Buying food directly from the farmer; Matt Stubblefield talks about locally grown food.

About this episode

Vance interviews Matt Stubblefield of Brush Creek Farms, a Missouri direct-to-consumer meat producer who personally delivered boxes of beef, pork, and chicken to Vance's family when grocery store shelves went bare early in the pandemic. Matt walks through the full production chain — cow-to-calf, pasture-raised, custom butcher, direct delivery — and explains why he broke away from the commodity/packing-house system years earlier: price certainty, less dependence on grain and equipment, and the ability to build a subscription "meat box" model. Vance, drawing on his own Monsanto background in industrial-scale agriculture, frames the conversation around a philosophical pivot: what he once dismissed as a "cute" Joel Salatin-style boutique operation has become, almost overnight, one of the most important food-security models in the country. They discuss the risk of packing-plant closures cascading through the centralized meat supply, a coming boom in interest in small-scale butchery and home farming, and Matt's own precautions (informal quarantine while farming, careful delivery protocols) as an essential worker. The episode closes with genuine gratitude — Vance recalls the emotional weight of watching Matt's truck drive away after a delivery during grocery-store scarcity.

“It's amazing that having like pigs on pasture, when they get a variety diet sunshine, fresh air, how much of a difference that tastes with the meat. Like it changes the taste, the taste and the texture altogether.”

“You need that connection. You need to know where your food comes from. You need to know it was a living, breathing thing. You know, you don't need to take, take that for granted.”

“Absolutely. Absolutely. Losing money and start selling off, they'll flood the market and when they flood the market, they'll keep the price. So what I, what I think would happen if something like that did happen in a couple years, the price would go back up and it'll level itself off.”

Key moments

• Origin story — Vance couldn't find meat at the grocery store, got a tip from a friend, ordered from Brush Creek that night, boxes arrived within days.
• Matt explains the full cattle-to-table pipeline: birth, weaning, pasture, grain finishing, custom butcher.
• Vance's confession — he dismissed the pasture-raised, Joel Salatin-style model as "cute" during his Monsanto years, now sees it as critical infrastructure.
• Matt's original reasons for going local: price certainty, lower equipment/land strain, direct customer relationships.
• The subscription "meat box" model discussed as a form of personal futures trading against supply disruption.
• Discussion of packing-plant closures and centralized supply-chain fragility as coronavirus disrupts the meat industry.
• Prediction that demand for skilled butchers and small local processors will surge post-pandemic.
• Vance and Matt discuss the disconnect most consumers have from where their food/meat actually comes from, and why direct exposure to slaughter builds appreciation.
• Vance's emotional closing reflection on receiving the delivery and watching the truck drive away.

Notable quotes

“My brother was doing the Joel Salatin method and I remember thinking, oh that's cute, right?... Fast forward to 2020 and it's probably one of the most important things in the world.”

“I think you're gonna see a lot more of these big packing plants close and you're gonna see a lot more small butcher shops, open up local farmers, things like that.”

“If you've never killed a chicken or you've never killed a goat, you don't really know how vital and important a butcher is.”

“I felt a sense of gratitude and Thanksgiving like I'd never felt before.”