like, Hey. She's going to be gone for the weekend. Joe's got it. And I would do all, do you know how to eat and take care of it all for, do you know how much people listening right now do not believe the numbers, the ages we're talking about?

Dr. Tony Ebel: Farm kids are just built differently, aren't they? Literally 10, so 14, but that's true. Yeah. They're going, I got this.

Joe Wanda: So my first boss, I would have been 16. I started working on the neighbor's dairy farm. They had about 120 milking cows and when I was working for him, and he was just the nicest guy ever, and he shared with me that when he was 10 and his brother was, I think 11 or 12. His parents went to Europe for two weeks and left them to run the farm with like 80 cows.

Dr. Tony Ebel: That's my point.

Joe Wanda: And so, I mean, kids, [00:12:00] my parents, kids grow up fast. They do. And it was, you know, when I look back on it now, I, I remember two things about it. One, I don't remember it even being a thing. It was just our life. It was just the way it was. My, I was the youngest of four, so for a while I was lost and my parents loved to bowl, and so they would go to these like bowling tournaments for the weekend. This is such an Iowan thing, and I would just run the, you know, feed 800 cattle, get up in the morning, probably five o'clock, whatever, before school, or if it was gone during school, you know. Get all the chores done, go to school, go to practice, go you're home by 5, 5:30. You know, it takes a couple hours to do chores, go to bed, do it all over again. Yeah. And it was just me. Yeah. Or cover the neighbors. They're on vacation to do it. And but, so the other memory I have from it is what a blessing that upbringing was because now all the hard work to bring this mission to the world that God has called us to, I don't see it. It is hard work. I'm not trying to say it's not, but it's just. It's our daily calling that we love. Like there's, there's chores to that too, right? And so, so that's definitely something I think, all of our families and our kids [00:13:00] need more of that chores mentality. You can apply that in every direction, not just livestock and farming. Yeah. But you're really kind. So, so now you guys go and you're growing up on the farm, so this was your path.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Forever. So you chose school, so now that's interesting, right? What I, I want to kind of pull that thread a little bit here, buddy. Or pull that, pull that weed. Bad joke. College, right. Going out and getting a degree. What were you looking to go for from that when you went off to college and chose the degree?

Joe Wanda: So yeah, when I was 16, started working on that dairy farm. That definitely solidified it, that like, yeah, I wanted to be a farmer. And a big part of it though was the family I worked for. I mean, like I said, that gentleman, I spoke before, I mean, he was a great [00:14:00] person and just a good influence on me to really solidify that yes, this is a good lifestyle and a good thing you can do. I will say a couple of the farmers I worked for in college, not so much. I think I would have turned negative about it and I probably wouldn't be doing it. Yeah. But yeah. Went off to, realized, okay, the best next step is go get a degree in agriculture. And, you know, you know, I'm 18. Didn't really know what was going to happen after there. I mean, at the time it was like, all right, find some, you know, farm girl who's already got a family farm. Marry her for sure. Buy into the family business and be a part of a farm. That was the plan, but. Decided to save some money, go to McHenry County College. Which was a great idea and I'm happy I did it. And at the time when I was there, I actually met my wife, Hannah.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Awesome. I was going to ask like, how'd you pull, how'd you pull her into this farm? Like, so, so we start, so she's actually resident here at Crystal Lake. Yeah.

Joe Wanda: And we started kind of getting to know each other my last semester of college there. [00:15:00] And so then we kind of stayed friends, went off to college. She went her way. She went down South to UT, Texas. And I went north to University of Wisconsin River Falls. Yeah. And we kind of just stayed more than friends, I like you, but we weren't going to get serious because of the long distance. And then after about three months we were like, okay, let's, and I asked her out, I said, I want to make this serious. And perfect. And the rest is history.

Dr. Tony Ebel: I mean, did she grow up with any farming, any anything but any desires or goals or dreams to be on the country, you know, or she loves the country.

Joe Wanda: Yeah. She's an amazing farm wife. She really is. And couldn't ask for a better farm girl. That's amazing. Really couldn't. So she came in and started helping me on the farms I was working for throughout college and we had a blast together and definitely solidified that like she's. She's got the mental toughness. I was going to say magical ability to do this job. Yep. And because it, it is together. It's, it's hard [00:16:00] work physically and mentally being a farmer, it's a hundred percent required to be together. Yeah, for sure.

Dr. Tony Ebel: That's amazing, man. What God is, God, that, that is so must be these Crystal Lake girls buddy. Must be, must be called to the farm. That's Christina too. You know, she's at her best with the work boots on and throwing hay bales around and I'm like, okay. Alright, here we go. Yeah, well.

Joe Wanda: Yeah, if I could give any piece of advice to any young man, like look for a girl that loves the Lord and wants to serve him. Yep. And you'll be happy.

Dr. Tony Ebel: That true. So, and that's what I did and I'm sure happy I did it. Ain't that the truth? That's a hundred percent match right there, brother, man. Alright, so, next chapter we kind of want to get into with this is really say, okay, you know, I don't think a lot of people right, know the layers of. Farming and how, just like the modern medical machine, how much the agricultural machine just got completely off the tracks, right over the last couple of generations. And so, you know, your average person probably thinks of farming and they would mistakenly assume it's this [00:17:00] natural by hand manual labor. Yours is. But yours is a unique farm for now, making a comeback, right? Regenerative naturals like crazy. And so across your farming journey, where was it conventional at first and then your parents already started to get into the regenerative and the organic? Was that college? What was the spark to go? Because you guys at Wanda Farms, I. Being a farm kid who then, you know, I went the other direction, right? I ended up in, in the suburbs, right? And, and doing, I love my calling with chiropractic. I get to work with my hands and serve people in that way, but it's just this incredible production done. Gosh, I don't know the words for it, brother, man. It's, it's just done in the way that creates so much health. Like the food you guys produce is so magnificently different in its quality and in what it does for families. So I guess that's a big intro, but where, where did that direction come from? Yeah. Because most people just know conventional. Right. Which is [00:18:00] honestly, it's the pharmaceutical industry of farming. Sure. You know? Yeah, it started with my mom for sure.

Joe Wanda: I mean, my mom was much more holistic on her type thinking. I mean, she was definitely the weirdo homeschool mom. A lot of people would say. You know, which was, you know, at the time as a kid you certainly felt that way. But yeah, it started with her and I think when I got into college age. It was more about like, well, mom doesn't know what she's talking about. Like I'm going to, you know, go back. I'm going to listen to the experts here at the university. And so definitely like, you know, great people. I learned from there at the university and learned a lot of great things. Learned so much about the biology, about how all of our bodies work. Chemistry. Yep. Learn incredible things of God's design. Yep. And how it all came together. But what I did not learn. That [00:19:00] looking back was, I learned about an industrial system on how to mass produce the, the main message at college was how do we feed the world? And that was, that was the message. And I would sometimes push back about certain things, and it was always just kind of like. Well, why would you do that? That's the old way, you know. No way. There was no, there was no openness about really the organic and more rotational grazing. I mean, they had a little bit of that like than that. Oh yeah. That's kind of for the hippies type thing that that was their excuse.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Would they shut that down with, oh, if we do that we can't mass produce? Is that always kind of the default region?

Joe Wanda: It was more about like you, like there would be, like, for example, we were in a class and we talked about BST. Bovine somatotropin. Hormone. Yeah. And it's BST is a hormone they would give cows [00:20:00] to produce more milk. Yeah. And. It, it's proven the cows produce up to five to 10% more milk in their lifetime if they're put on this drug. And so therefore, we would talk about that and I would like ask, I'm like, listen, can we talk more about like the efficacy of this and like. Does it have harmful effects to the milk? And I would just get shut down. And it was like, so they literally wouldn't even try and answer. Yeah. They're like, wow. You know what? That similar to this is already science. It's already proof. Yeah. Yeah. Why you asking? Right? You know that that's so similar to that.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Is every parent listening? Every might be a heck of a harsh word, but I think the math is closer to every than, than a few. That is like the majority of parents who go into a pediatrician's office and ask just one or two what we would consider super common sense questions like, Hey, why are we. Why are we doing this? Why are we injecting these chemicals? Why are we doing antibiotics again for a viral infection? Really basic, not complex in our, not what we know. Scientific questions and they just get shut down. They not only don't get answers like, you know, legitimate, thorough, informed choice answers, they just get dismissed. And so you were [00:21:00] experiencing a lot of that. Yeah. Just in the traditional, that's why I was asking about question before Brother Man. Because I went to Iowa State. Which is, you know, ag mass production whole base, right? Yeah. And so, and I, dude, my mom has a paper that she considers the blackmail paper. I wrote a paper my freshman year about how genetically modified corn and soybeans are so dang. Good. I can't even word, because all I was taught was mass production. Feed the world, mass production, feed the world. Yes. You're not going to have to work so hard. You know, I watched my dad, you know, labor away and then this, so on the surface, 18, 19, I'm thinking this big mass production, agricultural revolution is going to be the best thing ever. I wasn't into health and natural health and chiropractic. Yeah. And so my mom still, you know, lords that paper over me as threat. She's like, I'll release this on the PX docs platform. Love you mama. So I've, I've learned since then. So they just would dismiss it. Did anybody give you their ear? Was there any professor or people there at school that would kind of like, I'll talk to Joe.

Joe Wanda: So I, I had some great professors. [00:22:00] Yeah. And I respect every single one of them there. I really do. And I really believe that the majority of agriculture has great intent in everything they're doing. They really do think they're doing the best thing for. Humanity. However, they're just being misled down the wrong path in my mind. That's right. And that that's exactly what's happening. So it was funny, actually, one of the professors there, he was like kind of retired and just already just kind of helping out. He was probably almost 80 years old. His name was Dewey. And I remember my last semester, I kind of pulled him aside. I said, you know, this whole feed the world thing, I mean. Don't you think we should just change it to like, how do we feed our community and like educate the rest of the other countries in the world to do the same? Like it seems like they just have a lack of education. And he's like, you're right on. Wow. That's, that's what we should be doing. So to go big, you got to go small. But then you would have these like famous [00:23:00] speakers come in and they, you know, you get Yeah. Fill the auditorium with 500 college kids that are all. You know, have family farms back at home, they're going to go back to, or they're going to go into the industry for some big ag company.

Dr. Tony Ebel: And financially, real quick, everybody listening, that's what's happened. This is the season in the era of farming. Yeah. Like if you didn't choose to keep up, there was not a market, there wasn't, there was not a huge market. You almost couldn't even call it a market quite yet. Right. In the early stages, well just put for organic and regenerative, just put it in perspective.

Joe Wanda: So I got, my emphasis was on dairy. And so when I was probably like a young kid. A big dairy farm was probably about four or 500 cows for sure at the time. And then fast forward to college age, now it's like a thousand to 1500. Now today, the, that's considered small. Those are small for. Family farms just trying to make it, now you got to be pushing five, 10,000 cows minimum [00:24:00] before you're an actual farm to economies of scale. Yeah. And so that's just how everything has changed. Now it went from like, hey, it used to be you needed 80 acres, now you got to have 5,000.

Dr. Tony Ebel: I watched it with my dad. He, we had half a section and he was good to go until those final years. And then, you know, then he bought another 80, then we bought another 200, then we bought 300. And it wasn't about, like, he didn't want to own that much land per se, it was just in his final stage that was just a mathematical requirement to keep up. And, you know, so I, I literally, brother man, I, I was my dad's right hand man. Where we went from and again, for my family. We were not the holistic granola. It wasn't, it wasn't for health purposes. You know, he now looks back and knows it and loves that it was, but he was the last man to spray. He was the last man to, yeah, plant the roundup, ready corn and soybeans. But that was truly because he had manual labor to walk beans and pull it out. It, it was once he was at a different stage of life himself, not be able to keep up as much physically, and then kids weren't there. It was [00:25:00] so easy for the conventional world to get ahold of him. You know, and, and, and pull him into that system. Yeah. I that everybody listening, and again, I know we're on a health podcast, we're talking about the traditional medical world all the time. There is no two more exactly. Aligned comps than Big Ag and Big Med. I mean, absolutely. Literally the same man. It's no, well, I mean, big med. Yeah. So much of the medicines going into livestock production, dude. And they feed each other. Profits, vaccines, antibiotics, hormones. The hormones, all of it. All of it. So yeah, I mean we, that was, so anyways, fast forward I got out of college.

Joe Wanda: And I jumped into a full-time role as a herd manager on a 1400 cow dairy in southern Wisconsin. And great experience got so much. Good understanding of a big Ag is just a whole and how it was working. Got great management experience, helped me to start learning how to manage people. I had about, [00:26:00] oh, I had like five direct reports under me that were all Mexican labor and then we had another 20. Yeah. 15 to 20, let's say other Mexican laborers that were more like our milking crew. Yeah. Which the owner managed, but he was on his way out and so he was letting me step in and I was one of the individuals that could speak Spanish. Yeah. And so. Managed that for about four years and I just burnt myself out. I can't imagine. I mean that, that was the reality. There was just so many, so many other things going on that I was just burning myself out and about. I want to say it was about year three, two or three into that journey I heard of Joel Salatin. Yeah, I was wondering that. I heard it to be Joel. Joel, somebody who got ahold of you. I started watching some of his YouTube videos. Yeah. And the first time I heard of the word regenerative. Yeah. I was like, what is this word? I just got a degree in agriculture. I never heard of this word. Yeah. And so started studying up more on Joel [00:27:00] Salatin and read a couple of his books, and it just started to click. Yeah. It was like, yeah. All right. I'm at this dairy farm, they're in, I'm be, you know, I'm just like injecting cows. Every day with all sorts of stuff.

Dr. Tony Ebel: I'm surprised you made it another day, doing day, doing the BST thing. Every week we had to inject.

Joe Wanda: No, it was every. Well, it was every week we had to inject [00:27:00] half the herd. Yeah. And so they would get their injection every pump, corn and silage into them. They, yep. Everything was GMO. Yep. And at the time, you know, I had the opportunity to actually buy into the farm to. Be a part of the ownership with the family. Wow. And we had a lot of good discussions, pre-discussion on like, okay, how can we make this work? And it just came down to values to not, I was going to say, it would have been much harder to unshackle from that. Yeah. And I know, like when I brought up an idea on like, hey, you know, I'm hearing because financially it was not a great situation either. Got it. [00:28:00] Yeah, it's 1400 cows. Many would consider factory farm. But margins are hard financially. It was, that is what, it's painfully stressful. And so the thought of like, how can we get more margin and value for this product? And so I remember one day just bringing up like the fact like, you know what if we started going to like a non GMO feed? Yeah. I, I, I talked to this other dairy processor. They're saying they're paying another dollar. Correct. 50 a pound on the hundred weight premium. And it just got shot, done right away, not even a chance. Yeah. And so just after you know, some more time in those type of conversations, I just realized this is, this is a dead end. Awesome. And so my wife and I. It went on our own.

Dr. Tony Ebel: There you go. So, so how did that, so let's go to the Joel. So what did you start learning? Give us, give everybody just a quick two. I know, right Joel? So Joel came to speak at chiropractic school when I was there. So I'm going to chiropractic school and I'm learning all about the nervous system and how the body works exactly like you said. Like I've always loved biology, [00:29:00] anatomy, and I always was blown away by God's design. But then studying it. And the more you study it, the more you learn neurology and physiology and biology, the more you fall in love. I think the more we, I don't think I know, the more you see the creator and you see the intelligence, you're like, there's no way that a lightning hit an amoeba, you know? And that came out of it. So, long story short, I'm fallen more in love with the potential of helping people through chiropractic, but that was also my foray into the natural wellness. Right. I grew up with the Schwan's man and Doritos and Casey's Pizza. Right. Same. That was our kind of farming. And so anyways, Joel Salatin is coming in. Early in my career I would become really good friends with Dr. Josh Axe who went into with Jordan Rubin, and you know, the kingdom and the Maker's diet and all that. So those have been friends and mentors. They've been on the podcast with us.

Joe Wanda: That's sweet.

Dr. Tony Ebel: That's, I was so excited. You got to go check out their farm in Tennessee and Missouri. When we're done, I need to get you connected with Josh and Jordan. [00:30:00] And head down there and see it. What they're doing is incredible. These two are kingdom driven men who have been blessed to absolutely do incredible things through a health and supplement business. And now they're not done. They could honestly, dude, sorry. A little diatribe here. They could put it on cruise control and be good to go. Where their obsession is right now is regenerative ag. It's absolutely like going back to the roots, to the dirt and rebuilding from there and then teaching others to do it. They're exactly aligned to you, my man. So, okay, so can you give us a 101. Introductory, you know, trailer to regenerative ag and why it is so different from where most conventional food is produced from.

Joe Wanda: Yeah, so the regenerative ag, you know, it's the mindset just totally shifts from how do I mass produce something and like get the highest yield to how do I actually produce a product that has the best nutrient density to it? And so that's really kind of the more the [00:31:00] mindset and focus, and that really starts with the soil. So, you know, when you start talking about soil health, there's all these principles that we can utilize to help improve the soil health. That's what we've been focused on.

Dr. Tony Ebel: So it starts with the soil?

Joe Wanda: Yes. So we, our, I have always had like a little, you know, when I was in high school, I always had that interest in like just rotational grazing. Yeah. And more grazing. But it was totally new, like doing it.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Did your mom, do any of it? Weren't, did you guys do any of it?

Joe Wanda: A little bit. Yeah. We were. Horrible at it. Just like, because you do it. We were horrible at it. Yeah. It's not the easiest thing to, you didn't know what we were doing. Yeah. And, but yes, when, when I was at college, I took like. Like a half a credit class. That's all they offer. Like rotational grazing and like first day ice. Yeah. It was like, it was a, you know, it was a fun class, but it was kind of pathetic that it's like just all, it's like a nutrition class at medical school. They're like, we only offered in this closet over this summer. Yeah. But yet again, I had to go do like 12 credits of chemistry for sure. [00:32:00] So. Anyways, that was actually probably one of my favorite classes. Looking back, we got to design like a pat, like, like a rotational grazing system. And it was like, okay, what? What kind of fencing are you going to install? How big of the paddocks do you need? Like calculate the density and like how many cattle can this pasture carry? It was a lot of fun.

Dr. Tony Ebel: So you at least had to start. Yeah.

Joe Wanda: And so I always kind of had that interest. And then in 2015, actually, we bought a farm right next to my parents, along with my mom and dad. And so that was the plan all along was I was going to just like on the side for fun, rotationally graze, like, you know, five, 10 cows or something. And so that was, that was the start of Wanda Farms. And then in 2018. No. 17 left the dairy farm. And which by the way, I want to remind everyone, you know, everyone in my past history. I agree. That's in the big ag, like I respect and I love each one of them individuals. Yeah. And so when I'm like harsh [00:33:00] and down on big Ag, it's not against any individual. Yeah. You, so you, if you didn't have those incredible mentors and people in your path, you wouldn't have the contrast to be as relentless, obsessed absolutely. Into the quality of your product. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. Cool. So anyways, fast forward 2018 is when we recognized like, okay, we want to do this regenerative farming rotational grazing system. And so. Went ahead and started kind of direct marketing. Some like, yeah, half cow share. Yeah. Quarter cow shares.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Where at? Where did you go find, where'd you go find people, family and friends.

Joe Wanda: There you go. Man. That's where it always starts. There you go. Totally. Totally. So that's like the chiropractic journey. You know what family getting adjusted get on in here. 2018 was the first year we harvest. Did our first four beef that were a hundred percent grass fed. Yeah. Awesome. And so, and, and just so everybody's aware, it takes two years from start to finish to get a grass fed only beef. I really [00:34:00] want to talk about meat and the difference there. Which obviously comes. Soil to plant to what they're eating. Yeah. So, so, okay. So grass fed. So when I set up shop here, 07, 08, and because, Joel Salatin and all these other folks had come into my vortex, so my wife and I, starting our young family here, open up practice in Crystal Lake, we were obsessed with finding good food and grass fed, and it was literally like fighting a needle in a haystack, man. So my uncle Scott, who's this bacon salesman who still calls me the hippie chiro, oh, you want your grass fed beef? And so he had a guy. One of his salesmen on his team in Wisconsin left the system. He was working for Monsanto and Cargill for so long, similar enough story where he was so entrenched in the system. He saw the system and he got out and it's called Doug Nye is his name, and he got out and he started this grass fed. So I used to have to drive two and a half hours north to go pick up my. Cow and get started with my family. So as you guys started to get going and, and, and word got out, it's been the [00:35:00] greatest blessing for our family. And then I have a family chiropractic practice. We tell people the truth real early, right? We're like, Hey, we're going to change your nervous system. But we're, it's called Premier Wellness, right? We get into nutrition, we get into these sort of things for our families. And so then I felt like I was like causing more stress for families. Because I'm telling them they really needed to shift their meat, which is where I'd like to take you next. Yeah. And then them finding it was hard, you know? So I was like stressing myself. I'm causing them stress. They know about conventional meat now and how bad it is, but they're struggling to find it. So you guys, the way you serve our community and the scale and the size of your operation now, I know Father's day's coming up and those tomahawks, you're going to have to hire, you're have to hire armed guards. Keep those Tom Hawks at play, brother man. You know, forget the coyotes. It's going to be these dads coming out there trying to get ahold of those tomahawks. So. What took off? Actually, let me ask two questions. Meat, grass fed meat, the way you raise it. Why does that matter [00:36:00] so much? I know people are like organic strawberries. Yes. And everything else, but start with if you're going to start anywhere, everybody listening, you got to clean up your meat. Sure. Why does that matter So much. So in my, I'll be honest. When I was first starting, I was skeptical of the grass fed. I was like, okay. Like, you know, college background for sure. Industrial Ag. What's the big deal? Right? What's the difference? You see the price tag is twice as much and it's like, why? Harder to cook? Why? Why? But it's, it's really simple. It goes back to the nutrient density when we talked about that. Like you start studying the science behind it and it's clear grass fed beef. Has so much more nutrients in it. When you look at it on a per ounce basis, and we're talking about healthier fats, more vitamins, antioxidants, just so many things that's jam packed. It's, and it goes back to the slow grow process, the way God intended it. Because the reality is I could do a grain fed [00:37:00] beef. You could, and half the amount of time. And sure we can get that, that animal to process a lot faster, we can crank out more, we can be more profitable. And at the end of the day, it is better to do it that way from an economic standpoint. But what is the other cost? We don't talk about the other costs because we have a lot of other costs associated with our health. Yeah. Environmental. And also not to account the animal welfare aspect. All because we put start packing these animals into an unhealthy environment where they're in a feed lot. You know, there's, that's why they get pumped full of so many sick. Yeah, there's crap feed all over. Exactly. Exactly. They have to, it's, it's kind of funny actually, if I can share a little story.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Let's do.

Joe Wanda: This past weekend. It was, it was actually kind of a tough Saturday afternoon because we actually had a cow die. Out of the blue. My farm manager went out there Saturday morning, moved the cattle to the next paddock. Everything was great. And then [00:38:00] about, I was just finished up with a farmer's market training, a guy out in Winnetka and just leaving the market. He calls me and I could just tell something was wrong in his voice and he's like, dude, there's a cow dead. And, I was just moving them to their next paddock. And he's discouraged. It is like this has been a rough day that Yeah, of course the other worker didn't show up to his to work, and so it was just a rough day and going out there and seeing that, it's like, man, this is what I dealt with on a daily basis. When I was at this dairy farm. They through 1400 cows. Just a rendering truck today and rendering truck picks up dead animals. Yes. Yes. The dead cow truck. That's what we called it. And I had to pick up the phone and call that guy. Geez. And it was like, I haven't called this guy in over five years.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Well, ain't that a, ain't that a telling? That's a good, and and and it was, it was, it was tough. It was like, gosh, it brought back so many horrible feelings, but big picture five years. And that's, and honestly that's what sold me on going regenerative [00:39:00] rotational grazing, is because when I was in it. It, it, it's hard. It's mentally difficult when you see cows dying day after day after day and you're just shooting up with drugs and all that, and you're trying to do the best thing to keep them alive. Yeah. And Hey brother, and that's why I started looking Fountain. So you, first and foremost the food. So let's go to the negative. There's a list. I think you had three, you might have had four. The cost. The cost of just mass producing, shoving them on corn. Yeah. Shoving them into that. You, you had, you, you were saying we don't think of the cost. Immediately are transferred to the healthcare system. Sure. You could actually even take that further, right? The cost of now kids are sick all the time, they're not in school. That hurts. Their education, their growth, the cost of somebody sick all the time, they're not at work. That literally hurts our economy from lost production, so we're getting hit from both ends. The healthcare system is erupted. The lack of productivity. Yeah. Then you've got environment, massive issue to mass produce, crushing the environment, and third layer. The animals. The animal. Absolutely. And so [00:40:00] when you shift to regenerative, you literally improve all three of those massively important, big, big, big categories. Get better with regenerative. Absolutely. Wow. Absolutely. That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, the health, I mean, it's, it really interesting, I throw out a fact, yeah. That about a hundred years ago, about 40% of our income went towards food expense. Oh. And then healthcare, it was less than 5%. Today it's about 15% of our income goes towards food and about 50% of that time we're eating out, right? And then about over 15% is towards healthcare. And it ab so it's, it's flip flopped, dude. I mean, what, what's going on? We're just, and the healthcare totally flip flopped. The cost is you're not really saving at the end of the day. By the way, we're, we're, we're, that's a half truth in terms of the terms we're all been told to use. That's not healthcare. That's sick care. All of those costs are going to take care. That's right. Healthcare now, that's what's crazy. People are like, oh, how does Well-Rooted, which is a natural, holistic place that, you know, [00:41:00] serves our families here. How did PWC, you know, you guys, one of the toughest things that actually we, we wish were different, we're not able to actually accept insurance and deal with insurance. Because insurance isn't health insurance, it's sick insurance, so it doesn't cover. Us who restore and regenerate. We're in regenerative chiropractic, truth be told. You know what I mean? Like we don't do the healing. Yeah. We don't do the treat. God does that. Right. We literally, kids are designed to be healthy. What happens is this stress, this birth trauma, these toxins, this inflammation gets in their body. It gets into the sympathetic dominance. We make the adjustment to hit reset, to hit, restore, to regenerate the function of their nervous system. Right? Right. And they're designed to heal. So when you move that interference out of the way. They move towards health. When you remove toxic chemicals out of your food and you put good food in, you move towards health. Healing happens. It's pre-programmed that way, right? Whether you're an animal or a human. And so we could completely, literally flip the system upside down, actually save bajillions of dollars by shifting entirely to this way of raising our food. And it's doable, isn't it? In each community. [00:42:00] Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Wanda: So, have you heard of Will Harris? Yeah, yeah. From White Oak Pastures? Yeah. And so you talk about another individual who's become a mentor to me in this journey. Read his book about a year ago and definitely recommend anyone to read it. But he's gotten asked this question on like Joe Rogan's podcast and some other ones. Like, okay, is this regenerative farming model scalable? Yeah. Come on, let's be real. Josh. I asked, I asked Josh, how are we going to feed the world with that? Yeah, yeah. And, and that's not the right question to be asking. And, and Will Harris's response is, it's not, is it scalable? Is it repeatable? It is repeatable. And it goes back to that whole thought process on how do we educate community or individual farmers to feed their community rather than how do we take responsibility feeding the whole world. That's not our responsibility. So does the community.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Last question's been well, we'll do a little rapid fire to send this thing home and oh my gosh, we got to have you back and do a round two. This is such, [00:43:00] this is such an important conversation and, and it's also so sick, so from the beginning, I think somewhere in the intros. Thing that we have with the podcast. I am very clear from episode number one for these folks that I am an equal mix. That God made me 50% Iowa Farm Boy and 50% neuroscience health nerd. So they are very used to farmer stories on this podcast. All right, buddy. So good to hear. So I get excited for everybody I'm going to interview, but I'm not churching this up at all. I could not wait for you to come in and have a chat. Because this is, this is my, my, my thing here anyways, so let's go to some stuff to bring it into action. So one for a family. You know, living in their community, how can they access this food? And then part two of that question, I know our audience, I, I kind of gave you a heads up before we started recording. I know our audience, these moms, these dads, they're, they're your mom, they're your dad, they're Joe and their Hannah. They're action takers. I would not be surprised if this episode, creates a whole [00:44:00] lot of homesteaders and a whole lot of helpers, and maybe that's all it is. Maybe you just need help at the farm. So what are action steps? Two parts. What is the easy action step in terms of going out and, and, and getting the right food and getting the right places for a family? And then, let's say somebody, let's say it brother man, let's say they're called to more. Where would you send them?

Joe Wanda: Yeah. So if you're an individual or family that lives here in the Midwest and you're looking for a farm that you want to buy regenerative clean meats from or eggs. Yeah. Definitely check us out at wandafarms.com. We are happy to ship you out. Any of our food to your home for easy home delivery. If you live really close to us in Harvard, Illinois or like me within an hour, just drive on out to the farm and grab your order here.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Real quick. Let me sneak in my commercial. I have to, and I am choosy. So for 20 years, so I grew up eating corn, fed silage, antibiotic laced, you know, cattle, right? [00:45:00] And food. And so I, if there's anybody on earth who can taste the difference, actually now even at scale, and I've also now been, you know, eating organic and eating grass fed and eating regenerative for a long time. I'm not saying this because you're sitting across from your brother. It is such a difference at Wanda Farms, when we found it and, and we've always got it through the office and, and that it's just, it's at a whole other level. And I think it's also just your. It's who you guys are. You know, it's what you're called to and how you do life and take care of it. And then it's all the science. It's all the nutrients and it's everything else. So yes, everybody locally and even in the stratosphere of the Midwest get Yeah, absolutely. Wanda Farms shipped to you. Yeah. And we'll put, we're putting links in there and we're putting, I know your crew has, a cool code that they're going to get connected to, to, to make it easy on the first purchase. We're going to put that in the show notes, make that happen.

Joe Wanda: Yeah, that would be awesome. So what about, what about the ones who want to move out of the city? Bro, skiing, get ready to get out. Well, I tell you what, I'm trying to hire a farm man right now. So, definitely check out our careers page [00:46:00] on the website because we are always looking for good help. Whether that be maybe on the farm with the animals. It might also just be I need a market representative. Someone to go out to the farmer's markets and be an ambassador for Wanda Farms. So yeah, definitely check us out there if you just want to get some experience and see what it's all about. And maybe that's kind of your path, your, the start of your path. Yeah. Being a farmer or something.

Dr. Tony Ebel: I was going to say. So is that the best thing to, if, if that is possibly their path to, to even just start to part-time it and, and raise some of their own food? Yeah. Is it, it's. The books, the, the, the documentaries, the online research, the YouTube is awesome, but going out, you, you got to go experience. You, you got to take action. Cool. Sorry, but like, read the books, watch the videos. That's all great, but at some point you got to take the next step and you got to jump in. And what, you know, maybe that's start if, if you have the ability to start on your own and. And, and buy a five acre farm or whatever and do it on your own, by all means, you should do that. And, we want, my, my personal [00:47:00] mission is to see more farmers. We have less than 1% of our nation as farmers right now. That number has got to increase by the end of my lifetime. Yes.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Speaking of, speaking of sustainable and regenerative, literally on the nose, that number is not sustainable. Absolutely. And you know what? I'll close this down with this. You know, I have taken every bit of my farmer upbringing that I can into my career as chiropractic. We now, thankfully, I, I joke, I, I can't remember I said this yet, I joke. I, I now live pretty much just on an Instagram farm, Joe. We've got our, our goats and our chickens and, and the mini donkeys. Those are my favorite animal on earth. But it's, you know, I'm, I'm rocking and rolling through chiropractic, but the truth is. There is the food component of this, there's the health component of this, and then there's the, when you live in the country and you get up in the morning and you do chores and before bed and you do chores and you, you, you know where your food comes from as a family and you prepare it as a family and [00:48:00] you pray over it as a family and you thank God for it as a bus, as your bodies, as a family, our kids. I, I'm, I'm struggling for the word to, to sum this all up that I'm trying to say in closing our kids. And future generations need farmer values, characters, principles, they can really change the world. Food can change the world. Getting your nervous system taken care of can change your family, but it's really. Principles and values that, that, that can change a family in the best of ways. And when you get out and you get on the farm, and that's all your kids know, we're, we're so blessed, dude. We grew up with this. Like, how nuts is that, right? Yeah, absolutely. This is justly, friendness in that way. Yeah. It'll change, it'll transform, work ethic, humility, everything that I think this world needs in a pretty high dose.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Okay. Last question over time. What animal do you own that you wish you didn't? Oh gosh. Like, if you could just don't say, we won't even play this part for her. It could be her [00:49:00] favorite.

Joe Wanda: Probably the, the broiler chicken. I mean, I, I, we raised chickens because my wife loves white meat. She, she's more the chicken eater than I am. If it was me, it'd just beef, beef every night. But, and, and not that so much that we raise them just for her. It, it's more the fact that it's, it's probably our most, it, it's the protein product that's driving the farm and profitability at the end of the day. So, chicken, it's a, it's a complimentary animal with. The cattle on the farm. And we can raise them both on the same amount of land. And it's, it's a win-win situation. And right now, beef cattle markets are just nuts right now. And the, and, and the reality, it's more of a hobby [00:50:00] than anything.

Dr. Tony Ebel: Dad that now I know you are officially, firmly really a farmer by, by speaking the, the last story, and these guys can probably, but my uncle Scott, when I moved out here to that 20 acres and we just started messing around a little bit, he goes, well, remember you're not a real farmer until you get a check from the government. He's so sarcastic. I was like, he goes, you losing money yet? I, he goes, because if you're losing, he goes, until you lose enough money, you're not really a farmer. And I thought, oh man, that is the truest joke that anybody is.

Joe Wanda: Oh yes, yes. If you're looking to looking to get rich, cut this out. I mean, this is what I tell everyone that comes to work on the farm. Do not come here. Looking to make a good, healthy, like income. This is not the place for you. This is a lifestyle.

Dr. Tony Ebel: You know what though, dude? If anybody's, and again, I mean it, we're just kind of chatting like, if anybody's going to figure this out in the best of ways, it's you and Hannah. You know, I do think, you know, you continue to, tap into your business mind and other sort of people too. No, not to like making software and doing everything else, but I just feel like it's so dang needed for families. There's got to be even [00:51:00] more. Growth and profit potential for you guys. You know, I'd love to, we should just all go to dinner one time and just like the more I be blessed, you know, God made me this. He gave us my wife and I just this crazy go after it. Get after our brain. I wonder if we knew even more about it. Oh, I don't know. I wonder if we could surf. I wonder if we could help in any way. I'd love to try it. I'd love to try. Yeah. Alright brother. Man.

Raw Version:

EM Podcast_Wanda Farms_Audio V2

[00:00:00] Meat, grass fed meat, the way you raise it. Why does that matter so much? I, I'll be honest, when I was first starting, I was skeptical of the grass fed. I was like, okay, like, you know, college background. Sure. Industrial ag, what's the big deal? Right. What's the difference? Welcome to the Experience Miracles podcast, where we help parents find hope, answers, and drug-free help to overcome your child's chronic health challenges.

I'm your host, Dr. Tony Ebol, and I'll be sharing my experiences as both a dad and a doctor. On every episode. I can take the latest science and neurology of healing and break it down in the most simple and relatable way possible. We'll take on the toughest topics and answer your biggest questions through interviews with other amazing parents and leading experts.

Leaving you with practical action steps that you can take to help your child heal and thrive. It's time to expect and experience miracles. Let's get started.

All right, everyone. If you have been listening to the [00:01:00] podcast much at all, you know that I come from an Iowa farmer background, and so you get a lot of farmer analogies and metaphors and concepts mixed together with this neuroscience. Hope, dealing answer, giving drug free healthcare taking over mentality.

So today's interview was a blast for me, and it will be for you too because it's a topic we haven't tackled yet and we brought in an expert in within a field. Ha ha. Pun intended. Field. We brought in another farmer, Joe Wanda from Wander Farms is the interview you are about to listen to. So Joe is still farming.

Boy is Joe and Hannah and his incredible family is still farming. They have an incredible regenerative. Farm here, local to um, really close to where our practice and our life is in Harvard, Illinois. And they just took this and, and I won't get in usually obviously when we read a bio, we go into their backstory.

But I was so [00:02:00] intrigued by how Joe got to where he is with this massive operation. And let me tell you this, knowing farming. It's not easy to have a massive operation that feeds so many families, healthy, grass fed, organic regeneratively farmed food. It's easy to have a massive operation that is built upon a.

Big machines and chemicals and fertilizers and pesticides and growth hormones pumped into your animals and antibiotics given to them. And I know that, 'cause I grew up as a farm kid in the era where it went from organic farming that you didn't have to call organic farming because you just raised. Food before chemicals and fertilizers and pesticides and genetically modified.

Everything came into our existence in the name of quote unquote, you know, feeding the world and, and, and mass feeding and driving down prices, which on the surface it can do that. But so can this option we're gonna talk about [00:03:00] with bringing it back to the communities, bringing it back to families, bringing it back.

To the earth as God designed it and making it regenerative. But the world shifted, as did healthcare around the same kind of concepts where it's like, oh, we're gonna live better with chemistry injected into everything right, wrong. And Joe will teach us that. This is an incredible story. There's incredible impact for the health of your family and action steps that comes with that.

And it's been a wild run for me in my 43 going on 44 years as we release this one because. Again, I grew up as a farm kid where we shifted from what today would have to be called organic, but back then it was just food, and now it needs this organic label. It needs this grass fed label. It needs this regenerative label.

Those labels actually shouldn't be on there. Of course, as healthy families, we need to have those labels today to be able to choose between, you know, craptastic, chemically laced, chronic illness inducing food. And then health and vitality and healthy, happy [00:04:00] families inducing food. Well, Joe and his crew is bringing us so much of the ladder.

That's the only thing that goes on our grill and, and in our plates around here is Wanda Farms food. In fact, if you're really within many states within the Midwest, you're actually gonna be able to learn that you can order. From Joe's Farm and, and really support this incredible man and his mission. And, and I guarantee by the time you get to the end of this episode, not only will you learn a lot about incredible healthy food and regenerative farming and how much it means to your family, but I think you're gonna fall in love with Joe and his.

Story and want to order from on farm. So make sure you hit the link in this one. We've got a special, um, offer for you in that way too, that they bring to the table and they're just incredible. His story is incredible. We get, we have a lot of fun. We share a lot of stories, and we share a lot of action steps that will really help your family find your way to what true.

Actual healthy food is and how much it matters. I know our audience. I know our [00:05:00] Experience Miracles podcast family. You're gonna love this one. Let's dig in. So my story, um, humble beginnings. Yeah. Hebrew, Illinois. There you go. So my parents both were from the city of Chicago. Okay. And, uh, I am the fourth child.

Okay. And like full baby of the family, or there's one more after you. There's six total. Let's go. And so they had three kids and then they were both talking. My parents are like, we gotta get outta Chicago. Okay. We can't live here. Um, it's not safe for our kids. Yeah. And so. They were pregnant with me. They moved out to he Illinois.

Wow. And bought a little five acre like hobby farm. And so that's all you, that's where it started. You were, you were literally born. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Yeah. So quickly, um. That was such a tiny little home. They grew. We started in, you know, we were, it was like sharing the bed with my sister and five of us in one room type thing, and they [00:06:00] eventually went ahead and built a home on a 27 acre plot of land nearby.

Uh, and that's where my mom really started to live out her dream of having a milking cow and some pigs and chickens, what did start Let's Garden And I love details. I'm gonna be anno, I'm gonna be the annoying interviewer. So this is, as a pediatric chiropractor, we're so trained into root cause. We ask all these like detailed and granular questions clinically, and I just, I can't get away from it.

Even when I get into stories. I love the details. When you guys were on the five acre farm and your parents were just getting started, what. What components of farming and food raising did they have there first? And then did they kind of hang on to a city job and do that? Was it kind of two wheels at once until the 27 acres?

Yeah, so I, so we moved outta that place when I would've been six. Okay. So I don't have a ton of memories there. We had a big pond. I remember playing lots of hockey. Um. We had a beautiful strawberry patch. Awesome. [00:07:00] And gosh, there's not a whole lot else I can remember, to be honest. Pretty sweet tree house.

Yeah. Which got destroyed pretty quickly 'cause it was a willow tree, so it did not last at all. Uh, so then the 27 acres Cool. Yeah. Then we, they, they built a new home on the 27 acres and that's really where they had the acreage to really kind of grow and do everything. It was my mom that really loved the animal husbandry, like she wanted to do the livestock.

My dad was totally like hands off. He had nothing to do with it. He was more focused on fruit trees, the garden. And that's a great mix because um, the best farms have both. Right. You know, it was so if, if one is obsessed over here, and my dad was the breadwinner. Yeah. He was, he, he had his own business, uh, repairing interiors on cars and so he was still traveling into the city of Chicago and the suburbs doing that business.

And so I still got like. Into the city quite frequently. I would go to work with them actually once a week. And [00:08:00] actually my first gig was I had a shoe shine business. Okay. So I was actually shining shoes for car salesman at the car dealerships. And so do you for what age? I would go. What age did you start this?

I started at seven years old. Oh goodness. Great. And so I actually would go down to City of Chicago with my dad once a week and we were homeschooled. We were really blessed to be able to do that. And so. It was pretty cool going to Lober Motors, Mercedes dealership, and shine all these salesman shoes. And then, you know, they'd be like, you know, I think one time I shined a Scatty Pippin shoes.

That's awesome. Well, they had the trust of your father, right? Your father built a business and built trust that did, yeah. And, and provided one service. You're coming along to spend time with dad to, to, yeah. That, that is so good that that really is what's. Sparked my entrepreneur journey and just kind of the ability to learn to converse with people and be willing to talk and That's awesome.

It was a really great experience, dude, I tell you, that changes the, the dial for me. I, I always thought I was an early starter. I started my [00:09:00] first hay bailing business at 14, so I'm the youngest. Oh really? Okay. I grew up a thousand, you know, my dad corn soybean. About a thousand, anywhere between like 500 to a thousand head of cattle at any time.

We only had hogs for summer four H. Right. Take him to the fair. And uh, so he had this 28 acre alfalfa field and I was the youngest of four and he was starting to scale back a little bit, you know, um, at that stage in age. And so he didn't want to keep the alfalfa going anymore because him and all my neighbors and uncles who would come over and bail it, right?

This is back like actual small squares and everything else. So he was going to no longer have it. He was just gonna turn it over to soybeans. And my buddy and I, my best friend, also one of my farmer friends, we saw an opportunity, and I have no idea how this landed in my head that it was an opportunity.

But we went to the bank, we got our first loan, I'll never forget it. $3,000 covered the fertilizer right to, to again. Different decision nowadays. I we're get into fertilizer. Sure, sure, sure. So it was the conventional way of farming. Yeah, absolutely. So we, I took my first loan [00:10:00] at 14. It was the greatest business ever, Joe, because I had all my dad's equipment.

I had the lowest overhead. Right. Because he let us use all that. Sure. We had buddies do all the manual labor for us. My mom just made him, you know, cheeseburgers for payment. That's awesome. And every Wednesday now I live in Bull Valley where all these fancy horse farmers are. So there was this Bull Valley.

Esque area, and my buddy and I would load up a fifth wheel. My, my grandfather had a hoop barn. We'd put 'em all in there. Every Wednesday afternoon after school, we'd go sell hay to horse farmers who loved to overpay for good alfalfa. Right. I'm telling you brother, man, that is still the best thing I ever did those years of high school.

So, so how long did the shoe shining, uh, make it before you were pulled into full time farm work? Oh gosh. You know, probably not long. I kind of went back and forth between, um, whether I liked animals Yeah. Or cars. Yeah. Still love both today. And, uh, but yeah, I, I, I always loved helping my mom with chores.

Okay. And so it was kinda one of those things where I could do both, you know? [00:11:00] And we would wake up at six in the morning, go milk the cow and do the chores. And, you know, by the time I was like 10 or 11, I pretty much could run the show for my mom. And, uh, it was like, Hey. She's gonna be gone for the weekend.

Joe's got it. And I would do all, do you know how the eating and take care of it all for, do you know how much people listening right now? Do not believe the numbers, the ages we're talking about farm kids are just built differently, aren't they? Literally 10, so 14, but that's true. Yeah. They're going, I got this.

So my first boss, yeah. Um, I would've been 16. I started working on the neighbor's dairy farm. They had about 120 milking cows and when I was working for him, and he was just the nicest guy ever, and he shared with me that when he was. 10 and his brother was, I think 11 or 12. His parents went to Europe for two weeks and left them to run the farm with like 80 cows.

That's my opinion. And so, I mean, kids, [00:12:00] my parents, kids grow up fast. They do. And it was, you know, when I look back on it now, I, I, I remember two things about it. One, I don't remember it. Even being a thing. It was just our life. It was just the way it was. My, I was the youngest of four, so for a while I was lost and my parents loved to bowl, and so they would go to these like bowling tournaments for the weekend.

This is such an Iowan thing, and I would just run the, you know, feed 800 k, get up in the morning, probably five o'clock, whatever, before school, or if it was gone during school, you know. Get all the chores done, go to school, go to practice, go you're home by 5, 5 30. You know, it takes a couple hours to do chores, go to bed, do it all over again.

Yeah. And it was just me. Yeah. Or cover the neighbors. They're on vacation to do it. And but, so the other memory I have from it is what a blessing that upbringing was because now all the hard work to bring this mission to the world that God has called us to, um, I don't see it. It is hard work. I'm not trying to say it's not, but it's just.

It's our daily calling that we love. Like there's, there's chores to that too, right? And so, so that's definitely something I think, um, all of our families and our kids [00:13:00] need more of that chores mentality. You can apply that in every direction, not just livestock and farming. Yeah. But you're really kind. So, so now you guys go and you're growing up on the farm, so this was your path.

Forever. So you chose school, so now that's interesting, right? What I, I want to kind of pull that hair a little bit here, buddy. Or pull that, pull that weed. Okay. Bad joke. Uh, college, right. Going out and getting a, a degree. What, what were you looking to go for from that when you went off to CO went off to school and chose the degree?

Uh, so yeah, when I was 16, started working on that dairy farm. Uh, that definitely solidified it, that like, yeah, I wanted to be a farmer. And a big part of it though was the family I worked for. I mean, like I said, that gentleman, I, I spoke before, I mean, he was a great. Person and just a good influence on me to really solidify that yes, this is a good lifestyle and a good thing you can do.

Um, I will say a couple of the farmers I worked for in college, not so much. I think I would've [00:14:00] turned negative about it and I probably wouldn't be doing it. Yeah. Um. But yeah. Went off to, uh, realized, okay, the best next step is go get a degree in agriculture. And, you know, you know, I'm 18. Didn't really know what was gonna happen after there.

I mean, at the time it was like, all right, find some, you know, farm girl's already got a family farm. Marry her for sure. Buy into the family business and be a part of a farm. Mm-hmm. Uh, that was the plan, but. Decided to save some money, go to McKen County College. Mm-hmm. Which was a great, um, idea and I'm happy I did it.

And at the time when I was there, I actually met my wife, Hannah. Awesome. I was gonna ask like, how'd you pull, how'd you pull her into this farm? Like, so, so we start, so she's uh, actually resident here at Crystal Lake. Yeah. Uh, and we started kind of getting to know each other my last semester of college there.

Awesome. And so then we kind of stayed friends, went off to [00:15:00] college. Uh, she went her way. She went down South Toter, Texas. Okay. And I went north to University of Wisconsin River Falls. Yeah. And, uh, we kind of just stayed more that friends, I like you, but we weren't gonna get serious 'cause of the long distance.

And then after about three months we were like, okay, let's, and I asked her out, I said, I wanna make this serious. And, uh, perfect. And the rest is history. I mean, did she grow up with any farming, any egg? No. Anything but any desires or goals or dreams to be on the country, you know, or she loves big the country.

Yeah. She's an amazing farm wife. Awesome. She really is. And couldn't ask for a better farm girl. That's amazing. Amazing. Really couldn't. So she came in and started helping me on the farms I was working for throughout college and, and we had a blast together and definitely solidified that like she's.

She's got the mental toughness. I was gonna magical ability to do this job. Yep. And, uh, 'cause it, it is together. It's, it's hard [00:16:00] work physically and mentally being a farmer, it's, it's a hundred percent required to be together. Yeah, for sure. That's amazing, man. What God is, God, that, that is so must be these uh, these crystal egg girls buddy.

Must be, must be called to the farm. That's Christina too. You know, she's at her best with the work boots on and throwing hay bales around and I'm like, okay. Alright, here we go. Yeah, well. Yeah, if I could give any piece of advice to any young man, like look for a girl that loves the Lord and wants to serve him.

Yep. And you'll be happy. That true. So, and that's what I did and I'm sure happy I did it. Aint that the truth? That's a hundred percent match right there, brother, man. Alright, so, um, next chapter we kind of want to get into with this is really say, okay, you know, I don't think a lot of people right, know the layers of.

Farming and how, just like the modern medical machine, how much the agricultural machine just got completely off the tracks, right over the last couple of generations. And so, you know, your average person probably thinks of farming and they would mistakenly assume it's this [00:17:00] natural by hand manual labor.

Yours is. But yours is a unique farm for now, making a comeback, right? Regenerative naturals like crazy. And so across your farming journey, where was it conventional at first and then your parents already started to get into the regenerative and the organic? Was that college? What was the spark to go?

'cause you guys at Wanda Farms, I. Being a farm kid who then, you know, I went the other direction, right? I ended up in, in the suburbs, right? And, and doing, I love my calling with chiropractic. I get to work with my hands and serve people in that way, but it's just this incredible production done. Gosh, I don't how the words for it, brother, man.

It's, it's just done in the way that creates so much health. Like the food you guys produce is so magnificently different in its quality and in what it does for families. Um, so I guess that's a big intro, but where, where did that direction come from? Yeah. Because most people just know conventional. Right.

Which is [00:18:00] honestly, it's the pharmaceutical industry of farming. Sure. You know? Yeah, it started with my mom for sure. Okay. I mean, my mom was much more holistic on her type thinking. I mean, she was definitely the weirdo homeschool mom. A lot of people would say. Mm-hmm. You know, which was, you know, at the time as a kid you certainly felt that way.

Um, but yeah, it started with her and I think when I got into college age. It was more about like, well, mom doesn't know what she's talking about. Like I'm gonna, you know, go back. I'm gonna listen to the experts here at the university. And so definitely like, you know, great people. I learned from there at the university and, uh, learned a lot of great things.

Learned so much about the biology, about how all of our bodies work. Chemistry. Yep. Learn incredible things of God's design. Yep. Uh, and how it all came together. But what I did not learn. That [00:19:00] looking back was, I learned about an industrial system on how to mass produce the, the main message at college was how do we feed the world?

And that was, that was the message. Mm-hmm. And I would sometimes push back about certain things, and it was always just kind of like. Well, why would you do that? That's the old way, you know. No way. There was no, there was no openness about really the organic and more rotational grazing. I mean, they had a little bit of that like than that.

Oh yeah. That's kind of for the hippies type thing that that was their excuse. Would they shut that down with, oh, if we do that we can't mass produce? Is that always kind of the default region? It was more about like you, like there would be, like, for example, we were in a class and we talked about BST.

Okay. Um, gosh, now I'm trying bovine somatotropin. Okay. Hormone. Yeah. And it's BST is a hormone they would give cows Yeah. To produce more milk. Yeah. And. It, it's proven the cows produce up to five to 10% [00:20:00] more milk in their lifetime if they're put on this drug. And so therefore, we would talk about that and I would like ask, I'm like, li, listen, can we talk more about like the efficacy of this and like.

Does it have harmful effects to the milk? And I would just get shut down. And it was like, so they literally wouldn't even try and answer. Yeah. They're like, wow. You know what? That similar to this is already science. It's already proof. Yeah. Yeah. Why you Alex asking? Right? You know that that's so similar to that.

Is every parent listening? Every might be a heck of a harsh word, but I think the math is closer to every than, than a few. That is like the majority of parents who go into a pediatrician's office and ask just one or two what we would consider super common sense questions like, Hey, why are we. Why are we doing this?

Why are we injecting these chemicals? Why are we doing antibiotics again for a viral infection? Really basic, not complex in our, not what we know. Mm-hmm. Scientific questions and they just get shut down. They not only don't get answers like, you know, legitimate, thorough, informed choice answers, they just get dismissed.

And so you were [00:21:00] experiencing a lot of that. Yeah. Just in the traditional, that's why I was asking about question before Brother Man. 'cause I went to Iowa State. Which is, you know, egg mass production whole base, right? Yeah. And so, and I, dude, my mom has a paper that she considers the blackmail paper. I wrote a paper my freshman year about how genetically modified corn and soybeans are so dang.

Good. I can't even word, because alls I was taught was mass production. Feed the world, mass production, feed the world. Yes. You're not gonna have to work so hard. You know, I watched my dad, you know, labor away and then this, so on the surface, 18, 19, I'm thinking this big mass production, agricultural revolution is gonna be the best thing ever.

I wasn't into health and natural health and chiropractic. Yeah. And so my mom still, you know, lords that paper over me as threat. She's like, I'll release this on the PX docs platform. Love you mama. Uh, so I've, I've learned since then. So they just would dismiss it. Did anybody give you their ear? Was there any professor or people there at school that would kind of like, I'll talk to Joe.

So I, I had some great professors. [00:22:00] Yeah. And I respect every single one of them there. I really do. And I really believe that the majority of agriculture has great intent in everything they're doing. They really do think they're doing the best thing for. Humanity. However, they're just being misled down the wrong path in my mind.

That's right. And that that's exactly what's happening. So it was funny, actually, one of the professors there, he was like kind of retired and just already just kind of helping out. Mm-hmm. He was probably almost 80 years old. His name was Dewey. And I remember my last semester, I kind of pulled 'em aside. I said, you know, this whole feed the world thing, I mean.

Don't you think we should just change it to like, how do we feed our community and like educate the rest of the other countries in the world to do the same? Like it seems like they just have a lack of education. And he's like, you're right on. Wow. That's, that's what we should be doing. So to go big, you gotta ghost fall.

But then you would have these like famous Yeah. You would speakers [00:23:00] come in and they, you know, you, you get Yeah. Filled the auditorium with 500 college kids that are all. You know, have family farms back at home, they're gonna go back to, or they're gonna go into the industry for some big ag company. And financially, real quick, everybody listening, that's what's happened.

This is the season in the era of farming. Yeah. Like if you didn't choose to keep up, there was not a market, there wasn't, there was not a huge market. You almost couldn't even call it a market quite yet. Right. In the early stages, well just put for organic and regenerative, just put it in perspective. So I got, my emphasis was on dairy.

Okay. And so when I was probably like a young kid. A big dairy farm was probably about four or 500 cows for sure at the time. And then fast forward to college age, now it's like a thousand to 1500. Now today, the, that's considered small. Those are small for. Family farms just trying to make it, now you gotta be pushing five, 10,000 cows minimum [00:24:00] before you're an actual farm to economies of scale.

Yeah. And so that's just how everything has changed. Now it went from like, hey, it used to be you needed 80 acres, now you gotta have 5,000. I watched it with my dad. He, we had half a section and he was good to go until those final years. And then, you know, then he bought another 80, then we bought another 200, then we bought 300.

And it wasn't about, like, he didn't want to own that much land per se, it was just in his final stage that was just a mathematical requirement to keep up. And, you know, so I, I literally, brother man, I, I was my dad's right hand man. Where we went from and again, for my family. We were not the holistic granola.

It wasn't, it wasn't for health purposes. You know, he now looks back and knows it and loves that it was, but mm-hmm. He was the last man to spray. He was the last man to, yeah, plant the roundup, ready corn and soybeans. But that was truly because he had manual labor to walk beans and pull it out. It, it was once he was at a different stage of life himself, not be able to keep up as much physically, and then kids weren't there.

It was [00:25:00] so easy for the conventional world to get ahold of him. You know, and, and, and pull him into that system. Yeah. I that everybody listening, and again, I know we're on a health podcast, we're talking about the traditional medical world all the time. There is no two more Exactly. Aligned comps than Big Egg and Big Med.

I mean, absolutely. Ly literally the same man. It's no, well, I mean, big me. Yeah. So much of the medicines going into livestock production, dude. And they feed each other. Profits, vaccines, antibiotics, hormones. The hormones, all of it. All of it. So yeah, I mean we, that was, so anyways, fast forward I got outta college.

Okay. And I jumped into a full-time role as a herd manager on a 1400 cow dairy in southern Wisconsin. Okay. And great experience got so much. Um, good understanding of a big Ag is just a whole and how it was working. Got great management experience, helped me to start learning how to manage people. I had about, [00:26:00] oh, I had like five direct reports under me that we're all Mexican labor and then we had another 20.

Yeah. Uh, 15 to 20, let's say other Mexican laborers that were more like our milking crew. Yeah. Which the owner managed, but he was on his way out and so he was letting me step in and I was one of the individuals that could speak Spanish. Yeah. And so. Managed that for about four years and I just burnt myself out.

I can't imagine. I mean that, that was the reality. There was just so many, so many other things going on that I was just burning myself out and about. I wanna say it was about year three, two or three into that journey I heard of Joel Sale. Yeah, I was wonder that. I heard it to be Joel. Joel, somebody who got ahold of you.

I started watching some of his YouTube videos. Yeah. And the first time I heard of the word regenerative. Yeah. I was like, what is this word? I just got a degree in agriculture. I never heard of this word. Yeah. And so started studying up more on Joel [00:27:00] S and read a couple of his books, and it just started to click.

Yeah. It was like, yeah. All right. I'm at this dairy farm, they're in, I'm be, you know, I'm just like injecting cows. Every day with all sorts of stuff. I'm surprised you made it another day, doing day, doing the BST thing. Every week we had to inject. No, it was every. Well, it was every week we had to inject Yeah.

Half the herd. Yeah. And so they would get their injection every pump, corn and silage into 'em. They, yep. Everything was GMO. Yep. And uh, at the time, you know, I had the opportunity to actually buy into the farm to. Be a part of the ownership with the family. Wow. And we had a lot of good discussions, pre-discussion on like, okay, how can we make this work?

Mm-hmm. And it just came down to values to not, I was gonna say, it would've been much harder to unshackle from that. Yeah. And I know, like when I brought up an idea on like, hey, you know, I'm hearing because financially it was not a great situation either. Got it. Um, yeah, it's 1400 cows. Many would [00:28:00] consider factory farm.

Uh, but margins are hard financially. It was, that is what, it's painfully stressful. Mm-hmm. And so the thought of like, how can we get more margin and value for this product? And so I remember one day just bringing up like the fact like, you know what if we started going to like a non GMO feed? Yeah. I, I, I talked to this other dairy processor.

They're saying they're paying another dollar. Correct. 50 a pound on the hundred weight premium. Mm-hmm. And it just got shot, done right away, not even a chance. Yeah. And so just after you know, some more time in those type of conversations, I just realized this is, this is a dead end. Awesome. And so my wife and I.

It went on our own. There you go. So, so how did that, so Wegen, all right, let's go to the Joel. So what did you start learning? Give us, give everybody just a quick two. I know, right Joel? So Joel came to speak at chiropractic school when I was there. So I'm going to chiropractic school and I'm learning all about the nervous system and how the body works exactly like you said.

Like I've always loved biology, [00:29:00] anatomy, and I always was blown away by God's design. But then. Studying it. And the more you study it, the more you learn neurology and physiology and biology, the more you fall in love. I think the more we, I don't think I know, the more you see the crater and you see the intelligence, you're like, there's no way that a lightning hit a amoeba, you know?

And that came out of it. So, long story short, I'm fallen more in love with the potential of helping people through chiropractic, but that was also my four in the natural wellness. Right. I grew up with the Schwan's man and fricking Doritos and Casey's Pizza. Right. Same. That was our kind of farming. And so anyways, Joel Sane is coming in.

Um, early in my career I would become really good friends with Dr. Josh Ax who went into with Jordan Rubin, and you know, the kingdom and the Makers diet and all that. So those have been friends and mentors. They've been on the podcast with us. That's sweet. That's, I was so excited. You gotta go check out their farm in Tennessee and Missouri.

Okay. When we're done, I need to get you connected with Josh and Jordan. Um, absolutely. And head down there and see it. What they're doing is incredible. These two are kingdom driven men who have been blessed [00:30:00] to absolutely do incredible things through a health and supplement business. And now they're not done.

They could honestly, dude, sorry. A little diatribe here. They could put it on cruise control and, um, be good to go. Where their obsession is right now is regenerative ag. It's absolutely like going back to the roots, to the dirt and, and rebuilding from there and then teaching others to do it. They're exactly aligned to you, my man.

So, okay, so can you give us, um, a 1 0 1. Introductory, you know, trailer to regenerative ag and, and why it is so different from where most conventional food is, is produced from. Yeah, so the regenerative ag, you know, it's the mindset just totally shifts from how do I mass produce something and like get the highest yield to how do I actually produce a product that has the best nutrient density to it?

And so that's really kind of the more the, the [00:31:00] mindset and focus, and that really starts with the soil. So, you know, when you start talking about soil health, there's all these principles that we can utilize to help improve the soil health. That's what we've been focused on. So it starts with the soil? Yes.

So we, our, I have always had like a little, you know, when I was in high school, I always had that interest in like just rotational grazing. Yeah. And more grazing. But it was totally new, like doing it. Did your mom, do any of it? Weren't, did you guys do any of it? A little bit. Okay. A little bit. Yeah. We were.

Horrible at it. Just like, 'cause you do it. We were horrible at it. Yeah. It's not the easiest thing to, you didn't know what we were doing. Yeah. And, but yes, when, when I was at college, I took like. Like a half a credit class. That's all they offer. Like rotational grazing and like first day ice. Yeah. It was like, it was a, uh, you know, it was a fun class, but it was kind of pathetic that it's like just all, it's like a nutrition class at medical school.

They're like, we only offered in this closet over this summer. Yeah. But yet again, I had to go do like 12 credits of chemistry for sure. [00:32:00] So. Anyways, that was actually probably one of my favorite classes. Looking back, we got to design like a pat, like, like a rotational grazing system. And it was like, okay, what?

What kind of fencing are you gonna install? How big of the paddocks do you need? Okay. Like calculate the density and like how many cattle can this pasture carry? It was a lot of fun. So you at least had to start. Yeah. And so I always kind of had that interest. And then in 2015, actually, uh, we bought a farm right next to my parents, along with my mom and dad.

And so that was the plan all along was I was gonna just like on the side for fun, rotationally graze, like, you know, five, 10 cows or something. Mm-hmm. And so that was, that was the start of Wanda Farms. And then in 2018. Uh, no. 17 left the dairy farm. And which by the way, I wanna remind everyone, you know, everyone in my past history.

I agree. That's in the big ag, like I respect and I love each one of them individuals. Yeah. And so when I'm like harsh [00:33:00] and down on big Ag, it's not against any individual. Yeah. You, so you, if you didn't have those incredible mentors and people in your path, you wouldn't have the contrast to be as relentless, obsessed Absolutely.

Into the quality of your product. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. Cool. So anyways, fast forward 2000, uh, 18 is when we recognized like, okay, we want to do this regenerative farming rotational grazing system. And so. Went ahead and started kind of direct marketing. Some like, yeah, half cow share. Yeah.

Quarter cow shares. Where at? Where did you go find, where'd you go find people, family and friends. There you go. Man. That's where it always starts. There you go. Totally. Totally. So that's like the chiropractic journey. You know what family getting adjusted get on in here. 2018 was the first year we harvest.

Did our first four beef that were a hundred percent grass fed. Yeah. Awesome. And so, and, and just so everybody's aware, it takes two years from start to finish to get a grass fed only beef. I really [00:34:00] want to talk about meat and, and the difference there. Um, which obviously comes. Soil to plant to what they're eating.

Yeah. So, so, okay. So grass fed. So when I set up shop here, oh 7, 0 8, and because, um, Joel Saan and, and all these other folks had come into my vortex, so my wife and I, starting our young family here, open up practice in Crystal Lake, we were obsessed with finding good food and grass fed, and it was literally like fighting a needle in a haystack, man.

So my uncle Scott, who's this bacon salesman who still calls me the hippie chiro, oh, you want your grass fed beef? And so he had a guy. One of his salesmen on his team in Wisconsin left the system. He was working for Monsanto and Cargill for so long, similar enough story where he was so entrenched in the system.

He saw the system and he got out and it's called Doug Nye is his name, and he got out and he started this grass fed. So I used to have to drive two and a half hours north to go pick up my. Cow and get started with my family. So as you guys started to get going and, and, and word got out, it's been the [00:35:00] greatest blessing for our family.

And then I have a family chiropractic practice. We tell people the truth real early, right? We're like, Hey, we're gonna change your nervous system. But we're, it's called Premier Wellness, right? We get into nutrition, we get into these sort of things for our families. And so then I felt like I was like causing more stress for families.

'cause I'm telling them they really needed to shift their meat, which is where I'd like to take you next. Yeah. And then them finding it was hard, you know? So I was like stressing myself. I'm causing them stress. They know about conventional meat now and how bad it is, but they're struggling to find it. So you guys, the way you serve our community and the scale and the size of your operation now, um, I know Father's day's coming up and those tomahawks, you're gonna have to hire, you're have to hire armed guards.

Keep those Tom Hawks at play, brother man. Um, you know, forget the coyotes. It's gonna be these dads coming out there trying to get ahold of those tomahawks. So. What took off? Okay. Actually, let me ask two questions. Meat, grass fed meat, the way you raise it. Why does that matter [00:36:00] so much? I know people are like organic strawberries.

Yes. And everything else, but start with if you're gonna start anywhere, everybody listening, you gotta clean up your meat. Sure. Why does that matter So much. So in my, I'll be honest. When I was first starting, I was skeptical of the grass fed. Okay. I was like, okay. Like, you know, college background for sure.

Industrial Ag. What's the big deal? Right? What's the difference? You see the price tag is twice as much and it's like, why? Harder to cook? Why? Why? But it's, it's really simple. It goes back to the nutrient density when we talked about that. Like you start studying the science behind it and it's clear grass fed beef.

Has so much more nutrients in it. When you look at it on a per ounce basis, and we're talking about healthier fats, more vitamins, antioxidants, just so many things that's jam packed. It's, and it goes back to the slow grow process, the way God intended it. Because the reality is I could do a grain fed [00:37:00] beef.

You could, and half the amount of time. And sure we can get that, that animal to process a lot faster, we can crank out more, we can be more profitable. And at the end of the day, it is better to do it that way from an economic standpoint. But what is the other cost? We don't talk about the other costs because we have a lot of other costs associated with our health.

Yeah. Environmental. And also not to account the animal welfare aspect. All because we put start packing these animals into an unhealthy environment where they're in a feed lot. You know, there's, that's why they get pumped full of so many stick. Yeah, there's err feed all over. Exactly. Exactly. They have to, it's, it's kind of funny actually, if I can share a little story.

Lets do, um. This past weekend. It was, it was actually kind of a tough Saturday afternoon 'cause we actually had a cow die. Um, out of the blue. My farm manager went out there Saturday morning, moved the cattle to the next paddock. Everything was great. And then [00:38:00] about, um, I was just finished up with a farmer's market training, a guy out in Winnetka and just leaving the market.

He calls me and I could just tell something was wrong in his voice and he's like, dude, there's a cow dead. And, uh, I was just moving them to their next paddock. And he's discouraged. It is like this has been a rough day that Yeah, of course the other worker didn't show up to his to work, and so it was just a rough day and going out there and seeing that, it's like, man, this is what I dealt with on a daily basis.

When I was at this dairy farm. They through 1400 cows. Just a rendering truck today and rendering truck picks up dead animals. Yes. Yes. The dead cow truck. That's what we called it. And I had to pick up the phone and call that guy. Geez. And it was like, I haven't called this guy in over five years. Well, ain't that a, ain't that a telling?

That's a good, and and and it was, it was, it was tough. It was like, gosh, it brought back so many horrible feelings, but big picture five years. And that's, and honestly that's what sold me on going regenerative [00:39:00] rotational grazing, is because when I was in it. It, it, it's hard. It's mentally difficult when you see cows dying day after day after day and you're just shooting up with drugs and all that, and you're trying to do the best thing to keep them alive.

Yeah. And Hey brother, and that's why I started looking Fountain. So you, first and foremost the food. So let's go to the negative. There's a list. I think you had three, you might have had four. The cost. Mm-hmm. The cost of just mass producing, shoving them on corn. Yeah. Shoving 'em into that. You, you had, you, you were saying we don't think of the cost.

Immediately are transferred to the healthcare system. Sure. You could actually even take that further, right? The cost of now kids are sick all the time, they're not in school. That hurts. Their education, their growth, the cost of somebody sick all the time, they're not at work. That literally hurts our economy from lost production, so we're getting hit from both ends.

The healthcare system is erupted. The lack of productivity. Yeah. Then you've got environment, massive issue to mass produce, crushing the environment, and third layer. The animals. The animal. Absolutely. And so [00:40:00] when you shift to regenerative, you literally improve all three of those massively important, big, big, big categories.

Get better with regenerative. Absolutely. Wow. Absolutely. That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, the health, I mean, it's, it really interesting, I throw out a fact, yeah. That about a hundred years ago, about 40% of our income went towards food expense. Oh. And then healthcare, it was less than 5%. Today it's about 15% of our income goes towards food and about 50% of that time we're eating out, right?

Mm-hmm. And then about over 15% is towards healthcare. And it ab so it's, it's flip flopped, dude. I mean, what, what's going on? We're just, and the healthcare totally flip flopped. The cost is you're not really saving at the end of the day. By the way, we're, we're, we're, that's a half truth in terms of the terms we're all been told to use.

That's not healthcare. That's sick care. All of those costs are gonna take care. That's right. Healthcare now, that's what's crazy. People are like, oh, how does Well-Rooted, which is a natural, holistic place that, you know, [00:41:00] serves our families here. How did pwc, you know, you guys, one of the toughest things that actually we, we wish were different, we're not able to actually accept insurance and deal with insurance.

'cause insurance isn't health insurance, it's sick insurance, so it doesn't cover. Us who restore and regenerate. We're in regenerative chiropractic, truth be told. You know what I mean? Like we don't do the healing. Yeah. We don't do the treat. God does that. Right. We literally, kids are designed to be healthy.

What happens is this stress, this birth trauma, these toxins, this inflammation gets in their body. It gets into the sympathetic dominance. We make the adjustment to hit reset, to hit, restore, to regenerate the function of their nervous system. Right? Right. And they're designed to heal. So when you move that interference outta the way.

They move towards health. When you remove toxic chemicals outta your food and you put good food in, you move towards health. Healing happens. It's pre-programmed that way, right? Whether you're an animal or a human. And so we could completely, literally flip the system upside down, actually save cajillions of dollars by shifting entirely to this way of raising our food.

And it's doable, isn't it? In each community. [00:42:00] Yeah. Yeah. So, um, have you heard of Will Harris? Yeah, yeah. From Williams Pasture? Yeah. And so you talk about another individual who's become a mentor to me in, in this journey. Uh, read his book about a year ago and, uh, definitely recommend anyone to read it. But he's gotten asked this question on like Joe Rogan's podcast and some other ones.

Like, okay, is this regenerative farming model scalable? Yeah. Come on, let's be real. Josh. I asked, I asked Josh, how are we gonna feed the world with that? Yeah, yeah. And, and that's not the right question to be asking. And, and Will Harris's response is, it's not, is it scalable? Is it repeatable? It is repeatable.

And it goes back to that whole thought process on how do we educate community or individual farmers to feed their community rather than how do we take responsibility feeding the whole world. That's not our responsibility. So does the community. Last question's been well, we'll do a little rapid fire to send this thing home and oh my gosh, we gotta have you back and do a round two.

This is such, [00:43:00] this is such an important conversation and, and it's also so stick, so from the beginning, I think somewhere in the intros. Thing that we have with the podcast. I am very clear from episode number one for these folks that I am an equal mix. That God made me 50% Iowa Farm Boy and 50% neuroscience health nerd.

So they are very used to farmer stories on this podcast. All right, buddy. So good to hear. So I get excited for everybody I'm going to interview, but I'm not churching this up at all. I could not wait for you to come in and have a chat. 'cause this is, this is my, my, my thing here anyways, so let's go to some stuff to bring it into action.

So one for a family. You know, living in their community, how can they access this food? And then part two of that question, I know our audience, I, I kinda gave you a heads up before we started recording. I know our audience, these moms, these dads, they're, they're your mom, they're your dad, they're Joe and their Hannah.

They're action takers. I would not be surprised if this episode, um, creates a whole [00:44:00] lot of homesteaders and a whole lot of helpers, and maybe that's all it is. Maybe you just need help at the farm. So what are action steps? Two parts. What is the easy action step in terms of going out and, and, and getting the right food and getting the right places for a family?

And then, let's say somebody, let's say it brother man, let's say they're called to more. Where would you send them? Yeah. So if you're an individual or family that lives here in the Midwest Yeah. And you're looking for a farm that you wanna buy regenerative clean meats from or eggs. Yeah. Uh, definitely check us out@wandafarms.com.

Yeah. We are happy to ship you out. Any of our food to your home for easy home delivery. If you live really close to us in Harvard, Illinois or like me within an hour, just drive on out to the farm and grab your order here real quick. Let me sneak in my commercial. I have to, and I am choosy. So for 20 years, so I grew up eating corn, fed silage, antibiotic laced, you know, cattle, right?

And food. And so I, if there's anybody on earth who can taste the difference, [00:45:00] um. Actually now even at scale, and I've also now been, you know, eating organic and eating grass fed and eating regenerative for a long time. I'm not saying this 'cause you're sitting across from your brother. It is such a difference at Wanda Farms, um, when we found it and, and we've always got it through the office and, and that it's just, um, it's at a whole nother level.

And I think it's also just your. It's who you guys are. You know, it's what you're called to and how you do life and take care of it. And then it's all the science. It's all the nutrients and it's everything else. So yes, everybody locally and even in the stratosphere of the Midwest get Yeah, absolutely.

Wanda Farms shipped to you. Yeah. And we'll put, we're putting links in there and we're putting, uh, um, I know your crew has, um, a cool code that they're gonna get connected to, to, to make it easy on the first purchase. We're gonna put that in the show notes, make that happen. Yeah, that would be awesome. So what about, what about the ones who wanna move outta the city?

Bro, skiing, get ready to get out. Well, I tell you what, I'm trying to hire a farm man right now. So, uh, definitely check out our careers page on the website because we are always looking for good [00:46:00] help. Uh, whether that be maybe on the farm Yeah. With the animals. It might also just be I need a market representative.

Yeah. Someone to go out to the farmer's markets and Yeah. Be an ambassador for Wanda Farms. So yeah, definitely check us out there if you just want to get some experience and see what it's all about. And maybe that's kind of your path, your, the start of your path. Yeah. Being a farmer or something. I was gonna say.

So is that the best thing to, if, if that is possibly their path to, to even just start to part-time it and, and raise some of their own food? Yeah. Is it, it's. The books, the, the, the documentaries, the online research, the YouTube is awesome, but going out, you, you gotta go experie. You, you gotta take action.

Cool. Sorry, but like, read the books, watch the videos. That's all great, but at some point you gotta take the next step and you gotta jump in. And what, you know, maybe that's start if, if you have the ability to start on your own and. And, and buy a five acre farm or whatever and do it on your own, by all means, you should do that.

And, uh, we want, my, my personal [00:47:00] mission is to see more farmers. We have less than 1% of our nation as farmers right now. That number has got to increase by the end of my lifetime. Yes. Speaking of, speaking of sustainable and regenerative, literally on the nose, that number is not sustainable. Absolutely. And you know what?

I'll close this down with this. Um, you know, I have taken every bit of my farmer upbringing that I can into my career as chiropractic. We now, thankfully, I, I joke, I, I can't remember I said this yet, I joke. I, I now live pretty much just on an Instagram farm, Joe. We've got our, our goats and our chickens and, uh, and, and the mini donkeys.

Those are my favorite animal on earth. Um, but it's, you know, I'm, I'm rocking and rolling through chiropractic, but the truth is. There is the food component of this, there's the health component of this, and then there's the, when you live in the country and you get up in the morning and you do chores and before bed and you do chores and you, you, you know where your food comes from as a family and you prepare it as a family and [00:48:00] you pray over it as a family and you thank God for it as a bus, as your bodies, as a family, our kids.

I, I'm, I'm struggling for the word to, to sum this all up that I'm trying to say in closing our kids. And future generations need farmer values, characters, principles, um, they can really change the world. Food can change the world. Getting your nervous system taken care of can change your family, but it's really.

Principles and values that, that, that can change a family in the best of ways. And when you get out and you get on the farm, and that's all your kids know, um, you know, we're, we're so blessed, dude. We grew up with this. Like, how nuts is that, right? Yeah, absolutely. This is justly, friendness in that way. Yeah.

Um, it'll change, it'll transform, um, work ethic, humility, everything that I think this world needs in a pretty high dose. Okay. Last question over time. What animal do you own that you wish you didn't? Oh gosh. Like, if you could just don't say, uh, we won't even play this part for her. Okay. It could be her [00:49:00] favorite.

Probably the, the broiler chicken. I mean, I, I, we raised chickens because my wife loves white meat. She, she's more the chicken eater than I am. If it was me, it'd just beef, beef every night. But, um. And, and not that so much that we raise 'em just for her. It, it's more the fact that it's, it's probably our most, uh, it, it's the protein product that's driving the farm and profitability at the end of the day.

So, um, chicken, it's a, it's a complimentary animal with. The cattle Yeah. On the farm. And we can raise them both on the same amount of land. And it's, it's a win-win situation. And right now, beef cattle markets are just nuts right now. And the, and, and the reality, it's more of a hobby Yeah. Than anything. Dad that now I know you are officially, firmly really a farmer by, by speaking the, the last story, [00:50:00] and these guys can probably, but my uncle Scott, when I moved out here to that 20 acres and we just started messing around a little bit, he goes, well, remember you're not a real farmer until you get a check from the government.

He's so sarcastic. I was like, he goes, you losing money yet? I, he goes, 'cause if you're losing, he goes, until you lose enough money, you're not really a farmer. And I thought, oh man, that is the truest joke that anybody is. Oh yes, yes. If you're looking to looking to get rich, cut this out. I mean, this is what I tell everyone that comes to work on the farm.

Do not come here. Looking to make a good, healthy, like income. This is not the place for you. This is a lifestyle. You know what though, dude? If anybody's, uh, and again, I mean it, we're just kind of chatting like, if anybody's gonna figure this out in the best of ways, it's you and Hannah. You know, I do think, you know, you continue to, um, tap into your business mind and other sort of people too.

No, not to like making software and doing everything else, but I just feel like it's so dang needed for families. There's gotta be even [00:51:00] more. Growth and profit potential for you guys. You know, I'd love to, we should just all go to dinner one time and just like the more I be blessed, you know, God made me this.

He gave us my wife and I just this crazy go after it. Get after our brain. I wonder if we knew even more about it. Oh, I don't know. I wonder if we could surf. I wonder if we could help in any way. I'd love to try it. I'd love to try. Yeah. Alright brother. Man.