Steel Tariff Paperwork Strands $500K Combine at US-Canada Border

Tim Hammerich [00:00:00] The Ag Tribes report is brought to you by Legacy Interviews, a video service that captures people as they really are, so the future knows who they really were. Here is Legacy Interviews guest Carol Hensley, discussing the opportunity for a quiet person to speak their mind.

Vance Crowe [00:00:17] How was it for you? The experience? Very

Tim Hammerich [00:00:19] Comfortable. Tried

Vance Crowe [00:00:21] To sit down every morning

Tim Hammerich [00:00:22] For a week or two and reflect on my life. And I'm recalling well over 70 years. I may not talk very much, but I think a lot and I listen to other people. If they don't talk a lot, they're surely thinking. And if you ask them their opinion, they may share it with you. You've asked for my opinion. I don't mind sharing that. I think I probably talked more than I should have.

Vance Crowe [00:00:45] No, not at all.

Tim Hammerich [00:00:49] Welcome to the Ag Tribes report, a breakdown of the top stories affecting the culture of agriculture with your host Vance Crow. The report begins in 3, 2, 1. Let's begin.

Vance Crowe [00:01:05] Welcome to the Ag Tribes report. I'm your host Vance Crow. Each week I bring on a co-host to represent one of the many ag tribes that collectively make up US and Canadian agriculture. This

Tim Hammerich [00:01:16] Week

Vance Crowe [00:01:16] We have the distinct honor of having Tim Hammerich. Tim is a West coast agricultural communicator and host of the future of agriculture podcast, connecting farmers innovators and agribusiness leaders As a storyteller amplifying ags diverse voices. He's interviewed everyone from biotech pioneers to regenerative farmers. His insights sparked crucial conversations across ag tribes. And I personally have felt this as I was recently on his show talking about how Bitcoin would demonetize farm ground. And man, I heard from nearly a dozen people from all over the spectrum. It was absolutely fantastic. So Tim, welcome to the show. Hey,

Tim Hammerich [00:01:57] Vance, it is a, an honor to be here. Thank you so much. The live show is, it's a little bit added energy, I kinda like it.

Vance Crowe [00:02:03] So what have you been paying attention to lately?

Tim Hammerich [00:02:06] Well, thanks to you and not blowing smoke at all. I mean, your point on Bitcoin really got me

Vance Crowe [00:02:12] Seriously

Tim Hammerich [00:02:13] Thinking about it. And I will say I have not purchased any Bitcoin yet, but I have started the conversation with my better half about, let's just figure out how this works and, and, and see how it's done. I mean, you

Vance Crowe [00:02:24] Made some

Tim Hammerich [00:02:25] Excellent points on that interview,

Vance Crowe [00:02:26] So you got me

Tim Hammerich [00:02:26] Thinking a lot about that. But other than that, industry wise, I, I have been doing a podcast called agriscience Explained with Corteva that's going into some really interesting kind of cutting edge science. Things like gene editing, hybrid wheat biologicals that's been on my mind. And then personally gearing up for a backpacking trip next week. So I think a lot about that in coaching little league.

Vance Crowe [00:02:49] Wow, there you go. Well, tonight on the Ag Tribes report, we're gonna dive into a trade dispute, stranding harvest equipment at the US Canadian border. We're gonna look at the USDA's plan to close a flagship research site and talk about a new Texas facility that is there to combat the flesh eating screw worms. And we're gonna finish out by talking about a game changing acquisition in Ag tech that I think is probably the most under reported in all of agriculture. We're also gonna compare farmland and Bitcoin prices. We're gonna hear Tim's take on the Peter Thiel paradox, learn about his worthy adversary. And we are gonna pack this all into just 30 minutes. So let's get started. Alright, story number one, trade red tape strands harvest equipment at the US and Canadian border. So there's a weird story. Oklahoma farmer Ryan lls is battling US Customs officials over a used New Holland combine stuck at the US Canada border, purchased from Saskatchewan. The combine is held up by section 2, 3 2 tariffs requiring proof of steel origins to block dumped foreign metal es, especially from China Res. Put a out a a viral X video on August 18th. And I, I'm just gonna go ahead and play a little clip of it right here.

Tim Hammerich [00:04:08] So I bought this CX 80 80 out of, out a way mirror, Saskatchewan, it's 40 miles north of Canadian border. Cannot get this combine across the border because as of 1101 last night on August 18th, 2025, the Trump administration and some of them decided that to get this machine over the border, we need to know where every ounce of steel on this combine built in Derland Belgium. We need to know where every ounce of steel was, where it was smelted, where it was forged, and where it was cast. So that's anything from the mainframe, the police, the engine block, the rods, the crank, the cam, the pistons are aluminum. Every piece of steel in this combine, we need to know where it come from. And I cannot get this combine across the border and they're telling me I'm screwed. But if you're a farmer in the United States and you're gonna buy something used outta Canada, whether it's a auger, a piece of tillage, a combine, a header, hell probably even any like car SUVA semi a trailer, anything, they, they will not let it across the border because they need to know where every ounce of steel on that thing was manufactured. And it's bullshit. It is a crock of shit my entire life. Everything I've worked for for the past 20 years hangs in balance. This has turned into a battle all of a sudden. And I want every farmer in North America knowing in the United States, knowing what they're faced up against and it's gonna be a bitch.

Tim Hammerich [00:05:45] And they called this morning and said the deal's off. I was like, oh, the deal ain't off. There's a way and we're gonna find a way. So I'll keep y'all posted, but just wanting you guys to know what's going on.

Vance Crowe [00:05:56] So Rell actually had a post this morning talking about how more senators, even the president himself, knows that this is going on, but he did not have resolution as of press time. So Tim, what do you think about this?

Tim Hammerich [00:06:10] This is wild Vance. I mean, I I think in the video earlier in a section that we weren't able to show, you talked about it, it sounded like this had gone into effect like overnight. Like it, this is something brand new. It happened at that exact time. I couldn't find many details about what, what exactly that's stemming from other than, you know, s the trade war that's kind of going on, the tariffs and everything, sort of an unintended consequence. Whenever any of the, anytime these things happen, you're gonna have unintended consequences. And these are the types of things that are very hard to predict. But I gotta think that there is some outrage out there. 'cause not only have farmers been squeezed by this trade war on the pricing side, but now here trying to get equipment and inputs in on, on the supply side, getting it from both sides. And I I I just have to think that something's gonna be done quickly here. 'cause this is obviously an unintended consequence.

Vance Crowe [00:07:05] Yeah, and I mean with harvest coming, you, you can't delay, you delay, you kill the guy. And what's interesting to me about this, so I haven't had a chance to get to know a lot of Canadian grain farmers and they have been just spit and mad about the way the US has been treating this tariff war. Jay Curtis is talking all the time about how the Americans are really screwing this up. And I've kind of blown it off. I haven't taken it very seriously because it's really just been a one way problem. It's not been a problem for us, but this could be the start of major harvest problems or another situation where Trump holds a magic wand and he approves this one and that one. And anybody that can't get their issues brought up to the national level just gets sunk. Yeah. And

Tim Hammerich [00:07:47] Those types of kind of one-off magic wand situations, as you call 'em, it just does not seem like a viable solution here. It seems like there's just enough of these that are gonna keep popping up. We've gotta figure out something that's more long-term. We can't just say 90 days from now or two weeks from now. I mean, we've gotta start getting some, some real answers is my opinion.

Vance Crowe [00:08:08] Yeah, I mean, I even know people that have been holding off on making purchases because of the tariffs and like it just screws everything up. Uncertainty is bad for markets, it doesn't help our country so figure this shit out is what I think.

Tim Hammerich [00:08:22] Absolutely. Yep. I get the chance to talk to a lot of pulse growers and obviously pulses are huge in Canada and the northern US and there's, there's a lot, you know, always been a really good relationship there and I, I hate to see things like this that, that constrain relationships.

Vance Crowe [00:08:36] Moving on to story number two, the USDA plans to close a flagship research site and it has sparked outrage on the July 25th, the USDA announced plans to close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, a 7,000 acre hub for pest blight and crop genetics research as a part of the, the reorganization moving staff to North Carolina and Utah critics, including Senator Chris Van Holland and the National Grape Research Alliance, warned that the closures threaten critical research with 2023 whistleblower complaints citing unsafe conditions at bark the USDA claims cost savings, but lacks data to support this. And per an August 14th letter from House Democrats staff fear scientists resignations and disrupted projects with econo economies of scale being lost. I could go on and on about this, but it seems to me, Tim, anytime somebody tries to close down A-U-S-D-A project, people are screaming bloody murder. But you gotta cut budget somewhere, don't you?

Tim Hammerich [00:09:40] I think so. Of course, me

Vance Crowe [00:09:41] Being

Tim Hammerich [00:09:41] Very biased towards ag innovation, I hate to see it happening in, in terms of research and, and innovation. I, I wasn't familiar with this particular research center in Maryland, being from the western us. One of the articles I read about this, I think indicated that it was the largest in the nation, like the largest ag research center in the nation. So this is obviously a big one, but again, you know, similar to the LA the last story where you've got farmers getting hit on both the price side as well as now on the equipment side, you've got agricultural research that's already taken some major blows. One thing I think about is, is venture capital, there's a significant drop in venture capital going in to fund agricultural innovation. And now we're seeing, you know, continued cuts on the public side for agricultural innovation. So you're right, you have to cut somewhere, but how much can you cut before it really does impact, you know, the future of our industry and of our economy.

Vance Crowe [00:10:43] Yeah. And I think like you won't find out until, until you actually see the consequences. And the consequences are gonna take a long time. It's not just gonna be weeks or months, it could be years. To me, I strongly suspect that anytime it's just straight government research, it is not efficiently done. However, with the way the ag system is set up, you really are reliant on the USDA to conduct certain types of studies. So I mean to like I am a cut, cut, cut kind of guy. But it, it does seem like whenever you start cutting research you just, you really aren't gonna know the consequences for quite some time.

Tim Hammerich [00:11:19] Yeah. And one of the articles on the OR out there indicated that there hadn't been a study done of how much savings this is really going to achieve. The idea is to move folks to Utah and I think North Carolina and to just move this, this research elsewhere, but it it, it's hard to really think it through objectively without some sort of study done of where, what savings is this going to achieve and at what cost, especially what long term costs for

Vance Crowe [00:11:49] Yeah. But knowing the government, the amount of money that they will spend on getting that research done will probably vastly exceed however much money they were gonna save by shutting it down.

Tim Hammerich [00:11:59] Totally. And the question is like, oh, well will, will these scientists move? And I think that's the, that's the wrong question. Obviously it does matter that we retain, you know, the scientific talent. But, but the question is like, what, what are we striving for here? And in terms of can it just be cuts at all costs? Because I really think we need to think through how rapidly the problems in agriculture are changing. I think our next story speaks to that, right? How how much is constantly being threatened to our farmers and hence our food supply and what we need to do to proactively invest in ag innovation. 'cause it, it's a big concern of mine cuts in USDA cuts in extension drops in overall investment in funding I think is a, a major issue that none of us are talking enough about in, in the long-term impacts, both in terms of domestic food security, but also just in global competitive advantage.

Vance Crowe [00:12:57] You mentioned that VCs are cutting back their expenditure here. What do you know about that?

Tim Hammerich [00:13:03] Oh boy. The numbers I don't have fresh right in front of me, but it, it's something like a, we're down, I want to say more than 50% from where we were on an annual basis when, when the high was, and I wanna say the high was probably 2022 down significantly in annual VC investment into to food and agriculture in general that coincided with an overall kind of VC bubble, for lack of a better term that burst, but certainly is not recovering the way I think a lot of people wanted it to. You know, we had some darlings at that time and when I say darlings I should put those in quotes because VCs love them, although commercial viability wasn't probably an option. Things like, you know, vertical farming things like alt beats that, that sort of imploded with the lack of VC money that was propping it up. But there also are very real solutions that are now struggling to get funding the same way they might have a couple years ago. So again, so where's the money come from to, to innovate?

Vance Crowe [00:14:04] Yeah, I don't know. I'm the, it, it's, it's a funny thing as liquidity dries up all of a sudden, AG doesn't seem like such a great spot and it does seem like the VC expenditure there has not brought anywhere near the innovation that you would think you'd get for the amount of money there. Alright. Alright, moving on to story number three, the USDA to build a Texas facility to fight flesh eating screw worms. This has been a story that we've been covering for weeks, but on August 15th, the USDA announced a $750 million facility in Edinburgh, Texas to produce 300 million sterile screwworm flies weekly combating, fleshing pests moving north from Mexico, the new world screwworm, which each livestock alive threatens US cattle with Texas governor Greg Abbott warning it could crush the industry, the USDA halted Mexican cattle imports in July, tightening supplies as beef prices hit records c companion dispersal facility at more air force base and a hundred million dollars for new tech aimed to push the pests south on x ranchers applaud the move, but worry about delays as the plant may take years to open the USDA's Mexico facility set for 2026 add support with the US cattle herd at 86.7 million. The stakes are high, Tim pathogens are, are always scary. Look at avian flu and just how far the government went there. What are your thoughts on this? Is this just hype to get money spent on facilities or is this a real thing?

Tim Hammerich [00:15:36] No, I don't think so. No, I, I think, well first of all, I think if you would've said, you know, flesh eating screwworm a year ago, you would've got a lot of funny looks. Right? But this is just an example of how these threats can emerge. So no, I don't think this is just some, you know, empty threat to try to get some pork barrel spending done. I, I really think this is a, a real threat. I think it is likely to be even a, a bigger threat than a lot of people are, are letting on from what I can read about this, I do think the innovation is interesting of, of looking at ways through kind of sterility to combat these pests. If I remember right, I think, was it Pink Bull warm? There was a cotton pest, now it might've been pink bull warm where they, where they did this with a lot of success and I know they're talking about it in California to try to target naval orange worm the same way through kind of sterile males. So I, I think it's an interesting approach. I hope we're not too late though, you know, what are your thoughts on that?

Vance Crowe [00:16:37] Well, it's funny you mentioned that I had a chance to talk with some people that are really well acquainted with the story and they said, look, by the time the USDA is doing this, they are already actually signaling capitulation it is that they believe that it is, it is going to cross the border. And so they're building facilities knowing that this is not gonna stem the tide, but it may be what they use to try and get rid of it or contain it more once that it, once it's here. So there was a lot of cynicism about this and, and really people gearing up, starting to make the pharmaceutical path, which people are gonna need, you know, what medicines can you give your cattle to prevent them from having their flesh eaten. It's a pretty, pretty nasty virus from the veterinarians I talked to.

Tim Hammerich [00:17:22] Awful. And I, from what I understand, it's not just cattle, I mean it can spread to other animals and livestock as well. So, so yeah, big issue. And it sounds like then what, what you're hearing is that they, they don't foresee a scenario where we just prevent it from ever entering.

Vance Crowe [00:17:38] I don't think so. I I think these guys were like, I mean, I, I don't think they were happy that it was coming, but it was definitely like a, oh yeah, everybody knows that this is, this is already across the border. In fact, one of the things I heard was that the cartels, which actually have a lot of control over the, the Mexico cattle industry are starting to look into pharmaceutical resolutions for their cattle problems. And it just kinda made me chuckle to, to think that his drug cartels are now getting into the animal pharmaceutical world. But we live in a wild world.

Tim Hammerich [00:18:08] We absolutely do. Yeah, I, yeah, I'll just harp on it one more time, which is like, we, we need these investments in, in research and innovation, and I know they don't always pay off right away, but this is one of those places where I think it's a very worthy investment. I just wonder if something like this were already behind the ball and it's gonna be hard to recover.

Vance Crowe [00:18:30] Moving on to our fourth and final story, growers' edge acquires farm test empowering farmers with game changing technology. On July 29th, growers' Edge acquired farm test and automated platform for field trials and a move that may be the most under-reported story from all of this last year. The company founded by Nick Cizik, a former Ag Tribes report guest and leading ag scientists farm test enables precise plot and strip trials using GP Sable equipment, giving farmers data. This type of research could previously only be done by seed and chemical giants, and this is a democratization of information that could change farming as we know it. I, I deeply believe in this technology and in just absolutely shocked that growers edge Got it. The acquisition with joining as vice president of innovation of op innovation operations bolsters growers' Edge crop plan warranty covering 1 million acres. The deal follows their $25 million funding round for Ag Core acquisition, solidifying their FinTech agronomy fusion on X Tech enthusia enthusiast called it game changing. Though mainstream coverage is sparse by democratizing performance data farm test is going to empower growers to optimize inputs and boost their profitability to being able to tell what actually is working on their fields and what's just marketing CEC's leadership ensures innovation aligns with the farmer needs making this potentially the most impactful ag acquisition of the year, if not maybe even the decade.

Vance Crowe [00:20:07] Tim, I believe you had Nick on your podcast. Did you have any idea Grower's Edge was gonna put together a deal and, and acquire this company?

Tim Hammerich [00:20:14] No, no, not at all. It, it doesn't, it doesn't surprise me that a farm test had a market for someone who'd want to acquire it. I all the credit goes to Nick. I mean he, he, from what I can recall, bootstrapped this idea, worked on it himself. I don't even know if he had any employees at the time of the acquisition. He was starting to roll it out commercially. So he may have hired since the last time I spoke to him, but fantastic for Nick. Very, very legit though, because when I had him on my podcast, we also had someone from Iowa State on who was using the technology for nitrogen use efficiency studies to actually understand kind of nitrogen use in, in Iowa. So it's a useful technology credit to Nick for putting it together. The surprise to me though was Growers' Edge, you know, growers' Edge, I knew as a financial products company, not an, an agronomic technology company from reading about the acquisition, you know, they're trying to blend the two. They also acquired agco, which used to be called Aqua Oso, which actually does kind of water data for ag lending in California and, and other western states. These are interesting acquisitions I don't fully see the vision for on the part of Grower's Edge, but I I love that for Nick, he's getting to go to take this technology to a company that has such a national presence.

Vance Crowe [00:21:38] Yeah, I had the chance of getting to know Nick as he was starting this company and like the potential of that technology like is to me it's, it's deeply important. I mean, for so long you'd have to, to have a seed salesman show up on your farm and say, oh, if you put this on there, you're gonna get the, these kind of bushels off it or the, if you spray this chemical, you're gonna get this out of it. And Nick said, why don't we give this technology to farmers? They already have GPS, they already have these precision planters and combines. Why don't we actually give them the ability to know, not just like, oh, did it work on the, on those 40 acres back there, but do strip by strip testing incredible technology and to see it going to a large company that can hopefully use it across millions of acres. It just absolutely, I think it's fantastic.

Tim Hammerich [00:22:26] Yeah, and you really can use it across millions of acres, you know, in this Iowa example is like, we need something that just kind of, the farmer basically turns on for lack of a better term, and it runs in the background and it gives us all the data collection we need. It's like, oh, well that would be nice if it existed. And, and now it does with farm test. And so I think there are a lot of applications for this. I'm very curious to see how Growers Edge chooses to, to use it.

Vance Crowe [00:22:47] Well we will follow up on that as they get a chance. All right, that's gonna do it for our headlines today. If you have headlines that you think I should cover, all of the stories came from listeners this week and I would love to get 'em. So you can send 'em to Vance at Legacy Interviews dot com or you can always tag me at Vance Crowe on, on X. Alright, moving on to the Bitcoin land price report. Bitcoin is down more than 5% from last week at 112,400. But that's okay, that's what Bitcoin does. It goes up and it goes down, but over the long term it goes up. So Tim, what county do you live in and how much does an acre of high quality farm ground cost there?

Tim Hammerich [00:23:28] I live in Ada County, Idaho, and it's not a super straightforward answer. Number one, we're in the west, so water is really what is gonna determine value of farmland. But number two, it's a rapidly growing county. But I did call or text rather my friend Sky Root, who is a farmland manager and very, very plugged in the area. He said just for basic farmland, farmland for farmland, stake stake, farmland for farmland, steak sake, excuse me, without de development potential. He said about $20,000 would be an acre here.

Vance Crowe [00:24:04] Alright,

Tim Hammerich [00:24:05] Way higher than that for development.

Vance Crowe [00:24:06] That is one of the highest per acre values that we've ever had. I mean, you know, we, we think 1918 is a lot in Iowa, Illinois, but 20,000, I mean, I'll take it, I believe it when you have, when you're coming up against developers, that's what's gonna happen. So at 20,000, that means that 0.17 Bitcoin would buy you an acre of ground or in other words, one Bitcoin would buy 5.62 acres in eight county. How does this strike you, Tim?

Tim Hammerich [00:24:38] It makes me wish I would've, you know, been on the Bitcoin train a long time ago.

Vance Crowe [00:24:45] So, you know, you're, you are in tech, you are, you've heard me make the case. Where do you think Bitcoin could be in, let's just say the next three to five years?

Tim Hammerich [00:24:55] Yeah, I gotta think that at some point we'll be talking more about Satoshi's than we will about Bitcoins because the price will seem just so you know, unattainable. But yeah, if, if it starts to

Vance Crowe [00:25:07] Be

Tim Hammerich [00:25:08] Where people want to hold their value and how they want to exchange their life energy, there is just no telling. I I, you definitely have opened my eyes in our recent conversation, not that I didn't know anything about Bitcoin before, but looking at it in a different way of the one kind of finite currency that can exist out there, it's, it's definitely appealing. But I don't know as far as a price could go too. I have no idea. You know, I

Vance Crowe [00:25:37] Have

Tim Hammerich [00:25:37] Started to say,

Vance Crowe [00:25:38] I think that every membership driven organization that is helping farmers, quote unquote, is being almost a Luddite. If they aren't bringing somebody in to do a small tutorial, teach people how do you buy it and how do you move it to a wallet? This is going,

Tim Hammerich [00:25:54] Any

Vance Crowe [00:25:54] Group that does that for their membership is gonna give them an advantage and their members are gonna flourish. And a year from then, five years from there, 10 years from there, those members are gonna be so grateful that they were, they were a part of that group. But it's not happening. I I'm talking to ag groups all over there, very, very few groups that are doing Bitcoin tutorials right now.

Tim Hammerich [00:26:14] Yeah. And I think the mindset shift that I went through when talking to you is going from thinking, okay, this is just one way to speculate on a future to, okay, this is a way to engage with what could potentially be the new economy. And so you either want to engage with that or you don't want to and, and I want to, so,

Vance Crowe [00:26:31] Well I, there's a lot more to say here, but we've got a hard deadline in 30 minutes. So let's move on to the Peter Thiel paradox, which is where I'm gonna ask Tim, what is one thing that you believe that almost nobody you know, agrees with you on?

Tim Hammerich [00:26:44] Yeah, I struggle with this. I thought about it a lot. I realize I have a lot of unpopular opinions, but opinions where I can find kind of little groups here and that, that probably agree with me. One thing that came to mind, I honestly don't know who agrees with me, who doesn't, but I don't hear this talked about very much, is I actually think that organic standards are too low. I think the bar for organic is, is too low. I think if we really wanna make the case that we can farm without chemicals and that there is a market out there for people willing to pay it, I think we need to drastically raise the bar for what is considered organic. And that would include eliminating some of the kind of like fine print of like, oh, but you can use this. Oh, but you can use that. Oh, but you can use this. And also restricting it to only domestic supply that we can actually monitor on some reasonable basis. Then I think number one, organic premiums will go way up. It'll be harder to obtain certification, but it'll also mean something. And I, I don't know, I, I'm not someone who shops at Whole Foods and eats strictly organic food, but I think if we're going to say there is a superior way to farm, then we should have to prove it with really higher standards. And that's probably unpopular with some people. Well, I tell you what, I, I

Vance Crowe [00:27:56] Had never thought of that or hadn't thought of it in, in that way, but I'm totally with you on this. You, you've certainly won me over if I wasn't there to begin with. And there are some really dirty secrets in the ag world. So like you mentioned coming from without of the outside of the country, you know, there are tomato seeds that leave the United States. They go to Mexico and surprise when they come back as tomatoes, they went over as conventional and now they're organic and they're being sold for even more. You couldn't do that in the United States. U US farmers can't do that. So now you're participating in this like greenwashing cleaning and I think a lot of people in the organic world say that the standards got lower when the USDA got involved when it was the USDA set rules up and then they set those rules up that made it so that the people that you know, controlled policy were able to get their products through.

Tim Hammerich [00:28:47] Yeah. And look, I, if there's somebody out there, if farming by hand using no chemicals whatsoever, to me they deserve a higher premium than some, you know, corporate mega form that is able to kind of color within the lines and let's, let's reward that for 'em. On the flip side, I think it will take away some of the wind in the sails of like, oh, if you're just organic, you're, you know, a hundred percent great because it, it actually will have some bite behind the standard.

Vance Crowe [00:29:15] Yeah. All right, well I I, I appreciate that. That's a good one to think about. I'm gonna give you a, a solid 7.5 on that one. Okay.

Tim Hammerich [00:29:22] I'll take it. I'll take it.

Vance Crowe [00:29:24] Moving on to the worthy adversary, Tim, who is one person that you respect but you strongly disagree with?

Tim Hammerich [00:29:33] Yeah, you asked some great questions 'cause I struggle with this one as well. The, the one that came to mind and he's the one who, because on my Twitter feed I always see posts that I'm like, oh, I don't, is that, is that what I, I don't know that I believe that is a guy who goes by aspiring peasant. His name is Dave. We started following each other 'cause we're both huge fans of posterity cider works. Shout out to them the best cider in the world made in Calvers County, California. But we are both kind of advocates for them. And so I started following him, he started following me and I, his first pinned tweet is like a hundred percent I agree with, it's like my politics are grow your own food, be a good neighbor, buy local, read old books, drive less, simplify, slow down, make compost, cultivate earnest empathy, spend as much time with your family as possible, find the others, make friends and support them. And don't be a dick that, that's his pinned tweet. I'm like, okay, a hundred percent on board with all those things. But as he's tweeting about some political issues, I realize like how much my bubble is is very, very limited and he, he's seeing things from a totally different angle. He's also a former Navy Seal seems like a great guy, but with some ideas that I sometimes struggle to, to resonate with fully. So it's, it's good for me the type of people I wanna follow on a, on a platform like X

Vance Crowe [00:30:43] What are some of the types of ideas that you don't resonate with?

Tim Hammerich [00:30:45] Oh, you know, oh gosh. So I would say on the, on the political spectrum, certainly the, some of the localism ideas I think are a little bit idealistic as far as like we're all just gonna grow our own food and live locally and be happy. And that's a bit of a straw man. That's not, that doesn't encompass his point of view exactly. But that would be some places where I think we would probably disagree on the political spectrum. You know, certainly he would lean quite a bit further left, I would think than I, I would, I hate to, I hate to make up somebody's argument for them, but as I see posts, I looked

Vance Crowe [00:31:21] At his post, you're not just, you're being fair. Yeah. Alright. I know that you have a hard stop, so I want to quick throw this out there. If people wanted to learn more about your show or get involved with you, some of your other work, where would they go to do that?

Tim Hammerich [00:31:36] Sure. Best place is just, you know, check out the podcast Future of agriculture, find me on LinkedIn or on X or on X, Tim Hammerich. And yeah, would love to connect if you're looking to kind of engage with more sort of independent ag media and Vance, while we're on that topic, I love what you're doing here. We need more media like this. And so I hope you continue doing this.

Vance Crowe [00:31:57] Well, this is absolutely the truth. When I did your podcast, I heard from very serious people from all throughout agriculture and I was like, man, Tim commands a a really strong audience. So I was honored to be on your show and I'm glad you were willing to come on mine.

Tim Hammerich [00:32:12] Absolutely. It was fun.

Vance Crowe [00:32:13] Have a good day, man. Alright, well we had a wonderful show. I am going to wrap up. I actually have a new video to show you. Many of you know that when I'm not doing Legacy Interviews, I'm engaging, I go get, give speeches about communication, about resolving problems that you can't see.

Tim Hammerich [00:32:33] And right now

Vance Crowe [00:32:33] There are a lot of conferences that are coming up. You know, you're, if you're on a, a planning committee, if you're on a board, if you're a member of an organization, then I would really appreciate it if you found that some of the things I talk about would be worthwhile to your organization to have me come talk about 'em. I'd love to do that. So I'm gonna show a video on the closeout of this. Also, Legacy Interviews. These are really speeding up. We are gonna have a very, very busy August and September into October. And then, you know, as the holidays get started, we'll be doing more selling than recording interviews. But if you have been thinking about it, let me highly recommend get on the list. Now we are really getting busy. The other day we had a couple of phone calls and people were like, you really have that long of a wait list. Like, is there any way I can get in sooner? And I, I hate talking to people like that because, you know, we wanna get those. We don't wanna make you feel the pressure of like, you know, you want it but you haven't gotten it yet. So definitely if you are interested in having us do your legacy interview, go to Legacy Interviews dot com to find out more. All right, I'm gonna show you this video of a topic that I speak on called The Man on the Box. And then we'll see you next week. And as always, feel free to disagree. I was in the Peace Corps teaching Kenyon Villagers how to prevent malaria when one day I was out competed by a snake oil salesman who stood on a box in the town square and told a better story. I was devastated and spent the next 10 years learning why people listen to him instead of me in this talk, I share what I've found.

Vance Crowe [00:34:10] I'll teach you how to tell your story, how to introduce yourself, how to talk about your organization, and what you have to offer in ways that make people want to listen. So we will never again lose to the man on the box.