Behind the Burger
Created by the New Mexico Beef Council, we are telling the stories behind the beef in New Mexico.
Behind the Burger
Why Should You Trust Your Food? A Fifth-Generation Dairy Farmer Explains ft. Tara Vander Dussen
Agricultural advocate Tara Vander Dussen takes us behind the scenes of modern dairy farming, revealing how traditional practices are evolving alongside innovative approaches like beef-on-dairy breeding programs. As a fifth-generation dairy farmer married to another fifth-generation producer, Tara brings a unique perspective that spans environmental science, hands-on farming, and global advocacy.
The conversation explores a fascinating transition happening in dairy operations nationwide. What was once considered unthinkable – breeding dairy cows to beef bulls – has become standard practice, creating economic opportunities for farmers while addressing market demands. Tara walks us through the practical considerations of this evolution, explaining how selective breeding optimizes both milk and meat production in an increasingly efficient food system.
Beyond production practices, we discover how New Mexico's unique climate and landscape have shaped a distinctive dairy industry with some of the nation's largest operations. The wide-open spaces and moderate weather create ideal conditions for open-lot dairies where cows stay outside year-round under shade structures – vastly different from the barn-housed operations common in other regions.
Perhaps most compelling is Tara's passion for combating food fear. Through her podcast "Discover Ag" and upcoming representation at the UN's Global Livestock Sustainability Committee, she works tirelessly to help consumers feel confident in their food choices. Her message resonates deeply: in a world of overwhelming options and contradictory information, understanding where your food comes from provides peace of mind at the grocery store.
Ready to learn more about the people behind your food? Follow Tara on social media or tune into her weekly podcast "Discover Ag" for entertaining, educational conversations that bridge the gap between farms and food lovers.
Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Burger. I am Carol Ann Romo, the executive director for the New Mexico Beef Council, and I'm here with Tara VanderDusen and I didn't check with the enunciation of your name you nailed it Okay, oh goodness. There you go, there you go. So, tara, will you introduce yourself? I know for some there's no introduction needed, but will you introduce yourself?
Speaker 2:and your background. Yeah, so I'm Tara VanderDusen. I am a fifth-generation dairy farmer. I also married a fifth-generation dairy farmer, so lots of dairy in our family history, family legacy. And then I have never had really a traditional role on the dairy. I actually got my degree in environmental science and I spent, oh, I would say, the first 10 or so years of my professional career working as an environmental consultant for dairy farms and farms throughout New Mexico and kind of the greater Southwest area. And then a few years ago I actually made a huge pivot in my career and went all in on, you know, advocating for agriculture through social media. And then now I spend the majority of my time actually on our podcast I co-host with a cattle rancher from Nebraska called Discover Ag.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, I think, I think what you do is such an important part of agriculture, right, the the advocating, and that's even an important part of our role as the Beef Checkoff and the New Mexico Beef Council right, somebody's got to do it, and it's not always going to be the rancher or the dairy producer, because you know there's so many facets to it. So I'm grateful for the work you do for our industry. Well, yeah, well, tell me a little bit about your family operation and maybe the history of that. So, five generations is a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my grandparents actually came from the Netherlands in like late 1940s, early 1950s you know, classic, I guess, a story kind of of that like immigration from the Netherlands into the United States. They started out in California and ultimately moved to New Mexico in the early 80s and so I'm born and raised here in New Mexico. We ended up in Eastern New Mexico and while my dad no longer dairy farms, I still obviously am a part of the dairy farming you know community through my husband and our farm with his family. And so, yeah, we still dairy here in Eastern New Mexico, raising our two young daughters on our farm as well.
Speaker 1:What a great place to raise a kid. That's really neat.
Speaker 2:I know I do love. I mean, obviously I'm biased because that's how I grew up, but I'm always like man, it's pretty fun growing up on, you know, a farm, a dairy operation just growing about in the country. So yeah, I think I would like to think they like it. They may tell you something different on any given day, but no, I mean obviously having a dairy as your backyard is pretty fun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Even. I always say I'm more ag-adjacent, right, but just getting to be around it, I brought my daughter to a bull sale recently and it was just the most wonderful experience for her that a day at work with mom was at a bull sale and and, of course, my husband yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, my husband taught her how to buy a bull the night before, cause he thought he was funny. Yeah, so it was. It was a problem. Luckily, the the ring ring man was very sweet and could tell he had kids and he was. He played along with her, but I didn't buy a bull.
Speaker 2:I am very happy for you. I feel like that could have ended badly instead.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely, absolutely. We do not need. We do not need a bull. The only cattle we own are roping steers. So we those bulls were far too expensive and beautiful for us to be roping. Well, cool, well, what about? So you've already kind of talked about your advocacy and the work you do, but can you maybe go into that more, how that's evolved and and, and, then even gosh? I saw on social media you were representing agriculture at the United Nations.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Tell us about that.
Speaker 2:I started sharing. This is going to like really date me and I'm feeling old now, but I started sharing I guess back in like 2015,. I think that I started sharing. This is going to like really date me and I'm feeling old now, but I started sharing I guess back in like 2015, I think, and I started with a blog. So, yeah, I'm like right at 10 years now. I started with a blog. So that really really dates me.
Speaker 2:And then from the blogging, I got into Instagram. But this is the early days of Instagram. You know, there was no carousels. There was no carousels, there was no stories, there was no reels like. It was just very basic.
Speaker 2:And I think obviously things have evolved and continue to evolve and what I've learned over the years is you know a lot of the social platforms. Your the content was just getting shorter and shorter and shorter. Our attention spans that were getting smaller. And while I still show up on the social platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn, where I really found, I think, like my voice and my home, is on the podcasting platform, and so my co-host and I have a podcast called Discover Ag and we spend each week essentially covering the top news articles in the ag and food space, western culture space, and we do it kind of with a pop culture twist. So it's maybe not your traditional like agriculture podcast. We're not going to be talking to you about markets and commodities and things like that but instead what's going on in the news, what's going on with current culture, pop culture and how it's playing a role in agriculture and affects us, and so we have a lot of fun over there.
Speaker 2:It's just it's fun to have a long form content. Obviously, starting out in the blog space it was a long form form of content with written, and so in podcasting I feel like it's very similar to that, that you can give a lot of information, you can have a real conversation. We interview people. Actually have a potato farmer that's coming on this week that is going to debunk a reel about you know potatoes that's going viral. That's coming on this week. That is going to debunk a reel about you know potatoes that's going viral, and so we just kind of try to bring like factual information in a fun way. It's a good mix of like entertainment and education on the podcast and that's really where I spend, I think, the majority of my time now and then taking that content and sharing it on the social platforms as well.
Speaker 1:Well, it's fun to follow along and I think it's such an important, important topic that you're doing, like I think I already said, but I also love to see the evolution, right. It's. It's interesting how, how we you know how we get our media and how we get our information. Now that's why we started the podcast with the New Mexico Beef Council is we think a lot of people are getting getting their content in that, and and then a lot of people are on the road, they're traveling, they've got to commute, they got to drive somewhere, and so we hope people uh plug in, plug in uh our podcast while they're in the car or or whatever they're doing, so, uh, very neat. Well, so now we've kind of gone back and forth, right, um, from the, from the operation to the advocacy. But can we talk about the operation? Are you guys practicing the Beef on Dairy breeding program and can we kind of go into that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we are practicing Beef on Dairy. I think obviously that is the big trend right now in the dairy industry. It's funny because I can remember when I first got married which we've been married 14 years, I think this summer we didn't have kids, I don't think yet. So it was very early on in those, those 14, you know, it's probably 12 years ago, let's say and, um, it was someone who worked for like a semen salesman, took us all out to lunch and he was like if you could just give me one third of your replacement heifers and breed to beef. And I just remember the dairyman at the table being like what, no way. Like that is not happening, like it's. I just vividly, like it's so funny what your brain remembers, and I just very vividly remember this.
Speaker 2:I remember getting in the car with some of the producers afterwards and they were like, no, we're breeding to dairy cows. Like we are not, you know, beef people, like we are dairy people. And you know, fast forward talking about the evolution of things. This is obviously a huge evolution now. I mean, this is a huge part of our dairy operation is now breeding to beef cattle and then we can talk. You know more about that. But yeah, I mean it's a big piece of like it's. It's not front and center in the way the dairy cow is, but it's a close second at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely I. I remember, gosh, maybe seven or eight years ago a friend who's an economist wrote a paper about beef on dairy and how it was a great way for the market to change, or he was just talking about the market impact of that and it was so new then too, right. And now you know, eight years later. I was talking to dairy producers recently and they said at at least the majority of their cattle are are being bred to to beef animals. So, um well, just because our our kind of goal of this podcast is maybe non-ag listeners, I guess maybe we can go into that. Would you want to give an introduction into what, what we mean when we say beef on dairy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, obviously, on dairy operations, um, it's a little bit different than traditional beef, like your cow-calf operation of what you think of you know, the cowboy out on horseback and with, like you know, cow-calf the dairy. Obviously, we are milking our cows, and so the cow has to get pregnant and have a calf in order for us to be able to milk her, and traditionally, you obviously bred that cow to a dairy cow. We do not, though, need 100% of our cows to be bred to dairy in order to continue our herd at its like, normal size, not necessarily trying to increase or decrease, just like a steady size, and so, essentially those I don't want to say excess, that sounds bad but, like the cows that we don't need to be bred to dairy, what we've done instead is bred them to beef. So we pick our cows that are the top genetics for our dairy herd, and we're going to breed those just to dairy, and we're also going to sex semen those to be all female. The rest of our cows, then, will be bred to the beef on dairy.
Speaker 2:So that cow is going to be a cross. It's going to be half dairy cow from the mom's genetics and half beef cow from the bull's genetics and, yeah, we end up with, you know, different varieties and that is a. It's a piece now of a bigger piece of the beef market. I mean, dairy has always been a piece of the beef market, obviously, because I always, you know kind of joke that our cows change occupations at some point in their life to become beef cows. Um, but now it's a little bit more, I think, like strategic and thought out of like what makes sense for the operation on the beef side of things. So I hope I hope that was concise- no, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you did a great job. Thank you for doing that. And I think one thing we've had a lot of conversations on the podcast about genetics and that word kind of sounds intimidating to some people and I just wanted to say when we talk beef and we talk dairy, we're talking breeds of animal right, so they're all beef, cow or they're all bovine animals, I should say, and we're just talking maybe a Holstein with an Angus animal right, so those are just breeds. And then I compared it to breeding dogs, to poodles, and so then you have a hypoallergenic animal that can live in the home, of course. So the beef on dairy is just talking about different breeds of cattle bred together to be more efficient or to have a. You know, like you said, every animal has a significant purpose moving forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean traditionally. Obviously dairy cows were bred for dairy, right, like they are going to produce more milk. They are a totally different size, shape, animal. You know Natalie, my co-host, as I mentioned, she's a cow rancher in Nebraska and she had never seen a dairy cow in real life. She moved from Montana to Nebraska. Dairy is not popular in either of those States, uh, and so when she came to my farm it was actually the first time she had seen a dairy cow up close and she was like, oh my gosh, they are so tall and skinny. She grew up on a, herford registered her for an operation and I went up and visited and was like they are so short and fat. And so you know, they're just very different animals of how they're bred, for different reasons, obviously.
Speaker 2:I will say also, dairy cows tend to not make the best mothers, because those aren't traits we've really picked in dairy cows, whereas beef cows tend to be much more protective, you know, much more aggressive in that way, and again, it's like simply genetics very similar to dog breeds. You're going to have dog breeds, you know, like the golden retriever that's going to be, you know, your best friend, your fun friend, whereas you're going to have. You know, you think of a German shepherd that's going to be like the police dog, right, like just very different bred for things, and so that's the same. You know, typically, listen, I've eaten a lot of Holstein beef in my life and I think it tastes just fine, but traditionally the beef is not what you would think of if you're going to be having like an Angus or something that's a more traditional beef breed?
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely, and there's a multitude of breeds, right, and I know we were trying to explain to some high schoolers and it was neat. It was a class that was hard of hearing or deaf and we had a translator and I was trying to explain how many breeds they were and somebody asked me to name a bunch of them and I just felt so bad for my translator because she suddenly had to spell all of these breeds because there's no word for Holstein or there's no sign for Holstein.
Speaker 1:Like this cow and yeah. So I tried to spell them out for her and limit it to like five breeds, because I thought this is just. We're going to be here for days as she's spelling letter by letter. But yes, a multitude of breeds of cattle and an interesting way to use them. So thanks for going into that. Well, what about kind of big picture? What is one of the biggest challenges in the operation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess was you know, sticking on the beef topic.
Speaker 2:You know, for us with Beef on Dairy, it's been kind of trying to figure out what it looks like on our operation and how it fits.
Speaker 2:You know, obviously there's the option to sell at day olds, which is a, you know, popular option right now.
Speaker 2:Day old calves are going for a fair like a record high amount of money, so that's a really great option. But then there is the option to, you know, raise some of the cattle ourselves and so trying to figure out how that fits into our operations, since that's not traditionally what we've done, I think that's been, that's been a piece of it Like, do we add more pens, do we rate, you know what does it look like to raise them ourselves and actually make that investment in our you know facility, in our pens and you know kind of the grow yard and so, looking at that, you know, and the financial side of it, does it make sense for us to grow them ourselves or does it make sense to us to sell them to, you know, a different ranch? That that's their primary, primary thing they do is beef, and so kind of working through that and like figuring that out over the last few years and making changes and pivoting, as been needed and with where the market's at.
Speaker 1:So Absolutely Well, and I think when we talk about ranchers and ranchers or dairy producers, the amount of business knowledge and the amount of just variety of the role as a you know, they might say, oh, I'm a dairy producer. Well, they also have to be a businessman, they also have to be a land steward, they also have to be all of these things. So, yeah, there's. The challenges are, I'm sure, endless. What about speaking of, maybe, challenges? How do New Mexico's landscapes and climate shape your methods?
Speaker 2:Yeah, new Mexico is such an interesting place to dairy. I feel like when you, you know, from consumer perspective or even like countrywide perspective, when you think of dairy, I don't know that New Mexico is what you think of. You know, like Wisconsin and California might be higher, but New Mexico for you know, the last several decades has been a very high top producer. We have some counties that are in the top 5-10% of dairy producing counties in the United States. So dairy is a big piece of that and you know it has a lot to do with New Mexico's climate and you know landscape. We have a lot of wide open spaces. You know we're not dealing with, like, say, urban sprawl in the way that California has dealt with in the past.
Speaker 2:A lot of dairy families from that are in New Mexico, originated from California, kind of getting pushed out by some of the cities, and so New Mexico with that large, you know landscape and then our mild climate.
Speaker 2:We have a fairly mild climate here on the high plains.
Speaker 2:You know it can get hot in the summer and cool in the winters, but it's not like we're not dealing with blizzards and we're not dealing with, you know, 115 degrees or greater, as some of the places are, and so we are known for our open lot style dairies, which is very different than, say, some of the other places in the country. If you're going to go to the Midwest, you're going to have more cows in barns. If you even just barely go north of us, you're going to have a lot more free stall, which is the cows inside of barns, whereas our open lots cows are outside 365 days a year, with shade wind blocks obviously like proper precautions for weather, but that has created a certain style of dairy. New Mexico does have the largest average herd size, so a little bit larger dairies are traditional in New Mexico. We're seeing more of that across the country now, but I would say that's something we've been known for since like the 80s, early 90s. Just because of the climate here in New Mexico, it's more ideal for that style of dairy farming.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I always tell people New Mexico is a place to move if you want to move for moderate weather. There's no extreme here. It's a little cold and a little warm, but I don't think it's extreme or not in comparison to other places.
Speaker 2:Definitely not. I feel like there's one thing that having a co-host who grew up in Montana and now lives in Nebraska has taught me is that when I say it's cold outside, it is not that cold outside.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we spent some time in the Midwest for work and my husband's schooling and the ice, storms and the snow and all of that that in New Mexico usually you have a delay start, not a full on snow day, right, right For schools and stuff. Yeah, I think we do have a very unique climate, so I'm glad it benefits the dairy industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a dry climate. You know dairy cows don't love a lot of humidity, a lot of, you know, rain, and so that drier climate, I think, plays a role in that as well. So, yeah, it is it really. I mean, I think the biggest thing we deal with is wind, which obviously, like that, is just something you deal with in the Midwest, I think, and we're kind of when it comes to wind, we're kind of a part of that Midwest piece. But otherwise, yeah, there's a lot of really great benefits to dairying in New Mexico as well, as you know, access to markets. We've got a lot of cheese plants here. We obviously don't do a lot of fluid milk in New Mexico. We don't have the largest population, but we're not far from Dallas and you know Denver and those places, but yeah, a lot of cheese comes out of New Mexico.
Speaker 1:Yep. Well, what do you think is the most rewarding part of being in the agriculture industry? We've talked on the operation and advocacy, but what's the most rewarding part for you?
Speaker 2:Gosh, I mean I guess it probably goes back to the conversation maybe about kids. Like, I just still feel like it's one of the last industries where your family is such a part of it, you know, like it just your kids are right. Like your backyard is your farm still and you know, I just think in agriculture that's such a unique experience that we get to have. Like there we're just don't see a lot of other places where it is like you get to take your kid to the sale barn and you get to just have them kind of grow up with you. Um, I homeschool, so I also have that you know layer of it, um, that they really are home with me all day on the farm, um, and so I don't know, I mean I think there that there's just something really rewarding on that. And then, from the consumer standpoint, like there is something really rewarding about, at the end of the day, knowing you're providing like food for people. Uh, my husband and I talk about, you know we always put our, our dairy numbers in, like how many gallons of milk you know leave our farm and like how many people, like how many families, is that impact? And there is something really rewarding about that too. You know I don't know if I always play into the whole like farmers are feeding the world, like I feel like that's maybe like too big for my brain to comprehend, but like at the very basic level.
Speaker 2:Like United States, you know our food system is in the news a lot for negative things and I always think about. You know the positive things that you can walk into. You know any grocery store in the United States and probably pick up a gallon of milk and that's pretty incredible. And not even grocery stores I think about like the Dollar Generals and and some of those. You know food access points that are maybe unconventional. Even you know your convenience store a lot of times you can still get a gallon of milk. Even you know your convenience store a lot of times you can still get a gallon of milk and that's a high quality. You know source of protein that's most likely from US.
Speaker 1:You know farmers right here, and so that's. I think it's something to be proud of and I'm glad I get to be a piece of that. Absolutely, and it's a that's a really easy thing for everyone to see, right? We all see a gallon of milk in the grocery store, right? Yeah, what about? You kind of mentioned some negative press or negative things and I hate to go too negative, but is there, I know sometimes you talk about misconceptions. So what do you want to talk about? Maybe your current favorite myth to debunk, and specifically maybe about beef. It could be dairy too, but about cattle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gosh, oh, my God, there's like I feel like there's a lot, you know, um I there's lots of. You could debunk like I think a big one for me actually, on the beef side and this is something I have again come to appreciate with my co-host being a cattle rancher is the, you know the misconception of, like the factory farm. Uh, especially in beef. You know we have the big packers, the big four, and there can be a lot of heat on them. There can be a lot of heat even on the feedlots and I think the piece that gets forgotten for most consumers that a large percentage of our beef here in the United States starts out on, you know, cow-calf operations, just family operations, where it may be just one, two people, you know very it's a family that is raising the beef cow and that even if that cow ends up in a feedlot, if it ends up at one of the big four packers, it doesn't mean it didn't start at a family farm out on pasture and spent the majority of its life probably out on pasture.
Speaker 2:And I think that gets so overlooked when we start getting into the labels and the marketing and the grass fed, the grain finished or whatever it's like at its core, a big portion of our country um ranches are, are that just family operation with the cow calf out on pasture. And I think if more consumers knew that, um, they would just like feel more I don't know more confidence, more comfortable with. You know that, I know I buy the cheapest beef on the shelf at the grocery store, I buy the cheapest milk on the shelf, like I'm just not like fearful of my food system, just knowing what I know about it, and I wish more people had that like level of comfort in their, in their food. And so I think that you could break that down into a million different misconceptions, but at its core it's like the beef the majority of the beef in our country is being supplied by family familyches um across across our country oh, what a what a great story to tell.
Speaker 1:And I agree, I, I tell people all the time I'm buying my beef at the grocery store. Yeah, if there's, yeah, I, I mean, and we have a local beef directory. If someone's looking for buying direct from a, from a rancher, we have that on our website as a resource. But we also just I if you want to support a rancher, you just buy beef on our website as a resource. But we also just if you want to support a rancher, you just buy beef at the grocery store, you buy beef at a restaurant. That's how I support our ranchers a lot of times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like even today I was eating at a steakhouse actually for lunch and you walked in and there was actually a sign that said our beef comes from XYZ and it's a local rancher. Right Like it. Just, it's not always difficult to support local ranchers and farmers in the way people think it is. You don't have to go to a grocery store or, sorry, go to a farmer's market to support them. I was actually interviewing a potato farmer today and I said, well, where can we buy your potatoes? And he was like like Walmart, you know, like I don't even know where they go exactly, like they're not like branded in anything in particular, and it was just a really great reminder that the food at the grocery store supports farmers and ranchers. We want to complicate it and, again, I love a good direct-to-consumer business. I love supporting that. But sometimes you've just got to go to the grocery store and pick up what you need, and that is just as important to our family. You know our family farms as the direct to consumer as well.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's exactly the, exactly the conversation in the story I want to tell because, yeah, there's options and and we love, we love to go to the grocery store. What is something exciting that you're working on right now or something that maybe you're proud of recently?
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness. Well, you did mention the UN and I never actually even finished talking or didn't even talk about that. So I can, I do, have something fun coming up. I'm actually so. I have.
Speaker 2:I guess three or four times now I have gone to the Food and Agriculture Organization through the UN, it's headquartered in Rome, and I have represented agriculture on that platform Not just dairy, but agriculture as a whole, and then also dairy specifically, obviously.
Speaker 2:But this coming at the end of this summer, I will be going back and I'm actually going for the Global Livestock Sustainability Committee meeting and that'll be the first time I've attended that and I'm really excited actually to go and go to a meeting that's focused on animal agriculture and livestock, because you know, there's a lot to agriculture and so when you go to the more traditional meetings that are just about agriculture or World Food Security is one, or like women and equality and agriculture was another I've been to, obviously you're with everybody and that's important too.
Speaker 2:But I think livestock can face unique challenges, especially at the UN and the sustainability conversation, and so I'm excited to like focus on that and see what it looks like from the beef side, what it looks like from the dairy side as well, as obviously, you know, worldwide livestock looks very different than just beef and dairy. There's obviously a lot of goats, a lot of sheep and a lot of poultry and dairy. There's obviously a lot of goats, a lot of sheep and a lot of poultry, and so coming together on that livestock side is something I'm really excited about, excited to bring those conversations back to our podcast, to the followers on social media and see, yeah, what's being discussed out there, because the UN, you know, historically, can be somewhat critical of animal agriculture and so, yeah, really looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to see how that goes and kind of follow that. I think it's a really important thing for animal agriculture to be having conversations together and supporting that. Animal protein is a great place to get your nutrients, so I think that sounds like a great event to go to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know we talked about the misconceptions about, you know, beef.
Speaker 2:I think we're in such an exciting time in our industry I think more than ever people are turning to animal protein sources.
Speaker 2:I feel like we very much had, like, the vegan movement and I feel like we've seen that peak and we're kind of seeing now the swing in the opposite direction of the health benefits of, obviously, these animal-based proteins. And so I think it's a really exciting time to be having these conversations, that people are seeing the value in the products that we offer and the value in beef and dairy, and maybe it's making them see sustainability through a little bit different lens. Like what is sustainability if you're getting a healthy diet Like that has to be taken into account too if you're getting a protein, you know, rich diet, a nutrient, dense diet with these animal proteins, and so, yeah, I think that I would imagine this meeting in this moment in time would be very different than, say, attending a meeting like this 10 years ago, and so I'm, I think, very hopeful that it's a positive conversation about what are, you know, the foods that we offer through Reef and Dairy, what they mean for you know the world as a whole.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we wish you the best with that and thanks for representing agriculture and New Mexico. That's always a really neat to see someone from your home state representing at such a global event. Well, thank you I appreciate that. Yeah, what about? So you're talking about this, right, You're going to go to Italy. You're going to you advocate on your podcast. What makes you keep going? Why do you do what you do?
Speaker 2:You know, I feel like it's like the simple moments actually that like the DMs Like I don't know how many times I've gotten a DM that is from someone that said I didn't drink milk because I saw something on social media and now I feel comfortable doing it because of what you've seen I had actually my sister. My sister lived in San Francisco for several years and one of her coworkers was really fearful in the grocery store and just would go in and be afraid of what she should buy and afraid of what would be what poison toxin, all the buzzwords that you see on social media. And my sister encouraged her to listen to our podcast and she texted my. And my sister encouraged her to listen to our podcast and she texted my sister. My sister screenshot it to me and said I'm no longer afraid to go into the grocery store, like because I share about not not only do I buy the cheapest milk and beef on the shelf, I also buy the cheapest eggs and like, I feel good about the choices like that I'm making every time I walk in and I pick whatever apple looks good that day, or maybe the one my kid likes the color of.
Speaker 2:Like I'm just not going in being fearful of each of the choices, and I think that makes it a more fun way to shop. And so getting messages like that I think are really powerful, that, like you shouldn't have to be afraid of your food choices. Like there, we have a grocery store that has a plethora of options. We have a grocery store that has a plethora of options and you can pick whatever option is right for you, your budget, your diet, your preferences, your beliefs. You know if you are a vegan and that's what you want to do. Like those are options that are available to you, and so not going in with the fear mongering that is so prevalent online. And so I think for me, when I get those messages, it's really like what encourages me to keep sharing and know that we're on the right path.
Speaker 1:That gives me goosebumps. Thinking of giving people confidence in their food choices, I think that's that's huge, and we do live in a in a country and a time where you can have food choice and we support food choice but to have confidence and not be fearful of what you're eating or what you're providing for your family, that's that's really special and really important. So, again, so do you want to give a plug? I know you already talked about your podcast, but maybe a plug on your if you want to give your social media, your website, anything, anything will give you that chance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you're listening to this, you're probably a podcast person, so we'd love to have you over on Discover Ag. You can find it anywhere there's podcasts. We release an episode every Thursday. We also have some great videos that do a little go into more detail. We call it Discover More over on our YouTube so you can check out Discover Ag podcast on YouTube as well. Otherwise, you can find me on the normal social channels, at Tara Vaynerdusen, so I would love to see you guys there.
Speaker 1:Perfect, Thank you. And then the last question is what's your favorite recipe or favorite way to eat beef?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's easy. I love a good medium rare filet. It is just I. I feel like if you have a good cut of steak, cooking is easy. You know a good filet with a little butter and garlic, that's it. You know, like you really complicated. I actually the potato farmer I interviewed today. I told him, gosh, all I want now is a steak and potato for dinner tonight. And you know just that classic, that there's just nothing more classic than a good steak dinner. So that's what I'll have to go with.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That's a great answer. I think that I support the beef and potato industries regularly because I do love. I do love a steak medium rare with a loaded baked potato.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're supporting dairy too, and if it's loaded you probably got some bacon on there too, so we could just bring all the all the industries going around. No, but thank you so much for having me on today. It was fun to chat all things beef on dairy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for joining me and wish you all the best. And yeah, thanks again. Behind the Burger is a podcast produced by the New Mexico Beef Council with the goal of telling the stories of the cattlemen and cattlewomen of the New Mexico beef industry. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. If you'd like more information, please visit nmbeefcom. Whether it be a burger, a steak or another beef dish, we hope you're enjoying beef at your next meal.
