1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:04,880
Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Sophia Bush here. Welcome to Work in Progress,

2
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:08,240
Speaker 1: where I talked to people who inspire me about how

3
00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,160
Speaker 1: they got to where they are and where they think

4
00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:23,799
Speaker 1: they're still going. I am so excited to share a

5
00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,040
Speaker 1: very special bonus episode with you guys today with someone

6
00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:30,840
Speaker 1: who is quite literally changing the landscape of food in

7
00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:36,440
Speaker 1: this country, the incredibly inspiring Mr Jonathan Webb. Jonathan is

8
00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:39,800
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of app Harvest,

9
00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:42,519
Speaker 1: a company that is helping to turn his dream of

10
00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:47,159
Speaker 1: a high tech farming hub in Appalachia into reality. Before

11
00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,040
Speaker 1: founding app Harvest, Jonathan worked with the U. S Department

12
00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:53,440
Speaker 1: of Defense on one of the largest solar projects in

13
00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:58,560
Speaker 1: the southeastern United States before returning to Kentucky in where

14
00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,800
Speaker 1: he continues to work high earlessly to make the eastern

15
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,600
Speaker 1: part of the state the ag tech capital of America.

16
00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,400
Speaker 1: With that Harvest, Jonathan is building some of the largest

17
00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,880
Speaker 1: indoor farms in the world, combining conventional agricultural techniques with

18
00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:17,319
Speaker 1: today's technology to grow non GMO chemical free produce to

19
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,039
Speaker 1: be sold to the top twenty five U S grocers.

20
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,520
Speaker 1: And he happens to be doing this in the place

21
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,760
Speaker 1: he grew up and loves deeply. Jonathan strives to work

22
00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,319
Speaker 1: alongside the hardest working men and women of eastern Kentucky

23
00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:36,080
Speaker 1: and build a resilient economy for the future. In my

24
00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:39,840
Speaker 1: conversation with Jonathan, we discussed his childhood, growing up in Kentucky,

25
00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,360
Speaker 1: his time with the Department of Defense, and the work

26
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,240
Speaker 1: he's done in the energy world, the Netherlands and its

27
00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:49,480
Speaker 1: high tech greenhouses, what we can learn from them, innovating

28
00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,320
Speaker 1: the way we source energy, how to better bring people

29
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:56,920
Speaker 1: together and improve the agricultural future of our country and

30
00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:01,720
Speaker 1: our world. Plus will dig into Jonathan's company at harvest

31
00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:09,679
Speaker 1: and as usual, so much more. Enjoy Jonathan, thanks so

32
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:11,440
Speaker 1: much for joining me today. I'm so excited to have

33
00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,680
Speaker 1: you on the podcast. Thank you, Sophia. I really appreciate it.

34
00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:19,799
Speaker 1: Thanks for facilitating conversations like this and appreciate you. Oh

35
00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:21,960
Speaker 1: my god, I'm thrilled and I can't wait for the

36
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,519
Speaker 1: listeners to hear about what you're doing and how you're

37
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:30,840
Speaker 1: changing quite literally the landscape of food in this country. UM,

38
00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:33,360
Speaker 1: I want to just tell them all. You know. You

39
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:37,640
Speaker 1: and I got introduced via email about activism around food

40
00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:43,760
Speaker 1: and climate and support for Appalachia, and then we actually

41
00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,400
Speaker 1: met face to face in Detroit, UM, which is another

42
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,920
Speaker 1: you know, incredible city and region really of America that

43
00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:56,040
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about. And um, yeah, I just kind of

44
00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,560
Speaker 1: I kind of knew from that conversation we had that

45
00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:03,040
Speaker 1: day that I want it the public at large, you know,

46
00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,320
Speaker 1: the listeners of this podcast to be able to hear

47
00:03:06,320 --> 00:03:09,840
Speaker 1: about what you're doing. And it's really interesting as we

48
00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,280
Speaker 1: as we get ready to have a conversation about you know,

49
00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:18,200
Speaker 1: changing systems and and really prioritizing the health of the

50
00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:21,720
Speaker 1: nation through food. We're doing this in in the midst

51
00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,000
Speaker 1: of the first global pandemic in a hundred years, which

52
00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:30,119
Speaker 1: it's just so surreal. Does does what's happening with COVID

53
00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:37,200
Speaker 1: make you hopeful that we will take the need to

54
00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:42,560
Speaker 1: create better systems more seriously? Or or are you feeling

55
00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:44,480
Speaker 1: a bit despondent right now? Or maybe a little bit

56
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,320
Speaker 1: of both. So generally speaking, UM, I am I am

57
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:53,520
Speaker 1: an eternal optimist, So I do, I do do tend

58
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:57,120
Speaker 1: to believe that that, you know, humanity and the planet

59
00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,400
Speaker 1: as a whole has as its best days of us.

60
00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:05,520
Speaker 1: But we're certainly facing challenging times and you know, look

61
00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:09,080
Speaker 1: at health, look at energy, food, all of which are

62
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,880
Speaker 1: becoming more and more complex as as humans have now

63
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:16,160
Speaker 1: gotten to what's seventh plus billion on the planet, and

64
00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,039
Speaker 1: we're supposed to get to nine billion and and to

65
00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,640
Speaker 1: be able to support that many people and and have

66
00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:26,400
Speaker 1: adequate health and adequate energy and adequate food systems. It's

67
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,640
Speaker 1: it's going to be complex. But you know the good thing,

68
00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:33,520
Speaker 1: you know, human innovation has has found a way before

69
00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:36,440
Speaker 1: and as long as we align and and we align

70
00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,040
Speaker 1: on our goals for for people and playing at first,

71
00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,680
Speaker 1: I'm very optimistic that that, you know, we can use

72
00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:45,360
Speaker 1: innovation and technology to to continue to better the way

73
00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:47,960
Speaker 1: in which we're building stuff to keep all this going.

74
00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 1: Did did your passion for agriculture not to use a meta?

75
00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,440
Speaker 1: I realized I just about used a farming metaphor. I

76
00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:01,600
Speaker 1: was going to say, do you think the seed was planted? Um?

77
00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:04,360
Speaker 1: And you know during during your childhood because you were

78
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:08,440
Speaker 1: born and raised in Kentucky, so were you were you

79
00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,640
Speaker 1: in a rural area? Were you in an agricultural zone? No,

80
00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,880
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's a lot of open land and

81
00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:18,640
Speaker 1: Kentucky and even getting out and just just being out

82
00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,520
Speaker 1: but but I grew up as a as a very

83
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,039
Speaker 1: you know what somewhat you know normal, I don't know

84
00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,560
Speaker 1: what you know, normal is relative, but the normal upbringing

85
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,480
Speaker 1: across what I would say, you know, kind of Middle America.

86
00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,600
Speaker 1: My parents both have high school degrees, you know, come

87
00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,560
Speaker 1: from a very humble background of sorts, and um, you know,

88
00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,320
Speaker 1: we didn't talk about about a lot of this. My

89
00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,680
Speaker 1: my father and mother were just looking at how do

90
00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:46,719
Speaker 1: they get by that week? And looking back on and

91
00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:49,360
Speaker 1: now reflecting on it, you know, the challenges they went

92
00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:52,280
Speaker 1: through to just put food on the table that was enough,

93
00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:55,360
Speaker 1: not where is that coming from? And how how are

94
00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:57,400
Speaker 1: we getting it to the table. You know. So I've

95
00:05:57,400 --> 00:05:59,800
Speaker 1: been very fortunate and privileged to be able to, you know,

96
00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:02,919
Speaker 1: to take a step back. But I definitely think my

97
00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:08,080
Speaker 1: roots one being in Kentucky, where coal was very dominant,

98
00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,960
Speaker 1: so one of the largest CULTUS states in the US,

99
00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,080
Speaker 1: a region that's been known to power the US. And

100
00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:20,120
Speaker 1: then now moving back to Kentucky and hopefully helping transform

101
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:24,320
Speaker 1: Central Appalachia into a region that's known for feeding the US.

102
00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,520
Speaker 1: But but definitely my upbringing here is has been able

103
00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:30,400
Speaker 1: to ground me in sorts while I've kind of gone

104
00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:32,880
Speaker 1: out to New York and gone to DC and pursued

105
00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:35,800
Speaker 1: other work, uh and now being able to come back here.

106
00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,840
Speaker 1: So place is very important to me. And I know

107
00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:41,320
Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about police based investment, but

108
00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:46,240
Speaker 1: you know, I think tracking back to the source of

109
00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 1: where we're doing stuff and looking people in the eye

110
00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:52,279
Speaker 1: and and knowing who's all involved. You know, as as

111
00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:55,600
Speaker 1: we continue to transform, it's you know, place based investments

112
00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:59,960
Speaker 1: can continue to play a critical part of rebuilding since

113
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,239
Speaker 1: some so that that we know the communities were building,

114
00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:04,800
Speaker 1: and so building here is is incredibly important to me.

115
00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,799
Speaker 1: Growing up here has been fundamental and and shaping certainly

116
00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:12,640
Speaker 1: the way I think. Well before we move into the

117
00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,720
Speaker 1: work that you're referencing, I do love to hear about

118
00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:19,920
Speaker 1: how people grew up. I think so often about you know,

119
00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:22,320
Speaker 1: the impressive folks I get to sit across from and

120
00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,560
Speaker 1: an interview about their current work in the world, and

121
00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:28,360
Speaker 1: and I wonder how it all started. So, you know,

122
00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,120
Speaker 1: you you mentioned a little bit of your upbringing and

123
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:35,200
Speaker 1: a little bit about your parents, who who were you

124
00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:39,000
Speaker 1: as a kid. You know, what was Jonathan into at

125
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,840
Speaker 1: eight or ten years old? What what was life for

126
00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,120
Speaker 1: you then, yeah, again, I I was like any other

127
00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:49,720
Speaker 1: kid that they grew up and and they had good

128
00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,840
Speaker 1: friends and family around me. And and didn't you know,

129
00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:56,640
Speaker 1: I didn't know too much about the environment or playing

130
00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,119
Speaker 1: it as a whole, but I knew I enjoyed playing

131
00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:02,240
Speaker 1: in a cree or a stream, or you know, enjoyed,

132
00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,440
Speaker 1: you know, playing playing with my friends in the field.

133
00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:08,960
Speaker 1: And it didn't think much about it until a little

134
00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,880
Speaker 1: bit later. And and I went to public schools growing up,

135
00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:15,600
Speaker 1: went to a public university, the University of Kentucky. But

136
00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:18,400
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I decided to move to New York

137
00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,320
Speaker 1: and pursued a career in in the wind and solar industry.

138
00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:25,880
Speaker 1: Um and and there there were many steps that kind

139
00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:28,720
Speaker 1: of got to that point, but uh, you know, really

140
00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:31,880
Speaker 1: then started to unravel all the stuff that goes on

141
00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:35,320
Speaker 1: in order to to make sure that there is you know,

142
00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:37,920
Speaker 1: power that that turns on your lights or or food

143
00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:40,400
Speaker 1: how does the food get to your table? So for me,

144
00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:44,800
Speaker 1: I had in a very humble background and childhood that

145
00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,080
Speaker 1: that's been able to ground me in sorts. But you know,

146
00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: this stage, it's more about how do we ensure that

147
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,240
Speaker 1: those net you know, the kids that are coming up

148
00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,839
Speaker 1: now can enjoy, you know, these these same experiences and

149
00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:00,480
Speaker 1: that we have clean streams and that we have beautiful

150
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:04,640
Speaker 1: mountaintops and that we have the rolling fields. That's that's

151
00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:06,800
Speaker 1: not a given right now, and it's I think it's

152
00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:09,760
Speaker 1: very jarring to think about. But you know, we we

153
00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:12,760
Speaker 1: look at COVID and and see what's what's happening that,

154
00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,920
Speaker 1: you know, we we just feel like all this is

155
00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:19,319
Speaker 1: is it's a certain thing, like humanity is going to

156
00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,560
Speaker 1: continue because that's just what happens. It's none of it

157
00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,240
Speaker 1: is certain. We have to will it into existence. And

158
00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,400
Speaker 1: if we don't willfully change, you know, many of the

159
00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:31,080
Speaker 1: systems that are in place that are that are providing

160
00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:34,400
Speaker 1: our food or power, water, and and and so on

161
00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,320
Speaker 1: and so forth. You know that it's not a given

162
00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:39,520
Speaker 1: that you know, the next generation is going to have

163
00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:41,679
Speaker 1: it better than the last generation. And if you think

164
00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:44,920
Speaker 1: of the American dream, right that's that's it. Like you know,

165
00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,880
Speaker 1: every every mother and father just just wants to be

166
00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:50,400
Speaker 1: able to do enough to make sure that their son

167
00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:52,839
Speaker 1: or daughter has it better than mayhet it. And and

168
00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:55,040
Speaker 1: we're getting the tipping points that that are gonna be

169
00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,160
Speaker 1: hard to turn back and if we don't move aggressively, Uh,

170
00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:00,400
Speaker 1: it's gonna be challenging. But I am of call. I mean,

171
00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:03,599
Speaker 1: you look at the private sector, you look at advocacy,

172
00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:06,640
Speaker 1: you're looking at investors, you know, you you look at

173
00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:09,400
Speaker 1: the consumer, and they're voting with their dollar. You know,

174
00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,920
Speaker 1: the next ten or twenty years are critical. But but

175
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:16,080
Speaker 1: it's certainly you know, a hopeful time that that we

176
00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:19,440
Speaker 1: can you know, start to to make a drastic shift

177
00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:21,880
Speaker 1: and hopefully, you know, if there's a silver lining out

178
00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,720
Speaker 1: of COVID, it's the somehow a guy that galvanizes us

179
00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:27,920
Speaker 1: together and we can you know, for me, even being

180
00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:30,680
Speaker 1: in Kentucky, you know, what happens in the capital of

181
00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:35,200
Speaker 1: China affects Southeast Kentucky in two months. Now. If that

182
00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,160
Speaker 1: doesn't wait, people under up to understand that there's one

183
00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 1: humanity and that there's one planet and we're all missed together.

184
00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:43,600
Speaker 1: I really have no idea what will, but but I

185
00:10:43,640 --> 00:10:46,440
Speaker 1: am hopeful that it does wake people off and then

186
00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,000
Speaker 1: and then we see it now that it doesn't matter.

187
00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:52,440
Speaker 1: We can't separate ourselves by borders or oceans or whatever

188
00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,760
Speaker 1: it is. We're so interconnected. We have to solve these

189
00:10:55,800 --> 00:10:59,240
Speaker 1: problems together and then and then hopefully coming out of COVID,

190
00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:03,480
Speaker 1: there's some of that galvanizing spirit that carries on. Yeah,

191
00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:05,400
Speaker 1: I I so agree with you, and I find that

192
00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:08,640
Speaker 1: to be such an inspiring perspective, and I think it's

193
00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:12,200
Speaker 1: important to hit on the truth that we need to

194
00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:16,319
Speaker 1: understand that we have we as humanity. We have engineered

195
00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:20,640
Speaker 1: a global planet. We've chosen this, we've increased travel, We've

196
00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:23,959
Speaker 1: we've become so enamored by so many aspects of each

197
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:27,520
Speaker 1: other's cultures. And yet you also see the politicizing of

198
00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,120
Speaker 1: culture and place in such a strange way. And what

199
00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:33,959
Speaker 1: I wish we could hold is that two things can

200
00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:39,240
Speaker 1: be true. We can set global priorities for humanity and

201
00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:43,320
Speaker 1: we can care about our local community. And and that

202
00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,679
Speaker 1: feels really clear to me in places like you're referencing

203
00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:49,600
Speaker 1: when we talk about Kentucky, when we talk about Appalachia,

204
00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:53,560
Speaker 1: because whether anywhere you look, you can see the history

205
00:11:53,559 --> 00:11:56,920
Speaker 1: of a region. And you know, you mentioned that that

206
00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:01,360
Speaker 1: your area of Kentucky is is or has been a

207
00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:07,360
Speaker 1: huge coal producing resource for America. You know, we we

208
00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:11,120
Speaker 1: powered America on coal for a very long time, and

209
00:12:11,200 --> 00:12:14,520
Speaker 1: yet we do to your point have to understand that

210
00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:17,679
Speaker 1: as we evolve, as science evolves, we have to engineer

211
00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:22,440
Speaker 1: better systems. And when I think about generations, you know,

212
00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:27,160
Speaker 1: I know your granddad was a coal miner. I I

213
00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:32,920
Speaker 1: know that there's been devastating impacts of mass job loss

214
00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:37,680
Speaker 1: across the region. You know, at least to today, eleven

215
00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:40,560
Speaker 1: coal companies have filed for bankruptcy just since Trump was

216
00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:46,160
Speaker 1: elected president. And and the job losses are meaningful to

217
00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,440
Speaker 1: people in these areas that have been employed in these companies.

218
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:53,680
Speaker 1: And so when I start thinking about innovation, when I

219
00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:56,680
Speaker 1: start thinking about how we've got to do better to

220
00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,440
Speaker 1: support seven and a half and eventually nine billion people,

221
00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:03,360
Speaker 1: I think about regions like like the one that you

222
00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:06,439
Speaker 1: grew up in. And I remember in the last election

223
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:09,559
Speaker 1: cycle just thinking, you know, why aren't these big solar

224
00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:13,840
Speaker 1: companies marching into Kentucky and saying, we're gonna build new

225
00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:17,160
Speaker 1: solar plants here. We're going to give you better jobs,

226
00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:22,320
Speaker 1: with better wages, cleaner working environments, less health hazards, you know,

227
00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:26,200
Speaker 1: great benefits. We we've we've got to we've got to

228
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:29,199
Speaker 1: think about all these people in all these places as

229
00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:35,199
Speaker 1: we think about innovation and change and and I suppose

230
00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:37,640
Speaker 1: I just say all of that really to offer that

231
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:41,439
Speaker 1: it's something that you know, being from California and knowing

232
00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,600
Speaker 1: how the environment has been important to me uh much

233
00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:46,520
Speaker 1: in the way it was to you playing outside for

234
00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,400
Speaker 1: my whole childhood. I I too think about what I

235
00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:52,480
Speaker 1: wanted to look like for my eventual kids and their

236
00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:58,240
Speaker 1: eventual kids, and and I wonder seeing those impacts in

237
00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:01,520
Speaker 1: your community, do you now trace back? Because it's easy

238
00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:04,520
Speaker 1: for us right to have conversations in the present and say,

239
00:14:04,559 --> 00:14:06,200
Speaker 1: this is what we'd like to see differently, and this

240
00:14:06,240 --> 00:14:08,560
Speaker 1: is how we'd love to invest in people and support

241
00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:12,079
Speaker 1: economic development in in hard hit you know, regions of

242
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:14,600
Speaker 1: the country, and then think about the global impact and

243
00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:17,280
Speaker 1: all of it. And we have to. But do you

244
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:22,080
Speaker 1: think that that came from your seeing the region change

245
00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:24,840
Speaker 1: throughout your life? Do do you think that's why you

246
00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:27,840
Speaker 1: took the path that you did in college while you

247
00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,440
Speaker 1: went to Washington. Do you think that those things are

248
00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:35,080
Speaker 1: all tied together? Yeah? And one absolutely so a couple

249
00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:37,720
Speaker 1: of things on that for me, and that's where you know,

250
00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:42,920
Speaker 1: we we so what we're pursuing. I think the very

251
00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:45,840
Speaker 1: exciting thing about what we're doing is as I do.

252
00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:48,640
Speaker 1: Look at my background and I try to tell anybody

253
00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:53,360
Speaker 1: and everybody I meet around here, just one individual, that

254
00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:56,760
Speaker 1: it comes from a background that's somewhat similar, maybe very

255
00:14:56,800 --> 00:15:02,440
Speaker 1: similar to many other people around here. And it's somehow leaderships,

256
00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,960
Speaker 1: you know, responsibility at either universities or political or whatever

257
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:11,640
Speaker 1: it is to inspire and galvanize youth. Right, so you know,

258
00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:14,360
Speaker 1: for me, what we're doing, it's it's the largest all

259
00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:19,400
Speaker 1: cash investment ever made in the eastern Kentucky. We're we're

260
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:23,320
Speaker 1: building in the poorest congressional district of the US. And

261
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,480
Speaker 1: you know, yes, this has been a long process, but

262
00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:29,240
Speaker 1: I'm just one individual, and frankly, at this point, I could,

263
00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,200
Speaker 1: God willing, I'm here until I'm a hundred, but you know,

264
00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,240
Speaker 1: I could somehow pass at some point, and this thing

265
00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,600
Speaker 1: is going to carry on one way the other. We

266
00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:42,480
Speaker 1: were moving those momentum, But how do we galvanize you know, youth,

267
00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:44,960
Speaker 1: I don't know. But but what I do know is

268
00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,800
Speaker 1: the best and brightest from Kentucky don't stay here to

269
00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:52,280
Speaker 1: rebuild our region. They moved to Boston, moved they moved

270
00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:54,920
Speaker 1: to l A. They moved to San Francisco. That is

271
00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:57,440
Speaker 1: a problem, and we got we have got to get

272
00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,440
Speaker 1: our best and brightest to not just sit in San

273
00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:03,000
Speaker 1: Francisco and build an app, to figure out how we

274
00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:06,880
Speaker 1: can get tennis shoes faster, and figure out how they

275
00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,000
Speaker 1: go back to their communities and rebuild their communities and

276
00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:14,120
Speaker 1: reimagine what's possible. But yes, for me, it was you know,

277
00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:18,000
Speaker 1: moving back to Kentucky happened. There was about a tent there.

278
00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:20,440
Speaker 1: I lived out of the state for ten years and

279
00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:25,560
Speaker 1: uh got out of undergraduate. I wanted to build energy projects.

280
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:27,120
Speaker 1: Well at the time, you're not going to build a

281
00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:29,560
Speaker 1: coal plant, You're not going to build natural gas. You know.

282
00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 1: That was it was merging but not there. So what

283
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,600
Speaker 1: was happening a lot women solar. So what for me,

284
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:39,080
Speaker 1: the sustainability piece really came over time, But it was

285
00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:41,320
Speaker 1: just a sheer fact that I wanted to build stuff.

286
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:43,720
Speaker 1: And at that time what you built was wind and solar.

287
00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:46,360
Speaker 1: So it was a part of building large scale solar

288
00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:48,880
Speaker 1: some of the largest in the US. And what I

289
00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,160
Speaker 1: saw happen over that ten year time frame of friends, family,

290
00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:56,720
Speaker 1: you know, even just seeing local news and what was happening.

291
00:16:57,240 --> 00:16:58,680
Speaker 1: I go back and I think it's one of the

292
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,600
Speaker 1: darkest stains in America history. I think we'll look back

293
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,920
Speaker 1: at how we shut down the minds and whether it's

294
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:08,359
Speaker 1: the left or the right, you know, the progressive or

295
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:12,480
Speaker 1: the conservative side, it's irrelevant. What we all benefited from

296
00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:16,240
Speaker 1: was low cost electricity that carried us to be the

297
00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:20,560
Speaker 1: economic powerhouse of the world. That that cost electricity came

298
00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,959
Speaker 1: from coal. We shut down the minds. Forget the minds,

299
00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:28,000
Speaker 1: it's the people who powered those minds. Coal is just

300
00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:30,800
Speaker 1: it's a piece of material in the earth. But the

301
00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:33,520
Speaker 1: people that actually powered this country with the people of

302
00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,120
Speaker 1: since Ropalachia and the lack of leadership to think through

303
00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,080
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do when we actually shut all

304
00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:43,080
Speaker 1: these these minds down, when we shut these companies down.

305
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,640
Speaker 1: And I still sit here and continue to be just

306
00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,639
Speaker 1: shocked at the lack of coordination on what's next. I

307
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:54,760
Speaker 1: go back to, you know, I think I'm very biased,

308
00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:56,680
Speaker 1: but I think it's the hardest working men and women

309
00:17:56,680 --> 00:17:58,879
Speaker 1: in the country, the people of that region that have

310
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,560
Speaker 1: powered our country. Uh. And so you know, big picture,

311
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:05,879
Speaker 1: I don't know where all this goes, but but I

312
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:10,480
Speaker 1: definitely feel again very optimistic that there's an opportunity to

313
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:13,440
Speaker 1: to continue to reshape and not make it about war.

314
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:15,040
Speaker 1: I mean we all say, I mean, what what what

315
00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:17,600
Speaker 1: does war win? I mean, it doesn't win anything, so

316
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:19,480
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's a war on coal or a

317
00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:22,760
Speaker 1: war you know overseas, it doesn't. But can we sit

318
00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:25,800
Speaker 1: at tables and find common ground. We don't need to

319
00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,399
Speaker 1: all agree on everything, but we can find what we

320
00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:31,159
Speaker 1: do agree on and then figure out a path forward.

321
00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:35,480
Speaker 1: And it's so frustrating that no one came into Central Appalachian.

322
00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,760
Speaker 1: No one sat down with communities, No one sat down

323
00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: with community leaders and said, Okay, we're gonna transition, and

324
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:44,600
Speaker 1: you might not agree with that transition, but we're gonna

325
00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:47,600
Speaker 1: try to transition. Now, what can we agree on? Now,

326
00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:49,960
Speaker 1: everybody would have been on board, but there would have

327
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:51,359
Speaker 1: been a lot And I think if you look at

328
00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:54,040
Speaker 1: the support we got with our company, people were like,

329
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:56,480
Speaker 1: you're gonna get run out of town, you're gonna get No,

330
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:01,240
Speaker 1: we didn't everybody, everywhere, anyone We came upon that. The

331
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,240
Speaker 1: whole reason we're able to do what we're doing is

332
00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,480
Speaker 1: not just because of me, by any stretch of the imagination.

333
00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,080
Speaker 1: It's because communities rallied around what we were doing, and

334
00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:12,360
Speaker 1: they simply showed up and said, how do we get

335
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,439
Speaker 1: this done? Uh? And and that to me, you know,

336
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:17,920
Speaker 1: if we look at you know, the possibilities that are

337
00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:20,160
Speaker 1: still ahead of us here even in our own country.

338
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,040
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't have to go fly around the

339
00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:24,879
Speaker 1: world to find extreme poverty. And I had when I

340
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:28,119
Speaker 1: moved back to Kentucky, in in in the Pikeville area,

341
00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:30,160
Speaker 1: I had one in three of my neighbors were making

342
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:32,760
Speaker 1: less than ten thousand dollars a year. I mean, that's

343
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:35,560
Speaker 1: not the best that you know, me and you and

344
00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,440
Speaker 1: everybody else should call this great. You know, this great

345
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,560
Speaker 1: American dream, it just doesn't exist. And I know you're

346
00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:43,520
Speaker 1: work in Detroit and there's a big similarity there where

347
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:45,760
Speaker 1: you had the decline of the auto industry and in

348
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,320
Speaker 1: Detroit and there's a bit of a renaissance now. And

349
00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:51,000
Speaker 1: we've seen the decline of the coal industry and simple

350
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:54,000
Speaker 1: Sentra apple Latchia. But I'm hopeful. But we got to

351
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:55,800
Speaker 1: figure out how to get our best and brightest to

352
00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,080
Speaker 1: dig in, you know, move back to the middle part

353
00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:01,840
Speaker 1: of the country and rebuild our communities collectively for for

354
00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:04,840
Speaker 1: the future. Because if we don't, then then we've got

355
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:07,880
Speaker 1: what we've got, and that's you know, a very hard

356
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,520
Speaker 1: road ahead of us. And it can't be ten people

357
00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:13,040
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out. It needs to be you know,

358
00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:17,199
Speaker 1: a slew slup of folks that that have left, you know,

359
00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:20,000
Speaker 1: for just a few big cities to come back and

360
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:27,760
Speaker 1: try to rebuild the middle part of the US. Were

361
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:31,439
Speaker 1: you seeing changes like the ones that you're talking about

362
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:34,520
Speaker 1: even as a kid, were you conscious of of the

363
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 1: way that the region around you was changing? No, not

364
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:43,720
Speaker 1: really is a kid? It was again I think I

365
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:46,800
Speaker 1: personally now kind of is going through all this. And

366
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,800
Speaker 1: I had, you know, I had a meeting with the

367
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:52,680
Speaker 1: you know, the last president. I've had you know, many

368
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,439
Speaker 1: meetings at this White House, so high ranking officials on

369
00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:00,439
Speaker 1: both sides. I continue to scratch my head. You know,

370
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,640
Speaker 1: Steve Kay's the founder Avail well as our first investor.

371
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:05,639
Speaker 1: I continue to scratch my head and I'm trying to

372
00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:07,880
Speaker 1: figure out, like, why why am I even in the room?

373
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:10,560
Speaker 1: What's the battle? And I think the value I've been

374
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,120
Speaker 1: able to bring to the table, It's just a very

375
00:21:13,200 --> 00:21:15,640
Speaker 1: simple way to look at it. In my my background

376
00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 1: is no different than anybody else that might have grown

377
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:20,840
Speaker 1: up in any surrounding area in this region, which is

378
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:27,720
Speaker 1: you know that somehow transition through early twenties into you know,

379
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,160
Speaker 1: seeing the macro world. But I think we all get

380
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 1: lost and you know, get lost in these echo chambers

381
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,640
Speaker 1: and get lost in and you know that we were

382
00:21:36,640 --> 00:21:39,399
Speaker 1: talking earlier before you turned the recording on, you know,

383
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:42,040
Speaker 1: about the science and the Walkee s that like, we've

384
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,120
Speaker 1: got to find a way to just make it resonant

385
00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,080
Speaker 1: connect and I think fortunately we're doing. We found ways

386
00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:52,679
Speaker 1: to simply message and make it resonant um. And so no,

387
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:56,399
Speaker 1: I didn't really have these eye opening experiences when I

388
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:59,000
Speaker 1: was younger. I just had a very normal childhood. But

389
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,679
Speaker 1: when the eye open experiences came later, it's then, you know,

390
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:06,000
Speaker 1: how do you connect that back to everyone else who

391
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:09,160
Speaker 1: you know, who sees the world in which I did? Um?

392
00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:11,440
Speaker 1: And I think you know that has been our value

393
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,399
Speaker 1: that that we've been able to just you know, find

394
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: you know, common ground where we can find it and

395
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 1: try to build on these building box. I mean, we're

396
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 1: building what is effectively the largest sustainable project and the

397
00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,159
Speaker 1: hearticle country ever built. And this is part of what

398
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,600
Speaker 1: makes me excited because to your point, if we could

399
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,840
Speaker 1: toss the assumption of difference out the window. If we

400
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,000
Speaker 1: could agree on a couple of things like I always

401
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:38,760
Speaker 1: the joke, I always tell us a look, two plus

402
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: two is always going to equal four. If we looked

403
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:44,679
Speaker 1: at science, if we looked at the fact that, to

404
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:50,920
Speaker 1: your earlier point, clean air, clean water, clean land should

405
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:55,439
Speaker 1: never be partisan, we could we could really get somewhere,

406
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,640
Speaker 1: and we could realize that you know, in the way

407
00:22:57,640 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: that you and I have shared, I grew up in

408
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 1: southern California. You grew up in Kentucky, but we have

409
00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,440
Speaker 1: a lot of the same experiences with nature in our backgrounds.

410
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,520
Speaker 1: People who are told that they're different from other people

411
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:12,280
Speaker 1: really aren't. You know, the specific circumstance might look a

412
00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:14,800
Speaker 1: little bit different, but there are these universal truths we

413
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:18,120
Speaker 1: all tap into. And that's what makes me excited about

414
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 1: the work that you're doing, is that we're getting back

415
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: to the reality of, hey, how do we take care

416
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 1: of each other? This is important everywhere? And yes, we've

417
00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:34,159
Speaker 1: got a design reinvestment in certain regions in ways that

418
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:38,920
Speaker 1: helps them, that make sure there's not a brain drain happening,

419
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,960
Speaker 1: that make sure that people can hold onto their communities

420
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,600
Speaker 1: for generations to come. And and I love that your

421
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,800
Speaker 1: work eventually took you home, even when it takes you

422
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,639
Speaker 1: all over the world, because it's certainly the way that

423
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 1: my work has taken me everywhere that has made me

424
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:05,040
Speaker 1: realize we're all mostly the same. And and I love

425
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 1: that those are the truths that we can then bring

426
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:14,439
Speaker 1: home with us. Yeah, I mean yes, so we we

427
00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 1: are not as far apart as we seem at all.

428
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:20,520
Speaker 1: I have been even the last eighteen months. UH spoke

429
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 1: at Berkeley for their half Earth Days EO. Wilson, working

430
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:31,040
Speaker 1: to preserve half the world's land and freshwater for biodiversity. UM,

431
00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:35,560
Speaker 1: I will go there have great conversations that I don't

432
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:37,720
Speaker 1: really need anybody in the room that I can't figure

433
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: out some way to connect, and then I'll come back

434
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,439
Speaker 1: where again Eastern Kentucky. I could be wrong, but I

435
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,439
Speaker 1: think it's roughly nine of the people in Eastern Kentucky

436
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: voted for the current President Trump. And you would think

437
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: if I go to Berkeley and I'm having a conversation

438
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,720
Speaker 1: and then I come here like somewhere there's going to

439
00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: be this big friction point, and there's not, because the

440
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:04,439
Speaker 1: reality the ism we do have so much more in common,

441
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:06,080
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get to There's a lot

442
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:07,840
Speaker 1: of people you could have on your show that will be,

443
00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:10,359
Speaker 1: you know, much more intelligent than me on this topic.

444
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: But the only thing I can think of is that again,

445
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,199
Speaker 1: you know, this partisan politics that we've got, that the

446
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 1: partisan media on on left and right, the the you know,

447
00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:24,360
Speaker 1: social media echo chambers that keeps everybody in the like,

448
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: that is creating more of a divide than actual people.

449
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:30,480
Speaker 1: Like if me and you can have conversations like this,

450
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:34,479
Speaker 1: and you can get people string Kentucky having conversations with

451
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 1: people from Berkeley, the what they'll find is they like

452
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 1: a lot of the same stuff and like their values

453
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:44,840
Speaker 1: in life align a lot more than what they what

454
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,600
Speaker 1: they what they contradict. And the shocking thing for me

455
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: is we're just not having the conversations. I don't know

456
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:54,119
Speaker 1: how we get to a point to where we're more

457
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: the conversation is more aspiring and more about how we

458
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 1: bring people together to a table versus let's just get

459
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: onto social media and figure out what we don't agree about.

460
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 1: And for some reason right now and that's all that's

461
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,199
Speaker 1: going on. But for me and my experience, I have

462
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,639
Speaker 1: gone to the farthest left of circles, been in them,

463
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: and then within eight hours on a plane, I'm back

464
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,399
Speaker 1: in what some people would say might be some of

465
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 1: the more far right circles. And and to me, it's

466
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: it's a it's just astounding me, like the amount of

467
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,879
Speaker 1: over and commonalities that I can see in people and

468
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 1: I'm just a normal human that how we so divided

469
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,439
Speaker 1: when you actually here and you hear people talk and

470
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: we're all trying to say the same thing, we're doing

471
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: in different ways. Gosh, I agree with that. I mean,

472
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:49,360
Speaker 1: I I think about to your point, we're often told

473
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 1: that things are much more disparate than they are, and

474
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 1: and when I think about your background, there's there's something

475
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,360
Speaker 1: that relates to this that I think the audience will

476
00:26:58,400 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 1: really get a kick out of. Because you know, you

477
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,640
Speaker 1: mentioned you when you went into the energy sector. We're

478
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,199
Speaker 1: looking at a lot of wind and solar. Now, what

479
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 1: people might not expect is that you were developing solar

480
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: projects for the United States Department of Defense. And I

481
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: think a lot of people wouldn't necessarily think green energy

482
00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 1: d O D working together, but they were and they

483
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,639
Speaker 1: must continue to be again, for for you know, the

484
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 1: sort of innovation of the future of the country and

485
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 1: our place on the planet. So I'm curious how you

486
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,479
Speaker 1: wound up working there and and maybe what you studied

487
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 1: in college that that got you onto that track. Yeah.

488
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,399
Speaker 1: So so my my background at the University Kentucky, I

489
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: call it that I graduated from the gat In College

490
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: of Business. But it's a birth great school. Uh, you know,

491
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 1: it gives you all everything. I feel like, I guess

492
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:52,479
Speaker 1: it gives you everything you need because I guess I'm

493
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: doing um, don't have a master's. And you know, I

494
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 1: tell a kid, and we've got a lot of high

495
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: school programs that that we're funding and sponsoring here in

496
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 1: eastern Kentucky, and any young person, I mean, I tried

497
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:10,000
Speaker 1: to say, Look, it doesn't matter if you're in Hong Kong, London,

498
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: New York, or if you're in Pike County, Kentucky. You

499
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,439
Speaker 1: have the accident, all the same information, and you know

500
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 1: we're moving into that world. You know all this, Yes,

501
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 1: the the information is flying at as fast and furious,

502
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 1: but if you're willing to talk on what you want.

503
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: So for me, it was self taught. I I was

504
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:31,200
Speaker 1: self taught mainly on on how to build when in

505
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:36,439
Speaker 1: solar projects. I started UH advising on private sector projects,

506
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: and then I moved to d C. And so that

507
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,720
Speaker 1: the work you mentioned it was the last White House

508
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: that UH set out an initiative to have the U.

509
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: S Army, UH Air Force, and Navy procure their power

510
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: from renewals. UH. So I was a part of of

511
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: leading efforts on on that team, we built seven hundred

512
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: and fifty acres of solar down in Georgia. UH. It

513
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: was a long again, a long tenure journey, like anyone

514
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 1: that has their tenure journey that that kind of goes

515
00:29:06,200 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: ups and downs. But I didn't know the moment I

516
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 1: got that position in d C, I would eventually be

517
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: able to move back to Kentucky, the place I love

518
00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: and and and attract, you know, sustainable capital. There's all

519
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: that sustainable flying around the world. The one place that

520
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: wasn't coming was the place that was heavily impacted. You know,

521
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: there's the declinical and then there's women's soul right up

522
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 1: and and somehow we did not that the diversion there

523
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: couldn't be any more stark. But then the ten election,

524
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,040
Speaker 1: and again no matter whatever your side you're on, left

525
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: or right. The election was definitely a statement on the

526
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 1: way many people in this country felt. They felt like

527
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:55,920
Speaker 1: there's fifteen urban centers or city centers around the country

528
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: and then there's the rest of the country, and whether

529
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: you like it or you don't like it, it's irrelevant.

530
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 1: And where the you like this president, don't like this

531
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 1: president kind of relevant. The fact is there's a divide

532
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: and and so for me, I just felt immediately compelled

533
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 1: to move from d C back to Kentucky. And then

534
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,520
Speaker 1: it was a matter of months before I ended up

535
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 1: quitting my job and when starting this company and was

536
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 1: fortunate to get you know, pretty notable early investors. And

537
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 1: then now here we are, uh you know, off to

538
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 1: the races and a bit even through COVID. But yeah,

539
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: it's you know, I think for me, any young person

540
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: that I could possibly talk to is just you know,

541
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,239
Speaker 1: the open source information that's out there. Uh that you know,

542
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 1: a college degree is great, but but at the end

543
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: of the day, you know, passion in pursuing that passion

544
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: and finding the information. Uh, it was was you know,

545
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:52,160
Speaker 1: it was my story and I hope, you know, we'll

546
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:54,720
Speaker 1: see many other young people in Kentucky that you know,

547
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:56,880
Speaker 1: come out of the gates in the next five five

548
00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,240
Speaker 1: years or so. But um, you know what if you

549
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: I guess your your journey, I mean, what what you

550
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: what led you to act? I mean how did you?

551
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: How did you? William? And you know, was it self

552
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: taught at all or was it classes or was it um?

553
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 1: It was honestly kind of an accident. I I started

554
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 1: doing theater in high school, so let me think about this. No,

555
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: it was actually eighth grade. So my um my school

556
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: had this arts requirement and you had to focus on

557
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 1: a different art study every semester in middle school, and

558
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,959
Speaker 1: I just never really thought I cared about theater. I

559
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:46,400
Speaker 1: was really sort of science focused. I wanted to go

560
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 1: to medical school. I wanted to be a heart surgeon. UM.

561
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:54,720
Speaker 1: And I put off the theater requirement until the last semester.

562
00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,720
Speaker 1: So second semester of eighth grade, I thought I was

563
00:31:57,720 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: going to be able to weasel my way out of

564
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:07,440
Speaker 1: it because I was playing sports and that didn't work. Um,

565
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: and I had to do this play. And I realized

566
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 1: that everything I loved about literature, which was my favorite

567
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 1: thing to study in school, was really coming alive on

568
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: a stage, and that there was this real experience of

569
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 1: Catharsis and kind of emotional journeying for every person in

570
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: the room. And then I got really nerdy and I

571
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: started studying, UH where these sorts of traditions had come from.

572
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 1: And I realized that there was something at the time

573
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: that felt so sacred to me that as humans, we

574
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 1: passed our stories before we had written language, you know,

575
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 1: we we had these stories, we had these essentially these plays,

576
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,880
Speaker 1: and that's where our history came from and our experience

577
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:01,800
Speaker 1: came from, and UM, so much culture came from. And

578
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, there are ways to have conversations

579
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:10,720
Speaker 1: like this that are really meaningful to people, that do

580
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 1: things for people, and we can learn about each other,

581
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 1: we can learn about other people's experiences, we can humanize

582
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: each other, UH, and we can do that through tears,

583
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,960
Speaker 1: through laughter, you know, there's so many ways. And and

584
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: that really just changed everything for me, and so I

585
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 1: really took a pivot, UH, started focusing on theater all

586
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:37,520
Speaker 1: through school, and then when I was applying to collegees,

587
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 1: I told my parents that I wanted to go to

588
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 1: theater school and not medical school. You can imagine how

589
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 1: not thrilled they were. But it turned out Okay, well,

590
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: so the time, so the time there, and one I

591
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 1: didn't telling these stories. I mean again, you know what

592
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 1: we're doing behind this, I would say, in this very

593
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:05,760
Speaker 1: very small circle, behind the scenes, we have a lot

594
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 1: of the monts like we're you know, with invest very

595
00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 1: high profile investors. But when you stay telling these stories

596
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 1: and why, you know why? For me, we're trying to

597
00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,440
Speaker 1: figure out who do we connect with and talk to

598
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,440
Speaker 1: in these next ten twenty years. We have got to

599
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,800
Speaker 1: find a way with the art forms, whether it's music

600
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:29,160
Speaker 1: or or what's on what's on this big screen or

601
00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 1: whatever it is, how do we weave into the conversation

602
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:35,960
Speaker 1: all this weird, complex stuff that we're doing on art.

603
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:40,960
Speaker 1: It's very hard for the average working American or average

604
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,600
Speaker 1: person to to connect with, you know. For us, again,

605
00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: we do not have like a big, big, out there

606
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:52,319
Speaker 1: story to the general public. What we do have is

607
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:57,480
Speaker 1: a big story behind in different political circles, in different

608
00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:01,760
Speaker 1: investor world, world, in the tech world. But it's really

609
00:35:01,920 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: your world that is ultimately in my you know, my

610
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: very much opinion, it's gonna shape that next ten or

611
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:11,359
Speaker 1: fifteen years, and that we have to realize, you know,

612
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 1: the microphone people have to tell stories and inspire, and

613
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 1: we then these complex narratives that it's it's that simple.

614
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: I mean for me, I even look at some of

615
00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: the movies I watched growing up and in ways in

616
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 1: which it just told me different things that you know,

617
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: I didn't learn in a classroom. And and hopefully I

618
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 1: hope that whether it's musicians or artists or anyone of

619
00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:41,359
Speaker 1: the sort areas, that authority understands how much power they

620
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,880
Speaker 1: truly hold. Because the general public is listening to you all,

621
00:35:46,239 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 1: they're not listening to they're just not doing it. And

622
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:54,800
Speaker 1: so it's the world that somehow intersects. But the people

623
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: telling the stories that that again, how whether it's a

624
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:02,839
Speaker 1: sitcom show or anything, finding a narrative that that can

625
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: have impact and meaning and every one of these stories,

626
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:09,120
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful, But again, is that optimist that ten years

627
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 1: from now that's just where the world's going, that we're

628
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 1: telling these complex narratives through all these various forms of

629
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,280
Speaker 1: medium so that the general public can be on board

630
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,919
Speaker 1: and find a way to come along from ride. Yeah, yeah,

631
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,080
Speaker 1: I agree. It's a scientist at a podium. We're all screwed.

632
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 1: You were developing, you know, these sustainable energy farms. You know, um,

633
00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:43,279
Speaker 1: we're talking about stuff with the D O D, we're

634
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 1: talking about solar. And then you happened to come across

635
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:51,399
Speaker 1: something that was happening in the Netherlands. I had never

636
00:36:51,440 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 1: heard about the agricultural program happening in the Netherlands that

637
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 1: you told me about, and I would wager that a

638
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:02,240
Speaker 1: lot of the people listening haven't either. They developed a

639
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 1: growing procedure which eliminated virtually all agricultural chemicals and yielded

640
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 1: thirty times as much food as traditional agricultural methods. You

641
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: read about it, it changed the course of your life.

642
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 1: Can can you explain to our listeners what you learned,

643
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: what they were doing over there, and and and what

644
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:29,399
Speaker 1: kind of light bulb that set off for you? Yeah?

645
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,760
Speaker 1: So to me, I think this is why I continue

646
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 1: to be extraordinarily optimistic on the planet and in us

647
00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 1: as people on the planet, because the good thing is

648
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: there are solutions around our world. We just have to

649
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:48,239
Speaker 1: quickly adopt those and rapidly bring them to scale. So

650
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 1: my work in the energy world, the contrast of being

651
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: from a region that was seeing heavy decline of coal

652
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,680
Speaker 1: while we saw wind and solar just rip and roar

653
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,799
Speaker 1: around the world and take off. So you know, look

654
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,919
Speaker 1: at energy in that form where you're producing electrons over

655
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: to energy. That's that's ultimately food and agriculture, right, So

656
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:10,680
Speaker 1: you put food in your body, it's another form of

657
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,520
Speaker 1: energy to power you. Steing, I was in d C

658
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 1: and continued to hear about the country of the Netherlands.

659
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: There's a great article the National Geographic in this tiny

660
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 1: country feeds the world. That article came out a little

661
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:27,880
Speaker 1: bit after I started at purposed Um, and it really

662
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 1: from there started to be this ground swell that was

663
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 1: bubbling up. It's a country a third the size of

664
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,839
Speaker 1: Kentucky and land mats. They have the second most agricultural

665
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,640
Speaker 1: exports in the world, only behind the US. There are

666
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,520
Speaker 1: a third the size of one state in the US.

667
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 1: So then I'm in d C and I'm going away

668
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,640
Speaker 1: what I'm surely reading something wrong? What's going on? So

669
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 1: after World War Two, when the country could not feed

670
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:56,760
Speaker 1: itself because of World War Two, they used government, private

671
00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:02,839
Speaker 1: sector and education institutions to rebuild their agriculture sector. And

672
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,160
Speaker 1: they've done it over decades. That has become the most efficient,

673
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,840
Speaker 1: the most innovative, using technology and just the best idea

674
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 1: of winds. I don't know how to describe it. It's

675
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 1: not a partisan out of this that and so you know,

676
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,920
Speaker 1: I I tried to use the word resilient now more

677
00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:25,319
Speaker 1: than sustainable, building resilient systems for the future. H But

678
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:29,160
Speaker 1: looking at the US, what we're the largest agriculture economy

679
00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 1: in the world. What we've had going for US is

680
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:36,400
Speaker 1: abundant land, abundant fresh water, just all these abundant resources,

681
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 1: so we haven't had to be wildly efficient. The Netherlands,

682
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:43,160
Speaker 1: on complete opposite contrast, they don't have a lot of land,

683
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:45,440
Speaker 1: they didn't have a lot of fresh water. They have

684
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 1: very little resources and have been able to build systems that,

685
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,799
Speaker 1: like you said, can use ninety percent less water than

686
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:57,400
Speaker 1: open field agriculture, no chemical pesticides, thirty times yield break

687
00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: if we simply adopt solutions there are already available and

688
00:40:01,640 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 1: we equit and and so uh, you know, speaking of

689
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,520
Speaker 1: of kind of our global stage now Being in Kentucky,

690
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:10,719
Speaker 1: we had the UN Security Council come to Kentucky for

691
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,719
Speaker 1: the first time in our state history a couple of

692
00:40:13,719 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: months ago, and we brief them on on what we're doing. Um,

693
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,400
Speaker 1: but if our If our world adopts these solutions that

694
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 1: are already available, we have a totally different world. It's

695
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,399
Speaker 1: in our fifteen years. We free up man, we free

696
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: up fresh water. We can let natural ecosystems come back

697
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:35,080
Speaker 1: and come to life. It is so it's so frustrating

698
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: to know that the solutions are right in front of us,

699
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:42,480
Speaker 1: other countries are adopting them. But the good thing is is,

700
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: you know, it's not a left or right conversation I had.

701
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 1: I had a long meeting with Secretary Purdue a couple

702
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:52,359
Speaker 1: of months ago with him and his team. They've been

703
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 1: following what we were doing, and he's a huge fan

704
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:58,080
Speaker 1: of this, and so I go back to this concept

705
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:01,800
Speaker 1: that left first right. Let's let's no one take credit

706
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 1: for it. We don't need credit. Let's not make it

707
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 1: about this side or that side. Let's just say, hey,

708
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: we want to be the most resilient country in the world.

709
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 1: We want to promise future general it's a better a

710
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:15,359
Speaker 1: better future than what we have. Well, let's all get

711
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 1: on the same page. And the energy conversation it was hard.

712
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: I mean, it was very contentious. There either camps that

713
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,000
Speaker 1: you're you're on this camp or you're on that camp

714
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,399
Speaker 1: and and but for food and agriculture, I think there's

715
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,280
Speaker 1: an opportunity. Food is something we all we all consume

716
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,240
Speaker 1: food every day, several times a day, and it's something

717
00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:36,759
Speaker 1: that can bring us together. And I hope the agriculture

718
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 1: conversation on how we build agriculture around the world takes

719
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:44,359
Speaker 1: a much different tone than how the energy conversation played out,

720
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: because it doesn't need to be partisan, it doesn't need watiful,

721
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,040
Speaker 1: it just needs to be their solutions. We can get

722
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 1: there and we can work together. And I am optimistic.

723
00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:56,000
Speaker 1: I think the US and ten or fifteen years, we

724
00:41:56,080 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 1: can utilize technology, build infrastructure, build farming across the US

725
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 1: and have a first class twenty one century farming ecosystem

726
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 1: in our country and then the world coalesces around us.

727
00:42:09,560 --> 00:42:13,760
Speaker 1: And again, the exciting thing is it's not Willy Wonka fiction.

728
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,319
Speaker 1: It's I just send people on a plane and say

729
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: go to the Netherlands. Here, meet with these universities, meet

730
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:24,080
Speaker 1: with these operators, meet with these different facility owners. It's

731
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 1: here we just have to catch up. And again, I

732
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: think for for somebody that our team looking at the

733
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: problems in the face and seeing about twenty fifty or

734
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:36,160
Speaker 1: world needs fifty to seventy more food. So to to

735
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:40,839
Speaker 1: feed nine billion people, we need fifty to seventy more

736
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,160
Speaker 1: food in thirty years. That means if we grew food

737
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: the way we're growing it out, we need to planet

738
00:42:47,040 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 1: Earth's to have enough land and fresh water to grown up.

739
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 1: We're not talking about CNN, Fox News. It doesn't matter.

740
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 1: No one is talking about it because no one cares

741
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:03,040
Speaker 1: about the year problem. Don't care about leanings, quarterly profits.

742
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:06,399
Speaker 1: Can I get elected in two years? And you know,

743
00:43:06,719 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 1: and then and then to be fair, and look at

744
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 1: the family I came from. You think about, well, how

745
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 1: am I sitting my kid to school? Or how am

746
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,680
Speaker 1: I putting food on the table. And and there's got

747
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: to be some shake up to where we are are

748
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:22,760
Speaker 1: thinking much more long term. And we have our political

749
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 1: leaders and our business leaders and and and consumers are

750
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,440
Speaker 1: all at the table thinking twenty thirty years down the road.

751
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 1: Because if we do that, there's plenty of solutions and

752
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:34,879
Speaker 1: we can get there. But as we all know, we're

753
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 1: in this short term cycle of thinking. And for some reason,

754
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:41,160
Speaker 1: all of this is getting dust under the rug. And

755
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:43,720
Speaker 1: look at COVID. I mean, we could have been talking

756
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: about COVID for two decades and been wildly prepared. But

757
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,160
Speaker 1: because for in this very short term thinking, we're gonna

758
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:54,799
Speaker 1: spend six in the US instead of spending fifty or

759
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 1: seventy five billion in preventing all of this from ever

760
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,760
Speaker 1: being in this circumstance and how he who knows. But

761
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 1: but there's the opportunity to make it happen. Yeah, And

762
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:07,720
Speaker 1: I mean that that is such a great comparison because

763
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 1: it's so frustrating when you look back at the scientists

764
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,320
Speaker 1: who have been talking about this, who've been talking about

765
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:18,919
Speaker 1: a pandemic for decades, you know, even even the fact

766
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 1: that there there have been I believe don't quote me

767
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,359
Speaker 1: on this, but I believe it's eleven labs around the

768
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: world who have all been studying coronaviruses for years because

769
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:34,120
Speaker 1: they knew this was coming. And and yet somehow this

770
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 1: is being downplayed in our country while there's a hundred

771
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:40,479
Speaker 1: thousand American citizens who have died more than from any war,

772
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: more than from any you know, anything we've ever been

773
00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:48,080
Speaker 1: involved in, and and it's being it's being politicized, it's

774
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:51,920
Speaker 1: it's being treated as though it's an arguing point for

775
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 1: an election rather than a devastating experience that had our

776
00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 1: pandemic response team not been disbanded, we might have been

777
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: prepared for. And to me, what you're referencing is a

778
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 1: real dereliction of duty to protect and ensure the quality

779
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:13,880
Speaker 1: of life. And and that's what ignoring a coming food

780
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:18,240
Speaker 1: crisis feels like to me as well. Because I'll be honest,

781
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,840
Speaker 1: I debate at times, you know, when I think about

782
00:45:20,840 --> 00:45:24,000
Speaker 1: what my future looks like, I really struggle with my

783
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:29,239
Speaker 1: desire to be a parent eventually and the state of

784
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:32,239
Speaker 1: the world and our our our our kids going to

785
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 1: be able to survive if we don't get it together.

786
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:38,080
Speaker 1: So when you talk about how if we were investing

787
00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:42,840
Speaker 1: in the longevity of survival and of you know, better

788
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,719
Speaker 1: systems with less impact on the planet, because to your point,

789
00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:48,040
Speaker 1: the planet can't sustain what we're doing to it now,

790
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: is that where the idea for a harvest came from?

791
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,680
Speaker 1: Can can you tell the listeners what it's about, because

792
00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: we are having these big macro conversations about food systems

793
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: and the environment. But but what is your company doing exactly? Yeah,

794
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 1: So I've been very fortunate in the last eighteen months.

795
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 1: We've raised about a hundred and twenty five million dollars, which,

796
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 1: again I think if you look at the American dream,

797
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:13,360
Speaker 1: I have somebody who comes from a very humble background

798
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:16,760
Speaker 1: and still believe something like this is not possible anywhere

799
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 1: else in the world. So I still feel like the

800
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 1: US we have a lot of problems and a lot

801
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 1: of struggles, but we have a lot of opportunity ahead

802
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,080
Speaker 1: of us, UH if we can connect the dots and

803
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:30,240
Speaker 1: fill the gaps. But we app harvest is raised roughly

804
00:46:30,239 --> 00:46:34,319
Speaker 1: a DW five million. UH. We're building our first facility

805
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: UH and and we've set out to to really UH

806
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: build across central Appalachia and have the largest indoors sustainable

807
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:46,600
Speaker 1: produce hub in the US. So if you look at

808
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:49,239
Speaker 1: what's happened in the USS, we're growing our fruits and

809
00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: vegetables and drought stricken area California. Let's be clear, I

810
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:57,440
Speaker 1: mean it's there's water issues every couple of years up

811
00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 1: down New Mexico, Texas south of our border. Down in Mexico.

812
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:06,600
Speaker 1: We're growing our fruits and vegetables in areas that are

813
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 1: running out of water. Kentucky, UH, we had a record

814
00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:14,400
Speaker 1: amount of rainfall in we keep getting wetter, we have

815
00:47:14,520 --> 00:47:16,520
Speaker 1: more and more water, so we'll we'll be able to

816
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 1: We're building these facilities utilizing technology on the inside, UH

817
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:26,399
Speaker 1: to optimize for the plants. So using technology to put

818
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 1: nature first and go how do we most efficiently and

819
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:33,680
Speaker 1: effectively grow this tomato or cucumber or pepper. And one

820
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:35,840
Speaker 1: we take all the sunlight, so we're growing in a

821
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: glass facility, UH, take all the sunlight. We utilize that

822
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:42,520
Speaker 1: the route. It's a sixty acre structure, so about two

823
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:45,400
Speaker 1: point eight milling square feet where we'll collect all the

824
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 1: rainwater off to the side, pump the water back in

825
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 1: with UV, no chemicals, so running our facility completely on

826
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 1: recycled rainwater. Because we're a region it's water rich, growing

827
00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:01,719
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables utilizing sunlight, but then augmitting technology on top.

828
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:04,160
Speaker 1: So in the winter when we don't have as much light,

829
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:07,520
Speaker 1: it will be the largest LED installation in the Phillips

830
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:11,359
Speaker 1: is providing. We purchased the lights off Phillips so as

831
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 1: you can think sunlight coming through, we don't have as

832
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 1: much sun so the lighting is augmitting for whatever micromols

833
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:21,440
Speaker 1: that the plan is not getting. So we are trying

834
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 1: to applies for the plan give it everything it needs

835
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:29,359
Speaker 1: consistently year round, to get it all the micromoles, all

836
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:32,680
Speaker 1: the water, all the nutrients it needs to grow year round.

837
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:36,439
Speaker 1: And then ultimately, why since ripple latcha beyond being from

838
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:40,560
Speaker 1: Kentucky and loving the state I'm from, we can get

839
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:42,959
Speaker 1: to about sevent the US and a one day drive,

840
00:48:43,160 --> 00:48:45,799
Speaker 1: So we can get to the east coast, Midwest, and

841
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:49,279
Speaker 1: southeast in a one day drive, So reducing trucking. Where

842
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:51,640
Speaker 1: if you look at California, if I'm in d C

843
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,520
Speaker 1: and I buy let us, I'm really buying gasoline with

844
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 1: a little bit of let us The majority of the

845
00:48:56,480 --> 00:48:58,960
Speaker 1: cost of that let us in d C is to

846
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 1: simply transport at it from California. In d C. I love,

847
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 1: and I think there should be a lot of produce grown,

848
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:08,799
Speaker 1: but I do not think our entire country should be

849
00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:11,239
Speaker 1: fed off of a couple of states. And even look

850
00:49:11,280 --> 00:49:13,560
Speaker 1: at what's happened when most of our produce is going

851
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:16,000
Speaker 1: down south of the border. So being in an area

852
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:19,000
Speaker 1: where we have the geographic location to get to major markets,

853
00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:22,319
Speaker 1: we have access to fresh water. And then you know,

854
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: the most exciting thing for me is the people. I

855
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 1: think again, you know, people look at what's happened here

856
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:30,759
Speaker 1: over the last decade. I mean, there are not positive

857
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 1: news stories that come out of Cold Country. It is

858
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,200
Speaker 1: negative news story after negatives. These are men and women

859
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 1: that go to work and come home at night and

860
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 1: feel like they're destroying the world. What all they're trying

861
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:43,960
Speaker 1: to do is make an honest living, put put food

862
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:47,799
Speaker 1: on the table. Being able to people here and help

863
00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 1: lead an agriculture revolution in the US is just the

864
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:54,719
Speaker 1: hands down most exciting thing. I mean, it goes well,

865
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:59,560
Speaker 1: it's incredible, it's it's passion, it's science, it's purpose and

866
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 1: and to your point and what we were discussing earlier,

867
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,040
Speaker 1: if we want to talk about innovating and changing the

868
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:09,160
Speaker 1: way we source energy, we've got to consider the people

869
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:12,799
Speaker 1: whose lives are on the line in those jobs as

870
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:15,680
Speaker 1: we do it. We can't just talk about changing industries.

871
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 1: We have to provide options and opportunity and better opportunity

872
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:23,799
Speaker 1: for the folks who have been employed in the industries

873
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:27,200
Speaker 1: that we are trying to change. They deserve that. Yeah,

874
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 1: and that's you know we've missed you know again, I

875
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:33,400
Speaker 1: go back to I still believe the US is and

876
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: will continue to be the place to make dreams into reality.

877
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:40,400
Speaker 1: But we have a lot of acts in our political

878
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:44,080
Speaker 1: leadership on left and right, our our business climate, our

879
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:46,960
Speaker 1: investment community. But again I'm incredibly hopeful. I mean the

880
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: fact that app Harvest is around and exists. So we're

881
00:50:50,719 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 1: not only a certified the corps were registered benefit corporation.

882
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 1: So what that means is it's very similar to a

883
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 1: Sea Corps. But I don't just have Fiducia responsibility to

884
00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:03,799
Speaker 1: my shareholders. We have a mission that we've set out.

885
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:08,200
Speaker 1: So for example, before we started construction on our first facility,

886
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:11,279
Speaker 1: we invested nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in

887
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:15,960
Speaker 1: high school education, putting ad tech curriculum into schools. If

888
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:18,080
Speaker 1: we really are going to do what we're saying we're doing,

889
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 1: we've got to inspire the youth that are gonna be

890
00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:23,960
Speaker 1: here with us. And so having investors, and I'm so

891
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:26,680
Speaker 1: fortunate that there are investors are really partners and and

892
00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:30,960
Speaker 1: I again I you people have these conversations of are

893
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:33,840
Speaker 1: the capital markets working, is you know, is the is

894
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:37,520
Speaker 1: the business climate you know, destroying the planet. I'm a

895
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:41,920
Speaker 1: hopeful that out of self preservation for people in the

896
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: investor community. If you do not have a company in

897
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:47,719
Speaker 1: ten or twenty years that is that adding value to

898
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:50,880
Speaker 1: people on planet, you will be stamped out. Consumers are

899
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:55,480
Speaker 1: stamping about, regulators are stamping and at a simple self preservation.

900
00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: Some people just have a huge heart and the investors

901
00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:01,960
Speaker 1: do want to follow the want. They want purpose to

902
00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:05,120
Speaker 1: lead and profit to follow. But it's getting to a

903
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:08,040
Speaker 1: point now if you simply want to be accompanied in

904
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:11,920
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years and you were not adding significant value

905
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:15,120
Speaker 1: to society, you will get stamped out. And so just

906
00:52:15,320 --> 00:52:18,719
Speaker 1: at a sheer self preservation, we've seen so many investors

907
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 1: that that are maybe don't add the hundred percent viewpoint

908
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:25,600
Speaker 1: on the way we see the world, but they think,

909
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 1: you know what this is where, this is where we

910
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:31,239
Speaker 1: ultimately need to be just to have a safe investment.

911
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:33,920
Speaker 1: If if we want to put capital to work and

912
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:36,920
Speaker 1: we want to look back in years, is that a

913
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:40,400
Speaker 1: safe place a super well for example US, we do

914
00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:43,480
Speaker 1: have very very smart investors that that are in this

915
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 1: all for the right reasons. But even if somebody wasn't

916
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:49,440
Speaker 1: on the outside looking in, this is the facility. Will

917
00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 1: building is going to operate for twenty five third years.

918
00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:56,680
Speaker 1: So we're making long term vent that twenty years from now,

919
00:52:56,719 --> 00:52:59,520
Speaker 1: this is where not only what people want today, but

920
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,160
Speaker 1: this is where the world is going and where consumers

921
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:04,400
Speaker 1: are gonna want to be in twenty years and and

922
00:53:04,480 --> 00:53:07,520
Speaker 1: for any investor out there, and and I've had some

923
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:12,080
Speaker 1: really interesting conversations the last year, one of which was

924
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:15,360
Speaker 1: the chairman of Procter and Game. Well, I heard him speak.

925
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 1: I was in the room, um, and I don't want

926
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:22,200
Speaker 1: a quoting word for word, but generally speaking saying, if

927
00:53:22,239 --> 00:53:27,760
Speaker 1: they don't pivot P and g to be what consumers

928
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:30,359
Speaker 1: wanted to be in ten fifteen years, the consumers are

929
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:32,759
Speaker 1: just gonna fight back like you had. So whether or

930
00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:35,080
Speaker 1: not he truly believes in it or doesn't, I have

931
00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:37,400
Speaker 1: no idea. But what I do know is that the

932
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:40,239
Speaker 1: big fortune five hundreds are now waking up, the big

933
00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 1: investors are now waking up that if they do not

934
00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:46,920
Speaker 1: align their products with people first and with planet first,

935
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:50,520
Speaker 1: then the consumers and regulators and governments and whatever else

936
00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:52,719
Speaker 1: will they be are just gonna push back. And so

937
00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:56,400
Speaker 1: it is a very exciting time to just be in

938
00:53:56,400 --> 00:53:58,720
Speaker 1: in kind of what I would call the impact world

939
00:53:58,760 --> 00:54:00,799
Speaker 1: of because where's all this is gonna go. Is it

940
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:05,360
Speaker 1: gonna be foundations, is it going to be nonprofits and governments? Ultimately,

941
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:08,920
Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer that if business is not doing good,

942
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:11,959
Speaker 1: then we're all This is gonna be a very hard fight.

943
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 1: But but we are entering a place where you know,

944
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 1: business across all sectors and across all cafe and across

945
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:25,920
Speaker 1: big institutional investors, two smaller impact investors. You know, it's shifting. Uh,

946
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:28,440
Speaker 1: and and again in ten years from now. You know,

947
00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:31,840
Speaker 1: hopefully every company has got some type of impact model

948
00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:34,759
Speaker 1: and they're looking at what the impact is. But but

949
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 1: for us, we've been very fortunate that this is not

950
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,160
Speaker 1: possible ten years ago. And in the world is definitely

951
00:54:41,200 --> 00:54:44,440
Speaker 1: shifting fast. We're even able to be moving at the

952
00:54:44,440 --> 00:54:47,160
Speaker 1: speed we're moving right now. Yeah. Well, and to your point,

953
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:50,759
Speaker 1: you know, big business is getting behind renewables. They understand

954
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:56,240
Speaker 1: that the shift must come. How how is the reception locally?

955
00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:59,879
Speaker 1: What is your experience? It's great. I mean we had

956
00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:02,760
Speaker 1: to last governor who is a Republican and this governor

957
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:06,319
Speaker 1: who's a Democrat, both of which publicly supportive of what

958
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 1: we're doing. We have you know, I mean, look at

959
00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:13,280
Speaker 1: our look at our our congressional and Senate delegation, and

960
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:16,319
Speaker 1: they've been incredibly supportive. So I don't know that this

961
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:19,279
Speaker 1: is a left or right conversation. I've had really good

962
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:23,200
Speaker 1: conversations with Senator McConnell, and you know, people as I

963
00:55:23,239 --> 00:55:25,440
Speaker 1: go to New York or wherever else, when I think,

964
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:28,239
Speaker 1: oh really, and it's you know, look, how do we

965
00:55:28,320 --> 00:55:31,320
Speaker 1: find common ground. People want to see business and enterprise

966
00:55:31,400 --> 00:55:34,960
Speaker 1: and pridect sector succeed. And if we can find a

967
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:39,680
Speaker 1: way to show a path where there is so there

968
00:55:39,719 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 1: are solutions, there's economic value. There's not only value for

969
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,680
Speaker 1: the planet people, but there's economic value we can all

970
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 1: create together. And and let's not make this about some

971
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:56,120
Speaker 1: esoteric conversation, but there's real, tangible ways we can strengthen

972
00:55:56,160 --> 00:56:00,200
Speaker 1: communities and build resilience systems. And and for us, we

973
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:02,840
Speaker 1: have tons of support, whether I'm at a local coffee

974
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:06,359
Speaker 1: shop or a community church gathering, or I'm dealing with

975
00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:11,160
Speaker 1: some high ranking political official. For us, we've had come

976
00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:14,360
Speaker 1: in to support on the left and right. Well, and

977
00:56:14,400 --> 00:56:18,520
Speaker 1: when you talk about you know, making quantifiable, how many

978
00:56:18,600 --> 00:56:20,720
Speaker 1: jobs do you estimate this will bring to the area.

979
00:56:21,560 --> 00:56:24,560
Speaker 1: So the first facility will be through hundred, and we

980
00:56:24,600 --> 00:56:28,440
Speaker 1: anticipate building several more facilities in the next couple of years.

981
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:31,200
Speaker 1: And then it's the trickle out from there. It's not

982
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:34,400
Speaker 1: just does that partis to have several hundred or a

983
00:56:34,440 --> 00:56:38,279
Speaker 1: thousand plus employees. It then becomes an ecosystem of are

984
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:41,200
Speaker 1: we going to bring lighting manufacturers here? Are we're gonna

985
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 1: bring different water technology companies here? And there's an ecosystem

986
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:49,600
Speaker 1: that develops around what we're dooming. Uh And it truly

987
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:53,040
Speaker 1: we have every university in our region working with us,

988
00:56:53,680 --> 00:56:57,439
Speaker 1: every university president looking at how they might change curriculum

989
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 1: and forgot us again. It's it's much bigger than us

990
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:04,279
Speaker 1: as one company. It's how do we develop a well?

991
00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:08,400
Speaker 1: And the ecosystem is such an important driver of an economy.

992
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:11,400
Speaker 1: You know, it's a it's a different conversation, but in

993
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:13,760
Speaker 1: my line of work, you know, on average, there's about

994
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:17,160
Speaker 1: two hundred people employed on a TV show, between you know,

995
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:19,640
Speaker 1: your cast and your whole crew and your writers, and

996
00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:24,120
Speaker 1: it's a lot of people. And the the estimate, I'll

997
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:27,960
Speaker 1: never forget it. It came out when we've finished the

998
00:57:28,000 --> 00:57:30,600
Speaker 1: TV series show called One Try Hell that I worked

999
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:33,160
Speaker 1: on in North Carolina, we were there for nine years.

1000
00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:37,560
Speaker 1: The state released an estimate that our show, which employed

1001
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:42,040
Speaker 1: about two hundred people, technically brought two hundred and fifty

1002
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:45,600
Speaker 1: nine million dollars in revenue into the state over the

1003
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:49,440
Speaker 1: course of nine years because of travel and hotels and

1004
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:53,400
Speaker 1: restaurant business and and the local you know, boosts to

1005
00:57:53,680 --> 00:57:58,240
Speaker 1: everything from like home depot of clothing stores for supplies

1006
00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:02,640
Speaker 1: for our show, for construction. It was really incredible. And

1007
00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,640
Speaker 1: so when I when I think about you guys talking

1008
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:09,760
Speaker 1: about you know, going from from an initial three hundred

1009
00:58:09,800 --> 00:58:13,640
Speaker 1: into potentially a thousand or more jobs, I think about

1010
00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,160
Speaker 1: the multiplier effect, and that is so exciting, you know,

1011
00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:21,480
Speaker 1: for Appalachia or anywhere that is looking to bolster its

1012
00:58:21,480 --> 00:58:27,680
Speaker 1: economy well. And then just the connections and common that there.

1013
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:30,720
Speaker 1: We're going to offer classes nights and weekends and have

1014
00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:36,640
Speaker 1: these conversations that only happen at some place in downtown Brooklyn.

1015
00:58:36,720 --> 00:58:39,840
Speaker 1: Now we can have those same conversations in the rural

1016
00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:43,760
Speaker 1: community of eastern Kentucky. And and for me, that's the

1017
00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:48,200
Speaker 1: most exciting thing is to see what happens next. Are

1018
00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 1: we gonna, you know, for me, get out of our

1019
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:53,919
Speaker 1: employee base where everybody is going to have some type

1020
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:57,880
Speaker 1: of equity and harvest. Who's going to be the automast,

1021
00:58:58,080 --> 00:59:01,000
Speaker 1: What who's coming up with the next night for our region?

1022
00:59:01,240 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 1: And how can we support him? And how can I

1023
00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:06,200
Speaker 1: put them in touch, you know, with with somebody in

1024
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:09,120
Speaker 1: San Francisco and these linkages that just do not occur

1025
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,919
Speaker 1: in our region. Is how do we just make these

1026
00:59:11,920 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 1: connections and then let it on and let the ball

1027
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:17,440
Speaker 1: enroll from there. And I think for me, five ten

1028
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:20,400
Speaker 1: years down the road, that's the most exciting piece to

1029
00:59:20,440 --> 00:59:23,880
Speaker 1: this is simply having a place in which we can

1030
00:59:23,880 --> 00:59:28,480
Speaker 1: have these conversations, build up this type of camaraderie, and

1031
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:31,520
Speaker 1: then make the links back and forth where I can

1032
00:59:31,640 --> 00:59:34,680
Speaker 1: set up zoom halls with somebody in San Francisco, in

1033
00:59:34,720 --> 00:59:38,000
Speaker 1: a high school student in in in Round County, Kentucky,

1034
00:59:38,320 --> 00:59:40,680
Speaker 1: and allow them to bounce ideas back and forth. And

1035
00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:43,479
Speaker 1: and for me, that's that's where the most exciting piece,

1036
00:59:43,560 --> 00:59:46,160
Speaker 1: the human element to all this is the most exciting

1037
00:59:46,160 --> 00:59:48,520
Speaker 1: piece to me. Well, and when we consider how to

1038
00:59:48,600 --> 00:59:53,240
Speaker 1: sustain each other quite literally with food, what strikes me

1039
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:55,640
Speaker 1: is that this could really also be a return to

1040
00:59:55,680 --> 01:00:00,919
Speaker 1: each other in relationship. You know, the platform that you're

1041
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:04,080
Speaker 1: creating offers us a real way to come home to

1042
01:00:04,080 --> 01:00:07,160
Speaker 1: each other. And I and I think it's such a

1043
01:00:07,200 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 1: special time and I'm just excited to see what happens

1044
01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:15,880
Speaker 1: with both the kind of you know, emotional example that

1045
01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:19,040
Speaker 1: you're setting, but also the job market. You know, I

1046
01:00:19,080 --> 01:00:22,680
Speaker 1: think about how prior to coronavirus anyway, where so many

1047
01:00:22,680 --> 01:00:28,440
Speaker 1: people's employment status has changed. Kentucky has the highest unemployment

1048
01:00:28,440 --> 01:00:31,240
Speaker 1: in the in the US and work for with COVID

1049
01:00:31,320 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 1: work unemployment, and before that we had some of the

1050
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 1: highest unemployment. And that's where it again, I mean, it's

1051
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:41,760
Speaker 1: it's staggering, and that's happening with COVID everywhere, but we

1052
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:43,920
Speaker 1: have a deep holded dig out of and and we're

1053
01:00:43,920 --> 01:00:46,560
Speaker 1: going to be a small park in that overall picture.

1054
01:00:46,640 --> 01:00:49,840
Speaker 1: But but the linkage is the conversations and the human

1055
01:00:50,040 --> 01:00:52,560
Speaker 1: element of it. That's just where all this needs to go.

1056
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:55,640
Speaker 1: But when you think about that, that's what excites me

1057
01:00:55,760 --> 01:00:58,120
Speaker 1: is because again to your points, so often we need

1058
01:00:58,160 --> 01:01:00,520
Speaker 1: to see the numbers to be willing to make change.

1059
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:03,000
Speaker 1: We need to see what's ahead of us. And and

1060
01:01:03,080 --> 01:01:06,480
Speaker 1: you know, I was looking at the stats um on

1061
01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:10,919
Speaker 1: renewable energy and Obviously these are are pre coronavirus because

1062
01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:13,919
Speaker 1: again we're mentioning so many people have been laid off

1063
01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 1: and we're really hoping that when it's safe, everybody gets

1064
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:19,080
Speaker 1: those jobs back. But but to know that the solar

1065
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:24,160
Speaker 1: and wind and industries respectively employ over three hundred and

1066
01:01:24,160 --> 01:01:27,280
Speaker 1: thirty thousand and over a hundred and twenty thousand Americans

1067
01:01:27,360 --> 01:01:31,080
Speaker 1: in all fifty states, you know, to to think about

1068
01:01:31,120 --> 01:01:36,840
Speaker 1: how whether it's renewable energy or these renewable food avenues

1069
01:01:36,880 --> 01:01:40,360
Speaker 1: that that you guys are creating with app Harvest, that

1070
01:01:40,440 --> 01:01:43,800
Speaker 1: we are beginning to prove that doing better by the

1071
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:46,920
Speaker 1: planet will also employ more people and employ them in

1072
01:01:47,000 --> 01:01:50,880
Speaker 1: safer in safer ways, and in and in companies where

1073
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:53,880
Speaker 1: to your point, they're also being offered these other benefits,

1074
01:01:53,880 --> 01:01:58,360
Speaker 1: you know, education and technology and systems. I'm so excited

1075
01:01:58,400 --> 01:02:00,400
Speaker 1: about the classes that you guys are going to offer

1076
01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:03,440
Speaker 1: and the way that you're going to support your local community,

1077
01:02:03,440 --> 01:02:07,480
Speaker 1: your local students. You know, it feels it feels like

1078
01:02:07,560 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 1: that is an incredible way to not only launch a company,

1079
01:02:11,960 --> 01:02:16,240
Speaker 1: create those jobs, but keep expanding and creating new ones. Yeah,

1080
01:02:16,280 --> 01:02:19,080
Speaker 1: and that's again, where do companies go in the next

1081
01:02:19,120 --> 01:02:22,320
Speaker 1: ten to twenty years. But you know, I there's not

1082
01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:26,920
Speaker 1: one publicly traded benefit corporation so b corpus a certification.

1083
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:30,720
Speaker 1: There's not one publicly trade of benefit corporation. But at

1084
01:02:30,760 --> 01:02:33,600
Speaker 1: some point, again be being optimists here that you know,

1085
01:02:33,640 --> 01:02:36,120
Speaker 1: we have got to shift past this mindset that there's

1086
01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:41,320
Speaker 1: business and there's the private sector, and there's foundations, nonprofits

1087
01:02:41,320 --> 01:02:44,640
Speaker 1: and community so at some point it's all linked together

1088
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:48,080
Speaker 1: and got a marge, you gotta emerge. And if you

1089
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:50,720
Speaker 1: want to be a company in fifty years, you got

1090
01:02:50,720 --> 01:02:54,400
Speaker 1: to have healthy communities and you have to have healthy

1091
01:02:54,440 --> 01:02:58,200
Speaker 1: people around here. So what we're doing is is, you know,

1092
01:02:58,800 --> 01:03:01,560
Speaker 1: I hope just become the only the common sense approach

1093
01:03:02,360 --> 01:03:04,240
Speaker 1: for for c e O s in the next ten

1094
01:03:04,360 --> 01:03:06,480
Speaker 1: or twenty years that you know, this is just what

1095
01:03:06,560 --> 01:03:09,320
Speaker 1: you have to do. And if you're not doing it, uh,

1096
01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:12,280
Speaker 1: it's not good for the long term trajectory of of

1097
01:03:12,280 --> 01:03:16,000
Speaker 1: of your own business. So you know, I again, I

1098
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:18,240
Speaker 1: I think we're on the early kind of scale of

1099
01:03:18,000 --> 01:03:21,600
Speaker 1: of what benefit corporations are are gonna look like, not

1100
01:03:21,640 --> 01:03:24,640
Speaker 1: only in the US but around the world. But you know, again,

1101
01:03:24,720 --> 01:03:28,840
Speaker 1: not just having fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders, but having

1102
01:03:28,960 --> 01:03:32,400
Speaker 1: some larger mission that you've set out for. Uh. So

1103
01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:36,120
Speaker 1: again long term, big picture, you know, you're you're actually

1104
01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:40,280
Speaker 1: taking your organization to a stronger, healthier place, which which again,

1105
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:43,640
Speaker 1: as as this all shifts and morphs, it's it's going

1106
01:03:43,680 --> 01:03:45,880
Speaker 1: to be, you know, something we're gonna see play out

1107
01:03:45,880 --> 01:03:48,040
Speaker 1: in front of our eyes and over the next decade.

1108
01:03:48,120 --> 01:03:51,880
Speaker 1: But but I am I'm incredibly hopeful me too, And

1109
01:03:51,920 --> 01:03:55,000
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful for when you guys, you know, get this

1110
01:03:55,120 --> 01:03:58,919
Speaker 1: set up in Kentucky and then figure out your next

1111
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:01,800
Speaker 1: hub out here in calif Bournia. I get excited about,

1112
01:04:02,480 --> 01:04:04,640
Speaker 1: uh and that might be wishful thinking, but I get

1113
01:04:04,680 --> 01:04:08,120
Speaker 1: really excited about the ways we could establish these these

1114
01:04:08,240 --> 01:04:14,520
Speaker 1: greenhouses you know, all over and and feed to your

1115
01:04:14,520 --> 01:04:18,600
Speaker 1: earlier point the country in so much more local ways,

1116
01:04:19,400 --> 01:04:21,919
Speaker 1: you know, do do better by people so they don't

1117
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:25,120
Speaker 1: have to be chemicals and their food and there doesn't

1118
01:04:25,120 --> 01:04:28,680
Speaker 1: have to be quite as much um pollution that that

1119
01:04:28,920 --> 01:04:33,600
Speaker 1: is created just from trucking all that food around. Nope,

1120
01:04:33,680 --> 01:04:36,280
Speaker 1: and we can get there. The solutions are there. It's

1121
01:04:36,280 --> 01:04:41,760
Speaker 1: going to be leadership, consumers pushing, you know, the public pushing. Obviously,

1122
01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 1: it's political supports needed, But political folks are going to

1123
01:04:47,360 --> 01:04:50,360
Speaker 1: listen to their constituents and what do people are well,

1124
01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:52,880
Speaker 1: So that's that's a great question to ask, you know,

1125
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:54,960
Speaker 1: when we think about what's in store for the future

1126
01:04:55,160 --> 01:04:58,360
Speaker 1: of app harvest, for the future of high tech farming,

1127
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:03,240
Speaker 1: is it constituent education that that needs to happen to

1128
01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:06,160
Speaker 1: help make this a success across the country? What? What

1129
01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:09,600
Speaker 1: can everyone who's listening to this today thinking well, I

1130
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:12,200
Speaker 1: want to advocate for this kind of a of a

1131
01:05:12,240 --> 01:05:16,600
Speaker 1: food system in my community. How how do we do that? What?

1132
01:05:16,600 --> 01:05:19,360
Speaker 1: What what action steps do we need to take? Yeah,

1133
01:05:19,400 --> 01:05:21,680
Speaker 1: I mean be aware and then vote with your dollar.

1134
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:24,160
Speaker 1: I mean that's you know, we all feel powerless in

1135
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:27,560
Speaker 1: so many different ways, right, but it's it's not true.

1136
01:05:27,920 --> 01:05:29,960
Speaker 1: And if you can if we can all connect with

1137
01:05:30,040 --> 01:05:32,760
Speaker 1: five or ten people around us and we're all buying

1138
01:05:32,800 --> 01:05:35,840
Speaker 1: goods and products and services that you know that we

1139
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:40,000
Speaker 1: feel strongly about. You don't vote one four years, stop,

1140
01:05:40,160 --> 01:05:43,200
Speaker 1: you vote every day. And so for us again for

1141
01:05:43,280 --> 01:05:45,640
Speaker 1: app harvest, you know, we want to just be one

1142
01:05:45,720 --> 01:05:49,040
Speaker 1: small player and a bigger picture of the American food conversation.

1143
01:05:49,120 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 1: And and again, I mean this is the very active

1144
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:54,600
Speaker 1: I mean, look at beyond meat, impossible burger, whether you

1145
01:05:54,720 --> 01:05:58,120
Speaker 1: like it or don't like it, again somewhat irrelevant. It's

1146
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:01,400
Speaker 1: more of this is the kind versations that that are

1147
01:06:01,440 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 1: playing out with food and and and figure out where

1148
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 1: you be aware of what's going on, and then figure

1149
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:10,439
Speaker 1: out what you support whatever that is. And that could

1150
01:06:10,440 --> 01:06:12,959
Speaker 1: be your local farmer that you know has this type

1151
01:06:12,960 --> 01:06:15,480
Speaker 1: of farming where it's you know, this type of company

1152
01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:18,320
Speaker 1: that's making their product this way. But we all have

1153
01:06:18,440 --> 01:06:22,080
Speaker 1: the power to vote with our dollar, and that alone,

1154
01:06:22,560 --> 01:06:24,880
Speaker 1: you know, that that alone, that's where the we're the

1155
01:06:24,960 --> 01:06:27,960
Speaker 1: largest economic generator in the world right now, we do

1156
01:06:28,040 --> 01:06:31,200
Speaker 1: have the largest we have the largest agriculture economy. And

1157
01:06:31,200 --> 01:06:34,800
Speaker 1: and so if consumers at a whole at large decide

1158
01:06:34,840 --> 01:06:38,600
Speaker 1: to vote with their dollar, this whole ships overnight for us.

1159
01:06:38,680 --> 01:06:41,680
Speaker 1: And we're interested to see how this plays out because

1160
01:06:41,680 --> 01:06:44,919
Speaker 1: we have caught a lot of early attention. We've been

1161
01:06:45,240 --> 01:06:49,200
Speaker 1: fairly influential again behind the scenes, you know, but when

1162
01:06:49,240 --> 01:06:52,120
Speaker 1: it comes to consumers, we will will be producing our

1163
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:55,240
Speaker 1: fruits and vegetables later this year, and and and then

1164
01:06:55,240 --> 01:06:57,880
Speaker 1: it becomes an active conversation. And is it going to

1165
01:06:58,000 --> 01:07:00,320
Speaker 1: be a slow role with us, maybe where is it

1166
01:07:00,360 --> 01:07:03,560
Speaker 1: going to be something that we can elevate the conversation

1167
01:07:03,600 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 1: and people are talking about it and we are voting

1168
01:07:06,400 --> 01:07:08,520
Speaker 1: with our dollar on what food we do and don't buy,

1169
01:07:08,720 --> 01:07:12,360
Speaker 1: what we what we provide to our family. So I'm hopeful,

1170
01:07:13,080 --> 01:07:15,880
Speaker 1: but it's it's going to take leadership at a lot

1171
01:07:15,920 --> 01:07:20,160
Speaker 1: of different levels and activists and artists, with politicians and

1172
01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:23,720
Speaker 1: business leaders, but ultimately it goes down to the everyday

1173
01:07:23,760 --> 01:07:25,680
Speaker 1: person and what do they decided to do with the

1174
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:30,360
Speaker 1: dollar and and and and that's where you know, we'll

1175
01:07:30,440 --> 01:07:32,960
Speaker 1: we'll see It's it's not a one year process for us.

1176
01:07:33,000 --> 01:07:35,280
Speaker 1: We feel like it's a it's a decade long journey.

1177
01:07:35,280 --> 01:07:38,320
Speaker 1: But but we definitely think the time it's a long game.

1178
01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:42,080
Speaker 1: And how can listeners follow the journey? How how can

1179
01:07:42,160 --> 01:07:45,400
Speaker 1: people keep up to date with what you are doing

1180
01:07:45,440 --> 01:07:48,280
Speaker 1: at the company and the kinds of innovation that you

1181
01:07:48,320 --> 01:07:52,080
Speaker 1: guys are helping to champion. Well, later this year, we'll

1182
01:07:52,120 --> 01:07:55,920
Speaker 1: be selling our tomatoes to the top twenty five grocers

1183
01:07:55,920 --> 01:07:59,400
Speaker 1: in the US mainly on the East coast, Midwest, southeast,

1184
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:03,640
Speaker 1: so about the population. So go ahead and start asking

1185
01:08:03,640 --> 01:08:07,840
Speaker 1: your grocer app harvest tomatoes because we'll be it will

1186
01:08:07,840 --> 01:08:10,280
Speaker 1: be a many to all of the largest retailers in

1187
01:08:10,320 --> 01:08:15,520
Speaker 1: the country Walmart, Costco, Krober uh. So you can look

1188
01:08:15,600 --> 01:08:19,720
Speaker 1: us up Google app Harvests. There's some great sitting all

1189
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:23,439
Speaker 1: across the East coastlan here. All right, my friend, my

1190
01:08:23,560 --> 01:08:26,960
Speaker 1: favorite question to ask everyone, and it will be your last,

1191
01:08:27,160 --> 01:08:30,800
Speaker 1: I promise. I'll let you go in a minute. Um.

1192
01:08:31,320 --> 01:08:34,400
Speaker 1: The podcast, as you know, is called work in progress,

1193
01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:38,439
Speaker 1: and I'm curious, from where you sit today, what feels

1194
01:08:38,439 --> 01:08:40,960
Speaker 1: like a work in progress in your life. Yeah, it's

1195
01:08:41,040 --> 01:08:44,719
Speaker 1: it's really for me personally, it's it's trying to enjoy

1196
01:08:44,760 --> 01:08:47,920
Speaker 1: the journey. I mean, there's there's no destination. We all

1197
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:51,880
Speaker 1: only go one place and that's somewhere we pass away

1198
01:08:51,880 --> 01:08:54,439
Speaker 1: and that's that's it. But you know, it's the journey

1199
01:08:54,520 --> 01:08:57,360
Speaker 1: every day and living in the present moment, not getting

1200
01:08:57,360 --> 01:08:59,880
Speaker 1: caught up in what did I do two years ago

1201
01:09:00,080 --> 01:09:02,559
Speaker 1: or two weeks ago? What am I doing in two years? So,

1202
01:09:02,880 --> 01:09:05,040
Speaker 1: you know, the work in progress for me and even

1203
01:09:05,040 --> 01:09:07,080
Speaker 1: the journey for us as a whole at app Harvest

1204
01:09:07,200 --> 01:09:10,320
Speaker 1: is you know, this is very hard work, it's challenging,

1205
01:09:10,320 --> 01:09:14,000
Speaker 1: and we believe we're tackling very big problems that are

1206
01:09:14,040 --> 01:09:16,720
Speaker 1: important to all of us, and the emotions get there

1207
01:09:16,760 --> 01:09:19,040
Speaker 1: and we all get worked up, but you know, trying

1208
01:09:19,080 --> 01:09:21,360
Speaker 1: to understand that, you know, all we have is the

1209
01:09:21,400 --> 01:09:24,400
Speaker 1: present moment and trying to enjoy that journey. It's it's hard,

1210
01:09:24,479 --> 01:09:27,400
Speaker 1: and it's something we all collectively here on this end

1211
01:09:27,560 --> 01:09:29,680
Speaker 1: try to do every day. But but you know, just

1212
01:09:29,720 --> 01:09:31,960
Speaker 1: being cognizant that it's a journey, and so the work

1213
01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:35,080
Speaker 1: in progress is really you know, just enjoying that present

1214
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:38,160
Speaker 1: and the journey of all the way requires kind of

1215
01:09:38,200 --> 01:09:42,120
Speaker 1: a at least for me, I feel like that requires

1216
01:09:42,120 --> 01:09:44,920
Speaker 1: a bit of a daily check in of at my present.

1217
01:09:45,320 --> 01:09:48,679
Speaker 1: Am I am I savoring this even even the hard stuff?

1218
01:09:48,760 --> 01:09:52,559
Speaker 1: Am I really? Am? I really in it? And I

1219
01:09:52,600 --> 01:09:58,360
Speaker 1: think that's a really healthy thing to try to institute. Yeah,

1220
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:01,639
Speaker 1: and that's all we can do, right, So, these big,

1221
01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:05,479
Speaker 1: complex problems that circle the world, and that the fear

1222
01:10:05,479 --> 01:10:08,200
Speaker 1: and anxiety of of of all of it, it can

1223
01:10:08,200 --> 01:10:10,720
Speaker 1: get overwhelming. But I do hope it's the start of

1224
01:10:10,760 --> 01:10:13,880
Speaker 1: a much larger conversation. And do you and friends that

1225
01:10:14,200 --> 01:10:16,600
Speaker 1: they ever want to come hike the Appalachian Trail or

1226
01:10:16,720 --> 01:10:20,400
Speaker 1: visit what we're doing here. We aggward tourism is what

1227
01:10:20,439 --> 01:10:24,120
Speaker 1: our governor. So we we've had a very supportive governor

1228
01:10:24,160 --> 01:10:27,479
Speaker 1: and he's going to be I'm sure it our opening

1229
01:10:27,560 --> 01:10:31,400
Speaker 1: later this year, and we're trying to deem this facility agriturism.

1230
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:33,679
Speaker 1: So anybody and everybody that wants to come check it out,

1231
01:10:34,240 --> 01:10:36,800
Speaker 1: we'll have we'll have uh, we have two point eight

1232
01:10:36,800 --> 01:10:40,040
Speaker 1: million square feet of beautiful vegetables growing on the inside,

1233
01:10:40,080 --> 01:10:43,479
Speaker 1: So hopefully you and some friends can come check it out. Sometimes. Awesome,

1234
01:10:43,600 --> 01:10:46,880
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jonathan. That was great. I'm really

1235
01:10:46,920 --> 01:10:53,640
Speaker 1: really excited about it. Thank you. This show is executive

1236
01:10:53,680 --> 01:10:58,080
Speaker 1: produced by me, Sophia Bush, and sim Sarna. Our associate

1237
01:10:58,120 --> 01:11:02,080
Speaker 1: producer is Kate Linley. Our editor is Josh Wendish, and

1238
01:11:02,160 --> 01:11:04,639
Speaker 1: our music was written by Jack Garrett and produced by

1239
01:11:04,640 --> 01:11:07,320
Speaker 1: Mark Foster. This show is brought to you by Clan

1240
01:11:07,400 --> 01:11:13,519
Speaker 1: Brilliant Anatomy. M h m hm h