Against the Grain — Bullshit, Big Ag, and the Power of Speaking Up | Patio Pondering Gem
PATIO PONDERING GEM
Some conversations are worth another listen.
For this Patio Pondering Gem, we’re going back to Episode 50 and my conversation with Oklahoma farmer and rancher Jerod McDaniel: Against the Grain — Bullshit, Big Ag, and the Power of Speaking Up.
Jerod has never been particularly interested in doing something simply because that’s the way everyone else does it. After taking responsibility for his family’s operation at 18, experience taught him to question assumptions, trace information back to its source, make his own mistakes, and be willing to change course when the evidence says he was wrong.
That philosophy takes this conversation well beyond farming.
We talk about raising cattle and crops in the Oklahoma Panhandle, low-population corn, agricultural economics, raising independent kids, learning from previous generations, the danger of following the herd, and why agriculture sometimes hurts itself by refusing to be completely honest about how food is produced.
Jerod’s lesson from agriculture is simple: Question everything—and do your own due diligence.
And when I ask what small change could make a huge difference for agriculture’s future, his answer may summarize the entire conversation:
Rip back the curtain.
This was one of the most-listened-to conversations in Patio Pondering history. The original episode was released as audio only, but the video remained in the archive.
For the first time, here is the original video conversation.
Jerod McDaniel — Against the Grain.
Clear Thinking for Complex Agriculture.
Be Safe Out There.
If you’d rather not chase these conversations on social media, I’ll send them your way.