[PALM SPRINGS, Ca.] – During the 2023 Ag Media Summit (AMS), held in Palm Springs, California, Jul. 30–Aug. 2, agricultural communications students were honored for their excellence, professionalism and leadership. The Livestock Publications Council (LPC) Student Award Program, sponsored by Alltech, provides travel scholarships for four students to attend AMS. This year’s finalists were Molly Biggs, Kansas State University; Tessa Erdmann, South Dakota State University; Maddy Rohr, Kansas State University; and Carlye Winfrey, Texas Tech University.

Following a competitive application and interview process, Carlye Winfrey from Texas Tech University was awarded the LPC Forrest Bassford Student Award. She is a senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Communications with a minor in political science.

“This award is more than my name or college receiving recognition but showcases the contributions Forrest Bassford made so agricultural communications students like me can achieve success,” Winfrey said. “I am thankful to the faculty at Texas Tech for encouraging me to apply and am grateful for the countless mentors I have in this field.”

Winfrey is currently interning in Washington, D.C., through her college’s congressional internship program. She was previously editor for The Agriculturist, a student-led publication produced by the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications at Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Winfrey also completed internships with the United States Department of State in their Global Public Affairs Bureau and with the Merck Animal Health Public Policy Team, and she was a student assistant on campus for the Texas Tech University System.

“In my future career, I want to help shape policy to best serve the people of rural America,” Winfrey said. “My agricultural communications degree will allow me to walk through the halls of the U.S. Congress and share the stories that rural America is so desperately needing to be told. The narrative of agricultural communications is changing, and I am responsible to help change it.”

“Alltech is proud to support the next generation of agricultural communicators as the ambassadors and voice of our industry,” said Jenn Norrie, Alltech’s communications manager for North America and Europe. “These young leaders are playing an instrumental role in sharing stories of farmers and ranchers and helping to educate the urban population on where and whom their food comes from.”

The Forrest Bassford Student Award was established in 1992 to honor Bassford’s contributions to the Livestock Publications Council and passion for supporting young people in the agricultural communications field. To learn more about this award and past recipients, click here.

Does diversity foster innovation? Tanya Torp, executive director of Step by Step, a nonprofit organization based in Lexington, Kentucky, joined Ag Future to discuss the benefits of diverse teams, the empowerment individuals gain from inclusion, the positive impact of inclusive policies on the bottom line, and the necessity for sustained commitment and clear plans to create lasting change in organizations.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Tanya Torp hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Tom:              Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us from the 2022 Alltech ONE Conference as we explore our opportunities within agri-food, business and beyond.

                        Tanya Torp is the executive director of Step by Step, a nonprofit based in Lexington, Kentucky, that equips, encourages and empowers young single mothers. Torp is an agent for social change and has spent her career engaging in community-based initiatives as a convener, speaker, trainer, facilitator, writer and consultant.

                        I’m Tom Martin for the Alltech Ag Future podcast series, and Tanya is here to talk with us about the qualities of diversity, equity and inclusion as drivers of business innovation. Welcome, Tanya.

Tanya:            Thank you. Glad to be here.

Tom:              First of all, just beginning with a little bit about you, how would you describe your consulting style?

Tanya:            I really enjoy working with organizations that are in it for the long haul. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility as well are not anything that you can do a session like a one-day session and then your organization’s got it all together. There’s got to be a lot of strategy on how we’re going to get there, what you’re looking for, what your culture is. I love working with people who we can just take their idea or take them from this inception and to moving into a space of We’ve got this – we have a direction in which we’re going and we know a plan for sustainability.

Tom:              And they’re committed to it.

Tanya:            They’re committed to it. I don’t actually want to work with anyone who’s not committed.

Tom:              There you go. What are the benefits to a team that’s open to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility?

Tanya:            Well, you get this diversity of thought that is really important in not only the business world but in the nonprofit world where I work. Whenever I am able to encounter people who don’t think just like me, it is such a richer experience. The clients get more out of it because of that. Also, there is a lot of data that shows that the business need for diversity actually leads to you making more money. So your business or organization can actually excel because you have that diversity of thought and because people will stay. It creates a space of longevity when people feel like they belong where they’re working.

Tom:              How does being included on such a team give an individual a sense of empowerment and of place?

Tanya:            Well, one of the biggest issues, especially right now during the Great Resignation, is that people are wanting to stay at home because they have experienced microaggressions in the office. You hear from a lot of people of color, the Black indigenous people of color, saying, “I love my job. I love the job that I do. I don’t love the environment in which I work, and so I’m very happy to be staying at home.” You also hear from people from the disability community who have said, “We’ve been asking for these accommodations for years, and here we are.” Because of the global pandemic, we’re able to do this work from home, which means we’re not having to spend all the money and extra time just to be able to make it in to work.

                        So being parts of those teams that actually care about the inclusivity of your organization, actually care about those employees, not having to have those extra barriers just to be able to do their job well means that you are making your organization or company sustainable.

Tom:              It’s really interesting, isn’t it? This seems to be a silver lining of this awful pandemic, what you’re talking about now, this choice that’s been made for us – and for employers, more to the point.

Tanya:            Yes. I think for some, it’s actually reducing overhead. Now, there is still the issue of when you’re in person, when you’re face to face, there are natural things that happen when you’re at the water cooler or when you’re in the kitchen together or when you’re sitting down together breaking bread and having your lunch break. Some of that is missing, and I think that that is important in a lot of cases. But what we’re gaining is the ability to have deeper conversations longer. We’re gaining the ability to be able to just do our work. Right now, there’s a big push in businesses for belonging. There’s a big push with lots of trainings about being welcoming, but also about sharing your personal life and being more empathetic and being more emotionally intelligent.

                        Those are all really important things, especially working with your clients, but it is toxic for some people because they’re being told, Your work family is your family. What it’s leading to is, it’s not diversity. You’re feeling like, Okay, here I am in this work family, but people are not even noticing who I am in my humanity. What it does is actually pull people even more apart. I can see the need for having those water cooler discussions, but I think having these deeper discussions over Zoom or whatever people are using are going a little bit deeper, and they’re able to be sustainable. Everyone can be a part of this.

Tom:              Have you worked with an employer who has recognized that they have a toxic work environment? They have at least a problem work environment and they want to change. They want to make that commitment we were talking about, and they want to know how to do it. Have you worked with somebody like that? What would you tell them?

Tanya:            Yes. One of the things I shared in my Alltech talk was, there is this theory – and, in fact, practice – about curb cuts. In the ’40s, curb cuts started in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where someone said, “Listen, I can’t get my wheelchair to go on the street, so what I want to do is create this curb cut,” and that happened. Well, fast forward to a few years later at Berkeley, where there were students that were living in the hospital there because they’re students at the university but they can’t make it to their classes without incredible difficulty. Their dorm is a hospital because it’s the only accessible place. So, in the middle of the night, these folks went and poured some concrete and made their own cuts so that they can get onto the sidewalks.

                        This created a revolution all around the country of people noticing that it’s not just the disability community that can use these. It’s people with strollers. It’s people with skateboards. It’s people using their bags, their luggage to get where they’re going, that are using these. Some studies have shown that nine out of ten people are going out of their way to use these cuts in order to get where they’re going. So here’s this incredible theory about this was made for one group of people, but it impacted everyone else. It impacted tons of other people.

                        This is what I share with companies, is we have to get to a point where you are using that theory. What is it that you can do that is going to impact everyone but is specifically geared towards including diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility? Where are those places in your company or your business where you can make some changes that will actually be good for everyone?

Tom:              In business, the bottom line is everything. How does that translate to the bottom line?

Tanya:            The bottom line is about creating policies so that it’s no longer about managers having to pick and choose how they’re going to react to a situation and whether or not it is equitable. It is, Here’s what the policy says. This policy is for everyone, and this is how we’ll move forward. It is managers changing their style and becoming more about one-on-ones where they’re actually listening to what people are sharing. I share a lot with my companies an example of whenever there is a major tragedy – and I’m an African American woman doing this work. Whenever there is a major tragedy, another shooting or something that involves my community, when I go to work, I’m carrying that with me. Same for our Asian American friends, same for our Jewish friends. When you’re coming into that space at work, you’re literally carrying that with you.

                        Having policies that say you can stay home during the day when that kind of thing happens, when you just need to have time to mourn with your community or to grieve or to do what you need to do, that actually affects everyone. That gives everyone the opportunity that when something strikes, that they’re able to work on their mental health or do what they need to do. I think having those opportunities, to have that be a part of or other things be a part of your policy, moves people into that space of real inclusion.

                        Just several years ago, when people, organizations, and companies started offering health benefits to partners, you didn’t have to be married to have those health benefits. That allowed for a whole group of people who’d been ignored to have health benefits. That affected our country. You see that people that were uninsured before, now they’ve got insurance through their partner’s company. That is a real change, and that makes your employee feel seen, but it also affects all of us.

Tom:              These are thoughtful gestures that we don’t often think of when we’re thinking of business policy or company policy. They’re really soft policy, but not really, are they? Especially in today’s world, if that company wants to succeed and sustain that success, it’s going to need to be open to diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility.

Tanya:            Absolutely. I just was speaking, directly after my talk, to someone who’s in HR, and they said, “We get these phone calls every day about what is it like.” If I’m coming to your company as a person who is traditionally excluded or marginalized, my group of people that I come from, and I’m coming into your company, how am I going to be received? So it’s not just about whether we have increased representation. Once I get there, am I going to be received by everyone? Is there a code of ethics that makes sure that I’m not going to experience a lot of microaggressions in order to just do my job? Am I going to be believed when I say, “Hey, this is a problem,” and not have someone say, “Well, Bob really didn’t mean that” or “Erica didn’t really mean that. Let’s just smooth that over”? Am I going to be able to have a space where there are not going to be excuses made when things like that happen? So that becomes safer for everyone.

Tom:              How do you sustain that, making sure that as people come and go, as people do these days, that the same balance of these principles is maintained beyond?

Tanya:            It takes a clear plan, and it takes incredible dedication. I often tell people that bias trainings and workshops alone will never work. They will literally never work. Oftentimes people say, well, my company did that bias training, so we should be good to go. But the data actually shows that if you’re forcing people to go to those classes, they end up resenting it. It also shows that the ones who show up at the class most eager to learn are people who are already on that journey anyway.

                        Who are those people in your company already on that journey who you can build some longevity and sustainability with, who will be great assets in helping the company move along? In some ways, what people do is, they create these equity groups in their company. It’s employees that are on these equity teams and they’re bringing in speakers, and anybody who wants to join joins. Nobody’s forced to join. What happens is, it actually creates an incredible atmosphere.

But I caution people as well: Those people are already doing their whole entire day job, then they’re also on this team. They need to be compensated for their time. That is a policy that the company can make. If you’re joining this equity team, you will be compensated for your work outside of the work that you already do. You’re already doing your day job, but we’re asking you to do this, which is actually emotional labor as well. That’s a policy that would affect everyone. That could make sure that there’s some longevity so that as people are leaving, there’s already that policy in place. There’s already a group of people that are trained and ready to go, and they’re going to train the next group of people, and so it continues to be sustainable in that way.

Tom:              It’s actually an investment, isn’t it?

Tanya:            It is a huge investment.

Tom:              Over the past decade, Tanya, you’ve served as a consultant for companies and organizations that want to make deep-game, life-changing shifts in their cultures and their policies. Change is challenging for a lot of people. Have you encountered cultures that were not quite there yet, not fully on board with opening up to diversity, inclusion, equity, accessibility?

Tanya:            Absolutely. There have been organizations, in fact, that have said, We really want to move in this way of equity. We really want to make sure people feel as if they belong here, yet their policies and procedures, they’re unwilling to make changes. When I come in, they’ll say, We really want to make changes, but we don’t. So it is really difficult to work with people like that who really see the need – I call it optics, that looks really great on paper. You’ve got maybe a diversity statement on your website, but I go to look at who’s on your board. I look at who is a C-suite person in your company. I look at your employees and I don’t see that diversity that you’re saying that you’re striving for or that your statement claims that you’re striving for. We have a holiday coming up like Juneteenth or Pride or that kind of thing, and I see you suddenly posting all kinds of things on social media about caring about these groups of people, yet your policies are not reflecting that. So what I tell people is, if you’re in that space, nothing will change. It’s all optics. We need to get past optics and get to a place where we’re actually making sustainable change.

Tom:              Do you, as a person of color offering consulting services in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, encounter the very issues and the challenges that you’re trying to combat in the world?

Tanya:            Absolutely, and especially in that world of consulting, but also in the world as an executive director. There are rooms that I can’t get into. Sometimes I will send one of my board members to talk to, say, a donor who I know does not want to talk to me because I’m a Black woman. That’s happened in my life before. So when I’m in these rooms as well, I have to have my own boldness, know who I am, and know my stuff when I’m coming into the room, to be able to show data and what works and to be able to challenge, Do you really want your organization to change, or is this just lip service? Because at that point then we can part ways because I will not waste my time.

Tom:              Again, commitment, right?

Tanya:            Commitment, absolutely.

Tom:              You founded Step by Step in 1995, I believe.

Tanya:            We had three founders that founded it in 1995. I’ve been there for nine years.

Tom:              And you founded it as an organization that is mom-led and empowerment-focused. In describing the mission on your website, you say that is a trauma-informed organization. Tell us about that.

Tanya:            Absolutely. Trauma-informed is a category that was created, and it is measurable. You can look at the government websites and find that it’s a measurable thing. In order to be trauma-informed, your organization or company needs to acknowledge the trauma of the past. Being able to acknowledge that there are systemic issues at work that are really harming people, that have lasted many – you and I might not have been a part of them, but there are sometimes governmental policies that have affected people, and so we acknowledge that.

                        But we also acknowledge that there are ACEs – as we call them, particularly in the therapy world – adverse childhood experiences that affect many of us. Many of us have had divorced parents, or we’ve had to move, or we’ve seen violence, but the more of those ACEs that start to add up, that means more trauma that you’ve experienced in your life. We are trauma-informed by saying we know that those things affect people’s lives. There’s data to show that they [people who have had ACEs] don’t live as long, that there’s more risky behavior, that they might drop out of high school more frequently, because they have experienced those adverse childhood experiences.

                        For us, to be able to put that in the forefront as we are working with these young women, they are leading us. They are literally putting their lives in our hands when they don’t have to. They’re making a choice to say, I want you to be invited into my life as I try to become a great mom and a great citizen in this world. And we’re able to walk alongside them, knowing that they might take ten steps forward and ten steps back, but we’re still committed to them as long as they’re committed to us. We don’t chase them down, but if they’re committed to working to improve their lives, we’re committed to walking alongside them.

Tom:              Do you find that, when you’re working with somebody who’s working their way through that, that once they do and once they recognize traumas that maybe they had shoved down into their subconsciousness and really not confronted, that there is kind of a sense of liberation?

Tanya:            Absolutely. There’s liberation and freedom. There’s change and there’s a recognition in how I contribute or can contribute to my health and the health of my child, how society has contributed to ills and also helps in my life, and how I can navigate both of those areas. It really is about wholeness and holistic, being complete, that these young women begin to shine. They go after their goals. They’re able to set and reach those goals because there’s a recognition: I experienced this thing, and it is monumental in my life, but it doesn’t define who I am.

Tom:              Have you seen it instill maybe a new level of confidence?

Tanya:            Absolutely. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had one of the moms that I met nine years ago come back and share her story with not only our board and donors but some of our moms as well. She was somebody who was living in a domestic violence situation when I met her, was living in poverty, and just had so much going on in her life that was heavy. She was able to share, “Just having people that believed in me and stuck with me even when I didn’t stick with myself really made a difference for me to know that I am worthy of this.” Then, from there, she was able to do her own work.

                        It’s not about Step by Step coming alongside and telling someone what they should do. It’s about us saying, What is it that you want, and how can we remove barriers? Watching these young women reach those goals, watching this young woman who now owns a home, is a boss at her job and has a healthy child who’s doing really well, that’s all we want for them, to be able to have that kind of life that they envision for themselves.

Tom:              A few years ago, Tanya, you opened something called Mama’s Hideout. Tell us about that.

Tanya:            Yeah, our office is Mama’s Hideout. Thanks to the Murry Foundation and others who really care about having space for these young women to come into our office, they can use computers. We have childcare if they are coming to our office and they’ve got their children with them. They might just need a break to look for a job online. They might need to take their GED test or what have you. They can do that in our office. It’s also a place for them just to come and hang out. Maybe their child’s in childcare for the day. They’re still looking for a job or they’re working the late shift, but they just feel like, I just want to be around positive people. They can just come to our office and literally hang out in Mama’s Hideout. We love that too.

Tom:              Now you’re offering a financial literacy course, and I understand that it’s described as trauma-informed. Can you elaborate on that?

Tanya:            Yes. It is one of my favorite programs that we have ever done at Step by Step. What we have found is that there are all kinds of financial literacy courses out there that offer a lot of different things. You can throw a stick and you’ll hit a financial literacy course. But we have not found financial literacy courses that really speak to trauma. For instance, we have a mom who moved 13 times before she was in third grade. What do you think that does to a person to not have that permanency, to not have a place to call their own? But also to see why we’re moving. We might be leaving because the landlord’s increased the rent or because of the affordable housing crisis that we have. That affects you psychologically as well as physically.

                        We talk about those things in our program. In fact, the first two weeks of our ten-week program is to talk about what is our relationship with finances. Sometimes, we maybe get money and just spend it right away. Why do we do that? That’s not something that we automatically want to do, but why does it seem like a knee-jerk reaction to spend that money right away? That comes from a trauma response of not having what you need and trying to make sure that your child has what they need. We talk about that. The moms share with one another about how they deal with money. Before we get to this, is how you join a bank, or this is what savings looks like, or this is how you budget. We have to talk about our relationship with money. So that’s been incredible.

                        The best part of this program is that we match their dollars that they save. These young women will get a bank account. They’re required to put at least $25 a month in that account, and Step by Step will match it three to one. She comes to our program, and she raises $2,000. She will leave that program with $6,000 to buy a car, to go back to school, to put a down payment on a house, to reduce her own debt. There are several reasons why they could do that, why they become a part of this program. They pick their goal and then we help them reach that goal and remove barriers.

Tom:              Is that in partnership with somebody? How is that done?

Tanya:            That’s a lot of me doing what I’m doing right now, talking to donors. I just share the stories of these young women overcoming. For some, that makes a huge difference. If you can imagine needing transportation to get to all the places that you go and having to take our bus system – We love Lextran. They’re so supportive. But our moms have to go to the hub and then they have to go somewhere else. It takes sometimes a really long time just to get to one place. What if you’ve got more than one child and you’ve got to go to several appointments? Your whole day is then lost, and you’re having to take off work. What if she was able to save up $6,000 for a down payment for a car? It would change her life. These things seem simple, but they really are life changing.

Tom:              If you had a list of concerns for young single moms who hope to balance being moms with professional growth, what concerns do you consider when you’re working with them that they need to deal with?

Tanya:            A lot of [the concerns] are beyond their control. I mentioned already our affordable housing crisis here in Lexington. We have moms that are literally moving out of the county because they cannot find a place to live even with all our partners. The Office of Homelessness [Prevention and Intervention] does an amazing job. Polly Ruddick and her crew are just wonderful, but the housing stock isn’t there, and so that is a huge barrier. If [the young mom] is going to stay couch-hopping or she’s staying with an abuser because she can’t even find a place to live, that affects everything in her life. There’s a systemic issue there.

                        About 25% of our moms come from DCBS [Department for Community Based Services]. We’ll get a call from the state that says, “I think this young woman would be great for your program.” Working on getting her child back or working on keeping custody of her child or working on, I am a mom in foster care with my baby, that is a big deal. So those instances of child welfare are huge for us, where we want to make sure that the children are safe but our moms are safe as well.

Tom:              Is there a particular success story that stands out in your memory?

Tanya:            Absolutely. She wouldn’t mind me telling you at all. She loves to come and speak this a lot. We have a leadership development program where our moms become leaders. It’s a pretty intense two-year program, and Brittany is one of our leaders. Brittany came to us a few years ago. She said, “Miss Tanya, I’m dropping out of high school. I have a great job. I’m making great money. I don’t really need high school.” Of course, I talked to her about why she would need a diploma, why it would be great, and how, later on in life, she might regret not having one. She just said, “I’m just going to make this decision.” Well, it’s her life. It’s not mine. I gave her great advice, but she decided not to take it, and that’s okay. We just continued to love on her.

                        A few months later, she said, “Actually, I think I need that diploma. I think I need to go back to school.” We cheered for her like we were at the winning UK game. We just praised her and cheered for her, and we got to watch her walk across that stage. She graduated, and now she’s in college, and she is one of our most outspoken cheerleaders for our program. She is speaking into the lives of other moms, telling them, “You can do it. I dropped out of high school. I went back. If you need the support, we’re here for you. But also, you’re not stupid. You can do this.” And just speaking into her life and sharing, like, “This is what happened with me. If I can do it, you can do it.” So Brittany is just absolutely amazing, and we love her.

Tom:              What a wonderful story.

Tanya Torp is the executive director of Step by Step, a nonprofit based in Lexington that equips, encourages and empowers young single mothers. Thank you very much, Tanya.

Tanya:            Thank you for having me.

Tom:              I’m Tom Martin with the Alltech Ag Future podcast series. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode of the Ag Future podcast, we're joined by Dr. Yael Joffe, founder and chief science officer at 3X4 Genetics, to discuss the emerging field of nutrigenetics. Dr. Joffe explains how understanding the relationship between food, genetics and health can be used to personalize diets and lifestyles for optimal health. They also discuss the importance of personalized nutrition and the challenges of building trust in the field of genetics.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Dr. Yael Joffe hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Tom:            Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us from the 2022 Alltech ONE Conference as we explore our opportunities within agri-food, business and beyond.

                     We think we know ourselves pretty well, but do we really? So much more information about who we are and how we respond to the world around us has been locked up in our genetic codes. But now, it's possible to understand that code and use that information to actually switch genes on and switch them off.

                     I'm Tom Martin for the Alltech Ag Future podcast series, and I'm joined by Dr. Yael Joffe, founder and chief science officer at 3X4 Genetics in Seattle, where she has mastered the emerging field of nutrigenetics to build products that are shaping the future of healthcare. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Joffe.

Yael:             Thanks, Tom. I'm very happy to be here today.

Tom:            First is this term, this science: nutrigenetics. How do you define that?

Yael:             It's pretty much exactly as it sounds — the idea of nutrition and genetics. It's a little bit bigger than that. Sometimes I use the word “lifestyle genetics”. But in essence, we can think of it as: What is the relationship between the food we eat, the food we expose ourselves to, the world we expose ourselves to and our genes? And what is — the relationship between those two elements really defines our health.

Tom:            Your company name, 3X4 Genetics — why 3X4?

Yael:             It's a little bit of a story, and it goes back about four or five years. One of the challenges that I've had in my career is: How do you get genetics to become something that every one of us can use in our daily life? I'm sure everyone listening has been to a practitioner, be it a dietitian or a doctor, and you've come away going, “That was all very well, but that really wasn't about me.” We know that one of the greatest trends in the field of medicine, nutrition, health and wellness is personalized nutrition, personalized medicine. So, I was trying to figure out: How do we really make genetics so consumable that, in one page, I can understand how my genes are going to personalize every single thing that I do every single day?

                     The reason we came up with (the name) 3X4 is — I actually started an education company called Manuka Science to teach practitioners how to bring genetics into their practice. We built this kind of methodology called 3X4, and the idea is (that), by using genetics, you should be able to understand, for an individual, the three most important places to focus on when you're starting to work with that client — the three most important dietary changes that you need to make. Not 300, not 10, not 20, because we know that overwhelms (people) completely. The three most important lifestyle changes, and the three most important supplements. So, when you put three, three, three (and) three together, it comes up to 3X4 — essentially, one page of a real summary that shows why you're different and how your genes would really personalize your intervention.

Tom:            Your approach is based on a set of principles. Can you tell us about those?

Yael:             My approach is based on, I'd say, two major principles. Let's go with that. The most important thing in genetics is to have science you can really trust and understand and that is proven, because we know that the genetic-testing industry has actually, largely, failed the consumer and actually failed the practitioner as well. We've been around now for 20 years. The human genome was mapped in 2003, but genetics hasn't really delivered the promise and the dream that, 20 years ago, we thought it was going to change our lives (and) prevent disease.

                     The first principle that I built 3X4 in is: How do we build a company that the consumer and practitioners can really trust? That meant going back to (the) basic principles of science and going, like, “How do we build something with a science we can trust, that is transparent, that is robust and resilient?” That was the first thing, and there's quite a long story to that.

                     The second thing is, if you just have great science but you have no way of translating it into a person's life, then all you're selling is data. One of the things that I've spent most of my career on is trying to figure out: What is that clinical translation? What is that translational value? Tom, you wake up in the morning and you have a whole lot of decisions to make. You can grab your phone and check your emails. You can immediately put on the coffee machine and have a double espresso. You can meditate for 20 minutes. You can go for a walk. You can have a look at the weather. You can have a cold shower. We make all these decisions, and every single decision is going to impact the way our genes express themselves, the way our genes behave.

                     If we can understand our genetics, we can make these decisions so much better. For me, one of the foundational principles of 3X4, really, is this idea of translation. How does it actually change my decision-making? How does it actually change my life? So, I really wanted to build a company that gave all of us — whether you're a practitioner or a consumer or a client — better decision-making. We needed to, really, not just build another genetic-testing company or build another genetic test; there are 300 to 400 (of those) in the U.S. alone. How do you fix the whole industry so that we can really raise (its) value? I'm not sure that was the question, but I hope I gave you a good enough answer.

Tom:            No, it certainly did. I'm wondering, (and) tell me if I'm right about this — am I understanding that we can actually have more control over our bodies or our health than we may have realized? How's it possible to manipulate our own genetic codes and overcome issues that might have been hereditary or unavoidable?

Yael:             That's an excellent question. In fact, I think one of my talks (at the Alltech ONE Conference) is going to be exactly on that, is that, for the last couple of decades, we've had this sense that our genes are our destiny. I think that this is very much part of the media conversation, is that our genes are set in stone and there's not much we can do (about them), so we might as well just get on with it and hope for the best — hope we don't get cancer or hope we don't get Alzheimer's. This was genuinely believed to be the truth, but actually, it couldn't be further from the truth.

                     We need to understand, in genetics, that there are two different parts to the conversation. I call it insight and action. The first part is we all have this genetic code, which you refer to. It's a language like English or Spanish. It's got an alphabet. It's got words. It's got sentences. It's got chapters, and it tells a story. Our DNA sequence code is exactly that. We have a code that tells a story of who we are and how we live in this world and how we respond to the world around us. But at 0.1% in our code, we differ from each other.

                     You and I have 0.1% of our code, which means — at three to four million places in our code, in our spelling, we differ from each other. We look different. We sound different. I don’t have and wish I had such a beautiful voice like you do. You're taller than I. We're different from each other, and that's at 0.1%. But it's also: How do I respond to the coffee that I had this morning. How do I respond when I eat gluten? How do I respond when I go and do a five-kilometer run?

                     A lot of the work in genetics has been in understanding why we're different from each other, and I call that insight. But one of the most exciting transitions in the world of genetics deals with the question you asked, which is: If I know who I am and I know how I'm different or how I respond to the world around us, what can I do about it? What we've discovered, really, (is that) genes are just a series of switches. Imagine you walk into your house and you switch on a light switch and something happens. It's exactly the same as genetics. As I described, I had some lovely lunch before I came here. I chose to have, for lunch, some salmon and some salad. Excellent choice. I probably wouldn't have told you if I'd had the pulled-pork sandwich, so I had the salmon.

                     When I had the salmon, there were nutrients in that salmon that had an impact on my genes. What they do is they actually send a signal to the gene to switch on, to make an enzyme or a hormone or a brain message. It's these switches, this signaling, that switch on hormones and enzymes in our body, which is actually what runs our body, which actually allows our body to heal (and) to optimize our health.

                     So, in one sense, we use genetics to understand what we are. On the other hand, we use the choices we make — whether it's nutrition, supplements, exercise, meditation, stress management — to switch on these genes, which is ultimately what's going to determine whether we choose health and heal ourselves or whether we choose behaviors that actually lead us to ill health. This idea that genetics is set in stone or is our destiny is simply untrue. We actually, every minute of every day, have the choice to change the way genes behave.

Tom:            This is fascinating. To me, a layperson, it borders on profound. It sounds as though, if we can determine our genetic code and it's time for lunch, we can determine what we should have to manipulate something that's going wrong with us, perhaps, or that we want to enhance.

Yael:             Spot on. That's actually my work, and that's what I've been doing for 20 years. I can do a test on you. Remember, I spoke about these differences, these spelling changes in your DNA. I can understand — let's call it metabolic dysfunction, things in your body that are not working as optimally, whether it’s enzymes or hormones. It’s around areas like: How do you detox toxins that you respond to? How do you manage your glucose and insulin, especially around hormones? It could be around cholesterol. It could be around how you consume calories, how hungry you feel, how you store energy. I could go on for hours.

                     If I understand that about you, I can now help you make a much better choice at your lunch, for two reasons. One is (that) I want to make sure that, knowing those spelling changes, those differences, I'm optimizing your choices. But to take it a step further, I'm going to help you choose foods that actually go further than that and switch on genes or switch off genes — because my salmon that I had for lunch was doing a couple of things. One is it was switching on genes that decreased inflammation in my body. We all know about these amazing omega-3 fatty acids that we get in oily fish that actually switch off inflammatory genes, but it also can switch on what we call anti-inflammatory genes, and there's a whole lot of other stuff it does.

                     So, knowing this knowledge — and I talk about “know thyself,” the self-knowledge, and working with someone who really understands how nutrition can change gene expression and not just nutrition. Let's talk about profound. You go and you hug someone. (You make a) connection. We know that, (because of) COVID, the last couple of years have been really hard, because we've all been at home. We haven't had connection. Suddenly, we come to an amazing conference, and we see someone that we've only seen onscreen, and we give them a big, solid hug. That connection, in itself, can switch on genes.

                     So, when I say (that) every single thing that we do in our life changes the way our genes switch on and off, I literally mean every single thing. One of my favorite topics is cold-water immersion — to have a cold shower versus a hot shower. We go and dip in a cold tub or in an ocean or in a lake when we go hike a mountain (or), obviously, when we exercise. Every single thing we do is now in our control. To be able to change the way our genes are behaving — that is how we step forward to health and wellness.

Tom:            Can a consumer obtain a customized set of data that helps guide them in their diet and lifestyle?

Yael:             Yeah, absolutely. There are many, many companies in the marketplace that are doing this. I've tried, at 3X4, really, to try build the best company, and one of the fundamental things that we do differently, perhaps, is we insist that you have a professional work with you. Genetics is only data if you don't have someone to translate it for you, (someone who) knows who you are, what's important to you, what your goals are, what you want to achieve, what your concerns are, what your medical history is.

                     You're able to get a test. We look at everything that I've described — how you consume energy, your exercise activity, your nutrition, stress, mood, anxiety, depression, detox, you name it. And then we have these amazing (people), whether they're dieticians or medical doctors or chiropractors, who have been trained, mentored and educated to sit with you and say, “Well, this is what I'm understanding about you. Let's plan ahead and see what we can do better.” So, that's exactly what we do.

Tom:            Can you give me an example of a case study, let's say, of someone who has done this, who has realized that they had something to overcome, and they've managed to do that through genetic manipulation?

Yael:             Yeah, I have many cases. Let me think. One of the interesting areas — I'll give you just one off the top of my head. I'm actually presenting a whole lot of case studies (at the Alltech ONE Conference). I won't use one of those, but we actually had a staff member at 3X4 who suffered from recurrent migraines. Migraines are so debilitating. They really are extraordinary, and we are seeing them more and more often. Even in our company, which is a health and wellness company, we probably have 20% of our staff members who are suffering from migraines. One of them in particular was suffering it recurrently, (which has a huge impact) — never mind the loss of productivity and days of work, but in terms of family and quality of life.

                     So, we ran our genetic test on them, and this is interesting. One set of genes that we look at in our test is around something called histamine. I'm sure anyone who's at this conference knows about histamine, especially in agriculture. It's a molecule that is found in a lot of foods, but for some people, they're not able to break down histamine, so it stays in the body, and it does kind of weird things. It's very pro-inflammatory. A lot of people who suffer from a lot of allergies, seasonal allergies, have a lot of histamine in their system.

                     Histamine can manifest in different ways, one of which — of the ways it does — is migraines. Often, when you get a migraine, you'll often go to a doctor and they'll give you a whole lot of drugs, a whole lot of medicine that you'll take, and you'll end up getting into bed and be wiped out for the whole day to manage your migraines. We discovered that this person had an inability. Genetically, it was missing the kind of amino acids that help break down histamine.

                     So, what we did — it's amazingly simple, actually — is we removed all the foods in their diet that are high in histamine. Now, the interesting thing about histamine is that some of the foods that we think are the healthiest — like avocado is actually a high-histamine food. So, we put them on what we call a low-histamine diet, and it's just extraordinary. Just from that, we were able to resolve all the migraines. We talk about genetics as this idea of “You don't know what you don't know.” We think we know ourselves, but we don't necessarily.

Tom:            Well, if we are able to take this level of control over our personal health, doesn't that have enormous implications for healthcare in general?

Yael:             Absolutely. This is the journey we've been on for 20 years, is trying to move away from what I call those “USA dietary guidelines” concept, that every single person gets the same diet, or it's the ketogenic diet, or it's the intermittent-fasting diet, or it's the Paleo diet. This idea that every single person will respond to the same diet is completely flawed.

                     I've been working with health professionals for 20 years now, and we have had incredible traction in certain groups of practitioners. We call it integrative medicine, lifestyle medicine, functional medicine. But in terms of mainstream Western healthcare, the big healthcare systems, we haven't (been completely accepted). It's starting. It's taking our time. But if you think about it, why wouldn't you want to understand?

We call it trying to get rid of trial and error because, at the moment, what happens with the practitioner is you'll have migraines and they'll say, “Well, let's try this drug. Oh, that didn't work. Let's try this. Oh, that didn't work. Oh, let's try this.” We’re trying to get away from that, because if we can know what we don't know, we can save not only financially, for a patient, but we can actually save (them from) psychological and emotional (damage), because every time we fail — don't even get me started on weight management. Every time we fail, we set someone back emotionally, psychologically and financially.

So, we're starting to see some traction. There's an inevitability to it that, ultimately, we'll all know our genetics, and every single piece of advice we get will be through the lens of genetics, and that's where we're headed. We've certainly grown exponentially in the last 10 to 20 years, but we've got a long way to go.

Tom:            Your company maintains a global network of accredited practitioners. Is this service widely available? Is it expensive? Is it covered by health insurance?

Yael:             It is not covered by health insurance. Everything is cash pay. Unfortunately, some of the best medical care outside, at the moment, is cash pay. At the moment, it's only available in the USA and in South Africa. We're starting to look at other countries as well and how to expand globally. But right now, we're still quite a young company. It's only launched four years ago in South Africa — I'm from South Africa — and launched in the USA two and a half years ago.

                     The way it works is the test is $349, but you only do it once in your lifetime. Your genes don't change. Your code does not change. You do it once and you're done. But then you need to have a consult with a practitioner who's been trained by us, educated and mentored, to make sure that you get the value out of it that you really need. I always say, “If you don't know what to eat for breakfast the next morning, you've bought data, and then it doesn't matter whether it's $349 or $1,999. It's just not valuable.”

                     We've got 2,000 practitioners in the USA at the moment that are trained and up and running. We do also a lot of telehealth, of course, but at the moment, we haven't quite got to global domination. We're working on it.

Tom:            It sounds like you're on your way. Well, I was perusing your website, the company website, and it says on your website that you are obsessed with your customers. What does that mean?

Yael:             Yes. Well, we are obsessed with our customers — be it the practitioner or the consumer — because, ultimately, we have this dream. When people (ask me), why did I start 3X4? Well, I wanted to build a genetic testing company that did everything right, and so many companies (are) just not. To do everything right, I needed to create an experience and engagement for the consumer that had great value to them, that really changed their life.

                     We have this idea of ten million lives. We believe we will impact ten million lives, and that means something different to everyone. It might be having enough energy to get out of bed in the morning. It might be managing that migraine. It might be managing anxiety. It might be preventing Alzheimer's or cancer. We wanted to take genetics, which has traditionally been quite a dead science — almost like computer science has zeros and ones; genetics is just kind of data letters — and bring it alive and make it meaningful.

                     We've done this in multiple ways, (including) engagements, using color, infographics, pictures and storytelling, because we want to make sure to bring value to your life. I think this is something that has been missing from the genetic testing industry. So, we're quite obsessed with (learning): What is your experience of genetics? How does it feel to you? Is it meaningful? Because remember, these are your genes, not mine. I might be able to drink coffee all day, but you may not be able to drink coffee all day. What does it really mean to you, and how does it really change your life?

We spend a lot of work working on (understanding), how do we have, (as) we call them, visual conversations with you — not just the way medicine is normally done, which is, “Here's a lab report, and good luck, and off you go.”

Tom:            If you are able to wave a magic wand and you have a vision of a world that understands and makes use of nutrigenetics, what would it look like? What would life be like in that world?

Yael:             Interestingly, in 2005, I wrote a book called "It's Not Just Your Genes!" and that was quite optimistic of me in 2005. There was this chapter at the end of the book. It was kind of (asking): What does the future look like? As I said, this was almost 20 years ago. I had this idea that every single person had, like, a DNA passport. Imagine a credit card with a little chip, and everywhere you went, you had your DNA passport. Now it’ll probably be like a smartphone or a chip under your skin or something. Anyway, you would go to Whole Foods or the shops and everything, and you would scan your DNA passport. It would make recommendations on the best foods for you to buy. “You better buy organic. Here's some broccoli for you.”

Ultimately, I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in the future — and I think it's a magic wand in terms of timing, but I do think there's an inevitability to it. Every single decision we make will have a lens, whether it's shopping on Amazon, whether it's sports training. It's how we prevent injuries. (It will help determine) the foods we eat, the supplements we take — we'll never take a supplement ever again without knowing our DNA — the drugs you take, the pharmaceutical drugs you take. We already know the field of pharmacogenomics is huge. Only 50% of drugs work, and that's (due to) genetics, because genes determine how a drug is metabolized. So, imagine that this big lens that covers every single decision that we make and that we do — that is the future of health, of wellness, of medicine, of sport, of fitness.

I think the ultimate part of that wand is integration. One of the amazing areas we're working on now is (asking): How do we take genetic information and integrate it with other data about us? I've got a Garmin watch on my hand. I've got an Oura ring. These two devices give me information about my heart rate, my heart rate variability, and whether I slept well. The way we see the future, the next five to ten years, is that there will be genetic integration into all our data. So, we're not just measuring my heart rate and my heart rate variability and my sleep, but we’re layering it with some amazing lens of genetics and finding out, “How does this look at a personal level?” I think that's the future we're looking at.

Tom:            That magic wand has already been waved, actually. It's hard at work.

Yael:             We're waving. We're waving.

Tom:            Dr. Yael Joffe, founder and chief science officer at 3X4 Genetics, based in Seattle. Thank you so much.

Yael:             Thanks, Tom. Thank you so much for having me.

Tom:            For the Alltech Ag Future podcast, I'm Tom Martin. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – The Singletary Center for the Arts was alive with music and hope Sunday as 15 talented vocalists competed in the finals of the 18th annual Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition. The event awarded more than $700,000 in scholarships and prizes and the opportunity to attend the University of Kentucky as part of the UK Opera Theatre program.

Judges selected multiple winners in undergraduate and graduate categories. In addition to cash prizes, winners received scholarships to attend UK, including some full-tuition awards.

The winners of the 2023 Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition are:

Undergraduate student winners

• Pearse and Deirdre Lyons First-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship – Max Taylor*
• Alltech Second-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship – William Cordier*
• Alltech Feed Division Third-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship – Keen Williams
• Alltech Crop Science Encouragement Award – Will Jones
• Barbara Rouse Kentucky Prize – Calia Burdette
• Alltech and Bryant’s Rent-All Encouragement Award – Emily Hayes

Graduate student winners

• Pearse and Deirdre Lyons First-Place Graduate Award and Graduate Assistantship – Sierra Kidd*
• Alltech Second-Place Graduate Award and Graduate Assistantship – Audrianna Hughes*
• Pearse Lyons ACE Foundation Third-Place Graduate Award and Half Assistantship – Kayla J. Wilson
• Stand Energy Graduate Award – Eleanor Wilmes*
• Gail Robinson Performance Award – Katherine Anne Ledbetter
• Reginald Smith Jr. Diversity Scholarship in Opera Graduate Award – Audrianna Hughes

*These winners also received a tuition stipend to study at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. AIMS is the leading summer music program in Europe. 

Finalists were scored based on their voice, technical skill, interpretation and accuracy by five judges:

• Evans Mirageas, who is in his 18th season as the Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera and is widely considered one of the most talented and respected artistic leaders in the classical music industry today.
• Julia Noulin-Merat, general director and CEO of Opera Columbus.
• Barbara Lynne Jamison, general director of Kentucky Opera.
• Dr. Thomas King, who taught the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, for 25 years.
• Karen Slack, celebrated American soprano and artistic advisor for Portland Opera and the co-chair of the Women’s Opera Network with Opera America.

The Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition is one of the largest competitions of its kind in the world. Its winners have traveled the world performing, teaching and providing inspiration to others.

“This program originated out of a friendship between my father, Dr. Pearse Lyons, and Dr. Everett McCorvey of UK Opera Theatre. They wanted to give talented students a chance to pursue their dreams and help UK to build its opera program,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “Since it began, this program has allowed nearly 190 students to overcome the financial barriers to pursuing their dreams.”

In addition to performing at UK, the Alltech Vocal Scholars infuse art into our community throughout the year with performances such as “A Grand Night for Singing” and the annual Alltech Celebration of Song, a free holiday concert at Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Learn more about the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition and watch the livestream of this year’s competition at alltech.com/vocal.

Max Taylor of Louisville, Kentucky, won the Pearse and Deirdre Lyons First-Place Undergraduate Award and Scholarship on Sunday, March 5 at 18th annual Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition. Shown with him are Dr. Everett McCorvey, executive director of UK Opera Theatre, and Mrs. Deirdre Lyons, cofounder of Alltech.

Strengthening its commitment to Working Together for a Planet of Plenty™, Alltech Crop Science has acquired Ideagro, based in Murcia, Spain. This partnership joins two leading platforms to accelerate soil and crop research, and to enhance biological and other microorganism-based offerings to Alltech Crop Science customers throughout the world.

“We are excited to announce that Ideagro has joined the Alltech Crop Science global team, providing us with a partner who shares our vision and significantly scaling our research capabilities,” said Andy Thomas, CEO of Alltech Crop Science. "This is the strengthening of a longstanding partnership. We have worked closely with the Ideagro team since their founding 11 years ago.”

Ideagro is a leader in agri-food research and development with a team of more than 20 scientists. It is committed to improving the productivity and profitability of agricultural systems. Its expertise in developing beneficial organisms for soil aids the growth of crops, reduces the impact of chemical inputs and helps plants to resist biotic and abiotic stress. Ideagro’s analytical capabilities, with special emphasis on in-vitro research, phytopathology, soil dynamics and microorganisms, further enable growers to identify microorganisms and quantify enzymatic activity in the soil.

“We are facing a great growth opportunity for Ideagro because we are going to have better means and more technological capacity to develop our research, which will now have a global projection,” said Pedro Palazón, CEO of Ideagro. “We will no longer only study the soils of the Iberian Peninsula, but we will work with soils from all over the world to achieve more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture.”

Ideagro has state-of-the-art laboratories and experimental research stations and fields for carrying out trials in Spain. To date, the company has researched more than 90 different crops and performed more than 10,000 physicochemical and biological analyses. This has led to the development of new agricultural strategies based on microorganisms.

Ideagro’s three laboratories are fully equipped with the latest technologies to focus on nutraceuticals, phytopathology, research and development and molecular biology. Its services include:

• Precise diagnoses, identification and semi-quantification of more than 290 microorganisms at the species level in different crops. Through the development of multispecific detection kits, it can simultaneously detect up to 40 pathogenic microorganisms in a single sample, with results in 24-48 hours.
• Molecular identification of microorganisms as well as genetic characterization of specific strains and determination of pathotypes of a pathogen.
• Analysis of nematodes.
• Design of specific probes for specific microorganisms. As a result, Ideagro is able to detect specific microorganisms in soil, water, plant material and biostimulants.
• Mycotoxin analyses. With more than 15,000 analyses carried out to date, Ideagro can identify and quantify the risks of aflatoxin B1, fumonisins, zearalenone and deoxynivalenol trichothecenes and T2 toxin. It provides monthly data on mycotoxin contamination in animal feed and in the main crops of the Spanish and European markets.

Ideagro is accredited by MAPAMA (EOR 82/13) and has ISO 9001:2015 certification. In June 2021, it was named a Reference Regional Laboratory by GLOSOLAN, the Global Soil Laboratory division of the FAO.

“The combination of the Ideagro expertise with the reach and scale of Alltech will allow us to extend world-leading understanding of the interface between soil, crop, animal and human health to the global market,” said Andy Thomas, CEO of Alltech Crop Science. “The potential implications of these insights cannot be understated as we endeavor to improve the vitality of our global food system, from the ground up.”

For more information about Alltech Crop Science, visit alltech.com/crop-science.

Today's food system was scaled to prevent hunger, and is now facing new demands and expectations, particularly in the healthcare space. However, with innovative advancements in agriculture and nutrition, we can wage battle against diet-related chronic diseases, which are a major driver of healthcare costs.  Dr. Patrick J. Stover, director of the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA) at Texas A&M AgriLife Research, joins the Ag Future podcast to discuss how shifting focus from producing food, fiber and fuel to promoting human, environmental and economic health can create a more efficient and resilient system.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Dr. Patrick J. Stover hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Tom:                  Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us from the 2022 Alltech ONE Conference as we explore our opportunities within agri-food, business and beyond.

                             I'm Tom Martin for the Alltech Ag Future podcast series. Diet-related chronic disease is among the greatest societal challenges facing the world, driving up healthcare costs and disproportionately affecting minority communities. Dr. Patrick Stover is director of the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture at Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the world's first research institute to gather, under one roof, precision nutrition, responsive agriculture and behavioral research with the aim of reducing diet-related chronic disease while also considering the environmental and the economic effects.

                             An international leader in biochemistry, agriculture and nutrition, he has served as vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife and as director of the division of nutritional sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Stover joins us to talk about how shifting from a focus on producing food, fiber and fuel to promoting human, environmental and economic health has influenced expectations for the food system over the last decade. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Stover.

Patrick:              Thank you for the opportunity. It's a pleasure to be here.

Tom:                  Whenever we talk to a working farmer, we're nearly always struck by a realization that we're talking with a scientist. I thought we would begin by exploring that for a moment. Farming — it's inherently science, isn't it?

Patrick:              Oh, absolutely. This was recognized by President Lincoln in 1862 when he established the land-grant universities for the purpose of both advancing mechanics or engineering and agriculture. In every state in this nation, we have a land-grant university that is dedicated to advancing all aspects of agriculture, from understanding soil to understanding plants and plant breeding, animals and animal breeding, animal health, all the way to agricultural engineering — how can we mechanize better? How can we produce food faster, cheaper, more abundantly?

Tom:                  We have one of those here in Lexington: the University of Kentucky.

Patrick:              Absolutely — a very good one.

Tom:                  What is meant by “responsive agriculture”?

Patrick:              If you look at the food system that we have today, this really came out of the post-World War II era, where — during World War II, there were great demands on the food supply. There was rationing of food to make sure that our soldiers had the nourishment they need to perform well on the battlefield. At the same time, we have the Depression that led up to World War II and the post-Depression era, where there was a lot of hunger in this country. There became this sense that hunger was unacceptable, both in this country and abroad. You saw many efforts, humanitarian efforts, to scale up agriculture for the sole purpose of eliminating hunger — and again, both domestically and abroad.

                             That's the food system we have today. It was scaled to preventing hunger. Hunger is not a disease. Hunger is a physiological response to a lack of calories. Therefore, we scaled agriculture production to meet the caloric needs not only of the nation but of the world. That's the food system that we have today. But now, we see there are other demands on agriculture, new expectations. We see (that) the agriculture system we have today and the food system we have today makes hunger rare. It still exists, but it's not due to a lack of abundance of food. It's more (related to) access issues. But now, we see that there are other costs that food produces.

                             Some of those in the healthcare space, we see the diet-related chronic diseases, (which are) the major driver of healthcare costs. Diabetes alone costs about $160 billion to $170 billion a year — more than most state agencies receive in their funding. We see a total cost of about $4 trillion a year. No one can afford those costs — no government or individuals. At the same time, we also have expectations around the environment. Certainly, agriculture has an environmental footprint in terms of emissions and runoff and such. But we also see that agriculture can be the solution to some of our environmental issues and actually capture carbon from other sectors.

                             Of course, economic health is also critical. The margins in agriculture are so thin, and we are losing much of our precious farmland to other, more profitable purposes. Now we see, not only do we have to produce food to eliminate hunger, but we have to do it in a way that supports human health, environmental health and economic health.

Tom:                  A century ago, it was the Great Depression. Would you say that, today, climate change presents that same imperative to get ahead of the hunger curve?

Patrick:              Certainly, there are many concerns about climate. Climate affects agriculture, really, in two domains. Number one, we are seeing extreme variations in temperature over short periods of time. That plays havoc on our agriculture systems and our ability to produce food looking forward. Certainly, the climate has an effect on agriculture. We also see, again, that agriculture has an environmental footprint. The question is: How can we lower that environmental footprint?

There's so much innovation out there, from capture of carbon in soil to creating biomass — all of these innovations to reducing methane production from agriculture. All of these innovations we see are out there that really give us the promise of having agriculture not only have a very low environmental footprint but potentially even capturing environmental footprints from manufacturing, from travel and those other areas that have much larger environmental footprints.

Tom:                  I understand correctly that you're engaged in behavioral research. What can you tell us about what you're doing?

Patrick:              Absolutely. Well, that is really the third leg. That is so key. We can do all of this work to produce food in a way that better supports the environment and human health and the economy. We can produce food that the consumers want and (that) also supports their health. But if all this science is not accepted by society, we're not going to achieve our goal. That science will just sit on a shelf. So, what's absolutely critical is to understand human behaviors.

Everyone eats. Everyone makes food choices. We have to understand how people, how communities, how societies make those choices, and how we can use science and convince the population that a science approach to health behaviors will be better for them in the long run, for their personal health, for their community health. We have a long way to go in that public trust area, but the social behavioral science will be key so that we can adopt these important technologies to actually implement out in society.

Tom:                  What sorts of major impactful changes have occurred in recent years in each of these areas: farming, food production and nutrition? Let's take them one at a time — because it's a big question — beginning with farming.

Patrick:              Certainly. If you look at farming — and I'll put farming and food production together, if you don't mind.

Tom:                  Sure.

Patrick:              What we have seen is great efficiencies. In the United States, the average American spends less than 9% of their available resources on food. That's remarkable. It's not like that anywhere else in the world. It's never been that low anytime in human history. That's because of the great innovations that have occurred, all the way from what we grow to how we process food. We have created an unbelievably efficient system through advances in plant breeding, through advances in engineering and irrigation, through advances in pest control to how we process food. We have created a highly efficient, vertically integrated system like the world has never seen.

                             Now, during COVID, we saw some of the vulnerabilities where, while it was very efficient, it wasn't very resilient. So now, you're seeing other innovations that are trying to tap into this wonderful system that's been effective in producing food — but (we are trying to) add more resiliency through more local agriculture, through urban agriculture and other innovations that are enabling our system not only to be efficient but to be resilient, and technologies will be key to continue to drive that.

Tom:                  How about nutrition? What's been happening in nutrition that is exciting (and is) going on now?

Patrick:              Nutrition potentially is one of the most transformed fields (of) the past few years. If you look historically, the goal of nutrition has been to understand how much of all the various nutrients you need — how much iron you need, how much B vitamins you need, et cetera — and how those translate into foods you should eat so that you don't become deficient in any of these nutrients. That was the goal of nutrition, was to understand the chemistry and the biochemistry of these nutrients, and how much you needed to make sure you could carry out fundamental functions in your body.

                             Well, we've now moved the needle. Because we see that food is a major driver of healthcare costs, Congress essentially said of the National Academy of Sciences — which is charged with determining how much of each nutrient you need every day, the so-called RDAs — said, “Well, we don't really have diseases of deficiency anymore. What we have is diet-related chronic disease. So, rather than setting these nutrient standards based on preventing diseases, let's have the endpoint as a chronic disease so we can use food to lower healthcare costs.”

                             That, essentially, was the advent of food as medicine. This becomes a much more complex problem, because people respond differently to diets in terms of their disease risk. Virtually all populations — if you make them deficient in a nutrient, everyone in the population responds the same, and you can have population-based guidance, whereas, when you have a chronic disease outcome, people respond differently based on our population history. Now you have responders and non-responders — and this whole idea that, if we're going to use food to lower healthcare costs, we have to understand how food interacts with an individual at that level.

Tom:                   I guess most of us are walking around not really realizing or appreciating that what we consume, the food that we eat, actually has the ability to switch on and switch off genes.

Patrick:              Oh, it's incredible. Again, if you look throughout all of human history, populations emerged all over the globe. Those that were able to survive and expand were those that adapted to their local food environment and their local pathogen environment. That's what you had to do to survive. If you look at populations in northern Canada, they metabolize fat very, very differently than native cultures there. And the native populations metabolize fat very, very different than you and I do. If you look at Scandinavia, there's very little iron in the soil. Therefore, there was this selective pressure genetically to get every little bit of iron out of food. But now, when you put those individuals on an iron-rich diet (through) a global food system, you see hemochromatosis, and they result in cancers and other types of, essentially, diet-related chronic diseases. You can look at lactose intolerance. It goes on and on.

                             So certainly, the food systems out there, around the globe, have really shaped who we are. In turn, the foods we eat turn our genes on and off. It's a very complex system. We are all different based on our population history, but that's the opportunity to use food as medicine to understand those differences — how we interact with that food, how food changes us, and how, historically, we have adapted to food systems to understand that diet-disease connection at the level of the individual.

Tom:                  Could agriculture, food production and nutritional intelligence be made — or maybe they do work in concert — to improve public health?

Patrick:              Well, that's the big challenge. Historically, we have siloed the food system at the level of science, at the level of public policy. Even in the Farm Bill, you have the nutrition title over here, you have the ag component over here, and they don’t talk to each other — yet we know (that) if we are going to make agriculture the solution to human health, environmental health and economic health, that's what the mandate is. We have to consider this as the complex system that it is.

                             When we change dietary guidelines, that has a ripple effect back across the food system. When we have soil erosion, we lose quality components in that soil, (and) that affects the food system in the other direction. We have to understand and make decisions respecting the fact that this is a very complex system that goes from farm inputs to consumer behavior. And we have to make sure that the research that we do considers that. We have to make sure that the public policy that we have considers that.

Tom:                  We've touched on hunger earlier. Food scarcity and malnutrition remain significant issues, even in developed countries. What is agriculture's role not only in producing enough food but in producing enough nutritious food?

Patrick:              This is the challenge, and it gets down to definition. Certainly, the world population is growing. By 2050, there'll be another two billion people on this planet. And as you said, we already have food insecurity and lack of food in some places, so we have to make more. But we also recognize that we have to make better, if you will — that we have to make food that is better aligned with human health, environmental health and economic health. Technologies have to be the answer there. We're going to have to continue to be more efficient so that we can produce more and feed the world, but we have to do it in a way that both respects cultures — because there's a strong cultural component to food — so that people accept the food that's being produced. But we also have to use these technologies to make sure that it can be medicine to these populations, that it lowers healthcare costs.

Tom:                  Is there an appetite today for finding ways to more tightly coordinate these disparate sectors of the industry, the entire food ag value chain, as a strategy to bring about those improvements?

Patrick:              Well, that's a big focus of our institute, is to try to make sure that we do have this better-integrated, systemic approach. To do that, everyone needs a seat at the table. We need to do this to be successful. But, for instance, we have technologies through gene editing to create plants that have virtually any quality we want in terms of disease resistance, in terms of nutrient value, et cetera. But we have to bring along the regulators to make sure that we are producing something that not only is going to benefit society but is going to be safe as well.

                             We need to bring along the regulatory community. We need to bring along the general public. They have to accept this food that is produced that is going to improve their health, and they have to have trust in that food. We need to bring the farmers and the ranchers. They need to understand how this is going to help their bottom line. Their margins are very thin. They have to be risk-averse or they don't succeed in their business. We have to convince them that this is good for them, good for their operations. We need the related policies and incentives, again, so that technologies — so that advances in crops and crop breeding will be accepted by that group.

                             Everyone needs a seat at the table, and we need to start with the endpoints. We have a very segmented approach to addressing the food system and constituencies across the food system. We have consumers who blame producers and food manufacturers, who then say — well, they blame the consumer, because (their belief is), “We just respond to consumer demand.” We need to not have a food fight. We need to bring everybody to the table (to) decide: What are these endpoints that we want, and how can we reverse-engineer back to the food system to achieve those goals that are so critical to our society right now?

Tom:                  There is a lot of risk in farming. I'm just wondering how this holistic approach reduces at least some of that exposure to the uncertainty and the stress that it causes.

Patrick:              Certainly. If you look, currently, at the food system we have today, we have to understand that farmers and ranchers — which make up just about 1% of our society today; 1% of the population produces food for the rest of the 99% — they are businesspeople. They make decisions every day (about) what they grow, how much they grow, when they grow it, based on what the market will bear. They are businesspeople. The biggest threat to their operation is uncertainty, because their margins are so thin. With a couple of bad years, their enterprises are in danger. That has to be the role of science, and that will be the role of our institute at Texas A&M.

                             We need authoritative voices out there about what the science says related to any question around the agriculture and food value chain, from farm inputs all the way to consumer behavior, and we have to be very clear about what the science says. Right now, much of our food system is driven by preferences, values and beliefs, on both the health side (and) on the environmental side. And often, people quote their favorite study — “Well, this study says this,” “But my study says that” — rather than looking at the totality of the scientific literature like we do in medicine, where we actually don't look at papers individually, but we combine all of the research together in a statistically appropriate way. And we say, “Well, our current scientific knowledge is X, Y or Z, based on that synthesis, and this is how certain or strong it is.”

                             We don't have that in food and agriculture. That's something at Texas A&M that we would like to see happen in this country, is to have science lead. People will always have preferences, values and beliefs around the food system. There's a deep cultural component — a deep moral, if you will, component — to food, but that's not science. We have to say what the science says so that people out there who make decisions can weigh between what the science says and, then, what individual values, preferences and beliefs are.

Tom:                  Dr. Stover, we've witnessed the sudden disruption of an important source of the world's grain, and I'm talking about the war in Ukraine. Has this development inspired new thinking about the resources needed to feed the world and to keep them secure?

Patrick:              Certainly. What we're seeing going on in Ukraine is a tragedy, but there will always be wars. In fact, Norman Borlaug once said, “You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery. Food is fundamental to a peaceful world.” What we have to ensure is that all countries around the globe have the capacity to feed their populations; (it’s) absolutely essential. This was the work of Norman Borlaug in international agriculture: to build that agriculture infrastructure in every region, in every country, to avoid hunger.

                             Now, local agriculture is imperative, (but) we also need that global agriculture system as well, because sometimes there are droughts. There are catastrophes that happen that limit a given region's ability to produce food, and they need to tap into the global food system. But we need to think very carefully about how we marry capacity to grow food in every region with a global food system and how those two are integrated together to ensure that we have peace, to ensure that we have food for everyone.

Tom:                  Dr. Patrick Stover, director of the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture at Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Thank you so much.

Patrick:              Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

Tom:                  And for the Alltech Ag Future podcast, I'm Tom Martin. Thank you for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts.

Alltech is proud to continue to partner in the Women in Food & Agriculture (WFA) Mentorship Program. Applications are now open for new mentors of any gender and for female mentees from across the global food and agriculture sector. Now in its third year, the free-to-join program matches applicants based on their preferences, which can include gender of mentor, areas of expertise, language and industry sector, and offers opportunities for women in food and agriculture to develop meaningful industry connections.

“Over the past few years, all of us have come to more deeply value the power of human connection,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech. “A commitment to the growth and development of another person unleashes energy, inspires ideas and empowers both individuals to have a greater impact. We view our involvement in the Women in Food & Agriculture mentorship program as an investment not only in the lives of women but in the future of agriculture as the industry most integral to the nourishment and vitality of our planet.”

Findings from the annual WFA survey and ongoing feedback from all levels of the food and agriculture sector consistently suggest that a hurdle to greater success for women in the global agri-food industry is a lack of mentorship opportunities. To tackle this issue, WFA launched its Mentorship Program. In partnership with Alltech in 2022, the initiative grew with 320 industry representatives matched across two cohorts. Now in 2023, the program will be open for applicants year-round with two matching sessions taking place to help even more women in food and agriculture progress their careers. The initiative has supported a variety of people around the world from CEOs of agribusinesses to small-scale farmers, from academics to ag-tech professionals, with sector representatives paired with mentors that complement their professional objectives.

“We are very pleased to again have Alltech supporting the 2023 WFA Mentorship Program,” said Elisabeth Mork-Eidem, global chair of WFA. “Mentorship is vital in supporting women across food and agriculture in developing their careers, we’ve had very positive feedback from both mentors and mentees. Many of our mentors joined the initiative as a selfless act of support for equality in our sector, but realized they got as much out of the experience as the mentees. This is such an exciting opportunity to learn about yourself, develop your skills and support an important initiative that is working to improve diversity, equality and inclusion in the food and agriculture industry.”

For those interested in taking part in the 2023 Mentorship Program, WFA is looking for mentors of any gender who have at least one year of experience in the food and ag sector. During matching, WFA will ensure all mentors have more work experience than mentees, so this should not be a barrier to mentors applying. Potential mentees should be women working in the food and ag industry who would benefit from help, guidance and support from a senior sector representative.

Alltech believes that inclusion cultivates creativity, drives innovation and is essential to the company’s purpose of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty^TM. In 2019, Alltech selected Gender Equality as one of the nine United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to which the company committed to advancing.

Applications are open now for the Women in Food & Agriculture (WFA) Mentorship Program, supported by Alltech. For more information and to apply to be a mentor or mentee, visit https://wfa-initiative.com/mentorship-program/.

[LEXINGTON, Ky.] – Alltech is transforming its annual Alltech ONE Conference (ONE) in 2023 into a series of international events that will invite collaboration on the greatest challenges facing the agri-food industry. Instead of welcoming the world to Alltech’s home in Lexington, Kentucky, as it has for the past 38 years, the Alltech ONE World Tour will bring the ideas and inspiration of the ONE Conference to communities throughout the world.

Stops are planned in Brazil, Canada, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, the Middle East the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, the United States and Vietnam, providing the opportunity for more people than ever to experience the power of ONE and to hear from experts on trending topics in the agriculture industry. Additional stops are expected to be announced in 2023.

“As our customers and partners continue to face many challenges and uncertainties, we determined that 2023 would be dedicated to meeting them in their market,” said Dr. Mark Lyons, president and CEO. “This special edition of the ONE will endeavor to deliver global expertise to locally relevant issues. In the midst of economic and political uncertainties that fuel regionalization, this ONE reflects the responsibility we have as a global company to be a connector of people and ideas, ever advancing our purpose of Working Together for a Planet of Plenty.”

While Alltech looks forward to bringing the international conference home to Kentucky in 2024, the 2023 ONE World Tour is a unique opportunity to discuss the future of agriculture with stakeholders all over the world, offering both a global and local perspective for attendees. It will unite changemakers and thought leaders in unique forums to discuss the future, examining regional and local market trends in agriculture, business, health and nutrition.

Alltech will release more details about its international tour stops and event dates in the coming weeks. Visit one.alltech.com for more information and to subscribe to notifications on tour updates.

Is work-life balance obtainable? Cheya Thousand, founder and CEO of CT. Wellness Co., joins the Ag Future podcast to discuss how burnout impacts leaders, employees and parents and to share her strategies for hitting the reset button to mitigate stress, feel better and move on productively.

The following is an edited transcript of the Ag Future podcast episode with Cheya Thousand hosted by Tom Martin. Click below to hear the full audio or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts.

Tom:            Welcome to Ag Future, presented by Alltech. Join us from the 2022 Alltech ONE Conference as we explore opportunities within agri-food, business and beyond.

                     Burnout, as it is defined, is not a medical condition. It's a manifestation of chronic unmitigated stress. Well, however we define it, those who suffer (from) it know that it's very real and very troubling. As an author and stress and self-care consultant, Cheya Thousand offers guidance on how to pull out of the burnout that creeps up on and overwhelms so many of us.

                     I'm Tom Martin with the Alltech Ag Future podcast series, (and I’m) here with Cheya to get her insights on how to reset, feel better and move on productively. Thanks for joining us, Cheya.

Cheya:          Thank you for having me.

Tom:            Burnout seems to be more common than ever these days. I think it was a 2021 survey of 1,500 U.S. workers (that) found more than half feeling burned out as a result of their job demands. Does that finding seem about right?

Cheya:          Yes, and I would even add to that and say about 75%, because what the WHO defines as burnout only relates to work. What people don't realize is that you can have parental burnout. A lot of people are defining their work burnout, but it's really the combination of their lives that have been burned out. The parental burnout on top of their work burnout is really the burnout people are experiencing, because it's not always our jobs. It's always something deeper, and it's usually a combination of things.

Tom:            I'm glad you pointed that out, because each on its own is stressful and can lead to burnout, (but) the two combined? Wow. It has been an eye-opening trend of Americans leaving jobs, especially those that typically involve long, exhausting hours of difficult, stressful work for lower pay than they could demand in some other field. What are you seeing in that area?

Cheya:          I think that this is a very unique time in our history, because what people have learned as the confines of work do not look the same anymore — so the landscape has changed. The Great Resignation is also, I feel, like a great freedom for some, because now, you have an opportunity to leverage your lifestyle the way that you want to and build habits around a better lifestyle. “Work from home” sounds great, but there still needs to be boundaries there. A lot of people who are not always comfortable being in the office and wish they had a work-from-home job, and now they have access to those opportunities due to remote work. Well then, how do we build into that lifestyle the same boundaries of our work when we were going into the office — into our now work-from-home lifestyles?

Tom:            It's been interesting to me that prior to the pandemic, employers were — this is a generalization — but generally opposed to remote work. They wanted everybody onboard on the premises, being a team, and that made sense. But the pandemic made something else make sense: staying home, and it's gone on long enough now that many of us have adapted to it and have decided, “You know what? This really works well.” What are you finding? Are people actually — or some people — more productive in a remote situation?

Cheya:          I do find people can be more productive. I would say in the studies — and even the last couple of quarters have shown, as companies have been more profitable since we have been in the more remote work environment than they have in previous years. I think it's really something to be said about micromanaging and even microaggressions in the office. Depending on your background and racial makeup, some people have found that being in office leads to more microaggressions, where they don't have that at home, because they're not in the office. Then some managers who are not leaders, they need to micromanage teams in the office. I think that's one of the clear distinctions between a leader and a manager: when you can lead a team remotely versus managing a team remotely. I think that's what leads to people being more productive.

                     But again, you do have to have a set of boundaries there because, with us working remotely, people have worked longer hours and they don't have hard stop and beginning times. I think that's the part that people have to learn how to manage now, because you knew you had to be at work at nine o'clock and you got to off at five o'clock, then you had your 30-minute or hour commute home. There was time to de-stress and there was also hard starting-in times. Now, we don't have that.

Tom:            With the choice to work remotely comes the obligation to self-manage.

Cheya:          Absolutely — self-control.

Tom:            When we think about burnout, mental and emotional symptoms such as feelings of helplessness and cynicism even come to mind. What are some common symptoms and ailments?

Cheya:          I would say anxiety, insomnia, lack of productivity, as well as physical pain. I know, growing up, I thought about this a lot. Sometimes, when kids don't want to go to school, they're being bullied and things of that nature. That can be them experiencing stress, high levels of stress — and burnout is just a stage of chronic stress. With that being the case, you ever noticed that kids get sick? The physical manifestation of that fear or that chronic stress, it becomes a real thing. That time, it shows up for us as adults as well. When we are feeling overwhelmed at our workplaces and we don't want to go into work, that's when you wake up with that dread, or you have now a headache, or you're just like, “Oh, my stomach is hurting.” There's nothing really wrong, because as soon as you make the call and say you're not going in, do you ever find how quickly you feel better?

Tom:            I personally can testify that stress can lead to back problems.

Cheya:          Absolutely.

Tom:            I guess it depends on the individual. What are the signs, and what steps should a person take when they notice this, when they put the two and two together? “Oh, this must be connected to what I'm going through.”

Cheya:          First, I would say, define a couple of things for yourself. Define what stress is for you. How does that physically manifest in your body? Then, also, knowing what your triggers are. Those are the first steps, I would say.

                     Then, I would recognize value alignment. I begin all of my programs with value alignment, because I think once you know what you value — if you stand for nothing, you will fall for everything. You have to know what you value. A lot of the times, the work that we do does not align with our values. When you're interviewing with an organization, you're interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you. It's not the best thing to just leave a job and say, like, “Oh, let me just go get another job. My job is so stressful.” Does the value alignment align with the lifestyle that you have chosen for yourself and the career path that you have chosen for yourself? For a lot of us, it doesn't. We've picked these careers because they either came easy to us or you went to school for it.

                     That's the biggest thing, people — but I went to school for this, and I have to work in this field. But you don't have to. If you do a study — many studies have shown, most people are not even working in their fields of choice that they have their degrees in. It's really finding what works for you, what brings you joy and fulfillment, and then going from there, but it all starts with value alignment.

Tom:            In your work, Cheya, do you find that people in our culture, where we are taught to work hard, tend to brush off suggestions that they get help for stress and exhaustion for burnout?

Cheya:          Absolutely, absolutely. This work that I do is, it's a passion of mine, because I experienced burnout on three different occasions. Yet most of the time, people feel guilty, and they are made to feel guilty, as a society, for resting and self-caring. There's no guilt that should be around that. It's your birthright. Asking for help is actually a sign of strength. It's not a sign of weakness, be it therapy, or be it telling your boss or your supervisor, “Hey, my workload is getting pretty heavy right now. Is there any way I can get support?” Be it with someone partnering with you on a project or you getting an assistant. But it does not speak to the fact that you cannot do the work. There is a time where people may just put too much on your plate, and you have to be the one that says, “This is too much.” I had an old supervisor telling me, “When someone steps on your foot, you have to tell them it hurts, or they'll keep stepping on your foot.” It works the same way.

Tom:            When you work with individuals and corporate teams to help them manage stress and come up with their own strategies to thrive at work, at school or in their everyday lives, how do you help them overcome this sense of being overwhelmed, and how can we prioritize our own self-care and health?

Cheya:          I call it holding space for self, which is also the name of my book, and it's a matter of how you build in daily habits of self-caring into your everyday. It's living with intention, and with that being the case, how I begin the program is value alignment. Once you look at your values, you can say, “How does my lifestyle align with my values? How do my decisions align with my values? How do my relationships align with my values?” A lot of times, especially as young people, we think we have to have friendships because we’ve been friends with them for so long. Well, time is not a qualifier for quality either, because there are certain people in our lives that we can speak to (but), very often, we don’t feel anything there, and it’s like you’re just doing it to do it, to have something to do. Then there’s other people that you may not speak to all the time, but when you speak to them, it’s the most fulfilling relationship and the most fulfilling conversation over the course of two hours. You may not speak to them for another three months.

                     So, it's really about getting people to see clearly what their values are (and) define those things for yourself — define stress for yourself, define success for yourself. Do not allow society's definition to dampen or hinder how you develop and you pursue the things that are important to you in your life.

Tom:            Some experts in this field say self-care can be a double-edged sword. Obviously, we need to take good care of ourselves, but hearing that we need this can only worsen the problem, implying that the blame and the responsibility for the condition is on the person experiencing the burnout instead of external influences. What's your take on that view?

Cheya:          I don't wholeheartedly agree, and the reason is because our lives are composed of our choices. Yes, it is our responsibility. If we just go with anything, then people will be able to define you, people will be able to pull you in every direction. You have to be the one that says, “Hey, this is a boundary.” And then, on top of that, you have to honor your own boundaries, and you have to teach people how to treat you. Yes, it is your boss's job to figure out a way to get the work done but also support you, but your boss is aligned with the organization. So, if something doesn't work for you, you have to communicate that, because the organization knows, “Hey, this person's here to do this job. This is how we need the job done. This person can get it done.” If they keep giving you stuff and you never say, “It’s too much,” then it is partly you.

                     But I think, when it comes to self-care, we have to look at also Swarbrick's “Eight Dimensions of Wellness,” and that talks about occupational wellness, financial wellness, intellectual wellness, social wellness. These are all of the areas in which self-care should align. It's not necessarily about being selfish, nor is it necessarily about blame being placed on one individual, but on anything in our society. Usually, it is on the one person, because our lives are composed of our choices. It's funny how, when it comes to self-care, it's like, “Ooh, that's blameful.” But if you cross the street in front of a bus, no one's going to say, “That bus should’ve known you were coming.” No, it doesn't work that way.

Tom:            Burnout can happen when you feel that your workload is out of control. I think of Lucille Ball here and then the famous conveyor belt (scene) and that you just can't get ahead of that curve. Is this a condition that should be directly discussed with your employer, or does that only bring on more stress over how you'll be perceived as an employee?

Cheya:          I think that it is the corporation's responsibility to layer in tools and resources into your organizational structure that support wellness across the board. It cannot be a one-time event. It cannot be just a workshop. It needs to be layered into the fabric of your organization. Our leaders need to exhibit the behaviors that they want the team to actually then follow. So, if you're an always-accessible leader, you're not teaching your team about boundaries. That needs to be layered in there. You also need to have programming in there that allows people to tap into resources when they need support. So, if that's logging on to a portal and watching a class on breathing, or if that's logging into a portal and watching the class on budgeting, that's what you need to do. Also, having access to therapy.

                     These things need to be layered into the fabric of organizational structure. It's not okay to just say, “We'll bring in a speaker every now and then.” We are way past that, and most of the time, when people are burnt out, they don't recognize it until it's too late. So, how do you layer preventative measures in there so that they don't get to that place? We need to be more responsive and proactive versus reactive to any given situation.

Tom:            Do you work with employers who are actually proactively looking for ways to keep their workforces healthy and happy?

Cheya:          Absolutely. I most recently did a program for an organization who actually advocates for their team speaking up. The leaders speak up. The leaders are a top-down organization, where they communicate the needs, and they also exhibit those needs, and they also have a very open-door policy. So, in the middle of my programming, everyone kept saying, “They do a great job of that here. They do a great job of that here.” I had to commend them. That was the first time I did a program in an organization (where) all the individuals participating said, "Oh no, here, they do that really well." That's not normally the case.

Tom:            You mentioned earlier the Great Resignation, that period we're going through, and that seems to be one of the things that people are looking for. They're looking for that kind of concern on the part of the employer. I know that you recently got more than 500 students who (discussed) the mental ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic. I wondered if you could share with us any lasting impressions from that experience.

Cheya:          I think, when it comes to students, it is our responsibility as the older generation to help them navigate this. This is their first time experiencing anything of this magnitude. Many of us have lived through many versions of this, be it Enron, be it 9/11. It's our responsibility to help them navigate (this).

                     Some of the things that have been really encouraging in those presentations with the students is that they're listening more than we think they are. We always say that this generation is not listening, but once I've left campus, I've had admins reach out and say, “They're using the lingo from your book. They're helping each other.” So, they want to know that information. They are, like, hungry for the information. It's just a matter of putting it in front of them and then giving them the language. Everything that we do is around language, right? People go to therapy so they can learn the language to their feelings. Giving students that language is actually helping them better learn how to care for themselves. I think it's important to do that before they hit the workforce. So, if they understand what they value instead of just getting money, then they can choose better careers for themselves and not work a job for 40 years that they hate.

Tom:            How many times do we hear somebody say — often wistfully — that they took piano lessons, art, or got into competitive sports for a while, but work and life forced them to set those things aside? Should they still find a bit of time to regularly do something that they truly love?

Cheya:          Absolutely. One of my frameworks is the SPC. I call it the spiritual, physical and creative outlet, and that is the framework. You need to focus on those three areas, and if you create healthy habits in those three areas, you will be able to prioritize your self-care. Is that praying? Is that meditating? Whatever that looks like for you in that spiritual bucket. Then physical. How are you moving your body? What are you doing to maybe get out in nature? Then creative. What's that thing you did as a kid that people told you you'd never make money from, so you gave it up, but you find so much joy and fulfillment in it? If you can put those things together in your lifestyle and dedicate a minimum of 20 minutes a day to each of those three buckets — “the rule of three 20s” is what I call it — (for) that one hour, just dedicate it to something for yourself. You will have a greater and more richer sense of fulfillment. It just automatically will start to happen.

Tom:            What about taking time off and doing it without feeling like you're abandoning your team and/or feeling that the work is just going to keep piling up while you're away and be worse when you get back?

Cheya:          You need it. You need time off. I call it mental health days. I tell people to pre-schedule them. I think, at the beginning of the year, when you know how much PTO you have, just start off in January. Pre-schedule your mental health days, random days, throughout the (next) couple of months. I try and do at least one weekend a quarter. I do at least two days every couple of weeks where I just have it on my calendar, and I take time off. I let my work team know, “Hey, I'm off this weekend.” People begin to respect it, and they actually expect it of you that you're going to rest. Rest builds resilience. If we are constantly going, then we will break down. It's burning the candle at both ends. Our phones can't constantly stay plugged in, because it'll drain the battery, right? When they don't work anymore, you shut them down. When your TV's acting up, you kind of reset it.

                     Everything in life needs a reset. We do as well, and it comes from resting. But society makes us feel guilty for resting. I am the queen of “no”. I say rest is important. I prioritize rest, probably, over everything. I do. Everyone (who knows me) knows, on the weekends, I only let myself do two things per weekend day. Because when you're over-committed, then you're exhausted, and then you get to Mondays, and you don't want to go to work because you didn't experience your rest on the weekend.

Tom:            We have real trouble saying no, don't we?

Cheya:          Oh, yeah.

Tom:            Speaking of time off, and speaking of those devices, how do we really do that? How do we disconnect? Because they're so integrated with who we are now and how we function. I mean, here we're being driven by what comes up on social media and on our schedules, on our laptops and so forth. But when we take time off, the goal is to really disconnect from that. Do you have any thoughts around this and advice for those who still find themselves thinking about work when they're trying to disconnect?

Cheya:          Absolutely. First, I would tell you to take an inventory of your time. How are you spending your time? Then, once you do that, when you recognize either you're spending too much time on social media or too much time working and not enough time with your family or just catering to your own needs, then try and scale it back. Start small.

                     I have someone that I worked with over 10 years ago, and I had him start with 10 minutes a day, with 10 minutes of day where he didn't do anything. He didn't answer the phone. During his lunch, he would eat, he would answer the phone and he'd be on a computer. Well, that's not lunch. That's what most of us do. So, for 10 minutes a day, just step away. Start there and then, gradually, if you can do that for maybe two weeks, add another 10 minutes. Then you keep doing that. I started working with him a year before his retirement. I saw him a year later, and his wife couldn't believe it. She said, "Oh, my gosh, you're the girl. You're the girl that helped him. Now he knows how to relax." It took him a year, but we started at 10 minutes a day.

                     I think it's overwhelming when you're like, “I have to do all of this now.” No. They say, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” You have to break these things down and put them in smaller tidbits for yourself. We all know our own responses and our energy and how they work in our lives. I think that's the same way when you are looking to accomplish a goal. If, for you, that is creating more opportunities for rest, start small. If it's 10 minutes and you just put your phone on Do Not Disturb or you limit the amount of time you spend on social media using the apps in our phones, well, you create focus time. In my phone right now, I only have an hour and a half that I'm allowed to use (on) my social media apps a day. I used to have 100 minutes. Then I realized, at the end of the day, I had a minute left over. I kind of want it to run out in the middle of the day; then I'm not going to be encouraged to go back on there.

Tom:            What will we find in your book, “Holding Space for Self,” that would be helpful in guiding us to a more centered, less stressful and maybe even stress-free — I don't know if I can go that far, but maybe that — maybe a stress-free life?

Cheya:          In my book, I talk about 25 tips for creating a weekly self-care routine. In there, we go through the inventory of your time. We go through setting healthy boundaries, as well as different ways for you to practice self-care. I have tips in there if you're a mom and you need to learn how to practice self-care (or) if you're living a very busy lifestyle (and) you need to practice self-care. There's also a self-care commitment that I have you sign that you're going to spend time caring for yourself. And you will make mistakes. It's okay. It's okay to not feel good. It's okay to make mistakes, but you won't guilt trip yourself every time you make a mistake, and you sign that agreement. Then you get into the ways of creating those moments for yourself.

                     Again, it can be something as small as just having a hot cup of tea before you start work, because so often, we'll go into our email and give our attention to everything else but ourselves and our feet haven't even touched the ground before we've gotten out of bed. So, I talk about that in the book as well.

Tom:            That's author and stress and self-care consultant Cheya Thousand. Thank you so much, Cheya.

Cheya:          Thank you for having me.

Tom:           For the Alltech Ag Future podcast, I'm Tom Martin. Thank you for joining us. Be sure                     to subscribe to Ag Future wherever you listen to podcasts

I have had horses most of my life, but it was not until I first cared for a horse on my small acreage that it dawned on me, what should I do with all the manure? I am sure you, too, if you care for horses, have asked the same question at some point.

Horses produce 50 pounds of manure per day, over eight tons per year! Add to that the eight to ten gallons of urine a horse generates and the wheelbarrow or more of bedding used each day, and in no time at all, you will have a manure mountain.

All that takes up a whole lot of valuable space that you would probably enjoy using for more interesting things than stockpiling manure. For me, that first small acreage experience was over 30 years ago, but the process of working out a useful horse manure management option led me on the exciting journey I am on today as an environmental educator working with horse owners around the country.

In this article, I will share some of the problems associated with not having a solid system to deal with manure as part of your overall horse management program and cover the benefits of composting. We will go through the steps to manage compost and wind up with guidelines for using finished compost.

The trouble with horse manure

There are many concerns about the mismanaged manure pile (besides the obvious of wasted space and being an eyesore), such as:

• Horses grazing near their manure are quickly reinfested by larvae that hatch from worm eggs shed in manure.
• Odor and fly problems becoming a concern to you or your neighbors.
• Runoff from soggy manure piles causing water quality issues for creeks and wetlands, as well as for drinking water, which is a serious concern if you have your own well. Many areas have ordinances in place that strictly control these issues.

What is composting?

All organic matter, including manure and bedding, eventually decomposes. By providing an ideal environment, we put the beneficial bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that speed up the decomposition process to work.

As manure and stall waste are broken down, the microorganisms generate tremendous amounts of heat. This heat destroys weed seeds, fly larvae, worm eggs and other disease-causing pathogens.

Finished compost is crumbly, earthy-smelling, dark material and a marvelous soil amendment that holds in moisture and adds nutrients.

The compost bin vs. the compost pile

In order to compost and generate heat, it is important to stack your manure and stall waste a minimum of three to four feet high. (Aim to make it at least the size of a washing machine.)

You can build a bin out of cement or pressure-treated wood, or you can just create a large manure pile. Larger horse facilities or those with tractors might need a sturdy bin design with strong walls. If you live in a wet climate, you will need either a roof or a tarp over your bin to avoid piles getting too wet and soggy. A cement pad for the bottom is helpful when using a tractor to keep the area from turning muddy in the winter or rainy season.

How to manage composting systems 

This includes tarping (covering), turning or aerating, and watering. Like most living things, the microorganisms that break down manure and bedding are aerobic, requiring air and water. Too much or too little of either can cause problems. Some simple steps to follow to manage the process are:

1. Choose the right location. Begin by locating an appropriate place for your composting site. For chore efficiency, choose an area convenient for chores with easy access to your horses, barn and paddocks. This area should be high, well-drained and away from waterways. Locating your pile at the bottom of a hill or in a wet area may mean it turns into a pile of mush. A dry, level area is especially important when it comes to accessing the pile with any kind of heavy equipment, such as a tractor or truck (which you may want for spreading the finished compost).

2. Piling. Place daily manure and stall waste in one bin or pile. When that bin or pile is as large as you want it (at least three feet), leave it and begin building a second pile or bin, and so on for the last bin. In two to four months, the first bin or pile should be finished, and you can start using the compost from that bin. It is a good idea to have two or three separate piles — or more if you would like.

3. Keep it covered! Covering your compost prevents the valuable nutrients you are saving in the compost from getting washed out and causing problems with the neighbors or in nearby waterways. A cover keeps your piles from becoming a soggy mess in the winter or too dried out in the summer. This can be accomplished with a tarp, plastic sheet or by building a roof.

Since you will need to pull the tarp back every time you clean your horse’s stall and paddock, make the tarp as chore-efficient and easy to use as possible. You may want to attach your tarp to the back of your compost bin. TIP: If you live in a windy area, weigh down your tarp with milk jugs full of gravel.

4. Get air into the pile. Turning the compost-to-be allows oxygen to get to the bacteria and organisms that break down the material into dirt-like organic matter. This keeps the process aerobic and earthy smelling. If the compost becomes anaerobic, without air, it will have a foul, undesirable odor.

How often you turn it determines how quickly your compost will be ready. On its own, air will permeate into the pile to a depth of one to two feet, so it’s the center of the pile that really needs air. Unless you have access to a tractor or enjoy a good workout, turning the pile by hand is difficult.

An easy way to get air to the center and avoid frequent hand-turning is to insert a couple of five- or six-foot PVC pipes into the center of the pile like chimneys. Buy PVC pipes with holes in them or use a drill to put in holes along pipes. Alternately, you could use a tamping rod to insert a few holes into the center.

The pile will still need to be turned from time to time to get the manure on the outside into the center so heat from the composting process can kill pathogens and evenly break down the material.

5. Keep it damp. Your compost material should be about as damp as a wrung-out sponge. Particularly in the summer, you will need to find a way to water your compost. Either use a garden hose when you turn it or just hose down the manure in your wheelbarrow before you dump it into the pile.

The compost should be damp but not dripping with water. If you squeeze a handful of it in your hand (wear a glove if you want), you should only be able to squeeze out a drop or two.

6. Optional: Monitor the heat. A wonderful component of composting is the heat generated by the beneficial microbes. A compost pile can get fairly warm, about 130–150°F. If you want the compost to kill fly larvae, worm eggs, weed seeds and pathogens, you need it to reach these temperatures for about three or four days. You can monitor the temperatures easily with the aid of a long-stemmed compost thermometer purchased at a local garden store.

7. Finished compost. How actively you monitor the air and water and how often you turn it determines how quickly it will compost. It should take around three to four months to finish, perhaps longer in the winter. The volume of material piled up will decrease in size by about 50%. You will know when your compost is ready when the material looks evenly textured, dark and crumbly like dirt and no longer like the original material. It should be 90°F or less.

8. Put that black gold to good work! Compost is a rich soil amendment that improves the health of both plants and soil and helps to retain moisture. You can use your compost in your garden, give it away to your neighbors, or spread it on your pastures. Spreading manure in pastures during the growing season — from late spring to early fall — is best.

You can use a manure spreader or simply spread it with a shovel from the back of a pickup truck or by the bucketful with a tractor. Do not spread it too thick to avoid smothering grass; just a sprinkling of about 0.25–0.5 inches at a time and no more than three to four inches per season in the same area.

In conclusion

Finished compost is a precious soil amendment infused with micro and macronutrients that work to add nutrients in a time-release fashion. Compost adds “life” to soils in terms of beneficial bacteria and fungi. Academic research shows that compost makes plants healthier, more disease-resistant and that just one application of compost can have benefits lasting five or more years.

Compost will also help hold in moisture — very important for helping your pasture survive a summer drought or climate change! And composting provides you with a free, easy source of compost that saves you money. Your horseless gardening neighbors may find it a valuable commodity as well!

For questions or design help, contact Horses for Clean Water, your local conservation district or the Natural Resources Conservation Service.  

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