Food Labels, Farm Practices, and the Consumer Trust Gap with Laura Tippett

For most consumers, agriculture is experienced at the grocery store—not in the field.

In this episode of The Whole Farm Podcast, Michael Pisciotta sits down with CHONEX marketing team member Laura Tippett for a different kind of conversation about agriculture. Laura joins the show not as a grower or agronomist, but as a marketer, consumer, and mother of three trying to make informed food choices for her family.

Laura shares how her personal experiences with food-related health concerns led her to start reading labels, researching ingredients, and asking more questions about where food comes from and how it is produced.

The conversation explores the complicated decisions consumers face every day. Does “organic” automatically mean healthier? What does “regeneratively grown” actually tell someone at the grocery store? Is buying local always realistic for a family working within a budget?

Laura also explains how branding, packaging, social media, and food influencers shape consumer perceptions of agriculture. While online conversations have helped more people pay attention to farming and food production, they can also oversimplify complex issues and leave out the perspectives of the farmers doing the work.

As a mother, Laura discusses the balance between wanting to provide better food and accepting that parents cannot control every meal. Her approach is practical: make thoughtful choices where possible, provide better everyday options, and avoid turning food into a constant source of stress.

Throughout the episode, Michael and Laura examine the growing disconnect between farmers, food manufacturers, and consumers. While farmers are often blamed for concerns surrounding the food system, many of the ingredients, additives, claims, and processing decisions consumers question happen after a crop leaves the farm.

For Laura, rebuilding trust starts with greater clarity and transparency. Consumers need enough accurate information to make decisions based on their health needs, budgets, lifestyles, and personal priorities—not simply the claims or pretty branding on a package.

The episode closes with a reminder that farmers are at the ground level of the changes consumers are demanding. Supporting growers with practical, affordable tools that improve soil and crop performance can help make the transition toward healthier soils, stronger farms, and a more trusted food system less difficult.

Listen to the full episode to hear an honest consumer perspective on food, farming, soil health, and what families are really looking for when they shop.

To learn more about CHONEX, explore additional resources, and receive future episodes to your inbox, visit chonex.ag. If you found this episode valuable, subscribe to the podcast and share it with someone in your network.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Whole Farm Podcast brought to you by Chodex, where we explore soil health, nutrient management, and the systems that help crops and farms perform better over time. Each episode features conversations with growers and industry experts focused on practical insights you can apply in the field. Whether you're managing nutrients, building healthier soils, or looking for data-driven ways to improve outcomes, this podcast is built to support real decisions and real results.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Welcome to another episode of the Whole Farm Podcast brought to you by Chonex. Today we have a different kind of guest, and I'm super excited to introduce you to Laura Tippett. So, Laura, she is a part of the Chonex team. She is a marketer by trade. She has her own marketing agency that does lots of different uh things for different clients. But most importantly, Laura is a wife and a mother and a consumer. Laura and I have had lots of good conversations, but I think Laura is the first really consumer-facing guest we've had. We've had a lot of farm-facing guests or maybe uh agribusiness type facing guests, but I'm so pumped to have Laura join us today. And what I was really inspired, this is going to sound really um kind of silly to say, but I am a huge consumer of podcast. And I always find it interesting when someone like Theo Vaughn, shout out to Theo Vaughn. I don't want to platform all of his opinions or takes, but he's always been so interesting to me because he will have a funeral director, or he will have the local county coroner, or maybe an FBI agent, or a police officer, someone that maybe not, you know, isn't isn't a comedian like him, but it they have an interesting life opinion and they have a real opinion that's a real person. And so that really inspired me to ask Laura to come on. So Laura, I'd like to to to thank you first, but if you could just kind of introduce yourself a little bit and then we'll we'll do some consumer kind of questions.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, thank you for having me on. It's fun to not be um on the the back end of the podcast um for today. Um, but yeah, I like you said have marketing business um including podcast studio. Um three kids, oldest one's almost eight, the youngest just turned one. Um yeah, kind of a a long history as far as food and health and agriculture on the personal side, and then just where kind of client work has taken me. So um yeah, I'm excited to dive in.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

That's incredible. So, first question this is a softball question, Laura. I heard you had your own podcast. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

It is true. Um, we recently moved studio, like rebuilt the studio. Um, so we have not started recording again since we've moved. So um new season coming soon. How soon? I don't know, but soon.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Awesome. Can we put your podcast in the show notes for Chonex?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Absolutely. Um, it is called Kickstart Your Week, and we can put some links in there, but it's mostly marketing and business related, just 15 to 20 minute. We release them on Mondays. Kickstart your week.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

That's cool. So my first question is kind of tied into your work, but also kind of tied to tied into you as a consumer. So when you're in the grocery store, how does your eye for marketing and brands and branding influence your food choices?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Oh man, okay. So I love a good brand and branding and visual, like it matters. Um, I'm also extremely skeptical, just knowing how marketing can work when you know people take it a little too far. Um, I mean, I think eggs is always like the classic example um of they have 500, that's an exaggeration, but you know, you have pasture aged, you have free range, you have organic, you have this, you have that. And it's some of it means something and some of it doesn't. Um so I think that paired with how cute is the picture of the chicken, I think that catches people's eyes. It makes a difference. Um that being said, my mom does have chickens, so we can get eggs from her. And when not, we do get the organic ones from Costco. But um, no, I think the labels and the claims they make, it's always it's very easy to to glance at that and be like, oh yeah, sure, that's better because it says X, Y, and Z, but it also might not mean anything. Like, really. Um, and then I think that's where the confusion comes in for people at the same time. It's like, do you pay extra because you're making this claim? Does this claim mean anything? If it does mean anything, what does that actually mean at the end of the day for your health, if anything? And so you're connecting a bunch of dots. Um, that being said, if they have a really cool logo and I like their color palette and it's uh you know processed healthy food, I'm probably gonna try it.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Wow, you brought up a lot of really good like words with that. Uh, you even brought up something right there at the end that kind of uh triggered me a little bit, not in a bad way, just something that's very interesting. Um so let me ask you this as far as preference goes. Clearly, there's there's there's there's preferences that are dictated by brands and marketing, but from uh a consumer standpoint, you know, how do you weigh things like you're in North Carolina, is my understanding. How do you weigh things like local versus something that might be looked at as maybe a certain type of uh you mentioned pasture raised, certain type of production practice? As a consumer, how do you kind of think about some of those things?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, um, no, that's a great question. Um we so we are in a part of North Carolina where we have um it's probably like Flint, Michigan on water quality. And then we're pretty not far behind. Um so we do have a lot of agriculture around here, which is cool. Um the water and like ground pollution is definitely an issue. Um, that being said, I think the more local in terms of like produce and you know, even some meats that we can get, we do have some really cool like local, um, like smaller farm ranch style things. Um, so those are always, you know, it's always good to support those when you can. Obviously, that price tag is different than a Costco price tag. Um, so that's not like an everyday purchase. Um, but I think when we can, um, and again, we are a little bit lucky because my mom does have chickens and she has bees, so we can get all those things from her. And um we do have really cool, like small like mark farmers markets and things. Um so those are like great options that we can go for. But also we shop a lot at Costco. And it's like it's easy, and they do have good choices. Um, they're not necessarily local, but just in terms of like organic produce and meats and things, um, that is probably like the bulk of where we get that.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Man, shout out to Costco. I just want to mention this. I know Costco, they're their supply chain, uh, really nice article that you know people are starting to understand that obviously these uh these larger scale, you know, if you're if you're like Lara, you have three kids. Uh I also have three kids. Uh they uh require lots of food, as it turns out. And so, you know, people like Costco, I think they're very aware of different consumer preferences, uh, you know, organic to even different production practices. And so I do know that Costco is uh heavily considering certain production practices when it comes to how they buy uh produce, meats, and other types of whole foods. And so I just want to say shout out to Costco for being willing to look in that direction. And, you know, they're they're buying from other different markets, but I am I am very excited that that's kind of something that's gonna trickle down potentially into different uh you know fruit and meat categories. So shout out to Costco for that. Um I want to talk before we we go into this kids segment, because I I think you know uh I had personal feelings before I had kids, and now I have kids, and so I have a different kind of food feeling. Um, I think this probably this perception has changed a lot over the past several decades. But I want to ask you some questions personally about your your food journey and as it is related to farm perceptions. So what do you feel like from a food journey standpoint has stuck out to you because you mentioned that you do pay attention to labels and brands, and you even mentioned ingredients and sometimes they're processed, sometimes they're not. But how has your own food journey? Uh you mentioned that this is something that you have paid attention to in the past. How has that influenced how you thought about food, even back to the how it's grown on the farm?

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah. Um, yeah, so that's gonna be a long answer. I'll try not to drag it out too far. Um I uh I don't know what triggered this, but um when we were our high school, you had to do like a senior project. Um, and I and I don't know exactly, anyways, I did mine on how gluten and casein affect children with autism. Um again, this was a long time ago. Who knows where that research has all shaken out? I did not really keep up with it. Um, but so started looking kind of in that direction, and in my mind, I mean, even still, it's like it's milk and it's wheat barley rye proteins or whatever. So it's food. Um, but then just realizing outside of like an actual allergy, food can have an impact on you. Um, and then fast forward, my grandmother had celiac, I had celiac, um, gluten issues, um, autoimmune-related things. Um, and so lots of label reading and figuring out, you know, just what has gluten and what doesn't have gluten, and then you can go into a very deep, deep rabbit trail of gluten in America versus gluten overseas. And does that impact your body the same? And then that takes you down the farming agriculture route of wheat, barley, and rye. We'll say wheat, just for the sake of not listing things. Um, and it gets really interesting. Um, and again, as I was probably in my early 20s, you read a bunch of things online, who knows? Like, who knows? Is it how the wheat is being like what's being sprayed on it impacting it? Is it what happens to it after it's sprayed and then harvested? Is it like residue of things in our food? Is it just the way it is? Um, so, anyways, all that to say. Deep, deep rabbit trails at that point in life. Um, but then that kind of leads into not just with gluten, like looking at organic produce versus non. And it was super trendy, you know, around that same time as like your dirty dozen of like fruits and vegetables that you should always buy organic. And so then that on the consumer side, and as Instagram has, you know, become everybody's source for information for better or worse. Um, you just get you very quickly get fed more and more info on whichever side of the route lane you start, you know, researching and engaging with. Um, so yeah, that wasn't a very short, long story short, but that's kind of where, at least for me, started researching like, okay, what does this mean? And why does your body react to this? And then you can also like, you know, just overly processed foods versus whole foods, like it's lots of rap trails.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah. No, I and you know, I'm gonna ask this question. This isn't like a gotcha question, but yeah, you know, you've probably have you heard the word regenerative agriculture before?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

And as a consumer, how does that make you feel? Like what is your kind of perception of regenerative agriculture?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah, um, I mean, I think in the whole rabbit trail of the you know, gluten and then organic and all that. Um it definitely was something that I became more interested in over the past, you know, probably three to maybe five years. I don't know if I'm gonna stretch it that far back. Um, but and I think what was funny too, I mean, this is probably two or three years ago, but I was having a conversation with somebody and then went to Whole Foods afterwards and was buying like the baby food pouches in one of the brands that's like regeneratively grown. I'm like, oh, well, of course I'm gonna buy that. Like, and I mean, of course it's like two dollars more expensive for the little pouch, but you know, it's like okay. And at least in my mind, I'll say up until more recently, um, the podcast with Kerb Young was super interesting. So people should definitely go back and listen to that one. Um, I think when it comes to like, okay, the food and the nutrients of it. I will be honest, I never really did much research on like, is that side of it, is that actually better, or is it okay? Here you have like organically grit stuff. I'm gonna say that's better for you than non. But then like there are genitive pieces, is that just for the land and the earth? Or is that for human health too? Um which, you know, I think there's a strong case for it's for all of it. But I think at least three years ago, looking back at buying those baby pouches for an extra $2 a pouch, it was definitely like, okay, the organic, whatever, that's for human health. The region, that's a nice add-on, will support, you know, this emerging trend, if you will, in agriculture.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Well, I I think it's interesting that you said in the past like three to five years. And I feel like if you looked at how marketing has changed in the past three to five years, let me ask you it that way. How how do you think marketing has changed broadly speaking in the past five years? Since you've really probably been touching it and deep into this, how do you feel about that? Because I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna link this to how agriculture might have, you know, been perceived differently over this time frame. So marketing first, let's let's touch that. What past five years? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Um, social media. Um, I think there's I mean, obviously, like the food brands and more startup food brands, if you will, that can put their sourcing and can put like different labels and say different things on their packaging, I think is super cool. Um, but I think the influencer social media aspect of it, it just it gets in front of people quicker, if you will. Um, and you can for better or worse put some rhetoric behind it and capture people's attention. Um, so I think that you know would probably on the marketing side probably be the biggest shift I think I've seen.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Man, that's that's interesting that you mentioned influencer. Yeah. So I, you know, I think there is um what is your perception of this? We've been working on this podcast together now. We're a couple, maybe we're a dozen episodes deep into this, Laura. And it's been pretty exciting for me. Uh I really like not talking, I really like asking lots of good questions if I can think through, you know, kind of how I want to approach a topic. That's been really fun and exciting for me. But when it comes to the influencer conversation and agriculture, how do you how do you perceive that as someone that works in marketing? Do you feel like agriculture is is visible? Do you think it's more visible? Do you think it's more like machines or is it more people? Or is it some some mix? How do you what's your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Yeah, I think it's a mix. Um I have I'll say the benefit of being logged into a few different Instagram accounts um just because of client work. Um, so what gets fed to me on my personal Instagram is a little bit of a crossover of a lot of our clients, which is cool. Um, but without that portion of it, the I think what I get my demographic gets fed is just I'm gonna just call them influencers. It's not ag people, it's you know, it's the moms, it's the people playing in the political realm of food and ag. And I think there's a lot of ag conversations happening um with if we can say the the glyphosate word, um, with that happening. Um, but then it's interesting too, and I think seeing like both sides of the coin, there is someone who I follow on Instagram who pulled a quote from someone who I'd interviewed in the past for an article related to ag, and the influencer person was kind of trashing this person. And I'm like, it seems like you read one quote. I mean, I don't know, but it really seems like they read one quote and are like this person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, when I talk to said person, I obviously I don't comment on anybody anything on Instagram, like I'm um, but in my head, I'm like, okay, when I actually like had a conversation with this person and like you learn more about them, that is not at all like what's actually happening. So I think there's a level of, I mean, I think there's influencers on the food side and health side that are very clued into the agriculture side, and I definitely think there's a big shift happening, probably with like a lot of the politics that are also happening. Um, but then some of it I'm like when you like understand more of the ag side and the people that are actually like doing the work and growing the food and making the decisions. Some of the stuff over here, I'm like, that doesn't, it just doesn't line up, creating more conf confusion or not confusion, because if you're just listening to, you know, I mean, moms are powerful, powerful, they know a lot, but you can't. I mean, I had a strawberry, I think we got seven strawberries and two bell peppers this spring.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Like, I'm not growing, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

So I don't know. I think it's there's a lot of noise, and some of it is good, and I think some of it is like creating change and like helping people be aware of things, but I don't think the average person is actually seeing content from farmers, if that I guess to answer the original question.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Yeah, I I think for a long time when it comes to like food, when it comes to consumer preference, it's almost like agriculture was the volleyball that was almost like a political football getting thrown back and forth. And you had a lot of people that were spectators in the grocery store. Now, social media, you know, you mentioned influencers. I I feel like agriculture is really siloed. Like you're either caring about agriculture or you don't, or you're in the industry or you're not. And there's not a lot of crossover appeal. Yeah, that's I think it's starting to kind of fracture and break, but I've said for a long time it'd be really amazing for someone that does have a platform that is an influencer, quote unquote, to really use what they're doing to give more of an inside view of food production.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

And I think that's you know, that's you you mentioned Herb Young. I think a lot of people point at Herb. You know, he's a citrus farmer that has a background in the ag industry, but now he's got some crossover appeal to folks that really, you know, do a lot of research. Maybe it's internet sleuthing, but maybe it's you know more of like, okay, well, our politics are starting to. Go in this direction where food visibility is changing and even production practices are starting to not necessarily be like more rigid, they're starting to actually be more fluid. And I think that's why I was so excited for this uh region ag pilot program from the USDA, is because now there's going to be a lot more uh openness, maybe to okay, we're we're gonna say maybe you can do these different things that fit more of a regenerative profile. Maybe you set more fluid goals for yourself. What I mean by that is it's not all about yield, it's about maybe you can implement different practices that have water quality standards improving, or maybe it's compaction improving, or even maybe it's diversity of what's in your soil. And so, you know, I would definitely give a shout out to Waypoint, you know, soil testing. A lot of there's a lot of thought around right now that human health starts in the soil. And so I really think it's interesting. If if I went back and if I was just a consumer, I would feel maybe most uncomfortable listening to the soil testing episode just because it would be so different. It would be like I'm walking into a doctor's office, I might not like that. But I think there's a parallel to that where you're saying, okay, well, if I'm not actually like measuring how good my blood sugar level is, or if I'm not measuring how good my lipids are, or what is my cholesterol, like there's all these human health metaphors that are not metaphors. I mean, they're similar, yeah, but there's parallels to that and soil testing. And so the sooner I think that we as a society say, well, maybe we maybe we really need an influencer to say, hey, like, wow, like that's this person's already influencer, but they care about this.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah.

unknown 23:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

And so I think that's really interesting. Um, let's let's talk about your kids and food.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

What how has being a mother changed? You had your own food journey, yeah. How have kids impacted that law?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah. Um, it is interesting because they are children. Um, I think um definitely brings a sense of balance on some level of like you can't control everything. They're gonna have the crazy look of cupcake. And it's fine. It really is. It's I mean, I think it's fine. Some people will definitely disagree with that. Um, but um, I think I mean, in general, we do try to buy like mostly organic produce and meat for the most part. Um, so trying to control like what we normally just have and serve, and you know, here's what you get to eat. We had one very picky eater, one that will literally try anything, and one that is he's still baby, so he'll eat it or he'll throw it, you know. Um, but I think there was a certain level of a little bit of releasing control, just knowing like, especially the first one, the first one was the picky one. So it's like, you know what? If all he eats today is pepperoni pizza and a cheese quesadilla, that is as good as it's gonna get. But also there's a level of like probably too much stress of like, I don't want him eating crap. I also know how like food had impacted my general health and well-being. So trying to make sure, you know, we are buying and providing the better options, if you will, um has been important. So um, yeah, a little bit of letting go of control, but then also at the same time just knowing I think we're just more well, I can't I feel like as a society, we are more educated around food and processed foods and you know, all the different health impacts different foods can have. Um, so trying to make the best decision while not being um too stressed out about it all the time, I guess. Um that's yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

You know, that's definitely that's definitely how I feel, you know, is a it's a balance. Um you know, I I want to get your kind of response to this, Laura. I you mentioned organic. That's something farmers can control.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Uh obviously regenerative practices, obviously, if they're doing different things on the farm, farmers can control that. But you mentioned processed foods and farmers can't always control that. You know, and so I think going back to something that we kind of said offline, it seems to be that there's been kind of this very odd conversation. I find it very odd because I don't see farmers around the world doing a lot of different things necessarily. So I was very surprised when I found out that different countries have different standards of things that they'll allow within this processing step.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

So, like what's if you can give me a feedback on that, I would appreciate it because I was pretty surprised to learn about this within the past three or four years, really, is what I felt like.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Yeah. Um, yeah, it's wild. Um I I don't know. I think well, part of it I also on some level know, like I I do my own research, but a lot of it does come from Instagram, which is only, you know, a certain level. You gotta take it with a grain of salt sometimes. Um but yeah, it's definitely like the processor thing. I mean, we I try to avoid it as you know much as we can. That being said, it's not you can totally avoid it. We just don't all the time. Um, but figuring out the brands that are a little bit cleaner, if you will, um and don't have all the things that we're allowed to have in our food in America that a lot of other countries don't allow. Um, you know, trying to avoid some of those things. Um yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't know. It's another one of those things where it's like, I have to assume a certain level of chemicals in your food is not good for you. Um and even if it doesn't have that crazy of an impact, why like there's no need to eat it. Like you don't, it's not doing anything good for you. So if you can avoid it and either just not eat overly processed foods, and or there's plenty of brands out. I mean, they're yes, they're more expensive, but there's plenty of brands out there now that don't have those things and they don't taste like cardboard. Um, like 10 years ago, a gluten-free pizza was terrible. It doesn't have to be now. Um, that might also still be very processed because you know who knows what they're actually making it with. But that being said, there are, I feel like there's plenty of options now of like even the freaking Pringles, and they're not Pringles, the good chips or crisps or whatever they're called. Like, no, they're not great for you, but I'll buy that brand over, you know, the one that has a bunch of random non-food ingredients in it. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Yeah, no, I struggle. Yeah, the struggle is very real. Uh, getting your children to eat certain things. The struggle is also real because you feel like it's almost like overstimulating going to a grocery store. And you know, what I do want to say though is I think there's a certain level, you know, we want to trust our farmers. And so thinking, thinking locally and thinking whole foods, you know, like if it's strawberries, you know, even if it's conventionally grown strawberries, you wash them. Hopefully, they have less residue residues than you know they did 30 years ago. Maybe you know, there's some trade-offs there, but then you have different practices that may have different capacities of residues. Maybe they don't, you know, it's hard to know. I'm not a you know, microbiologist in the food, so I don't, I'm not looking. So I have to have a level of trust. And this level of trust to me is where this processing element has really, really broken farmers. I think the consumer trust to farmers is really low because of this word process when it comes to maybe and maybe there's some corporate things going on, we're not gonna call anybody out, but what I will say is it does seem like the United States of America and maybe this administration is more sensitive to re regaining some level of trust when it comes to these added ingredients. Um, I have seen a lot less uh, you know, like we'll just use Doritos, shout out Doritos, yeah, for having a brand that doesn't have anything on the bag and it says naked because it doesn't have any dye in those Doritos. And so I'm sensitive to this. I have a seven-year-old son that has autism. I feel like, you know, you mentioned trade-offs. Well, I want to do, I want to make the best choice. Yeah, and even if I do have kids that were, you know, I was not more sensitive about their food choices, I still want to do the best I can for them. And so if I have less things that don't really serve a purpose, that probably is a good idea. And so, you know, I I want to applaud a lot of companies for going in this direction. I know corporate environments like turning a battleship, maybe, but there's no reason. And so restore the trust for farmers, yeah, just get the things out that don't make sense, and I think farm the farm economy will will thrive just because of this idea of can we build more trust back with the consumer? Yeah, and you know, I I'll I'll I'll end on this kind of thought because you've been really great to share, you know, your eye, your perspective, what this kind of journey, your own food journey, and kind of how you think about this as a kid. If you had a final thought that you could share with what I'll call the agricultural food economy and agribusinesses, what kind of thought from a consumer, what like what do you desire as a consumer?

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Yeah, that's a good question. And you asked this question at the end of every podcast, so I should have been more prepared.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Oh, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I've listened to all of them. Um I mean, I think I can Peggy bagging off of like the trust comment, just the transparency part. Um, and that, you know, that might not even be directly the farmer, as much as like the food distributors or manufacturers for when we're going that route. Um because I think, yeah, and I think kind of tying back to the first question about the marketing, it's like people can say, I mean, we there's not a there are some things that like, yes, if it says it's organic, the US data, yes, that's a thing. But there are so many other things you can just say, and it doesn't really mean anything. It might imply something, kind of. Um, but I think that level of just like the lack of clarity, again, it just breaks down the trust of it. And that might not be, you know, that's not directly on the farmer, probably in a lot of cases. Um, but just the that in between of the food getting to the store, which maybe was why we should just all go to farmers markets. Well, just you know, I'd obviously not realistic, but um, yeah, I just think like the the clarity portion of it. Because at least then you can make a decision based on, you know, having the right information, your lifestyle, your budget, your preferences, whatever. Then the consumer can actually make a real decision versus just like, oh yeah. That said that, and in my case, I like that color palette on that box, so here we go. Reward the branding, if nothing else.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

That's that's that's good to know though, because I think you know there's gonna be a shift of power where the farmer is gonna hopefully have more power in the years to come in America. That's what I pray for, just because you know, our rural economies need it.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

I think consumer health and human health has a lot riding on this kind of thought, and a lot more people are paying attention to Whole Foods. And, you know, we've kind of had this thing where we were joking, we'll call it the Whole Food Podcast. Uh, we're still going in a whole farm podcast direction, but my hope is that if you're just a farmer agronomist, ag retail person, uh, ag tech person manufacturer, and you're listening to this podcast, my hope is that you hear someone like Laura say what her preferences are, what she's looking for, and then you'll say, Well, my goal is to meet that demand because there's a lot of power shift happening right now, and people are buying with their dollar. You know, the dollar, you know, I don't know which direction this is going, but what I will say is the more we can have transparency, the more that farmers and ag businesses can build trust. There's only good things that can happen to those people that really go in that direction and go that extra effort. And so I I really know that's gonna be a lot of effort. There's gonna be a lot of changes and transitions over the next several years, but just look at what social media's done. So we have to stay, you know, stay vigilant towards some of these things and have good questions and work hard to build trust. And so that is, I think every person that's been on the podcast, we've had some conversation around trust and even maybe skepticism. And so uh this has been really illuminating, Laura. Thank you so much for joining us. And you have any final thoughts or any comments about food, ag, farm?

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Um, well, I'll do a shameless plug for for Chonex, if nothing else. Um, I think I think just going back to like the food and health side, and one thing that kind of popped into my mind when you were talking earlier, um was like with going back to like it starting in the soil, if there is something like strong soil and chonex that makes that easier and quicker and affordable for farmers, then hopefully the rest of that shift is a little less painful. And if more, you know, companies can you know provide options to farmers, then that I mean, all the better. The farmer is not they're the they're at literally on the ground level, they are the source of what the consumer side is demanding. So ideally we would make that as easy as possible as a country for them, and not pointing fingers and being like, no, it's their fault for X, Y, and Z. So um, yeah, I don't know. Thanks for having me. Just changing up the pace a little bit. So that was fun.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Oh man. Oh man, that's awesome, Laura. I I mean, that was the best ending we've had for anything as far as podcast guests go. So I'm very excited for you to mention that. Uh, we will have some ideas in the show notes that we will share. Obviously, Laura's podcast uh in the show notes. Uh, and just want to give a shout out to Costco again. I find that it's very exciting for someone like that to say we care about agricultural production practices. Um, and shout out to lots of other grocers, integrators, produce buyers out there that are going beyond just, you know, dollars and pounds. They're going beyond that. So shout out to them. And once again, if you hadn't checked out our episode with Herb Young, go check that out. It's a very interesting, uh, very enlightening conversation. But thank you so much, Laura. That concludes this episode of the Whole Farm Podcast presented by Chonex. Catch you next time.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Thanks for listening to the Whole Farm Podcast by Chonex. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe and share it with someone in your network. For resources or to learn more about Chonex, visit choneux.ag. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time.