Factory farms swallowed up her home

Tune in as we talk about what happened to Sonja's hometown and family farm when confinement feeding operations for pigs took over...  

Listen to the very end!

Sonja Trom Eayrs | author - check out Sonja's new book!

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of the Global Stewardship Podcast. My name is Hannah Online. You may know me as Hannah at the Gardens. I'm a traveling farmer. Believe it or not, farmers can travel and I am here to connect you with farmers from all around the world who are doing inspiring things to regenerate the land and steward the land the way God intended. This is the podcast for you. If you're looking around in the grocery stores at our food system and you feel discouraged and feel like not a lot of farmers are tending to the land in the best way, or you're just wanting to connect with those that are, this is definitely the place for you. We open up really big conversations, in. I think really graceful, inviting ways that are there to encourage people who want to approach growing farming food production from a more ethical, sustainable, regenerative. Thoughtful standpoint. We are gonna jump right into today's story. A peaceful rural Minnesotan life turned completely upside down with the arrival of confinement animal feeding operations. You may know these as CAFOs or some call them factory farms, but from the moment these confinement operations started popping up and ENC her family's farm, Sonya Tram ears became a powerhouse in the agricultural world and has honestly not stopped fighting back since. Her family has endured years of harassment and intimidation going against very manipulative corporations, like the same ones you likely buy pork products from in the grocery store. I first heard of Sonya's family probably a decade ago, as early as 2012, and have been following publications about their fight since. So I was really excited to find that Sonya has followed in her parents' footsteps. Standing up for what's right. I truly cannot imagine what it's like going up against people like this. So I have a deep respect for Sonya. I'm so grateful that she's on the podcast today to share her experience, some of what's also been going on in the confinement industry space. And this is definitely not one of the most positive, bright sunshiney, sunshine and rainbows episodes that we will have on this show. But I do believe deep down that this is one of the most important conversations we can be having to grow. In our understanding of the intensity, the depth of what's happening in our food system, something I do preach all the time is that in order to build that more resilient food system and truly transform the world, we have to listen to people with alternative views from our own. So if you are currently in the mindset that factory farming is what feeds the world, I just encourage you to stick it out to the end. I think that the conversations that make us uncomfortable or make us question our own food purchasing choices Are the conversations we need to be prioritizing. So I would just love to say, if I'm willing to do it over all of these years, transforming my view of the food system, I hope that you're willing to do it too, and listen to the end, Sonya. Has recently written a book about her experience. It's called Dodge County Incorporated, big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America. And while we will be chatting a bit about that today, I'll include a link to it in the podcast description. Please join me in welcoming Sonya to the podcast as we dive deep into what happened in her rural American town.

Audio Only - All Participants: 3:39

I too grew up in a place that looks so very different today from how it looked when I was a young child. Can you share a little bit about where you're from and the nostalgic memories of what it was like growing up in your Minnesota c. So I grew up on our, the home place, our family farm is in Dodge County, Minnesota. For those of you who are familiar with the Mayo Clinic, we're about 30 minutes from Rochester where the Mayo Clinic is situated. And, I grew up on my grandpa's farm and. My father was one of 10 children, and Sundays were always a family day. And frequently our cousins would come over to our farm. I have lots of first cousins. There are 44 first cousins. Oh, wow. Yeah. 30 some first cousins on my mother's side. What was also special was the fact that my uncle drove our school bus, and by the time, the school bus kind of wound its way through the neighborhood and got to my hometown of Blooming Prairie, it was like a family reunion every day because there were so many first and second cousins on that bus. And, these are also what I describe as the bicycle days because we would ride our bicycles to, neighboring farm families, many of whom were either first cousins or second cousins. you know, it was a safe place to grow up and we all cared for one another. Right. So, and it's changed dramatically. That does sound like a really beautiful childhood. I love the way you described that. Um, Your family's land has been directly impacted by the expansion of industrial hog operations. Can you take us back to the moment that you realize this wasn't just a local nuisance, but. A systemic issue that required action. So it actually started very slow. It was very subtle. Mm-hmm. In fact, I had this conversation with my father prior to his death in 2019. And asked him you know, like, when did you realize? And the first factory farm went up one mile north of our farm in 1993. It was the son of a farm bureau farmer because Farm Bureau was behind the scenes using their Farm Bureau members to install these factory farms and. During the nineties, my sister Shelly and her husband Dave farmed outside our hometown of Blooming Prairie, and Dave, um, farmed with his dad. So Dave. Owned his own hogs and then would take them to neighboring Hormel. But he noticed that during that time period, the wait times for the independents were taking longer and longer because the plant was rushing through the system, the big semi-loads of hogs that were coming in from these big industrial operations. Right. And the independents were forced to wait 45 minutes to an hour. then 1998 was the breaking point. It was only five years, and that was the breaking point for independents like Dave and Shelly because they could no longer get financing. And the financing had shifted to these large industrial operations Right. So they were, you know, the old saying, get big or get out. They were forced to get big or get out if they wanted to build a big factory farm. There was easy money available. but I'll tell you the other thing that happened in 1998, that same Republican aligned farm bureau farmer, just one mile north of our farm, installed his second swine factory farm. So you can see the shift that was occurring back in the nineties. What was the difference between the small independent farmer, and one of these larger scale confinement, industrial hog operations. What did, what was the visual difference? So a lot of these independents, um. They raised their hogs on pasture. Mm-hmm. They were pasture raised, they were much smaller operations and I know that like Dave and Shelly were pressured. You know, you need to get bigger. You need to get bigger. They had at their high point 900 hogs, which was a lot, you know, typically you'd say a couple hundred, 400, 500, but these industrial operations, the, there's three steps. There's the gestational facility where the mamas are the sows with the baby piglets. Then from there they go to an area nursery. And then the last step is the feeder operation. Well, the feeder operations, these are cookie cutter operations. It's 2,400 hogs per facility. There's a reason because they avoid environmental review. Mm-hmm. But it's 2,400 hogs per facility, um, with an eight foot manure pit underneath these hogs never see the light of day. Mm-hmm. And that manure pit holds an estimated 1.1 million gallons of manure. They turn those barns two and a half times per year. So it's 10,000 hogs, an estimated 10,000 hogs. For just one facility per year that are being produced. Right. And the other thing that happens, the industry will carve out, they'll carve out little 3, 4, 5 acre parcels of land. Put that land into an LLCA limited liability corporation. They've gotta figure out where are you gonna put all the manure? From this huge industrial operation. So it puts a significant amount of pressure on the neighboring farmers. How did your family first start experiencing the impacts of these operations were the early red flags something to do with the manure or the smell, or, well, the stench is unbearable. The other thing that happens is, they do pump out in the fall of the year. They're given an exemption. And so when they do pump out, there are dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide, methane ammonia, and other dangerous gases that are emitted. And I talk about it in the book in a chapter called The Three Day Stink Out because for three days while my father was trying to finish fall harvest, they were doing pump out of. Three area factory farms right in the immediate area within feet, within yards of where we were trying to finish our fall harvest. And my father, had to step off the combine to vomit, and I think he was sick from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. He was sick for weeks and weeks thereafter. But it's really the stench. The other thing that happens, these are curtain ventilated, so they call it natural ventilated, and each evening they open up the curtains on these facilities and the stench just rolls across the land. And you can't be outside, you cannot be anywhere near these operations. Mm-hmm. So it sneaks up on you. Yeah, you were explaining that they had an exemption What exactly happens when they're having the pump outs? What's happening? So during the fall pump out, they're agitating all that manure that's in that eight foot pit. And so all those dangerous gases are kind of stirred up. And they're emitted from the facility. And so during that fall pump out, the emissions are far above the ambient air standards set by the state of Minnesota. And so they're exempt. They don't have to comply. Gotcha. Wow. And of course, none of the neighbors are given any warning. You are just, I mean, you are just there to put up with it. And have to live through it and retreat to your home and get inside a safe place to get away from it. Yeah, absolutely. I've had only one really. Close experience with a concentrated animal feeding operation like this. And, uh, we just were driving by, I visit farmers around the world and I was in Wisconsin. There's a lot of these operations there, and it was in the evening, and I guess they had just like, let the fumes go. And, uh, I'm, I have raised so many pigs myself on pasture. And it was like the worst smell I've ever had on my farm. Times a million. Mm-hmm. And I will never, I don't feel, I feel like I'll never get it out of my nose. And it's something you can only experience or understand if you have been there, done that kind of thing. It's, it's pretty crazy. Yeah. Well, you know, the other thing that happens is it's all very secretive. They, um, oftentimes they spread manure at night. And so no one knows where. No one knows how much is being applied to the land. You don't know if they're applying manure to the same land twice. Uh, we discovered that they had pledged, they're supposed to have a manure management plan on file with a local feedlot officer. Most of these operations did not. Interesting. You get an audit and so again, no one knows where. No one knows how much they double pledge the same land for this facility and this facility. That's really interesting and definitely scary because even for us, we are super hyper aware of how much and how often we. Put any kind of manure on our fields just because they're so high in different chemicals and nutrients, and it can really do major environmental damage and damage to our plants, especially with pigs because their manure is so much more dangerous to humans. That's really crazy to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, and neighboring Iowa, Iowa's number one in hog production in the United States. Minnesota is number two. North Carolina is now number three. wow. And yeah, and Iowa, by the way, is number two in the country in the number of cancer incidents. So yeah, their correlation, you know, I guess. Mm-hmm. Definitely. Can you share more about the things that were happening early on that your family was noticing and a little snapshot of that story and how many operations started kind of swallowing up your family's property. So today we have 12 swine factory farms and a three mile radius of our farm. So we have the. the swine gestational facility that's not quite three miles south of our farm, there are two nurseries just around the corner. And then from those nurseries, they go out to all these feeder operations. I haven't included. All of the other operations that are, I mean, it's more than 12. If I were to expand the, uh, expand it out to a five or even a 10 mile radius, that number would come in even, you know, significantly higher. So they're, these hog operations are, uh, the key is to get the gestational facility in first. Because that's, think of, a wagon wheel and the gestational facility is the hub, and then all these feeder operations are like spokes on, on that wagon wheel and they go out from the hub. So you can see why that gestational facility is so important, for the industry to get that gestational facility in place. absolutely. But you know, our problems have not only been hogs. Uh, almost 25 years ago, we fought installation of what was called Ripley Dairy. And Ripley Dairy at the time would've been the largest dairy operation in the state of Minnesota, just three or four miles north of our farm. That was a fight that went on for, A good three to four years. Wow. And most of those meetings occurred in the little tiny Ripley town hall, which used to be a one room school. Hmm. So you can imagine Right. Just this little tiny town hall. Well, one night they moved the meeting to the old Claremont High School. This is a little tiny town in southern Minnesota. Yeah. And all of these cars. We're in the immediate area. So the local citizens walk in. There were over 200 executives that poured into little Claremont High School from all over the United States. Wow. From Cargill, Hormel, land O Lakes, AgStar Financial, which was a big, um mm-hmm. Financing arm, right. Monsanto, all the big boys were there sitting in. Those chairs and trying to, you know, it was a big corporate power play. And guess what the old Claremont High School is today? it is, dormitory housing for area factory farm workers. That's what we have done to rural America. Wow. That is a crazy story. Mm-hmm. So. Did you say that you guys were able to fight that dairy from coming in? We fought that dairy. I was not as involved in that. My brother was intimately involved in that fight working hand in hand with a group in Minnesota called Land Stewardship Project, LSP. And thankfully, um, the neighbors were successful in fighting off that great big dairy operation, I don't know what happened to it ultimately, but. It went elsewhere. Talking about your community a little bit, how did your community respond to all of this, especially to you and your family speaking out? Like'cause because some of your community members were these very people. Like what have you learned watching how your own rural community has responded? Well, I'm uh. So my own community responded the same way that I see other communities responding today, which is, it was a bipartisan group of neighbors, democrats, Republicans, mm-hmm. Joining hands, joining arms, linking arms to fight back against this corporate incursion. And so, I'm seeing the same thing in Western Wisconsin, right. Kansas, other places where people are finally realizing this isn't about Democrat versus Republican, this is about community versus corporation because we are fighting a corporate takeover of rural America. Right. It's been, it's been very methodical, it's been very strategic. And all you have to do is look at these little towns to see the damage that's been done and we've hollowed out rural America. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. What's happened in these rural America towns is just such a small snapshot of what's happening globally. So, so many communities are being harmed by systems like these that are built for, to serve global markets is what they say. Mm-hmm. I just, I think of. Several examples. This spring, I was in Spain visiting farmers and they're facing major waterway crisis because they have so much water pollution. From these operations. It was just yesterday I read that the country of Vietnam just signed a deal with the US to import$3 billion worth of corn and soy animal feed for them to start ramping this up. And so, you know, at first. Oh, that's kind of pitched as a great way to feed a lot of people. Mm-hmm. But it pushes out all the small farmers long term and it can be very, very, very hard to undo. Yeah, absolutely. And the other problem is, it is, uh, we're also, taking away from our democracy because this is like a shadow. these operatives, these big, multinational corporations not only control the marketplace, but they also are coming in and they're taking control of our politics. Mm-hmm. And they're getting their own people. Into public office, not to protect our democracy, but to force and to push the corporate agenda, and it's happening all over. Yeah. What are some of the ways that you've seen state agencies or politicians enabling this industry, even despite community pushback? What are some moments that especially shocked you throughout this journey? Um, well, there's a few. I would say probably the most, and I'm not, I don't even know that I'm shocked anymore because I, you know, I see the, the forces at play. But, for example, Congressman b Brad Finsad, he's the congressman in my home district, which includes Dodge County. He's in Congress testifying because there is an, an effort in Congress to undo Prop 12 in California. Yeah. Right. And so here he is in Congress telling members of Congress that well, people don't really understand, you know, the people behind Prop 12, they don't understand all hogs are raised. Excuse me. They don't want hogs raised in industrial environments, and they don't want your product in their state. Right. And this is the, this is the gestation crate proposition, right? Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Can you kind of explain what that is for listeners who have no idea about any of this stuff? So the, just the hogs are raised in these, um. Small confined spaces. Mm-hmm. So this is the mama sows and so Prop 12 is designed to, provide more of a humane. Place for these mama sows to give birth to their piglets, right? And, but now the industry is coming in on a national basis. They're trying to, pass, they called it the Eats Act. It has another name now, but they wanna come in on top and take over federal authority. And, push down and get rid of, individual initiatives like what's happening in the state of California and other places to try and control this out of control industry. Yeah, I've been following that whole story for a while and it's interesting. I listened to obviously both sides of it and, the counter argument is always that consumers just don't know that this is what hogs need. And I always think about on my own operation, how successful pigs Pharaoh, when they're left to their own devices and are able to move around like God intended so I always think that that argument is really fascinating because I think consumers have like just as much of an innate knowing that animals should be allowed to move. Well, you know, this isn't the way that hogs were raised during my father's youth. You know, there was a dedicated pasture for the hogs. They were out in that area. You know, my dad always referred to them as cute little devils. Yeah. Right. And you know, that was, that's the way you raised hogs, not in these great big confinements, which, you know, by the way, when hogs are held in these confinements, and if it's too tight, they will cannibalize one another. Yeah. And so in addition to that manure that is being spread on the ground, you know, they'll kill one another. Mm-hmm. In those tight spaces. And so what do you end up with in that manure pit? Intestines, body parts, all this stuff that ends up in the manure pit and it's spread on the ground. So if you're ever out there after they've, uh, spread manure on the ground, just watch. Because you'll see vultures, you will see, birds coming in and pecking at the ground because there's all these dead body parts. In fact, a lot of these, I think actually in Minnesota, most of the facilities here, if you look out in the country and you drive around Dodge County, you're gonna see next to that facility a composting bin. Yeah. Yeah. And they have the, the dead hogs that are piled up. And the composting bins usually are covered with wood chips. Mm-hmm. And then they eventually spread those dead hogs on the land too, so, yeah. Yeah. I was gonna mention that I, this past spring did a whole like, investigation into this and have a lot of pictures of some really horrifying things. And I've, I had always been told previously that that's just the worst of the worst. Like, that's, that's not actually what it's like. And it turns out it actually is what it's like. And that was horrifying to find out because so many people for so long had just told me that those are the bad actors in the. Confinement industry and it, it's not that it's good or bad actors, like, it's just that that is the result of raising animals indoors in tight spaces like mm-hmm. You are only, they're only resulting in exactly what's going to happen in that situation. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And those hogs are, yeah, they're just piled up to die outside in these composting stations. So the other thing that's going on in southeastern Minnesota, we testified a month ago, my husband and I in Dodge County'cause there's a large industrial hog operation there. It was a gestational facility. Mm-hmm. Well, they're changing that operation. They have nine different buildings, but they're changing it to a feeder operation. They're gonna move the gestational facility to South Dakota. Because places like Southeastern Minnesota are filled with disease. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, there's a disease known as ps I think it's P-R-R-R-R-S. Mm-hmm. And. The mama sows, abort the pigs. So anyway, in order to control disease, they're pushing out into other areas like the Dakotas, Kansas, probably other places. Yeah, the disease, all the death, is a part of the story that I think is important to talk about because. So many times the argument for these operations is, especially for things like gestation crates, oh, well more babies successfully make it through nursing, through pH farrowing in these crates, and then there's all this death. Mm-hmm. It's an, it's an inhumane system, but, you know, we've, we've lost our ability to care in this country. You know, there's, it's what I call corporate indifference and how do we get people to care about one another, about the animals? I mean, it's pretty basic. You. Have worked so hard to give a voice to communities that are often left behind and ignored by these corporations. What would you say to a listener who loves the land, loves their farm, but feels really disillusioned by the way the agriculture's heading. Um. Well, you know, my day job, I'm an attorney, so I do family law, divorce, custody, you know, I'm taking people through some very difficult time. You know, probably one of the most difficult times in their life, divorce or death. But, I said, always tell clients there's one word that I'm gonna give you. And that word is hope. Yeah. And that is something that we all need to carry with us every single day. That simple word hope. And so if you are that farmer and you're feeling disillusioned, then find a farm group. Here in Minnesota it would be land Stewardship project. Those are your friends make contact with those people. In the Dakotas, it's Dakota Resource Council in Iowa. It's Iowa, CCI and Wisconsin has a number of organizations,, sustained rural Wisconsin network. there's a group on the western side of the state called Grow, G-R-O-W-W. So there are a number of these organizations. That are there to provide support and help farmers. What gives you hope right now? Um, the fact that people are starting to understand what we have going on in this country is a corporate takeover. Mm-hmm. And they've done it by taking over our food supply. For example, you know what I realized is that this is a pyramid scheme. At the top of the pyramid, you have the multinationals such as Hormel, JBS, Tyson, and Smithfield. JBS is owned by the Brazilians, and Smithfield is owned by the Chinese. In the middle tier of that pyramid, you have integrators. The integrators own the supply chain, so they own the hogs that flow through the system, and then they provide, feed and veterinary services to the contract growers, what we used to call farmers at the bottom of that pyramid. Right. And, the integrators are companies such as, like here in Minnesota, pipestone Systems, Christensen Farms, Holden Farms, Schwartz Farms, um, iowa, you have Iowa Select, uh, prestige. So they own the hogs flowing through that system. And then you've got these series of contract growers at the bottom. And what's happened is that all of the profits, this is a closed system and all the profits flow. Up to the top of that pyramid, to the multinationals at the top of that pyramid. And you've got all of these profits that are being taken away from local communities. Yeah. And we, and we see, and we're seeing the results of all this, of years, decades, actually, of this terrible system that's hollowing out rural areas. You know, we're seeing the closing of schools, businesses, churches, uh, communities that cannot survive. It's interesting to follow where the money goes and watch pennies on the dollar end up with the actual farmer or contract grower. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because these farmers are beholden to the corporate big wigs at the top of the pyramid. Right. So, but you know, that whole system has been very secretive for years. I mean, here was my family surrounded by all these swine factory farms. We never understood how it worked. And so, you know, I get decisions of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Minnesota Court of Appeals that roll across my desk, and one day I see a decision, I'm like, oh my God, I know those names. It was a wow. Contract grower, one mile north of us was suing an integrator, Holden Farms. And so I beelined it over to the Supreme Court, library and I was able to get a copy of the court transcript,'cause that trial went on for six days. I got a copy of the 1000 plus page court transcript. And then I went to the local county and I got copies of all the trial exhibits. I'm telling you, it was like plugging in a Christmas tree because suddenly the whole thing lit up. Like I understood the whole system. Wow. That's crazy. It's, and that also shows, you know, just right down the road from you that obviously things are not working right. Right. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. The system, that system is broken. Yeah, definitely. What, what are your beliefs? About agriculture now, like what would your dream ideal utopian food system look like? Well, I think, is a movement to move toward more, um, regional food systems, that we need to keep it local. And my hope is that people are starting to realize, or will realize, like the best thing they can do is buy local and support your local, independent farmer. but a lot of people are, you know, like, how do I do that? How do I find my local independent farmer? And that can be challenging. It is. There's not like one central place to find them. I know there's so many people trying to start apps and websites and as a small scale farmer myself, it's so hard to get listed on every single one because there's not one central place to go. Even for myself that I feel really connected to the farmers in my community. Just yesterday I learned of another that I've never even heard about, and she's only 10 minutes down the road and I don't even live in a farm town, it's hard to connect to everybody and know who's out there mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, there's clearly there's more work that needs to be done. Right. So, but it's, you know, it's hard for the independents to compete, especially when we see things like, these school lunch programs that rely on local food when the Trump administration steps in, for example, and boom, all of a sudden these people lose their funding. Yeah. You know, and it impacts people right. In their own communities. Mm-hmm. For sure. So yeah, it is indeed troubling. Mm-hmm. Are there any areas where you see really bright spots in this fight? What I'm seeing is, so I've presented, in a number of communities, the book has received significant attention, but what's happened is that it's raising awareness regarding the corporate takeover of our food supply. And so. For me, that's been really gratifying that people are starting to realize the significance and the seriousness of what's going on in rural America. Um, this has been very methodical, very strategic, very determined, and it's been led by. Uh, farm Bureau in large part, you know, and their membership. I ran into a man last week. He said he was blown away. He said, I, my wife and I have been long term Farm Bureau members. He said, I had no idea. Yeah, so it's hard. Like they have no idea what's going on. I don't think many people do really. Yeah. We need to raise awareness so that, so I, you know, that's, so I really appreciate the, the opportunity to participate in this call today, because it's just another way to help raise awareness and help people understand these are folks that are not interested in promoting our democracy. Mm-hmm. Their job is to promote the corporate agenda. Mm-hmm. Definitely. Well, thank you thank you so much for joining us on the Global Stewardship Podcast. Something that you listeners missed is that off of the recording with Sonya? We talked about her experience as a lawyer and how these companies used the same power and control tactics. That many domestic violence abusers will use. And we both said that we could literally have a whole second podcast episode just on this. And how big corporations are using these tactics to keep people stuck and to keep people silent. They're using. Economic abuse, privilege. They're using children, they're minimizing, denying, blaming, using isolation, emotional abuse, obviously coercion and threats and intimidation. This is some serious stuff that we're up against for sure, but there are small scale, thoughtful and intentional farmers, likely really close to where you live and you may not even know. I would encourage you to try to support small scale farming when it does come to the pork industry, especially in the United States. And although only about 3% of the pork consumed in the US is raised on pasture or outside, there is a reason for that and a lot of it is because these companies are making it really, really hard for us to continue. There are beautiful ways to farm pigs and produce pork working alongside nature and benefiting the environment.

36:33

When I first started farming, pasture raised pigs, a state representative in South Carolina who is a friend of family, I guess, had called me and told me to. Stop my plans immediately and not raise pigs because they would wreak havoc on the land, destroy this beautiful piece of property. And I don't blame him for making that call and warning me because that's the only kind of hog farming he had ever experienced. But I went on to do it and raised many, many pigs on pasture in the forest in a way that nourished the land beneath their feet. And my community as well. All that to say that there are people out there who are stewarding the land like God intended when it comes to pigs, and the change is up to us. And unfortunately, that means that this is a call for you to maybe consume differently when you're buying your bacon or your pork chops. And if you're a farmer. To recognize that how you farm can change the world. Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end of this show today. It does mean the world to me and I also love hearing your feedback. So please send me a text. There's a link in the podcast description to send me a message. Also, during this episode, Sonya mentioned. A sickness. That was the reason the gestational facility was turning into a feeder operation because so many sows were getting sick and aborting their babies. And I just recently heard of the news that pigs now modified. With gene editing technology to resist this very disease have been approved by the FDA. So, uh, it's like official now that pigs modified with this gene editing technology have been approved, which is really big news in the food and farming world, and also have learned that. Pigs left out in sunshine like pasture raised. Living the natural life are actually the most efficient at using sunlight to produce vitamin D in their skin. Of all the domestic animals, they're the most efficient, which is, which is interesting because D three is a big issue for confined piglets, and the solution is obviously literally right out the door. But when they're raised inside and they don't have that sunshine. It poses a problem. It is just interesting that the vitamins that indoor confinement pigs are struggling so hard to produce that pigs outdoors produce it better than other animals. Crazy. Again, as always, this show is still really brand new, so I would love it if more people could discover this by you leaving a review or just sharing my social media post, simply copying and pasting this link in a text to someone you know who may be curious about how our food system works and where their food comes from. That would just bless my week and make the world of a difference to me. Thank you so much for listening, and I'm excited to give you a whole life update next Tuesday.