#2 - Heather Terry @ GoodSam

Episode Recap:

ReGen Brands Recap #2 - Heather Terry @ GoodSAM Foods

Episode Transcript:

Kyle Krull - 0:00:16
Welcome to The ReGen Brands Podcast. This is a place for consumers, operators and investors to learn about the consumer brand supporting regenerative agriculture and how they're changing the world. This is your host, Kyle, joined with my co-host AC. Let's dive in.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:00:33
On this episode we have Heather Terry, who is a cofounder and the CEO of GoodSAM Foods. GoodSAM is supporting regenerative agriculture through their baking mixes, chocolate, coffee and nut products. In this episode we learn more about GoodSAM's origin story, Heather's journey as a cereal chocolate brand founder, and how Good Sam is creating regenerative supply chains through their important work with international smallholder indigenous farmers. Let's go. What's up everybody? Welcome back to The ReGen Brands Podcast. This is episode three with one of my favorite people on planet Earth, Heather Terry of GoodSAM Foods. Heather is a superstar and absolute badass, so we are super happy to have her with us to talk about Good Sam and everything that they're doing there. So pumped. Abby Heather, welcome.

Heather Terry - 0:01:23
Thank you guys for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:01:26
Absolutely.

Heather Terry - 0:01:27
You're one of my favorite people too, Anthony I.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:01:29
I appreciate.

Heather Terry - 0:01:31
That soon after this will be one of my favorite.

Kyle Krull - 0:01:34
People get there. This will be becoming favorites.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:01:37
Nice, nice. Well, Heather, we always just kind of start off with individual backgrounds and really origin stories on on the individual brand. So tell us a little about yourself, your journey and good damn and the origin story.

Heather Terry - 0:01:49
Yeah. So GoodSAM. I mean I would argue that the journey to good Sam started when I started my first consumer goods company back in 2009. I started a brand called Nibmore chocolate. We were actually the first non-GMO verified chocolate bar ever and that was a big deal because you know non-GMO project. I think what they did really, really well was they communicated well with the consumer, with the person at the shelf. And we took a big gamble on that back in the day, Jennifer Love and I, my business partner at Nipmore. And you know, we wanted better for you. We wanted to see different certifications come to light. We wanted to see the consumer understanding of that. And we wanted consumers to be flipping over their food and looking at the labels back then, you know, that was sort of the start of that back in like the early 2000s. I mean now we kind of take that for granted, but that was something that people kind of were just doing at that point.

Heather Terry - 0:02:15
Point in time that was the start of the natural products industry really. I remember when Expo West was like 1 little floor, you know, and I was on the main floor and like I was a new brand on the main floor. And now you know it's like this mega thing and we sort of take for granted that evolution over the last you know, 15 years or so, 1520 years. So I started nip more because I. Was an actor in New York City and the housing crisis had happened and I wanted to stop peoples and I I.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:03:15
Did not know that.

Heather Terry - 0:03:16
Yeah, yeah. So I was doing a show on Broadway actually, when I started nibmore.

Kyle Krull - 0:03:21
But what show was it I was doing?

Heather Terry - 0:03:22
A show I was I was doing a show called Arena's vow. With Tova Feldsha and and it was great. You know there's nothing like doing Broadway as an actor and I had been doing lots of. You've definitely seen me in a commercial in your household. You watch TV in early 2000s, you saw me couple up the bondage bill. You saw me on the at T being like. I did not. Oh yeah, I mean.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:03:46
That is awesome. Lots.

Heather Terry - 0:03:47
Of commercials. I was on all my children for a while. I was, you know, so lots and lots of.

Kyle Krull - 0:03:52
Are you? Are you like the influencer for the rest of the actors, celebrities who have recently come into CPG, you were the first.

Heather Terry - 0:03:58
To start telling you there was a handful, actually, it's a funny story. I one of my dear friends in the industry is Bob McClure. And Bob McClure did Mcclure's Pickles, which now is was in Brooklyn and Detroit but is now in Detroit. And Bob and I were in an acting class together like. Back in the day, and I remember she started with Coors and I was thinking of starting a food company because I was teaching cooking classes. And I sat with him and I thought I was going to do the sauce and he was giving me all this guidance and then I ended up in food and then it was like a whole thing. So there there were some actors back in the early 2000s, including Karen Freer from free bread, myself, Bob like who, who jumped ship on our acting careers to come to CPG food in particular. So yeah, we. You know, I was. It was the housing crisis. I didn't want to go back to waiting tables. I didn't want to, you know, it was just harder and harder to get work as an actor. And I started making chocolate because it was really the one thing my actor friends would all eat. They were very picky about the sweets they put into their bodies. And so dark chocolate was always on the menu. They were always okay with that. So I started making dark chocolate, and it surprises some people to know that I learned how to make dark chocolate. I learned how to make chocolate on YouTube when there were like 10.

Heather Terry - 0:04:41
It was on YouTube. YouTube was like not a thing. So I did that and you know I would say if I look at what I make today and I look at that, I would say it was very poorly executed. But you know, I think we were, I think we were playing on a trend at that time, the sort of better for you more conscious eating that really was just coming into the mindset of consumers, especially on the coasts, you know, LA and New York than thinking of Chicago and.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:05:40
Austin. You go to the store and there's like 100 better for you chocolate bars, but that was in the case then.

Heather Terry - 0:05:45
Right. I mean back then you guys like the the only better for you that was classified in the category was de Goba, which had just sold to Hershey's and the only differentiator on De Goba was that was organic. So that was the marker for health and Wellness back then, right. So when we went long with like being. Exclusively vegan at Nipmore being, you know, non-GMO project verified, gluten free verified. I mean we did everything and I think the consumers started to you know and Whole Foods certainly helped propel that too because that was right around the time Whole Foods was growing. So what happened at Nipmore was I started to dig into supply chain because that was really interesting for me. I was running R&D and operations for the company and my partner was running more the sales and and strategy for the business. And we started traveling to different countries where, you know, we had many middle men in between us and we started traveling and getting really crazy answers about fair trade from farmers and the way the system worked. And you have to remember, this is, this is 2009, 2010 we're too.

Heather Terry - 0:06:32
Youngish white women in the fields, you know, bring me to very different time. The industry was, I mean the industry is still very male dominated, but I'd argue even back then even more so, you know, where it was very odd to see us out there. So we kind of hit a lot of roadblocks. And then, you know, I moved in my career to a company called SW Basics and Clean Beauty and sort of doing the same, a lot of the same things there. And then consulting for a long period of time. So when this project landed on my desk, I actually was just beginning at Beyond Brands, which is a consulting agency in New York City, head by Eric Schnell, who is best known for Steve's tea. He also got on the board at Runa. He's a big beverage guy, but beyond brands is a top tier natural products agency in New York City, servicing many different brands at different stages in their life cycle, everything from ideation all the way through being very, very large.

Heather Terry - 0:07:23
Brands trying to cut into niche categories with specific product lines. So I joined that partnership and the first thing to come across my desk was a dried fruit company that was out of Columbia. And Eric sort of looked at me in the meeting and said there's a lot more than dried fruit in Columbia. I'm pretty sure there's some chocolate there. That's your category. Go work it out. And Long story short, I basically gutted the company to what it is today. So we ended up like closing the original entity completely revamping around then me coming into coming to Columbia and seeing what was really there and deciding what that product line was going to look like after many, many years of experience, try you know with these types of products in the market.

Heather Terry - 0:08:06
And I, you know, I think what was really interesting about my first few times in Colombia, now of course I've been there many, many times. But I realized that because, you know, in Colombia they had a lot of, there was just a lot of political strife, there was a lot of war, there was a lot of unrest. So in 2017 when the war ended, and there were. There was a lot of opportunity for these associations to really grow, especially outside of coffee. And the tragic part of that tale with coffee is that, you know, coffee's being cut out because of climate change. Totally different topic, but cacao started becoming a main crap there and I was traveling with Jeremiah Mcelwee from Thrive Market and Jeremiah looked at me like we were on this farm. And you know, Jeremiah and I have been on a zillion farms in our career and one of the farmers was like digging up, it's like black soil with all these.

Heather Terry - 0:08:59
Rooms cut me this most beautiful picture of one of my first trips to Colombia and him, this farmer just literally putting his hand into the ground beneath him. And just being like here and here am I and I looking at each other and being like this is all regenerative. Like this is all a concept that's just now kind of coming to the forefront of the industry's mind. How can we look at that and create a business around it? So then the further iteration with Good Sam was that we had, you know, we thought we were going to be a chocolate company or a snack company and what we decided in that moment very early on in the life cycle of. This revamped company was that we were going to go along on regenerative agriculture regardless of what was going to happen in the industry around it, that if we were thinking about long term businesses and longevity of a company that this was the future of food.

Kyle Krull - 0:10:26
So I want to pause out there and rewind a little bit so instead of thinking about the development of a company. Around the specific product type or category you shifted and said we want to focus on regenerative and whatever we can create in a regenerative fashion, we'll enter those those categories instead.

Heather Terry - 0:10:40
Yeah, absolutely. So when we talk about Good Sam, we talk about it as. Working solely in regenerative systems directly with farmers, completely eliminating the middle men, which means we have to play across a lot of different categories. If we're going to sustain and support regenerative agriculture, then we have to take the products that those farmers are farming out of them. And that I think is the piece that's been a little bit lost on the industry. And I think actually funny, we were talking, we were before this, everybody who's listening, we were talking about browners. I think it's where Browners actually. And I said this to to everyone at browners, I said this to them. When Bronner's got into chocolate, investors started looking at me like I didn't have three eyeballs anymore because you know, essentially a soap company saying we're going to pull more out of the supply chain suddenly.

Heather Terry - 0:11:06
The lights went on for the money, people going, oh wait, we now get this. We now understand what you're trying to do, right? So I think we're going to see more and more businesses doing this because if we think about how we want food companies, you know, I mean look especially you guys know this. In the United States, agriculture is 30% of carbon emissions in this country alone, right. So we can do a lot with regenerative AG and if we're. Incentivizing the farmers by purchasing all of those product lines, we will continue to create regenerative systems. It's when we go to them and we say, oh, I only want this cacao or I only want this coffee, we start to see farms shifting slow. Usually it's slowly over time into these mono crops, right. No one intends for that to happen, but that's what happens, right? That's what happened in this country, right? When we think about the incentives and the subsidies and everything, nobody wanted to do that, but that was where the money took them.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:12:29
And what I love about that there is in this country right now even with corn and soy which is traditionally mono crop or you know you just mix those two together, we're struggling to do it cover crop adoption and why is that because? That's basically just for soil health. There is no market for cover crops. There's some out there there is and so you know for the for the Super beginner audience, you know these are not just plantations that are mono crop or one crop right. These are biodiverse multi species growing operations that you truly have to support there being a market to a consumer for the products that are being grown or at least the majority of them or you know a decent margin of them.

Heather Terry - 0:13:04
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, we see. Cover crops are certainly assert a really, really important part of this conversation, right? Because you're right, they don't, they don't generate any cash. They don't. But yeah, they generate shade, they generate compost, they generate nutrients in the soil, right. So. I know sometimes they can be viewed from a capitalistic viewpoint as if like, why would we be involved in this? You have to plant things that don't generate any income, the longterm benefits of that biodiversity. You know, we're really buying our self time on the other end and we're buying our self time now, right when we think about carbon emissions, what's happening in climate change all day.

Kyle Krull - 0:13:45
Well, and as you make the soil healthier, you're reducing your need for synthetic fertilizers, you know, and all sorts of other things. So, you know, I'm with you. The long play is there. Is the way to go. But unfortunately in the United States now we're very much, you know what, can we sell this harvest? Yeah, you know, you.

Heather Terry - 0:14:00
Can't help with us though, right? Like I think that's the part that we have to understand and that the audience has to understand that consumers need to understand. You know, if you want things and I and it's a little scary, but if you want things like. Any food, you know it's, but when I see it, cacao, which makes chocolate, coffee, you know, these are two things. I deal in two crops, and I have many, many other crops right that I deal in. But these two crops in particular, think about your life without them. Think about your life without coffee, and think about your life, especially coffee. And think about your life without chocolate, right? That's really, really difficult for most consumers to wrap their brains around, right? That that if we don't take care of the soil, if we don't continue making long term investments, that those products will go away eventually.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:14:50
Those products are so pronounced and so widely available that I think. We get into the mindset of like, this stuff just comes out of a hole behind Walmart and it like shows up on the shelf and it's like that is now works, you know, at all. Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 0:15:04
Yeah, I think I think you're right. Connecting people to understanding how the the ingredients get into the products that they're purchasing is a key part of this story that you know in order for. We're jumping way ahead here to the last question. But in order to make some real change, like, yeah, telling that story is going to have to be a key component. There's one other piece I want to rewind to and we talked a little bit about the categories, right. And I'm curious from your perspective, you know, runners has been an established company for a very long time. So for them to take, you know, their soaps, you know, pedigree, if you will, and enter a new category, they're still a recognized brand. So for a new brand like Good Sam, what sort of challenges are you facing dealing with multiple category buyers and trying to tell your story in various aisles? Like tell us about those struggles or barriers well?

Heather Terry - 0:15:50
I mean, Coven kind of did us a favor at Good Sam because we couldn't go into retail right away and that was. Actually a blessing for us right at the end of the day. I mean it's a funny thing to say because the you know, I think also the funny part about me is most people in the industry know me because of retail. They don't know me from a D to C perspective. But I think what we did really well and we're thrive market really supported us as a brand was supporting everything that we were bringing out. I mean thrive has gone super long on Regen AG they are. Very passionate about it. They are. They want to see this category become the leader in natural products and not not an afterthought or a greenwashed afterthought. They want to see real action here. And so I think thrive was a huge reason we've succeeded on this side in multiple categories. I have to give them credit because you know very few retailers you guys would allow, you know.

Heather Terry - 0:16:22
A brand to do what thrive market allowed us to come in and do like when I would call him up and say yeah I called Jeremiah up and be like hey so I want to do coffee. Great. Let's do coffee. Hey I want to do let's do nuts like he he he supports it so ardently and his staff supports it so ardently that I think you can't do it without people like that. Right. And I think when we talk about but let me talk about another example so you know we're we just got into kahe.

Heather Terry - 0:16:48
And Tabitha Sewell, who's been our champion at Kahee, you know, she gave us the golden ticket at Expo W, which basically guaranteed us entry into kahee as many decents as we wanted. She really believed in what I brought to her on that day. And she roped in other category managers, right to say, hey, I don't need to do this one alone. Like they've got this, they've got this, they've got this. And you know, I think it's going to, I think it comes down to. Finding the right people who really understand what you're doing. You know, it's the same thing at Erawan. You know, Ana, you took in our chocolate bars and our macadamia nuts and let us cross categories. You know, Ana knows me from the industry, but she, she's taking a shot on this too. And I think you have to have those types of pioneers within the industry who are willing to see a little bit outside of the box to get a brand on shelf and to get that buy in.

Heather Terry - 0:17:45
They're taking a risk, you know, as are we. But I I argue that and I always say this too. The right people right now will take good Sam on because they get it right and their consumer gets it. Everyone else will follow. I'm not interested in pushing in, Anthony. You know this from investment talks with me. I'm not interested in like points of distribution. I'm interested in velocity. I'm interested in the consumer who really gets it. And you know those individuals, Jeremiah, Miguel, we thrive on a you at Erawan, Tabitha Sewell and.

Heather Terry - 0:18:11
And her team over at Cahi, they get it. They get what we're trying to do. Alignment. Yeah. And you know, those are the types of craft partners I think region brands need to surround themselves with. We really need to be able to.

Heather Terry - 0:18:41
Go to those individuals and and and get what we need in order to drive these brands forward. But they're not everywhere, you know, they're not everywhere.

Kyle Krull - 0:19:01
Totally I wanted, I want to touch on everyone for a moment. So as the region coalition we are in a very similar position right where we have numerous categories of regenerative products and we try to promote together on single end caps. And air one was actually one of the first retailers to say, hey, we want to do this, we're willing to put bone broth on the same end cap as chocolate where a lot of other retailers like why would we ever merchandise bone broth and chocolate like this is never going to work. So to your point about selecting the right partners, it really resonates with me. I think it's a, it's a really great point that and I love what you said about. Going after velocity instead of distribution, you know, so it's like you're going deep first before you're going wide. And I think that's a great strategy especially in like this sort of discovery phase we're in with regenerative products at retail.

Heather Terry - 0:19:44
Yeah. So yeah like we have in the same way we have like a gluten free section in grocery stores that we start to see a region, ag aisle you know where all and it's and it's everything you know, but it's blocked out by brand like Good Sam does. You know, chocolate, coffee, nuts, seeds, oils, fruits, you know, Quinn does XY, all all the things because I think it's important for the consumer to understand, you know, not just the soil health component of it, but also what it does for farming communities because. That we're losing farmers and droves to the cities to other opportunities they they've been pushed down so so hard and when what we see in these region systems when we're purchasing everything is a sustainable business model finally you know so I think that consumers have to start understanding that too. It's region AG is part of a circular system. It creates a circular system and. That is what is needed for longterm sustainability and business growth.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:20:48
Right and if you know as an investor I've talked about this in a in a article I wrote other and why I was interested in good same. It's we're going to be champion regenerative brands right that are in flow categories with multiple products and if you're a distributor or retailer or an investor or whoever and you're really committed to this like that is the one way to to support it. Can you share with the audience exactly what categories and products you're in? And then more details just on kind of direct trade versus fair trade, some of your thoughts on certifications and kind of uplifting these international indigenous farmers where I think a lot of the Regent talk in America gets focused on, you know, American farmers. But there's obviously these folks that have really never stopped doing region or been doing region the longest that that deserve attention and kind of this.

Heather Terry - 0:21:29
Isn't very Anthony, because you know how to ask me the hot button question because you know me. So, all right, so good. Sam focuses in several different verticals. So primarily right now we're concentrated in chocolate, coffee and nuts, but we're also doing projects in seeds, oils and fruits. So we're starting to really take a corner in the market. You know our macadamias grow with coffee. They also grow with mangoes, they grow with avocados, get pressed in Kenya into avocado oil.

Heather Terry - 0:21:34
Great. Our Colombian farmers are doing coffee and chocolate cacao for us, but we're also looking at a honey project too because there's a lot of opportunity and honey and Colombia as well. So we're looking at tacking that on here in the next six months.

Kyle Krull - 0:22:18
Um, well, again, I don't mean to interrupt. I just want to pause and talk about how different it is the way you're thinking about product innovation versus the way the rest of the industry thinks about product innovation. Where they look at a category and say, OK, there's opportunity in this category. There's some white space, you know versus you're looking at your your supply chain and understanding what they can grow that would benefit the soil and figuring out how to develop a product to take the market, which is the complete inverse and so admirable and and it's needed.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:22:44
Calling the KO man and saying, hey, what else? What are the ingredients do you stock that we could product right? Such a difference.

Heather Terry - 0:22:49
Yeah, it is. And I think you know the other point there is that we operate in a lot of commodities, right. So not everything goes into every channel and that's been something else that's been a bit of a jigsaw puzzle for us, right. So when we think about things like nuts, for instance, we almost exclusively sell nuts on Amazon, right. And it's, it was a business decision to play in that category, highly commoditized category. Very few players not a lot not as much marketing spend better our lives better a cost all of it right. So that was a real business decision for us to do the strategy that we're doing on Amazon but again it but so we've got that but then we've got you know chocolate playing and other cat it's it's a very strange business model but you know I think investors are super excited about when they see the way we've approached this they're like wow you're leveraging you guys are not thinking about this as a. Spray and pray even across channel strategy like you're very focused in every channel in what you do and and I think that's the way businesses have to be nimble especially in this landscape too, you know with inflation and everything that's happening. On the second part of your question which was about how why we don't work in the Fair trade system, let me unpack that for you guys and then we'll talk about indigenous people and all of that and and sort.

Kyle Krull - 0:24:08
Of like I need to buckle up for.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:24:12
This answer. Because labels do mean something, and they're important, but we also need to understand there's new ones. There's like full scope to these conversations. So, you know, Heather, you even taught me some things that I had never heard. So I think it's important that we give you the MIC for.

Heather Terry - 0:24:24
This. Yeah. So then thank you. I appreciate it because I think this is something that not a lot of people in the industry are talking about. Fair trade is great, and I don't want to demonize fair trade and I always preface this conversation with that because. There are brands like Nip Moore was back in the day who we were making nothing. I mean we were making such small amounts of products, we had to lean on middle men. We had to lean on larger companies to make baseline coverture for us. All of that, right. And we did not have the buying power to do what good Sam does, right. So I don't, again, I don't want to demonize it, but what I learned in Nip Moore traveling in the field.

Heather Terry - 0:24:36
Is that when Jen and I would ask farmers questions about how's fair trade working for you? Like how is that working for you? Oftentimes the farmers would come back with, well, we know it benefits like our association or cooperative. We don't really understand how in some instances some of them would say, yeah, maybe we make a little bit more money, but it's OK like it's not great. We don't, we don't see in a real intrinsic value here like there's no, no super big value add. And then the other point that I think and this was in Belize, I remember a a couple of farmers really opening up to us and it being sort of shocking for Jen and I and then hearing this story more and more in the field as our careers progressed. Farmers would say, well, the particular Fair Trade Organization group that we work with said great, we're going to run this project here, but you can pick between.

Heather Terry - 0:25:29
And I'm making these up a well, a Community Center Internet, right? And they were like, well, we don't need any of those things. And they're like, no, no, you can choose between a well, a Community Center or Internet, right?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:26:04
For our impact report, right? This is our playbook. I know. Stick to our do.

Heather Terry - 0:26:08
Exactly. And so that really bothered us a lot. And again, we didn't have a lot of power in that system, and so it was terribly frustrating for her and I, because we. We also knew we couldn't be like GI Jane and just start like doling out cash like to places either. And we were very, you know, I think we were really hamstringed in that. And so as my career went on, I continued to see more of the same, more of the same, more of the same and my brain was just. Frustrated with the system, when Good Sam came across my desk and we partnered with Thrive and we had some real buying power, I started to understand that we could do something differently. And some of our partners in Columbia don't buy into the Fair trade system either. And that was helpful in order to have validation around my theories within the Fair trade system. So for those of you that don't know, fair trade is essentially all fair trade groups are essentially nonprofit organizations, right? So what a nonprofit does by definition in the United States is that it doesn't make.

Heather Terry - 0:26:38
Make money, right? not-for-profit. What it does, what it has to do though, is it has to take care of its overhead and it's advertising and it's office buildings and it's travel and all the things that make an organization like that run what brands do. OK, so let's say this is my product, it's the top of my Vitamix, but it's my product. Let's say this is my product, and I want to put that Fair Trade label on there. I have to pay fair trade 1%.

Heather Terry - 0:27:08
Of my top line sales to license that label and then I have to.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:27:42
That's a big nut.

Heather Terry - 0:27:43
It's a big nut. It's like a.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:27:44
Big and I.

Heather Terry - 0:27:45
Don't know and that's not maybe that's not every organization, but most of them are about 1%. So I have to pay them for that licensing. Right. And I pay them for that licensing and I get to use that thing. And what I have to provide to them is who I'm buying my ingredients from with their fair, with a fair trade certification on it to verify that I'm able to do that. So even in that, it's a little disjointed, right, because you have multiple fair trade groups working, you have multiple factors in the system. Fine. I don't believe in a system where we go to farmers, especially when we know them and say to them you must do XY&Z because good Sam has the bargaining power and the and the buying power that we have. We are able to say to our. I'm not not paying that 1%, I'm just taking that 1% that I would have paid or that licensing fee that I would have paid and I'm.

Heather Terry - 0:28:17
I'm creating my own program, so good. Sam's direct Trade program is 1% of our top line sales on our branded products to our farming communities. And we go to our farming communities with ideas. We sit with them a couple of times a year and we say here's what we see. This is what we think you should do. And, and let me tell you guys, every single time, it's like, no, we're not. That's not what we should do. And, you know, and then we just, we didn't listen. We have to listen. We have to go, OK, what do you guys want to do? And then they tell us we were like, oh, that's a great idea. How can we support that? So here's the bucket of money. Let's come up with a plan. Let's come up with Kpi's through the plan. How do we follow through on the plan? And then we execute the plan, right.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:29:22
And we.

Heather Terry - 0:29:23
Try really hard, you guys, to not bring in outside resources, meaning resources from the city, resources that can't be maintained. We spend a lot of time in the field cleaning up NGO work, nonprofit work, philanthropy work, philanthropic work that has pulled in resources that are super complicated, that are unmaintainable by local communities. Because think, I mean, Anthony, you know this, our communities in Columbia are in the middle of nowhere. So it's like they are not going to be able to find like the spark plug, you know it doesn't like it's been taken, yes or maybe never happen. So we see a lot of broken down work in the system. We want the local community to build that work, to create it, to to physically build it and understand it, so that if there are breakdowns in that system, there are problems in that system. The local community can fix it, can maintain it, can use it, can build on it, right. And that to us, is the difference between philanthropy and impact. Right. I don't like the word empowerment so much. I like impact, right? Impact is working as a cohesive unit collaboratively, right. Empowering still is a little bit of like here, let me hand you something.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:30:40
Right.

Heather Terry - 0:30:40
Impact is about longer term partnerships and that's really what we're creating. So that's how we think of Fair trade and and again if you're if you're a brand listening to this and you're like Oh my God I'm paying into fair trade. Jesus, like what what am I doing? I'm a bad, you're not a bad person. Look in places where you could potentially implement that model eventually. Maybe it's not today, but maybe it's in two years, three years, five years, right? Maybe it's only with one product line. But find a path, right when you're thinking about that, because the impact you can make in longer term partnerships, working directly with farming communities is much bigger than what you can do within a third party label system. Always, always, always and forever, right?

Kyle Krull - 0:31:23
Can you, can you provide us an example of one of those projects that you're talking about? I'm really curious, I think this sounds like an incredible initiative and I'd love to hear like one, one example in Columbia or some other.

Heather Terry - 0:31:33
So we have many projects that we've worked on and they're often very unsexy. They're not like the smiling cutting moments is. Anthony knows one in particular that I like, look, I love to talk about all of them because they're all amazing. And we're working on some larger initiatives on the eastern side of Columbia right now that are going to be really exciting in the next year or so. But I like to use this project in the middle of the country as an example because it's so it's a little bit out there for somebody to think of like from a US standpoint. So originally a good Sam, we were primarily pulling cacao out of the Tolima region of Colombia planatus in particular. And that particular region of Colombia has a lot of volcanic soil that's very high in cadmium. And that's a no go on Prop 65 in the United States. So we helped those guys build a cadmium lab that was also we were in partnership with a university in Columbia that was going to give them all the equipment and we built a lab around it. We built helped them build some of the processes. We hired an agronymist to come in and teach the farmers.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:32:39
How is this not?

Heather Terry - 0:32:40
How to do is testing right, because then what that gives the the farmers is they know what markets they can sell these beans into versus piling everything together and saying like hope that works out. You know they will sometimes get rejections from countries and that will come back to them. Now the way we were working with them is we were taking everything and whatever came high in cadmium, we would sell into the local market and then take what we could from what they were selling us. But what this project did was it started to get them to segregate the product in a way that made sense for them, where they wouldn't have those returns, where they wouldn't have those issues. And this was something that they really, really needed for their organic farmers with their organic cow farmers within this particular region. So. So that's just one example of what I again.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:33:31
Massive.

Kyle Krull - 0:33:32
Huge impact.

Heather Terry - 0:33:33
That's incredible, yeah.

Kyle Krull - 0:33:34
When you compare. Do you compare the Academy lab to a well or a high speed Internet or? I can't remember. The third example you provided was but like you can just tell based on the story, like the impact that has right not just in the short term but in the long term.

Heather Terry - 0:33:47
It's a business impact because, you know, I mean, oftentimes, Kyle, like people, people say to me all the time, they're like, Oh my God, you're such a good person. And I like to believe that I'm a good person, but I'm trying to grow a business, too. Like I'm an eternal capitalist at heart. And I believe that my business should thrive from those decisions and the farmers businesses should thrive from those decisions. And that's true. Capitalism, conscious capitalism, working right, where not only we win, but our stakeholders win, right? All along the value chain, right? So it's just a different way of thinking about how you spend that money and how you implement those programs, right?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:34:27
It's yeah. To me there's a there's a big difference between well-intentioned, which is everything that we've contrasted to is super well-intentioned, amazing people trying to do amazing work versus well executed, right. And I think it's important to to remember that and no matter how well-intentioned any organization is, when you get to a certain size and scale and you're doing processes and programs like it's just so hard to not get things bureaucratic and and prescriptive, which you know, kudos to you for, for doing the extra work, but also like having the creativity and having the flexibility to just. Do something different and it's not to put down anyone else because fair trade, for example, if you guys buy stuff that that's fair trade, like it's still better than 99.9% of other brands like it's great and it's awesome. So, so super great. But it's it's about like execution matching the intention. To me that's the big take away here.

Kyle Krull - 0:35:17
Well, yeah, and I think the distinction between pure capitalism and conscious capitalism needs to be. Nice. And you know in pure capitalism it's about efficiencies and to only offer three things, high speed Internet and a well, whatever else. You know, that's super efficient and it makes life easy versus going to a community saying hey, what is it that you really need? Academy. A lot. We've never done that before. A baby dude just walking right by my window.

Kyle Krull - 0:35:22
He loves that baby. There's the mom hanging out on the 2nd baby I.

Heather Terry - 0:35:50
Live in the woods, you guys. All three of us. Which is hilarious.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:35:52
Yeah, we were talking about before we started recording for the audience.

Kyle Krull - 0:35:56
It's true. I completely love her train of thought. But again, the the distinction between capitalism and efficiencies versus, you know, going to a community and figuring out like you've probably never built a cadmium lab before. So you have to figure out how to do that, which is harder to do, requires more time, resources, bandwidth, et cetera. But that's how you make the biggest.

Heather Terry - 0:36:13
Yeah. And that comes down, you know, and I want to just say something here too about my team. You know, that really comes down to my team. I have a great team of people who are super passionate about what we do. So when, you know, for instance, when this project came up and at the time one of our guys, Tom, Dan Hartock was running this program and I was like, Tom Google call every university in Columbia. Like I don't know what to do. And he was like, I've got this, I've got this right. And he's, you know, I think. Tom Sarah Galliano, who also works for us in the field, they they're just, they're so nimble, right? Like these guys, these these, they're young, they're hungry, they want to make the change. They want to make it easy and efficient and. They're willing to talk to anybody to make it happen. And I think, you know, you've got to have people who are really bought into this to to make those things happen. Otherwise it's just like a job and then like who cares? But you know, we're really lucky to have the team that we have a good Sam. They're just, they're incredibly passionate individuals to be doing the things that they do sometimes to make a project work as just kind of unbelievable.

Kyle Krull - 0:37:20
Well, hey, that's all.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:37:21
So remember the times quote. Attitude reflects leadership. So that's a. It's a it's it's a testament to you as well. Thank.

Heather Terry - 0:37:29
You do you want me to talk about certifications really quick or do you want to bypass that? I mean, look again like certifications, I think. I think certifications still have a place in the narrative. I think they're getting less important, and the reason I say that is because of this. Because every brand has she's holding up her.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:37:53
Phone and for those just listening to audio.

Heather Terry - 0:37:57
But I think I transparency is everywhere. And I think we can use that to show what we're doing, to show where we are, to show what people are doing to be connected. So I do think, you know, look, I get very frustrated with certification that colonializes. Marginalized people in the field and I've had, you know Anthony, I've had some beef around some of the efforts on region and you know, but that is because my feeling is first of all we have a lot of work to do here in the United States. And if the certification for regenerative agriculture is coming out of the United States, we should start here and have some really big wins and successes here where we are again emitting 30% of our our, our carbon is coming from. Agriculture in the United States, let's tackle that problem 1st, to go to communities in developing countries, in conflict zones, in whatever, you know, other parts of the world that we Americans don't live in, and to try to dictate standards and charge indigenous people and smallholder farmers for what they have been doing for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Is wrong and it is colonialistic. That's the truth. And I know that is a very difficult truth to acknowledge and look at. Until until Regenerative AG becomes a more global body, right, until there's a global body established on this that represents people from all over the world in different farming communities which have different circumstances and different challenges.

Heather Terry - 0:39:18
I don't believe we can put a certification on this. That is my opinion. I think there's some great groups out there doing some amazing work and and creating some really awesome baseline standards. But as far as certification is concerned, in my opinion, if it's coming from us in the United States or the Western world and we're trying to dictate to those indigenous and smallholder farmers, that's wrong. That's fundamentally wrong.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:40:15
The, the transparency piece I think is so important because like I follow lots of brands on Instagram, what I have like 2 minutes a day check. But there's a huge difference between when I look at your personal Instagram or the good time Instagram and it's Heather, the CEO of the company with her arm around a farmer in Colombia. That's real deal stuff that you buy products from versus another brand that's grabbing the stock photo off of a website sitting in an office and that person really knows nothing about the supply chains and. Sailing growth obviously creates hurdles to always keep that, but I think you've nailed that and I think that's super important because it's it's backed up with the real, you know, reality versus just some stock photo.

Heather Terry - 0:40:51
Yeah. And it's, you know, I mean we're going to see the same type of greenwashing we saw in many different facets the industry, everything from organic to non-GMO to V we're going to see all that. We're going to see all that greenwashing happening here and it's going to take. Those of us that have louder voices in the industry to say to hold organizations accountable and to say, you know, you have to show what you're doing, you can't just say region act. I have a great story. When I was at beyond brands, I was working with a brand who will remain unnamed, who was like, we want to get on this region ag thing like. We want to get on this read and they're like, let's find an ingredient that's read Jen Agon. I was like guys like it doesn't work like that. Like it's just you're you are so missing the point, right? And that's the definition of green. Watching is like jumping on a bandwagon for you ever. As a business owner, understand it's the fundamental.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:41:44
It's like a guy. It's like the guy at the Warriors game that's in like a button down shirt and he like bought a jersey right at the game like he's Steph Curry is, but he's like wearing a Steph Curry jersey over his.

Heather Terry - 0:41:54
Back and he's like Steph.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:41:55
Steph and you're like do.

Heather Terry - 0:41:55
You know who that is?

Kyle Krull - 0:41:58
He's not even on the court right now.

Heather Terry - 0:42:00
Exactly, exactly. So you know, I mean look again it's not about, it's not about demonizing it. I do think our industry, I think the natural products industry and the region at Community, you know whatever that really is has been enthusiastic and maybe a little too enthusiastic. To define things and to take control over a concept that doesn't belong to us. And I think that part of it is something that is worth real examination.

Kyle Krull - 0:42:30
I really appreciate you sharing your opinion on this, which to me reminds me of like the subreddit are unpopular opinions, you know? But it's like that opinion needs to be heard and I want to play devil's advocate for a moment. And because of the way the US food system works and the way consumers minds work, we're so driven to look for certifications rather than take the time to see a product on the shelf, research that product and try to figure out, you know, is it legit or not. Is this, you know, actually regenerative or not? So how do. The United States, the consumers in United States and or the retailers? How do we move to support regenerative agriculture without a certification?

Heather Terry - 0:43:06
Yeah. And again, I'm not saying that a certification doesn't belong there somewhere at some point in time, but I would also argue that we do have people within the industry who are doing it. You know, some of those individuals I listed earlier who are who are willing to do the end cap or the aisle or allow brands to cross categories because they understand fundamentally this concept. It, you know, most consumers still don't understand what fair trade is. They don't. I mean there was a study like a couple two or three years ago that where people think fair trade is recycling. That was the majority of responses and like you know.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:43:42
So is it?

Kyle Krull - 0:43:43
Is that because it's like a?

Heather Terry - 0:43:47
Little I remember seeing that report and being like, Oh my God, but you know, I think. I I sometimes wonder like is it important that they understand it or is it important that they trust that a retailer understands it? Like, I don't know, that's another question. You know, I think when I think you were all and for better or worse in the United States like. Until our culture fundamentally changes, I don't know that you're going to get like extreme buy in or extreme understanding on USA. Organic, fair trade, regenerative agriculture, vegan. I don't know that we will actually see that happen in our lifetime unless we have a true cultural shift. If you go to some place like the UK or Europe, they understand 100% what fair trade is. They do. They will not accept anything but fair trade. Workers rights are, human rights are.

Heather Terry - 0:44:13
Everything to them, right? They they will not accept something that is not labeled. We're not that culture. So to make the argument that certifications are absolutely necessary in order to do the right thing in the US market, I don't know that I buy that right. Because until we either really, really take the time as a culture to understand why these things are important and we truly, truly demand it, right. I don't know. Guys like and that's me playing devil's advocate back, right? Because I've been, no.

Kyle Krull - 0:45:15
No.

Heather Terry - 0:45:15
I've been a big organic, you know, I've never put out a non organic product or it's a product that has had no organic gradients in it in my entire career. I really fundamentally believe in the organic system, but I know it's deeply, deeply flawed too, right? So it's a it's a big question, it's a big question.

Kyle Krull - 0:45:36
Yeah, I think it's a really good point and it's something I, I struggled with in the region certification space as well as like, you know, take non-GMO or gluten free as an example. I think those are probably the two certifications that are most easily understood when you talk about comprehension. Like, OK, this product doesn't contain gluten. Got it. This product is not genetically modified. Yeah, got it. Do most consumers really understand what organic means in its entirety? Probably not. And then to take that to the regenerative level and to get them to understand what regenerative means and all of its nuances. And how it varies depending on the type of crop the climate the grade in which it's the product is growing it's insane. So I I very much I don't want to say I agree or disagree on either point this is just about learning I think it's really a valid point that you're bringing up is like do we need that and another retailer I want to shout out is jimbo's naturally in Southern California. They just I think they're the first retailer I've seen in the United States that has a soil bib tag like you would seek women for your non-GMO elsewhere they know how to soil.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:46:34
So sick.

Kyle Krull - 0:46:37
This is the retailer.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:46:38
Yeah, let's say jimbos.

Kyle Krull - 0:46:40
The retailer taking on the onus of, OK, I'm going to make this claim, I'm going to vet the product and say that this is soil health first or whatever the term is, and then they can communicate that effectively to their strappers. And I think that's probably the right approach, yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:46:54
We're this is where we're at with region or with like this is the wave of region is like we're in the discourse space, like we're not in like that we have answer space by any means. We're probably like a decade if not decades away from that. And a lot of people are doing amazing work to answer those questions and those those answers. So those questions are probably not going to end up being binary. They're probably going to end up being a continuum that has lots of nuance and lots of Gray.

Kyle Krull - 0:47:18
Which is exactly how it should be. I don't think regenerative can be binary, you know, it could be because it's always about.

Heather Terry - 0:47:25
Agreed and agreed, I think. I think trying to trying to make it that is difficult and and limiting, limiting in terms of longer term solutions for the planet and even people.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:47:40
It's also the hyper masculine approach that got us to where we are today with the extractive you know, systems that we have.

Heather Terry - 0:47:45
Totally, totally and. Yeah. Go ahead, Kyle.

Kyle Krull - 0:47:48
I'll just say way in the cultural shift you talked about earlier is that that's what we look for is yes or no, rather than understanding the comprehension of a relatively complicated system. So to your point, the culture needs to change about consumerism before we can get to the point of like true comprehension and understanding.

Heather Terry - 0:48:04
Yeah. In the meantime, I think, you know, there are a lot of great brands doing this work. And you know yes we want look we want to make money doing this that's you know you have to you know one of the.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:48:16
Be sustainable. You gotta make.

Heather Terry - 0:48:17
Money to be sustainable and also to make impact and also to have a business that really sustain itself long term, right? That has real staying power, you need to make money, right? So we're not none of none of the brands that are out there, none of the business owners out there. We're not heroes, right? We're, we are. We're here to create that impact, to save, save the planet in a lot of ways, right? But we have to, we have to think of the entire picture, right? We all have to start thinking of the entire picture every time we pick up a product, right. And I don't know certification, I don't know where it goes from here honestly, because to your point, guys like I think it, I think it can be somewhat limiting.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:49:03
Yeah, yeah.

Kyle Krull - 0:49:04
Yeah. Go ahead.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:49:07
Go ahead actually Heather level set for the for the group just like the arc of Good Sam how long have you been around fundraising history, commercial track record just like with some quantifiables that you can and we'll share just to level set for the.

Heather Terry - 0:49:20
Yeah, good. Sam's been around for about 3 years, but we've only been on the commercial market since November of 2020. We launched with Thrive Market in November 2020 and then had our first full year of sales in 2021. And so we're hitting our second. Full year this year in 2022. So we started on Thrive market exclusively. We moved on to Amazon, we opened up our Shopify site and now we're moving into retail. To date, we've raised very little money, as you know, Anthony, and we've been very, very creative with the way we do business and really building longterm partnerships, being fully vertically integrated within countries and things like that. But I think have given us a tremendous amount of longevity and staying power because we've been just extremely creative. How we've been able to do that? Yep.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:50:06
Love it.

Kyle Krull - 0:50:07
Yeah, that's awesome. And you mentioned you you're getting the retail soon. Do you have any retailer partners that you're willing to, you know, you mentioned air one, are there any other retail doors that are going to be bringing good 10 in the near future?

Heather Terry - 0:50:18
They are. I can't really talk about anything yet but there's a lot and you know just keep an eye on our Instagram or LinkedIn and our our website which has a tracker on it for all the retail locations but. OK. It's one of those funny things. You know, being on D2C for so long and then coming into retail, it's like feast or famine, you know, it's like one minute there's nothing, in the next minute, it's like we're talking to literally everyone and their mom. So I think this fall will be very interesting for them.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:50:51
Yeah.

Heather Terry - 0:50:52
OK.

Kyle Krull - 0:50:54
Ke nationally rolling out indicates to me that there is one particular retailer who may or may not be bringing away. I'm not going to share the name if you're not going to.

Heather Terry - 0:51:03
There's a lot going on.

Kyle Krull - 0:51:04
OK. Well, that's really exciting.

Heather Terry - 0:51:07
Thank you. Yeah, it is exciting. It is exciting. It's very stressful. Very stressful too.

Kyle Krull - 0:51:12
Right. So what else, what's new, I mean we talked about some potential new categories where you're kind of looking at the farm systems and what where you might be able to support some of their their other crops. I'm probably butchering all the right terminology here, but yeah, in terms of like the next product lines for good Sam or you know new countries or new impacts that you want to make you know? What does the future look like?

Heather Terry - 0:51:33
Yeah. We have pilot projects running. So our mainstays are in Kenya and Colombia. That's where we do the primarily the most of our business. We have pilot projects running in several different countries, Ghana, Bolivia, Peru, a little bit in Ecuador and Mexico. And so we're trying to gauge whether or not these projects have legs and if we have other crops that we can pull from these particular associations and if we have enough. You know, if we have enough runway to do the type of impact that work that we've been doing in places like Kenya and Colombia, so that's that. We're going to be moving more heavily into nuts. I know a lot of people know us. Because of our macadamia nuts, they're very, very popular. We sell more macadamia nuts than we actually do anything else in the company. Wow. So if you haven't tried our macadamia nuts, you should. Definitely.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:52:23
Blame they're.

Heather Terry - 0:52:23
Really good.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:52:24
I have an Expo WI.

Heather Terry - 0:52:27
Have no idea. Like made a lot though I was.

Kyle Krull - 0:52:30
A little gross.

Heather Terry - 0:52:31
But kind of amazing. So, you know, definitely try those when we're coming out with Brazil nuts and pecans before the end of the summer. So you'll see those offerings come out and the Brazil. Planets are an amazing story. These trees are like 60 meters high. A lot of people don't know where Brazil Nets come from, and the farmers wear hard hats and they're they're foraged wild and they're foraged off the ground and the farmers are wearing hard hats and they have a sack in there. Just, you know, collecting them off the grounds, it's pretty cool. And then the pecan project is a really cool pecan farm in Mexico. We're looking to potentially do more work with them, but we're trying to figure out, you know, what else is there in that project. Some really, should I break news here, Anthony, because it's going to come out in a couple weeks.

Kyle Krull - 0:53:19
Because this is.

Heather Terry - 0:53:19
Like not going to come out till like late July, August, Okay, there's going to be a peanut buttercup. And an almond buttercup and they come out October 1st, so very very soon and they're completely no added sugar, so sweetened with Allulose region and there's some organic elements to them too. So it's.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:53:45
Amazing.

Heather Terry - 0:53:46
It's exciting. It's an exciting time.

Kyle Krull - 0:53:48
Congrats. Very exciting.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:53:50
You guys have been moving your asses off on everything, but product innovation is definitely at the top of that list, I'm sure.

Heather Terry - 0:53:55
Yes, I'm excited for these product lines. They're, they're very exciting and there'll be some expansions in our chip line and in our candy coated lines as well. So love it, it'll be a fine.

Kyle Krull - 0:54:05
Super awesome. Love it. Just out of curiosity, I know there's one more question left and we're coming close to time, but all the innovations you're talking about and the impact zones are not domestic. Why not try sourcing it from the United States?

Heather Terry - 0:54:20
Yeah. So that's a great question Kyle and we are definitely looking at that where you know I mean look there only 1% of all farms in the United States or region AG so far. And so we just haven't found the right partners and we haven't found the right product line yet. When that reveals itself we will be there 100%, but we just haven't gotten there yet. So yeah that's that's really easy answer. We just we're not there yet and we haven't, I mean look you have to also remember like we're bringing in container loads of products to service our verticals and so again when we talk about. Efforts in the United States by Americans on Region AG, there's a lot of work to do here. So totally, you know, let's get that down, let's get that down. Instead of trying to again push our principles on other countries and other growers, let's try to incentivize our growers here in the United States. And I will tell you I will be, I don't know anything about flipping a farm to regenerative. That's not my area of expertise. I'm not a farmer and I'm not an agriculturist or an agronomist.

Heather Terry - 0:54:58
But there are far smart, smarter people. And if for anyone listening who is in that line of work, who has products that they know can be shelf stable and has them in the United States, I'm here and I'm willing to listen. So you can DM me, love it on Instagram or LinkedIn and and we're always happy to look at those options.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:55:45
Yeah. Action and a lot of those commodities you've started with, they don't grow in the US so I think that's part of it as well, totally.

Heather Terry - 0:55:52
None of it does. None of it does. So again, we're happy to entertain it. We'd love to see it. We'd love to be pulling from the United States and creating products in the United States. Let me know. Let me know when you've got, when you've got something.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:56:04
Yeah, soon, I think soon. Wrap up question, question we asked everybody, you have some really cool nuanced takes on the macro you know situation as as demonstrated by this conversation. But you know this final question is really how our region brands gonna have 50% market share by 2050. What needs to happen to enable regenerative brands at 50% market share by 2050? What do you think?

Heather Terry - 0:56:28
Look, I think the bottom line is, is it comes down to consumer demand, right? And I always say this, Anthony, you know, nobody wants to do the wrong thing. Everybody wants to do the right thing. People want to do the right thing. They want to. They want there to be worker, worker equality. They want their. They don't. Nobody wants to hurt the planet. I don't care. Like what side of, like, the aisle you're on in the United States. No one actively wants to do that, truly. I mean, unless you're like really an evil person, like, you don't want to do that, right? The majority of people. People, whether you believe in it or not, you don't want to hurt something, you don't want to harm something. You don't want to extract something, right? Because you have children or you have grandchildren or you have nieces or nephews and you understand fundamentally that we have to leave something for them. I think it's going to come down to region ag companies getting funded. Right.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:57:21
Definitely a piece. We're trying to help with this.

Kyle Krull - 0:57:22
Yeah, just saw in these eyes light up.

Heather Terry - 0:57:25
So getting funded and then after being funded, getting really, really loud. Getting really loud, getting as much exposure as we can, talking about these issues really open to openly getting involved in policy trade associations and banging the drum, you know, in the same way that our friends at non-GMO project did it, which is why non-GMO project is such a powerful organization today. It took them ten years, you know, but they did it and it was because they were aligned around their messaging and the way they were approaching it and they, you know and they had brands championing for it. You know putting and they were giving brands those talking points they but I think in our.

Kyle Krull - 0:58:05
Case and retailer buying.

Heather Terry - 0:58:06
And so I think you know for those of us on the front lines, those of us doing this type of work, we just, we have to be loud and we have to, we have to be able to. Raise money too. So you know, if you're out there thinking about investing in region AG, I think it is the future of food, I think it's the future of ESG, I think it's the future of business when we think about longterm goals for the planet, for people, for our very existence.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:58:36
Yeah, it literally grosses me out the amount of money going to food tech. And I appreciate once again good intentions, right? And I don't think all food tech is bad, but it's like. We have a blueprint on how to do what we're doing now, but the correct way, the right way, the regenerative way, and there's there's just a lack of you know, fundraising there. I'm gonna.

Heather Terry - 0:58:56
Say something really controversial here too.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:58:59
Hey.

Heather Terry - 0:59:01
Investing in food tech is investing in despair.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:59:09
Wow.

Heather Terry - 0:59:11
It's it's investing in something that means that we can't save what we already have. And to me, that's despair. Investing in regenerative agriculture is investing in hope. It's investing in understanding that we lost our way and that we can change it.

Kyle Krull - 0:59:29
Love that.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:59:31
Mic drop.

Kyle Krull - 0:59:34
We're done.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:59:34
Let's go. Let's go.

Heather Terry - 0:59:36
I just walked out.

Kyle Krull - 0:59:39
Let's.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:59:39
Go, we're good.

Heather Terry - 0:59:40
Yeah, you guys. Anytime you want me to come back on, I'm here. I'm here. I love that. You guys are fantastic.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:59:45
For sure, yes. We'll be doing some. We'll be doing some round two interviews hopefully, you know, soon. But this was amazing. Thank you so much for joining us. You rock. We appreciate it.

Heather Terry - 0:59:53
Thank you, guys. Thanks so much for having you. Thank you. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:59:57
Cool. Thanks, Heather. For show notes and more information on our guests and what we discussed on the show, check out our website regen-brands.com that is regen-brands.com. You can also check out our YouTube channel, Regen Brands Podcast for all of our episodes with both video and audio. The best way to support our work is to give us a 5 star rating on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe to future episodes. Thanks so much for tuning into The ReGen Brands Podcast, brought to you by the region coalition and Outlaw Ventures. We hope you learned something new in this episode and it empowers you to use your voice, your time, and your dollars to help us build a better and more regenerative food system. Love you guys.