WEBVTT 00:00:01.720 --> 00:00:06.157 Today is August 7th 2015. My name is Christi Navarro Male interviewing 00:00:06.190 --> 00:00:11.085 for the A for Arizona State University dinner 2040 project interviewing Mr 00:00:11.118 --> 00:00:15.005 JD Hill. Good morning. Good morning. How are you today? Good. How are you 00:00:15.038 --> 00:00:18.296 ? I'm good, thanks. I just like to talk a little bit about kind of your 00:00:18.329 --> 00:00:25.157 background and how um where you grew up and um about your family. Ok. I 00:00:25.190 --> 00:00:32.375 grew up in uh a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Saint Michael and I was 00:00:32.408 --> 00:00:40.408 raised uh middle class family, typical suburbia um housing development. 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:47.976 Um How did you first? Um Do you have early f food memories or early 00:00:48.009 --> 00:00:52.597 memories with gardening or any early memories that kind of brought you to 00:00:52.630 --> 00:00:56.085 this direction that you've taken? My parents do a little gardening like 00:00:56.118 --> 00:01:00.936 they might plant some flowers, some geraniums, stuff like that. Uh But my 00:01:00.969 --> 00:01:05.727 dad always cooked so he made dinner every single night and he was always 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:12.995 using fresh ingredients and uh making a full dinner meal. So I, I had a 00:01:13.028 --> 00:01:19.367 little bit of exposure to food growing up. But uh I really kind of found 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:24.566 my own path in college. Ok. So let's talk about eating dinner together and 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:28.055 why that was important for your family, uh, brought us to the table 00:01:28.088 --> 00:01:31.337 together every single night. So we could talk about, you know, what 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:35.915 happened that day and my parents could, uh, you know, stay in touch with 00:01:35.948 --> 00:01:39.956 their kids and, and know, you know what's going on, what kind of issues 00:01:39.989 --> 00:01:45.745 they're dealing with and talk about things that are important. Do you 00:01:45.778 --> 00:01:49.697 remember helping your dad cook with him? No, he was kind of king in the 00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:57.730 kitchen. Uh, you know, get away of cooking 00:01:58.058 --> 00:02:01.796 any favorite dishes that he served that you returned. I always liked this 00:02:01.829 --> 00:02:06.197 bow tie pasta that he would make. 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:11.005 Hey, don't have spaghetti was the one I one I asked earlier. So it seems 00:02:11.038 --> 00:02:14.136 to be kind of the Italian dish and everything. So, tell me a little bit 00:02:14.169 --> 00:02:19.005 about why in college and why that turned around. And, um, in college I met 00:02:19.038 --> 00:02:25.106 , uh, a student. He was, uh, an ex army ranger, um, older, I think he was 00:02:25.139 --> 00:02:30.737 like 35 years old and he, we became friends, we met in philosophy class 00:02:30.770 --> 00:02:36.696 and he really put an impression on me. He exposed me to a lot of new 00:02:36.729 --> 00:02:41.957 things. I just moved here. I was 19 years old freshman just out of high 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:47.856 school, lived with my parents my whole life in a nice suburbia area. So he 00:02:47.889 --> 00:02:51.656 really exposed me to a lot of new things and things. I had never thought 00:02:51.689 --> 00:02:58.987 of and thing, you know. So he was really into food. He uh was a, um, a 00:02:59.020 --> 00:03:07.020 physical trainer and very spiritual and in touch with his diet. So kind of 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:15.116 inspired me to get more uh information and knowledge about what's going on 00:03:15.149 --> 00:03:19.275 in food and think about my food. Actually, I was really big into zebra 00:03:19.308 --> 00:03:24.686 cakes. Um, growing up, so at, at school lunch, you had the A la carte line 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:28.696 and then the hot lunch line and I'd always go to the A la carte line and I 00:03:28.729 --> 00:03:35.616 get a zebra cake, pretzel cheese and a Gatorade every single day. And then 00:03:35.649 --> 00:03:43.066 I would crash hard right after lunch in the next class. So I really didn't 00:03:43.099 --> 00:03:47.786 have any kind of thoughts or, you know, I really didn't think about what 00:03:47.819 --> 00:03:54.096 food was and the relationship it had with my body until I met him and he 00:03:54.129 --> 00:03:58.166 really kind of opened me up to it all or some kind of, can you give me 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:00.636 some highlights that are things that he shared with you? Would that kind 00:04:00.669 --> 00:04:06.237 of change? Turn, turned you to this new direction. He just would talk 00:04:06.270 --> 00:04:10.156 about the importance of a balanced diet. So getting all your, your 00:04:10.189 --> 00:04:13.327 vitamins that you need, getting the protein that you need, getting the 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:18.877 carbohydrates that you need kind of uh mathematical more about it like, 00:04:18.910 --> 00:04:22.176 hey, you know, you need to be eating this much of this, you need to be 00:04:22.209 --> 00:04:25.437 eating that much of that because he was really into physical training and 00:04:25.470 --> 00:04:31.007 , you know, gaining muscle mass and stuff like that. So, that's how I 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:37.116 first started to get into food was just, you know, him telling me, you 00:04:37.149 --> 00:04:40.567 know, you gotta be eating this much of this, that much of that where I had 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:44.317 never thought about any of those things. But did you start to slowly 00:04:44.350 --> 00:04:49.055 change your diet? Yeah. So when I started working out with him freshman 00:04:49.088 --> 00:04:54.075 year, uh, I'd go to the gym with him five days a week and he kind of just 00:04:54.108 --> 00:04:59.217 trained me for free, just being friends and then we'd go back to his place. 00:04:59.250 --> 00:05:04.476 He'd make shakes, he'd make a meal, you know. So I started, uh, 00:05:04.509 --> 00:05:09.455 definitely changing my diet. I was still really heavy into hungry Howie's 00:05:09.488 --> 00:05:16.026 and, uh, all other kinds of great food around here. But, uh, slowly over, 00:05:16.059 --> 00:05:22.015 uh, five years at a su and, uh, continuing my friendship with him, it 00:05:22.048 --> 00:05:28.026 evolved and got, you know, deeper and deeper and more serious about what I 00:05:28.059 --> 00:05:33.507 was putting into my body. And how did the, I mean, was it a gradual change 00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:37.805 ? Was it a quick change? I mean, it was gradual. I definitely saw results 00:05:37.838 --> 00:05:44.156 , um, much healthier than I was in high school. Um, I looked healthier. I 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:49.866 felt healthier. I had more energy. Um, so that was all really good 00:05:49.899 --> 00:05:57.325 reinforcing things. Um, so tell me a little bit about, um, your bus, the 00:05:57.358 --> 00:06:02.555 name of your business and kind of its mission and its goals. Uh The name 00:06:02.588 --> 00:06:07.947 is Recycled City LLC and our mission is to build a circular economy in the 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:13.995 local food system. So we want to take food back to food. So 40% of all the 00:06:14.028 --> 00:06:18.015 food waste or 40% of all the food that's grown in the country goes to a 00:06:18.048 --> 00:06:26.048 landfill. And um that's a lot of food and we're destroying our soils to 00:06:26.189 --> 00:06:31.416 grow that food. So I kind of think of it as we're, you know, kind of 00:06:31.449 --> 00:06:37.916 extracting soil from the earth and then shipping it to the landfill. And 00:06:37.949 --> 00:06:42.825 uh local organic agriculture has become very popular over the last 15 00:06:42.858 --> 00:06:49.245 years. And I think it's gonna keep growing in popularity and more people 00:06:49.278 --> 00:06:52.796 are gonna continue to support local and organic food. And if we want that 00:06:52.829 --> 00:07:00.546 , that depends on the soil. So we can't have a system where we send 40% of 00:07:00.579 --> 00:07:05.856 all the food waste to the or 40% of all the food to the, to the landfill 00:07:05.889 --> 00:07:12.447 or incinerator that's not gonna work out. So, um I wanted to do something 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:17.856 about that and change it. And uh I went to the school sustainability and 00:07:17.889 --> 00:07:24.257 got a business sustainability degree um along with a finance degree from 00:07:24.290 --> 00:07:28.757 WP Carey school business and I got a certificate in small business 00:07:28.790 --> 00:07:34.567 entrepreneurship. Um So that kind of all those things, all my education in 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:38.955 college kind of culminated together the finance, the sustainability, the 00:07:38.988 --> 00:07:45.495 entrepreneurship. And I came up with this idea after seeing a lot of other 00:07:45.528 --> 00:07:52.666 similar start ups and other metropolitan cities across the country um to 00:07:52.699 --> 00:07:59.887 get people to be activists in their local food system. So what we've done 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:06.205 so far is we have 250 residential customers that we service on a weekly or 00:08:06.238 --> 00:08:10.555 a biweekly basis and 30 businesses, the more majority of them are 00:08:10.588 --> 00:08:14.026 restaurants. Some are food trucks, some are cafe, uh corporate cafeterias 00:08:14.059 --> 00:08:18.336 , some are offices. A couple are schools 00:08:18.369 --> 00:08:24.447 and we launched a local food guide just recently on our website. So now 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:29.007 anybody can go there. And if they want to be an activist in their local 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:33.346 food system and they want the places that are generating the most amount 00:08:33.379 --> 00:08:40.226 of food waste to start recycling that food waste into a resource. 00:08:40.259 --> 00:08:44.375 Um They can go to our local food guide and find out all the restaurants, 00:08:44.408 --> 00:08:50.515 the locally made vendor producers, uh coffee shops that are doing are 00:08:50.548 --> 00:08:55.895 practicing this and are strictly building farmland. So we're not a typical 00:08:55.928 --> 00:08:59.936 compost company where we're gonna collect compost and transform it into 00:08:59.969 --> 00:09:05.895 compost and then sell it. We are strictly building farmland. So 100% of 00:09:05.928 --> 00:09:09.616 our collection goes to building farmland because that's the most important 00:09:09.649 --> 00:09:14.696 thing. It's not too important to build golf courses. You know, highway 00:09:14.729 --> 00:09:18.446 plantings are nice. I don't know how resilient they're gonna make our 00:09:18.479 --> 00:09:24.076 cities but farmland is the key to the future. We all eat food. That's what 00:09:24.109 --> 00:09:28.515 sustains us. Our farmland is going in the opposite direction that it needs 00:09:28.548 --> 00:09:34.956 to. And there's a resource we could use to really benefit that farmland or 00:09:34.989 --> 00:09:40.956 even build farm new farmland in urban settings, vertical gardening with 00:09:40.989 --> 00:09:46.226 that resource we're just sending to the landfill. So we, we take that and 00:09:46.259 --> 00:09:52.217 you know, hopefully build uh farmland in a, in a, in a sustainable local 00:09:52.250 --> 00:09:55.856 circular food system. Let's talk a little bit about your business 00:09:55.889 --> 00:10:00.096 background. Um How has that been instrumental in helping your business um 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:07.846 move forward? Um I think it's been very important. 00:10:07.879 --> 00:10:11.057 I mean, you're, you're coming from almost two different areas, a very 00:10:11.090 --> 00:10:15.787 corporate mindset and then the sustainability. So how do you think your 00:10:15.820 --> 00:10:21.326 business um accommodates both? Well, I'm always thinking about growth and 00:10:21.359 --> 00:10:28.246 that's essential for a for profit business. You want to grow, kind of 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:34.255 almost by any means possible. Um So I'm always thinking about that because 00:10:34.288 --> 00:10:38.515 that's what's going on. Fuel, our success is growing and increasing 00:10:38.548 --> 00:10:43.717 revenues. And um but we also have to think about the social aspect of the 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:49.125 business. So that's why we're and environmental side. So there's three 00:10:49.158 --> 00:10:54.807 pillars of sustainability, there's economic, social, environmental, and 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:59.625 we're building a business that's hitting on all three because that's what 00:10:59.658 --> 00:11:03.407 a su taught me to do. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:08.736 Um So, yeah, we're, we're thinking about all three, all the time and I 00:11:08.769 --> 00:11:15.287 think over the next 5 to 10 years since now, it sustainability is kind of 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:20.427 being put in everybody's education, even in elementary schools. Now 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:25.927 they're starting to do these programs. Um We're gonna get rewarded for our 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:31.525 business practices. So it'll end up being a, a responsible thing, but 00:11:31.558 --> 00:11:37.696 it'll also drive uh revenues and market shares and customer loyalty 00:11:37.729 --> 00:11:42.196 because we're doing the right things, you know, in all three areas. So how 00:11:42.229 --> 00:11:45.586 did you get started with this idea? I mean, this is kind of, this is a 00:11:45.619 --> 00:11:52.537 very different, unique idea for this area. Um I was watching a lot of uh 00:11:52.570 --> 00:11:57.816 well, in my sustainability uh course work I focused on food. So I did all 00:11:57.849 --> 00:12:04.515 my research projects on food. Um and that really opened me up to the fact 00:12:04.548 --> 00:12:09.717 that agriculture is the number one issue. Uh If we want to address climate 00:12:09.750 --> 00:12:15.005 change, agriculture admits 50% of all the greenhouse gas emissions, all 00:12:15.038 --> 00:12:19.625 the transportation in the in the world, trucks, fleet vehicles, uh 00:12:19.658 --> 00:12:26.217 commuter cars, 18% of all the greenhouse gas emissions. Um And then you 00:12:26.250 --> 00:12:32.236 got that whole food aspect that we live off of food. So agriculture is uh 00:12:32.269 --> 00:12:37.667 and after going through sustainability course work, uh in my opinion, 00:12:37.700 --> 00:12:41.476 agriculture is the number one issue and the facts seem to point that out 00:12:41.509 --> 00:12:46.956 as well. Um So thinking about that, it's like, all right, you know, I want 00:12:46.989 --> 00:12:52.255 to make a difference in sustainability. Um looks like agriculture is a 00:12:52.288 --> 00:13:00.288 huge opportunity to, to do something. And um soil is gonna kind of be the 00:13:00.460 --> 00:13:08.460 foundation for uh our future in sustainable ecological organic farming. 00:13:08.710 --> 00:13:13.885 Local farming soil is gonna be the foundation of it. So how do we, you 00:13:13.918 --> 00:13:19.895 know, make sure we're gonna have enough farmland and so good soil to 00:13:19.928 --> 00:13:26.326 support that kind of future. So, and uh right currently, we're sending a 00:13:26.359 --> 00:13:33.316 40% of all the food to the landfill. So right away, that's a great place 00:13:33.349 --> 00:13:38.505 to start is by not letting that stuff get to the landfill and covering it 00:13:38.538 --> 00:13:44.446 and transforming it into a resource that we can use to make our city more 00:13:44.479 --> 00:13:51.076 resilient or regenerate farmland or, or build new farmland or supply uh 00:13:51.109 --> 00:13:55.726 aquaponics or greenhouse uh growing 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:59.135 vertical gardening with compost that they're gonna need to grow the, the 00:13:59.168 --> 00:14:04.116 crops and, and new urban environments. And what are some of the challenges 00:14:04.149 --> 00:14:11.096 that you've encountered as you in your business? Um capital? So uh capital 00:14:11.129 --> 00:14:18.515 is definitely a huge challenge raising capital. That's something that um 00:14:18.548 --> 00:14:21.807 is very, very important. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:26.226 So capital has been a challenge. Um 00:14:26.259 --> 00:14:30.226 Besides capital, human, it's kind of just capital issues. So it's there. 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:34.736 You got financial capital and you got human capital. Those are the two 00:14:34.769 --> 00:14:40.976 biggest challenges for a start up business of that um that we've started 00:14:41.009 --> 00:14:45.275 recycled city. That's the two main challenges. Tell me about the human 00:14:45.308 --> 00:14:52.265 capital challenges. Um So without financial capital it's difficult to get 00:14:52.298 --> 00:15:00.298 the human capital in. So this is, um, a sort of thing that, you know, we 00:15:00.649 --> 00:15:04.787 either have to raise financial capital or we have to find people that are 00:15:04.820 --> 00:15:09.336 very, very skilled, but they're also very passionate and knowledgeable 00:15:09.369 --> 00:15:16.356 about the sustainable local food system. So, finding those people in all 00:15:16.389 --> 00:15:20.336 those circumstances, it's difficult. Right. And having volunteer I'm 00:15:20.369 --> 00:15:24.967 guessing is a challenge as well. Right. Yeah. So we don't have any 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:30.547 volunteers. Um We're a for profit business. So we, we uh have three owners 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:35.186 , three co-owner of the business and then we have a couple of contract 00:15:35.219 --> 00:15:37.755 workers 00:15:37.788 --> 00:15:41.436 and you have to do you have to maintain, I mean, pick up all of the 00:15:41.469 --> 00:15:45.596 explain to me what your business does. Now give me the details of that. So 00:15:45.629 --> 00:15:50.515 we provide a residential and a commercial service uh for the residential 00:15:50.548 --> 00:15:55.407 service. We drop off a five gallon pickle bucket with an airtight lid and 00:15:55.440 --> 00:16:00.206 a liner inside the bin. And then we give you a small lunch bag like a 00:16:00.239 --> 00:16:04.836 paper lunch bag. You'd send your kid to school with, with Bok. And Bo 00:16:04.869 --> 00:16:10.846 Kashi is a compost accelerant slash odor preventer. And it's made out of 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:15.797 spent grain that we get from local breweries. So this bok already made 00:16:15.830 --> 00:16:20.375 beer and now we're using it to prevent odor and accelerate the compost 00:16:20.408 --> 00:16:27.946 process. Um So we drop off the, the bin, the lid, uh the Bo Kashi and then 00:16:27.979 --> 00:16:32.657 the resident, be it at a single family home condominium apartment. They'll 00:16:32.690 --> 00:16:38.346 add their food waste and paper towels and other compostable materials into 00:16:38.379 --> 00:16:42.726 the bin and set it outside on their service day. And then we come by and 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:47.395 make an exchange. They get a sanitized bin every single week, new clean 00:16:47.428 --> 00:16:54.696 bin, uh new liner, another bag of the Boka. And uh the cycle kind of 00:16:54.729 --> 00:17:00.307 repeats itself week to week and we bring all the compost to a local farm 00:17:00.340 --> 00:17:05.107 and then transform the materials actually into compost. And then the 00:17:05.140 --> 00:17:09.967 resident decides what happens to the compost. It's either gonna go back to 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:16.226 them for their gardening or it's gonna stay at the uh nonprofit local farm 00:17:16.259 --> 00:17:21.857 that we work with and be used to support them. They have seven acres, uh a 00:17:21.890 --> 00:17:28.696 couple acres of orchard and then a new 20 acre property in South Phoenix 00:17:28.729 --> 00:17:33.075 in a, in a USDA food desert. And they have a bunch of missions on uh 00:17:33.108 --> 00:17:39.085 getting food into families that need it and food accessibility and 00:17:39.118 --> 00:17:42.656 the social equity issues. So let's talk a little bit about the farm that 00:17:42.689 --> 00:17:45.295 you're a partner with. Can you name the farm? And can you explain what 00:17:45.328 --> 00:17:51.597 those kind of what the vision or what this farm does and how it helps with 00:17:51.630 --> 00:17:57.367 food justice? So the farm is the orchard Community learning center. It's 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:04.706 in South Phoenix off of Baseline Road and Ninth Avenue and it was started 00:18:04.739 --> 00:18:11.607 by a man named John Juan and he was a principal in the school district for 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:19.075 21 years at Valley View elementary school and he started the Orchard 00:18:19.108 --> 00:18:23.647 Community Learning Center um a few years ago, less I think, less than five 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:31.680 years ago. Um And what they do is they hold like camps and activities for 00:18:31.959 --> 00:18:37.276 kids and they teach them science, technology, engineering, math, and 00:18:37.309 --> 00:18:45.075 agriculture. Um And then they also have a market where you can go and you 00:18:45.108 --> 00:18:49.916 can actually use your food stamps to purchase vegetables. So their mission 00:18:49.949 --> 00:18:56.186 , the orchard Community Learning Center's mission is to get food into the 00:18:56.219 --> 00:19:01.535 families that need it, make it accessible. So they don't have income 00:19:01.568 --> 00:19:06.785 hurdles to access to healthy food and then to teach the future generations 00:19:06.818 --> 00:19:12.367 about, you know, the systems that make this possible. Why do you think 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:16.276 it's important to teach the future generations about the food? I mean, 00:19:16.309 --> 00:19:21.016 good food and things that healthy food because they're gonna be the 00:19:21.049 --> 00:19:25.835 decision. Uh These people are gonna be the decision makers in the future. 00:19:25.868 --> 00:19:31.936 So impacting them at a young, young age is gonna have a much higher 00:19:31.969 --> 00:19:39.656 probability of them making different lifestyle choices as they go forward. 00:19:39.689 --> 00:19:44.217 And how does it feel for you to be part of this? Feels great, you know, 00:19:44.250 --> 00:19:48.686 and this is exactly what I want to be doing. Um I, I see a lot of 00:19:48.719 --> 00:19:56.719 interconnections with uh food and uh health and just circumstantial issues. 00:19:57.209 --> 00:20:01.805 So I think we can really utilize a resource that we're sending to the 00:20:01.838 --> 00:20:07.377 landfill to kind of fuel, you know, this whole regeneration of agriculture 00:20:07.410 --> 00:20:12.045 and community. And let's talk a little bit about this movement, the in the 00:20:12.078 --> 00:20:16.916 local organic uh movement that's happening in Phoenix. Kind of, can you 00:20:16.949 --> 00:20:23.585 tell me a little bit about it? And um how have you seen a change? Yeah. So 00:20:23.618 --> 00:20:30.637 I started going to the Phoenix Public Farmers Market in 2006, 2007. Uh I 00:20:30.670 --> 00:20:36.107 don't know when it started, but um when I noticed when that one started 00:20:36.140 --> 00:20:39.805 over the last like 10 years, a lot of farmers markets have started around 00:20:39.838 --> 00:20:46.156 here, there's a lot more of them. So people are looking for it. And um 00:20:46.189 --> 00:20:51.315 when I just go into like the big box retailers, even like Safeway fries, 00:20:51.348 --> 00:20:53.686 uh Costco, 00:20:53.719 --> 00:20:59.717 there's a lot more um organic, even locally sourced products at these 00:20:59.750 --> 00:21:04.726 stores. So um there's a, I see a lot of momentum and, and there's 00:21:04.759 --> 00:21:10.446 definitely been a lot of growth in it. So do you see um how will this help 00:21:10.479 --> 00:21:16.756 this movement help your business? It's, it's the, it's the key ingredient 00:21:16.789 --> 00:21:23.295 to the business. Um That's the demand that we're living off of is the 00:21:23.328 --> 00:21:30.535 people that wanna see a local sustainable organic food system um without 00:21:30.568 --> 00:21:34.867 the growth and in that uh in that industry, we want to, we want to have a 00:21:34.900 --> 00:21:41.065 business. So what is your hope that uh by 2040 how your business will 00:21:41.098 --> 00:21:45.986 change and evolve? What do you think that will, will be look like? So we 00:21:46.019 --> 00:21:54.019 wanna be uh managing uh waste for municipalities, businesses and 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:00.976 transforming it either through anaerobic digestion into energy and then 00:22:01.009 --> 00:22:08.835 into a compost product or straight into farmland. Um When you, when you 00:22:08.868 --> 00:22:14.436 start to do a lot of composting, um it's sometimes difficult to find 00:22:14.469 --> 00:22:19.926 enough farmers to utilize all that compost for farming. So what we wanna 00:22:19.959 --> 00:22:27.357 do is build a very, very large farming operation that we can uh use the 00:22:27.390 --> 00:22:34.236 compost for and then sell back to restaurants, wholesalers, institutional 00:22:34.269 --> 00:22:40.967 buyers um and kind of control and have a part in a lot of different parts 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:46.887 of the food system. So kind of where if you think of a circle, um we want 00:22:46.920 --> 00:22:51.597 to be at the end of the cycle where the waste is used to go to the 00:22:51.630 --> 00:22:56.967 landfill. And we want to transform that into resources, be it via energy 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:03.137 and compost and then use the compost for farming and be able to sell that 00:23:03.170 --> 00:23:09.065 produce back into the compost collection market that we're building. Uh 00:23:09.098 --> 00:23:13.867 The biggest hurdle in farming is uh not growing the stuff, it's 00:23:13.900 --> 00:23:19.236 distributing it and selling it. Uh There's a ton of waste and just produce 00:23:19.269 --> 00:23:24.065 that isn't sold or purchased once it is bought by Safeway and then it gets 00:23:24.098 --> 00:23:29.117 to the shelf, it's not sold. Um And then a lot of smaller farmers that 00:23:29.150 --> 00:23:33.045 sell directly to consumer, they're gonna have a lot of waste too. You know 00:23:33.078 --> 00:23:36.776 , they'll have an acre of lettuce in the field and they'll sell half acre 00:23:36.809 --> 00:23:43.416 because that's all the farmers market purchased. So by building a compost 00:23:43.449 --> 00:23:48.916 collection, uh list of customers, that's our, that's our customer list for 00:23:48.949 --> 00:23:53.147 selling the produce. So we envision um and we just launched the 00:23:53.180 --> 00:23:57.065 residential version of this. When we pick up your compost bucket at your 00:23:57.098 --> 00:24:02.186 house, we're gonna drop off a box of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers 00:24:02.219 --> 00:24:07.426 from uh the orchard Community Learning Center where the compost is used to 00:24:07.459 --> 00:24:12.815 grow that stuff. So that's the start of that, that full circle and, and 00:24:12.848 --> 00:24:18.815 what I'm talking about and by, by 2040 so that'd be in, in 25 years. You 00:24:18.848 --> 00:24:23.746 know, we think we want to scale that up, go into other markets and really 00:24:23.779 --> 00:24:30.736 be uh a major player uh nationally, if not internationally in uh creating 00:24:30.769 --> 00:24:36.295 these circular systems in food. What is the role of education in teaching 00:24:36.328 --> 00:24:41.656 people how to do this or how to be open to your idea? How do you, how do 00:24:41.689 --> 00:24:45.026 you convince people to? Well, if everybody could go through the 00:24:45.059 --> 00:24:50.186 sustainability program that I went through, I think that would do it. And 00:24:50.219 --> 00:24:54.805 if they can, how do you, how do you make them open their eyes to what's 00:24:54.838 --> 00:25:01.656 happening in the community itself? Well, um I think it's through uh direct 00:25:01.689 --> 00:25:07.847 engagement either social media or distributing um information, either on 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:14.565 our, even our website or in physical form that they can, they can read on 00:25:14.598 --> 00:25:18.476 their own time and, and start to educate themselves and we can provide the 00:25:18.509 --> 00:25:24.315 resources for them to self educate. I think that's very, very important 00:25:24.348 --> 00:25:30.867 and it's going to be a key to our success is um helping, is educating 00:25:30.900 --> 00:25:36.706 people on what the importance and why we're doing what we're doing and why 00:25:36.739 --> 00:25:39.016 would you tell them you're doing what you're doing? What would you tell 00:25:39.049 --> 00:25:47.049 them because it's the most important uh this. So I, I would say that, what 00:25:48.838 --> 00:25:54.266 was the question if you had, if you had a potential customer sitting here 00:25:54.299 --> 00:25:57.535 , if I'm a potential customer, how would you convince me that I should 00:25:57.568 --> 00:26:03.526 participate? I should hire you to have one of your bins come in. Do you 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:08.446 want there to be a local organic food system or do you want agriculture to 00:26:08.479 --> 00:26:13.516 get more genetically and chemically driven? And if you want it to be more 00:26:13.549 --> 00:26:18.617 local and organic, then you need to start recycling all your food waste 00:26:18.650 --> 00:26:24.156 and not just into compost but into farmland. So then we can have that 00:26:24.189 --> 00:26:31.956 local farmland to sustain local populations. And we're not trucking or 00:26:31.989 --> 00:26:37.617 transporting food from far distances and there's a ton of different uh 00:26:37.650 --> 00:26:42.486 negative consequences to that be it. You know, nutrition goes down in the 00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:48.676 food. There's a lot more fossil fuels and pollution So by building local 00:26:48.709 --> 00:26:54.137 farmland, you're gonna give the dream that you wanna see a chance. Whereas 00:26:54.170 --> 00:26:59.196 if you just keep throwing this into the garbage, the person next door is 00:26:59.229 --> 00:27:03.717 gonna keep doing that too. You know, you gotta be that local activist if 00:27:03.750 --> 00:27:09.107 you want to see that happen. Well, 00:27:09.140 --> 00:27:13.575 you have convinced me. Can you explain to me why uh kind of the full 00:27:13.608 --> 00:27:17.325 circle and your role in this full circle that you've mentioned, kind of a 00:27:17.358 --> 00:27:20.575 full circle. Can you tell me a little bit about your role in that and how 00:27:20.608 --> 00:27:25.555 that's important to the food sustainability? Uh Could you ask the question 00:27:25.588 --> 00:27:28.367 one more time? Sure. Sure. Um And it's probably not, I'm not phrasing it 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:33.305 correctly. So you have a part in this full circle of food sustainability. 00:27:33.338 --> 00:27:38.335 Can you explain your role in that? Yeah, our role in the in the full 00:27:38.368 --> 00:27:45.825 circle is right at the end of uh recovering the compostable materials 00:27:45.858 --> 00:27:53.436 before it goes to the landfill and then transforming that into new soil 00:27:53.469 --> 00:28:00.377 and fertilizer compost and then you um using that compost product in 00:28:00.410 --> 00:28:08.295 farming and then far uh selling the the produce either to wholesalers, 00:28:08.328 --> 00:28:16.328 institutional buyers, direct to consumer, direct to business. And then uh 00:28:18.618 --> 00:28:23.607 but uh so that's, that's where we see our ourselves fitting in. So that's 00:28:23.640 --> 00:28:28.936 a huge part of the, the circle. So we're going to be, we want to be 00:28:28.969 --> 00:28:35.315 involved in a big part of it. So, and how did you go decide to go to the 00:28:35.348 --> 00:28:43.348 residential um sector first? Uh So we did residential first because uh we 00:28:43.559 --> 00:28:50.295 were bootstrapping it and uh to pick up commercial waste is uh a lot more 00:28:50.328 --> 00:28:53.746 capital intensive. You need a bigger truck, you need bigger land, you need 00:28:53.779 --> 00:28:59.617 more equipment, more water. Um Just the demand, the resource demands are a 00:28:59.650 --> 00:29:04.357 lot higher. So I started it by doing it for free for like 10 people. And I 00:29:04.390 --> 00:29:09.377 did it for a couple of months and I just started doing that because I saw 00:29:09.410 --> 00:29:13.295 that businesses in other metropolitan cities had started, I think the 00:29:13.328 --> 00:29:16.776 first one was uh in 2010 00:29:16.809 --> 00:29:24.147 and uh over on the east coast. And uh so I started doing it for free and I 00:29:24.180 --> 00:29:27.986 was like, all right, you know, I think this is gonna work. So we started 00:29:28.019 --> 00:29:32.986 charging our customers our residential customers and we built a website 00:29:33.019 --> 00:29:38.926 and social media page and uh filed the licensing with the Arizona 00:29:38.959 --> 00:29:44.736 Corporation Commission and kind of just started going for it and, you know 00:29:44.769 --> 00:29:49.756 , doing farmers markets, signing people up and 00:29:49.789 --> 00:29:55.906 we offer a 14 day free trial. So it's no risk for anybody to sign up. You 00:29:55.939 --> 00:30:00.367 can just uh sign up for the 14 day free trial. We drop a bin off and we 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:04.726 make two pickups and then you decide if you wanna, if this is something 00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:09.186 you want to do. So it's really easy for somebody to at least give it a try. 00:30:09.219 --> 00:30:13.976 What's the reaction from some of your long term customers? Uh They, 00:30:14.009 --> 00:30:19.156 they're making this difference. Everybody's super excited about what 00:30:19.189 --> 00:30:24.815 they're doing. And uh it's really, it's really rewarding to see, you know 00:30:24.848 --> 00:30:31.575 , other people just coming together and kind of seeing the same vision and 00:30:31.608 --> 00:30:38.305 then getting more people involved. Um For the first, I'd say, like year, 00:30:38.338 --> 00:30:42.897 I'd say our customers were a little hesitant to start referring other 00:30:42.930 --> 00:30:47.446 people. So our referral side of the business was really, really low. But 00:30:47.479 --> 00:30:53.055 over the last few months, I've seen a big change in that and we're getting 00:30:53.088 --> 00:30:57.117 um a lot of because we have a free trial page on our website and there's a 00:30:57.150 --> 00:31:03.756 referred by section and now I'm seeing a lot more, you know, Jenna or, you 00:31:03.789 --> 00:31:07.526 know, names of, of our customers. So they're, there's, they're getting 00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:14.166 more confidence in our, in our business. And the big uh thing that we got 00:31:14.199 --> 00:31:19.656 to do is the education part there is we have to uh further educate our 00:31:19.689 --> 00:31:25.085 customers on how to speak about this because that's really what's gonna 00:31:25.118 --> 00:31:30.127 start driving is making, turning all of our, our compost customers into 00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:36.196 sales people because we, we're all in this together. You know, we, this is 00:31:36.229 --> 00:31:40.825 a, this is a very good thing to be, to be working towards. So our 00:31:40.858 --> 00:31:45.545 customers believe in what we're doing. So now we just got to educate them 00:31:45.578 --> 00:31:51.666 on how to do it at first, they, I don't think they really knew how, like I 00:31:51.699 --> 00:31:55.305 , you probably would have had to go to the school of sustainability to, to 00:31:55.338 --> 00:32:01.166 sell this thing. Um But now after six months to a year of watching our 00:32:01.199 --> 00:32:05.835 Facebook posts and, and maybe meeting me at a farmer's market or something 00:32:05.868 --> 00:32:10.946 like that, people are, are, are getting it and, and learning how to talk 00:32:10.979 --> 00:32:15.196 about it. Why do you think that interaction is so important? Um with your 00:32:15.229 --> 00:32:19.676 customers of that one on one? And that level of trust? I hear trust is a 00:32:19.709 --> 00:32:25.256 big key in this or in the organic movement. Yep, that's what trust is a 00:32:25.289 --> 00:32:33.289 huge thing. Um And it's really important for uh our customers to meet us 00:32:34.650 --> 00:32:39.746 in person because uh for my feedback, they, they really see how genuine 00:32:39.779 --> 00:32:45.387 that we are about this and uh how much passion we have for this so that, 00:32:45.420 --> 00:32:51.367 you know, gives them a lot more incentive to um support it. Are they 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:55.746 surprised by the amount of waste that they have just the one family 00:32:55.779 --> 00:33:03.315 themselves? Um Some are, I think, I think a lot of people have sort of had 00:33:03.348 --> 00:33:09.006 their head around around it. Um because we, we eat food every single day 00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:14.946 and uh you know, we're, we're always cutting watermelons up or making a 00:33:14.979 --> 00:33:20.426 tomato pasta and every single day, all of us, you know, have that 00:33:20.459 --> 00:33:25.295 experience of throwing the food into the garbage and a lot of people are, 00:33:25.328 --> 00:33:31.065 do I know I felt like this, uh, before I even started doing composting, 00:33:31.098 --> 00:33:35.147 you know, when you throw it into the trash, you're like, hm. You know, 00:33:35.180 --> 00:33:42.256 like, it doesn't make sense, but I don't know what else to do. 00:33:42.289 --> 00:33:46.065 That's very true for all of us. Right. 00:33:46.098 --> 00:33:49.555 And so talk to me a little bit about the composting and how long it takes 00:33:49.588 --> 00:33:55.176 , kind of how long that procedure takes. It takes uh, 4 to 6 months the 00:33:55.209 --> 00:34:00.246 way we do it. So we do hot composting in windrows, active windows. So we 00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:04.717 turn them twice a week, we water them, they get up to over 100 and 30 00:34:04.750 --> 00:34:12.026 degrees for 15 days. Um, turn it five times and then we soil analysis it 00:34:12.059 --> 00:34:18.217 and food safety test it. Ok. Can you tell me a little bit about, um, your 00:34:18.250 --> 00:34:22.816 , do you have any concerns over the industry's power within the food 00:34:22.849 --> 00:34:30.849 system? Yeah, I have concerns. Um, my, my biggest concern, I would say 00:34:30.938 --> 00:34:35.287 like at the top of the, the food system, my biggest concern for the top of 00:34:35.320 --> 00:34:41.456 the food system is, uh, like the organic certification board, um, at a 00:34:41.489 --> 00:34:46.227 national level and that's kind of works the same as our political system 00:34:46.260 --> 00:34:53.256 where money wins. So there's a, I have a lot of concerns about that and uh 00:34:53.289 --> 00:34:59.336 about the, the, what would you say the quality of organic food or the, the 00:34:59.369 --> 00:35:03.336 ethical this or I I don't think I'm thinking of the right word, but 00:35:03.369 --> 00:35:07.095 basically what I'm saying is, is it really organic? It has that USDA 00:35:07.128 --> 00:35:12.376 organic label on it. But what pesticides, what chemicals are being 00:35:12.409 --> 00:35:20.155 approved for organic uh production? And that's decided by this board, um, 00:35:20.188 --> 00:35:24.727 at the USDA Organic Certification Board and, you know, just like 00:35:24.760 --> 00:35:29.936 everything else, certain people are gonna get into those positions, um, 00:35:29.969 --> 00:35:36.827 through the same means as politics really works and, and the way I see it 00:35:36.860 --> 00:35:42.606 , so that's a huge concern and, but it's a huge opportunity too because we 00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:47.956 can, we can recycled city can use that as an educating tool for the 00:35:47.989 --> 00:35:55.517 customers. So we're not tied to USDA organic certification in any single 00:35:55.550 --> 00:36:02.956 way. So by educating our con our customers on the difference between 00:36:02.989 --> 00:36:08.896 organic produce and then produce that we grow, we could, you know, use 00:36:08.929 --> 00:36:12.945 that, you know, will concern 00:36:12.978 --> 00:36:18.986 um in our favor and by, you know, educating the customer about, hey, you 00:36:19.019 --> 00:36:22.376 know, there's, there's still pesticides in organic production, you know, 00:36:22.409 --> 00:36:27.936 there's still mono crops, you know, we're still destroying a lot of soil. 00:36:27.969 --> 00:36:32.396 I I hear the, the, the thread of soil being the kind of the, the 00:36:32.429 --> 00:36:36.997 foundation and that's the important factor is what I keep hearing from you. 00:36:37.030 --> 00:36:40.666 How do you teach people because I always think about the food, but they 00:36:40.699 --> 00:36:44.977 never think about the soil. And how do you, how do you educate people 00:36:45.010 --> 00:36:51.526 about the importance of soil. And so I think you gotta talk about how the 00:36:51.559 --> 00:36:57.206 plants that you eat grow and what, what feels their growth and that, 00:36:57.239 --> 00:37:04.747 that's the interconnections that are happening in the soil. Um Plants feed 00:37:04.780 --> 00:37:10.405 themselves through the sun and the, and the soil and water. So if you have 00:37:10.438 --> 00:37:13.217 AAA week, 00:37:13.250 --> 00:37:18.405 part of th those ingredients, like you take the sun out, not gonna have, 00:37:18.438 --> 00:37:22.296 you know, you take water out, it's not gonna, it's not gonna work, you 00:37:22.329 --> 00:37:29.526 take soil out, you're gonna need a lot of genetics and, and chemicals. So 00:37:29.559 --> 00:37:37.559 um having healthy, biologically active soil is gonna be the key factor in 00:37:38.519 --> 00:37:46.519 whether we have a, a successful local uh organic food system. So let's 00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:51.845 talk about the food system itself. Um What do you, what is the current 00:37:51.878 --> 00:37:57.546 food system impact on the environment as you see it? Well, the current 00:37:57.579 --> 00:38:04.445 agricultural system uh produces over 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions. 00:38:04.478 --> 00:38:10.675 So it's the largest industry emitter of greenhouse gasses. 00:38:10.708 --> 00:38:14.997 So what was the question again? That's OK. How do you see the impact on 00:38:15.030 --> 00:38:19.077 the environment from the current food systems? The current impact on the 00:38:19.110 --> 00:38:26.595 environment? So they are, they're eroding soil and they're emitting a lot 00:38:26.628 --> 00:38:34.628 of greenhouse gasses. Um And then we're also taking uh valuable ecosystems 00:38:36.099 --> 00:38:42.026 out of play like rain forests and turning it into soybeans, corn and 00:38:42.059 --> 00:38:49.776 cattle grazing. Um and those ecosystem services are extremely valuable. So 00:38:49.809 --> 00:38:55.467 agriculture is the current agricultural system is definitely having a 00:38:55.500 --> 00:39:00.057 negative impact. Um You can look at, you can just kind of just keep going 00:39:00.090 --> 00:39:05.615 down the list. There's over 400 dead zones and globally dead zones are 00:39:05.648 --> 00:39:12.077 where uh rivers go into the ocean. And rivers carry a lot of runoff from 00:39:12.110 --> 00:39:17.586 agricultural fields and that runoff contains phosphorus, nitrogen 00:39:17.619 --> 00:39:23.287 pesticides. And once it hits the ocean comes down the creeks into the 00:39:23.320 --> 00:39:28.486 rivers, out into the oceans, it, it creates no, it sucks all the oxygen 00:39:28.519 --> 00:39:32.477 out of it and big algae blooms and it kills all the, the marine life in 00:39:32.510 --> 00:39:37.646 the, in the oceans. And there's a, just a bunch of examples, negative 00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:44.807 examples like that, that air culture is kind of driving. Um So there's a 00:39:44.840 --> 00:39:52.026 huge opportunity to really reimagine how we do agriculture. 00:39:52.059 --> 00:39:56.296 And what um what do you think pol policy wise needs to be in place in 00:39:56.329 --> 00:40:01.106 order to reimagine how to do agriculture, what changes need to be done um 00:40:01.139 --> 00:40:08.037 at the top. Um with the farm bill, um we can, there's a lot of incentives 00:40:08.070 --> 00:40:14.885 for uh growing food for animals. So that would be one place to start. Uh 00:40:14.918 --> 00:40:20.635 They use all the water. There's a really uh tough drought on the West 00:40:20.668 --> 00:40:25.385 coast right now. Um A lot of that water is used to grow alfalfa and food 00:40:25.418 --> 00:40:31.635 for animals. Um And that's all incentivized from the top. So that could, 00:40:31.668 --> 00:40:36.787 that could definitely change and then at a more local level uh, 00:40:36.820 --> 00:40:42.787 municipalities can start to open up land that is just sitting fallow, 00:40:42.820 --> 00:40:47.467 maybe fallow for 20 years. Like the new 20 acre property, the orchard's 00:40:47.500 --> 00:40:52.405 moving on to, it's just been a vacant property for 20 years. Um So 00:40:52.438 --> 00:40:59.936 municipalities can play a part in uh developing policy to encourage uh 00:40:59.969 --> 00:41:07.577 composting, encourage local farming. Um 00:41:07.610 --> 00:41:14.467 ok, so let's talk. Um, kind of your final thoughts on. We kinda, I asked 00:41:14.500 --> 00:41:18.086 you about where you'd want the business to be in 2040. Where would you 00:41:18.119 --> 00:41:25.385 want kind of the whole local organic movement to be by 2040? I totally 00:41:25.418 --> 00:41:32.967 different than it is. Now, tell me, uh it's, it's gonna be, 00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:38.967 it's gonna be less dark. And what I mean by that is me as a consumer when 00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:44.756 I go to, let's say whole foods and I wanna buy an organic apple. I still 00:41:44.789 --> 00:41:51.066 really don't know what organic is. I mean, I, I might know the big three 00:41:51.099 --> 00:41:55.095 in organics like you can't irradiate the food, you can't use sewage sludge 00:41:55.128 --> 00:41:59.706 to grow it and it can't be a genetically modified organism. But beyond 00:41:59.739 --> 00:42:04.666 that, I don't know what pesticides were used. I don't know. Um you know 00:42:04.699 --> 00:42:12.405 how the soil was taken care of. So, in 2040 I would like to see uh a 00:42:12.438 --> 00:42:16.967 system where the consumer understands 00:42:17.000 --> 00:42:22.626 much more, there's a lot more light to what organic really is and what 00:42:22.659 --> 00:42:27.376 local food really is and especially what natural food is because anything 00:42:27.409 --> 00:42:32.486 can be a natural food product. Can you explain to me what, what 00:42:32.519 --> 00:42:38.385 constituted an organic food? Yeah. Uh So the USDA Organic Certification 00:42:38.418 --> 00:42:44.307 has three. They called the big three and it's um no genetically engineered 00:42:44.340 --> 00:42:51.727 organisms. Uh can't be your own sewage sludge and then it uh cannot be 00:42:51.760 --> 00:42:59.115 irradiated before it gets to market. So, besides those big threes, um it 00:42:59.148 --> 00:43:04.166 gets into kind of like rules and regs uh more details like if they have a 00:43:04.199 --> 00:43:11.807 list of approved um chemicals for organic and that is decided by, by that 00:43:11.840 --> 00:43:16.086 organic certification board. So unless if you're gonna do a lot of 00:43:16.119 --> 00:43:23.666 research and make a lot of phone calls and most, most moms and dads are 00:43:23.699 --> 00:43:27.595 probably not gonna do that. 00:43:27.628 --> 00:43:33.537 Can you, is there a difference between certified organic and organic? 00:43:33.570 --> 00:43:40.586 There is um cert, so certified organic is through the, the USDA and then 00:43:40.619 --> 00:43:45.217 they have, it's like 100% certified organic and then they have like not, 00:43:45.250 --> 00:43:50.506 uh they'll either, it'll either say 100% certified organic and then if it 00:43:50.539 --> 00:43:54.557 just says organic, that means 95%. 00:43:54.590 --> 00:44:00.115 And uh I don't know what that other 5% can be honestly. Um And then 00:44:00.148 --> 00:44:07.186 organic just means over 70%. So you got organic, that means over 70% of 00:44:07.219 --> 00:44:15.219 the product is organic and then certified organic is 95. And then uh if it 00:44:15.849 --> 00:44:21.227 says 100% certified organic, I mean, that means 100%. Do you think the 00:44:21.260 --> 00:44:26.037 local consumers know the difference? No, you had, I learned all this and 00:44:26.070 --> 00:44:33.736 sustainability course work. So, absolutely not. 00:44:33.769 --> 00:44:37.175 And especially at farmers market, is there, is there any regulation in 00:44:37.208 --> 00:44:43.135 farmers' markets that happen? Um I think it's self regulation more so at, 00:44:43.168 --> 00:44:45.767 at farmers markets. 00:44:45.800 --> 00:44:50.526 So do you have any final closing thoughts on kind of the whole food system 00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:58.336 in, in Arizona itself? Um We're probably gonna have to use less water to, 00:44:58.369 --> 00:45:04.577 to do what we're doing and uh we can save a lot of water by transitioning 00:45:04.610 --> 00:45:08.706 from animal agriculture into 00:45:08.739 --> 00:45:15.046 uh you call it human agriculture, you know, growing for humans. 00:45:15.079 --> 00:45:20.227 Do you think that's gonna be easy to do? Yeah, I think, I think it, it's 00:45:20.260 --> 00:45:25.776 gonna be AAA combination of, you know, natural forces, environmental 00:45:25.809 --> 00:45:33.809 forces, uh policy. I think uh a lot of people in very powerful positions, 00:45:33.860 --> 00:45:38.807 understand what's going on and they know that we need to do something 00:45:38.840 --> 00:45:44.845 about this to, you know, kind of sustain our planet for future generations. 00:45:44.878 --> 00:45:49.445 So I think there's gonna be a lot of uh policy things coming in. Uh you 00:45:49.478 --> 00:45:54.135 know, the world economic system, I think it's gonna go through a huge 00:45:54.168 --> 00:46:01.695 change over the next 1010 years with global globalization and currencies. 00:46:01.728 --> 00:46:08.885 And um what eco so right now, ecosystem services are not really valued. I 00:46:08.918 --> 00:46:14.526 think the whole idea of like natural capitalism is, is gonna be a huge 00:46:14.559 --> 00:46:19.497 part of our new economic system. And so we, we're gonna have a lot of 00:46:19.530 --> 00:46:26.517 things coming together that are really gonna propel this. Um, though, I'd 00:46:26.550 --> 00:46:30.577 , I'd say the only thing that could get in the way of it is just, uh, 00:46:30.610 --> 00:46:38.276 money and greed from a very, very small amount of people. So, so I don't 00:46:38.309 --> 00:46:46.046 see that as a huge, uh, thing. I, I think like in the end, um, that is, I 00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:50.006 don't think that's gonna be a big deal. I think there's so many, there are 00:46:50.039 --> 00:46:55.885 so many people where I, I don't think just a, a few people are gonna be 00:46:55.918 --> 00:47:01.876 able to stop it. Ok? Any final closing thoughts, anything I missed or that 00:47:01.909 --> 00:47:07.945 I didn't ask or didn't bring up? I don't think so. So tell me one last 00:47:07.978 --> 00:47:12.236 question as an a su graduate of the sustainability program, why would you 00:47:12.269 --> 00:47:16.706 recommend more people need to go through that program itself? I think it 00:47:16.739 --> 00:47:23.115 really puts you in touch with what's happening on our planet right now and 00:47:23.148 --> 00:47:31.148 without that kind of education, you just, you, you may not know or care or 00:47:34.119 --> 00:47:39.327 just be conscious of it, you know, kind of think about it in your, in your 00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:43.497 daily life because I think there's a whole thing in sustainability 00:47:43.530 --> 00:47:48.566 education where it's like lifestyles or technology really, what's gonna 00:47:48.599 --> 00:47:54.115 save us and I think it's all lifestyle and we can use technology in any 00:47:54.148 --> 00:47:59.456 way we want good for bad, you know. But it's really the lifestyle choices 00:47:59.489 --> 00:48:04.566 that people make that are, is gonna make the big difference. How did it 00:48:04.599 --> 00:48:11.807 make a difference in your life? Um By my li my lifestyle choice choices 00:48:11.840 --> 00:48:19.537 changed um throughout college and that has had a very positive impact on 00:48:19.570 --> 00:48:27.570 my health and my energy levels and my ability to think clearly. So, and 00:48:28.090 --> 00:48:34.477 then I've really lowered my ecological footprint by being conscious of 00:48:34.510 --> 00:48:38.526 these things. So that's, you know, I'm setting a good example and I've 00:48:38.559 --> 00:48:45.736 definitely had a good influences on my parents and my brother and people 00:48:45.769 --> 00:48:50.727 close around me and then hopefully, you know, they also, it just kind of 00:48:50.760 --> 00:48:58.376 keeps waving out and, and making bigger impacts on more people. 00:48:58.409 --> 00:49:03.688 Yeah. Ok. Thank you very much. Thank you.