#93 - Jason & Kristina Walker @ Starwalker Organic Farms

Episode Recap:

ReGen Brands Recap #93 - Pioneering Regenerative Pig Production and Certified Processing- (RECAP LINK)

Episode Transcript:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated with AI and is not 100% accurate.

Kyle Krull - 00:00:13
Welcome to the ReGen Brands Podcast. This is a place for brands, retailers, investors, and other food system stakeholders to learn about the consumer brand supporting regenerative agriculture and how they're changing the world. This is your host, Kyle, joined by my cohost AC, who's gonna take us into the episode.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:00:34
On this episode, we have Jason and Kristina Walker, who are the founders and owners of Starwalker Organic Farms. Starwalker Organic Farms produces various beef, pork, and chicken products on a 3,000 acre regenerative organic certified farm in Northern California. They're one of the biggest producers of organic pork in the United States, and they sell their regenerative organic products wholesale, direct to consumer, and through their branded CPG SKUs. The family also owns and operates a certified organic processing facility with slaughter cut and value added operations, serving their farm and many others in the community. In this episode, Jason and Kristina give us the lowdown on how they're producing the world's 1st regenerative organic certified pork. They educate us on how essential processing is in building market access for regenerative farmers, and they share the inside scoop on what is coming from their family of operations in the future. It's safe to say that Walkers are doing a lot, and we really enjoyed getting the behind the scenes view into all of the ways they're pushing to produce, process, and market regenerative food.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:01:27
Let's dive in. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the ReGen Brands Podcast. Very excited today to have Jason and Kristina Walker from Starwalker Organics with us. So welcome y'all.

Kristina Walker - 00:01:50
Thank you. We're excited to be here.

Kyle Krull - 00:01:52
Yeah. You know, we we had some serious drama prior to hitting the floor. Jason, who's the farmer, not the the tech savvy guy, the farm guy is in there, coding, getting things worked out. We're not recording. We're making it work.

Kristina Walker - 00:02:04
So We made it.

Kyle Krull - 00:02:05
Super stoked we get to record this episode today. For those who are unfamiliar with Starwalker Organics, give our listeners a quick lay of the land. What sort of products do you produce? Where can people buy your stuff

Jason Walker - 00:02:17
Yeah. So that's great. We, happy to be on the show, and we have a kind of a laundry list of products, but our big things are beef and pork. So we are certified organic, regenerative, organic pork and beef. And we also raise crops like alfalfa and grains for our pigs, and then, also grasses and a lot of grazing for our animals. As far as where we can buy these products, you know, we sell direct to consumer online. We, ship all over the country, and, we've been doing that for for about 4 or 5 years. We also, just launched our jerky line and sprouts. And so Oh, yeah. We I think we're at 400 stores. Kristina would know that for sure.

Jason Walker - 00:02:58
We also, we have some local, places that we sell to, and we also deliver locally as well too. We have a delivery van, and it takes, takes meat and products all over all over the counties.

Kyle Krull - 00:03:18
Amazing.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:03:19
Love it.

Kyle Krull - 00:03:19
Do you all I mean, this is a tough question, but do you 2 have a favorite specific product? Like, one product. If you had to choose one product you need for the street life, what would it be?

Kristina Walker - 00:03:27
Bacon. Bacon. I don't know. I love you that

Kyle Krull - 00:03:30
you like because that's like a processing choice. No. No. Super simple.

Jason Walker - 00:03:34
No. It's it's it's a must. I mean, you know, I always like to tease people how much bacon we eat a week at our house. And, most people would would probably go think that was crazy. But when you raise the pigs and and you know where where it comes from, you just eat the heck out of it. Mhmm.

Kyle Krull - 00:03:53
I mean, Jason earlier said that he only eats 1 meal a day, and now we all know that it's just bacon.

Kristina Walker - 00:03:57
Yeah. Just and that's how it's done.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:04:01
Well, I mean, you guys are the 1st rock pork, I think, in the world. Yeah. And so we're definitely excited to learn more about that. And I think pork is a is an animal and or, product that is, like, the epitome of how degenerative our food system has become. So the fact that you guys are doing it in the exact opposite way is something we wanna definitely unpack. But before we go there, you know, give us some background on y'all. Jason, I think you're, what, 3rd, 4th, 5th generation, like, give us some background on the family, the farm, y'all's relationship, and how this whole thing kinda came together.

Jason Walker - 00:04:33
Yeah. So we're we're a 3rd generation farm. My grandpa originally bought the farm in the early seventies, I believe. And then my parents took over not not long after that and and kinda carried the torch for a lot of years. Kristina and I came back, about 12 years ago. We had a careers doing other things and and and, left the farm for quite a few years, but I think it was a good experience for us, to learn what's what's going on the rest of the world and then come back. I've always had a bug for farming. It's even even when I left, I always figured trying to figure out a way to get back. We never really intended to come back, but, through a few things with construction and other things, we we ended up planning back home.

Jason Walker - 00:05:11
And, so, yeah, we've been or my parents originally went certified organic over 40 years ago, you know, back

Kyle Krull - 00:05:27
when Were they also doing cattle and pork? Or what were they growing?

Jason Walker - 00:05:29
Yeah. So so we had cattle. When the farm started, it was mainly only cattle. We we put up a little bit of hay for the cattle in the winter. But, so we had Hereford, cattle all the way up until I was probably in, maybe middle school or something. My my dad took advantage of a good high market and got rid of the cattle and then just went all crops after that until we came back to the farm. And then when we came back to the farm, we we knew that we wanted to incorporate animals and so we our first herd that we bought was a a group of, Scottish Highlands. We have a thing of wanting to be different. I don't know what it is, but, you know, everybody around us is, you know, Angus and, you know, a few little Herefords here and there, and and we thought, well, we'll we'll be a little different. We'll we'll get these shaggy, longhorned, animals that, you know, are don't quite grow as fast and probably don't make us quite as much money, but we love them.

Jason Walker - 00:06:16
It's become a kind of a a per se. And so, anyways, to continue the story along, we we, took over the farm and got the cattle, and then we start raising pigs just, kind of for our own use. And and that developed over a few years into more and more and more, and and, then, you know, recently the regenerative organic came around. We knew we've been doing basically doing these regenerative practices on our ground since I was a kid. And so it was kinda it was it was just a mash that worked out good. We saw saw the the the, you know, kinda all the buzz about regenerative, and we thought, well, what's the best, you know, thing we can do?

Jason Walker - 00:07:07
And the regenerative organic just felt like a good fit. So we're happy to get that certification on our pigs and our cattle and all of our ground. And, you know, the the aspects of how it's good for the employees and good for the land and, you know, I think good for us marketing wise. It's all been amazing. So, we farm so we have roughly 3 over 3,000 acres. A little bit of that is broken up into, range ground.

Jason Walker - 00:07:31
Cattle spend springs and falls and the range ground, and and then we have about 1,000 acres of pasture, irrigate pasture ground, and about a 1000 acres of, crop ground where we we raise, alfalfa, grass, and and all the grains that that we need for our making our pig food. So yeah. And then recently in this last year, purchased a processing plant so that we can have, full integration of our products from, you know, birth all the way through to, the finished product that we're shipping out, to our customers or or getting in retail.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:08:23
Hell, yeah. You you guys are not doing a lot. You're just growing crops, you know, that are feed. You're doing 2 types of of livestock. You know, you got a processing plant. Just just a couple of things going on over

Kristina Walker - 00:08:33
there. Just a few. Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:08:36
Yeah. I wanna hear from Kristina. Like, when did you get involved in the whole farming aspect? Because it sounds like Jason has some experience, you know, 3rd, 4th, 5th generation. Kristina, what's your farm experience like prior to meeting Jason? And, you know, how's that how's that been?

Kristina Walker - 00:08:50
Yeah. So no farm experience prior to Jason, but, you know, we're high school sweethearts, so I remember back in high school, he was constantly on the farm, constantly working. He's like the hardest worker that I know. And so I was I was completely into, business, fitness, health, dance. I'm a dance instructor, I've had a fitness center, I've had a dance studio, run a lot of different businesses. That was, kinda, my passion. And so then when we moved back, we decided to, you know, I thought I was never gonna come back to our hometown really, but, when we decided to move back in 2012, we I was excited about the farm, the farm life, the slower pace. Well, I thought it was gonna be slower pace, but, we kinda picked up the pace.

Kristina Walker - 00:09:36
And so we moved back and and I still, you know, I kinda had we had a fitness center actually in the valley and then a dance studio. And so I had these other businesses that did a lot of marketing. I'd always been into health and food and and talking about, you know, where your food comes from, what are you eating. So but really never out on the farm doing, you know, the the hard work. That was kinda Jason's lane. But then, you know, in 2020, I decided, obviously, to close down my studio and join said, you know, let me put all my efforts into this.

Kristina Walker - 00:10:08
I think we can launch, do a little bit more and get our direct to consumer program going and get some products out there in the market. And so that's kinda when I came on board was, in 2020, and then I have never looked back. I mean, it is I love it. It's so exciting. I've actually learned a ton. I I knew a little, but I've learned a lot more. And, actually, you know what?

Kristina Walker - 00:10:36
In back in 2022, I heard an episode, the the kettle and fire episode that you guys did. It was like episode 12 or something. Yeah. I heard that. And that inspired that whole the the rock. I mean, we were doing regenerative and we we've been certified organic but that piece of it kind of inspired this, like, we want to have a rock product.

Kristina Walker - 00:10:57
So that was that was kind of our initial, let's go let's go big with with a rock product. So yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:11:14
That is like I'm I got so slick the warm fuzzies right now. Not just because I see Campbell Fires is the brand I work for. Yep. But but to know that an episode that we did inspired the 1st rock certified pork in the world, like, that is so, so cool.

Jason Walker - 00:11:29
Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:11:29
So really appreciate that share. And good on you for taking up the challenge. And, like, we wanna get into some of that. So let's just go there now. Like, what was it like going from, you know, organic? And it sounds like you had already established a lot of these regenerative principles, but not yet certified. So what was that transition like? And what were some of the hardest parts, and what were some of the biggest learnings from you all?

Jason Walker - 00:11:52
I I, you know, I think the biggest learning we had is or, you know, kind of even with top most people don't realize is, it's hard to raise pigs outdoors, and to meet all the standards, not only the organic standards, but the regenerative standards. We're also gap, 4, which is hard to achieve, both on our cattle and our our pigs. And so, you know, figuring that all out, the logistics, you know, trying to deal with raising pigs outdoors and the elements. And and, I think that was probably, you know, a little hesitation at first. I'll be honest because, you know, I knew it was gonna be hard to to do that with the pigs, but, we we've been doing great, and, the cattle were easy. I'm gonna be honest. The cow, you know, it's like you you feed them, you put them on pasture, you know, they're they're happy go lucky.

Jason Walker - 00:12:40
But, but pigs, you know, trying to to keep that that operation, cruising has been fun. You know, we're we're up to right now, we have about 250 sows and, we're gonna produce, you know, 4,000 plus finished pigs a year. And so just figuring out the logistics and the operation of how that's gonna look, it's been it's been pretty intense, but, you know, we love it. I mean, we've got some great employees and, the whole rock aspect of it has been great. They've been really good to work with and and, you know, they understand the challenges that we are facing and and they've they've been they've been amazing to work with.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:13:27
So we got 4,000 pigs a year, you know, on pasture just rotating around up there. I mean, that's what's going on.

Jason Walker - 00:13:34
Yeah. Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:13:35
There's a lot of pigs. Wow. 4000 pigs. It's hard to imagine what that looks like. When we knew that we were gonna grow that big, you know, it it was like, okay. We had an idea, but, yeah. Now now we see

Kyle Krull - 00:13:47
it. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:13:48
We Yeah. We've had, John and Holly on from Singing Pastures, and they kind of educated us on, like I guess the word I would use would be, like, mischievous. Like, pigs are just, like, a little mischievous. And so I just can't imagine you trying to wrangle that many of them, you know, and rotate them and do that in a regenerative fashion. So Yeah. We we need to get up there for some content to

Jason Walker - 00:14:07
to what it sounds like. Yeah. Yeah. And and and most people forget, you know, pigs like to root and and they like to rub and, you know, so fences, you know, get destroyed and and, you know, fields kinda get messed up. But, you know, I think the the joy of looking out there and seeing them frolicking on hillsides and pastures and digging it. Sometimes they dig a big hole, and you can't even see half the pig. It's just down in the ground. You you know they're just having the time of their lives. So, you know, it's it's kind of a, an interesting thing to, you know, know that you're you're doing good to the soil, but you're also beating it up a little bit with the pigs.

Jason Walker - 00:14:35
It's kinda fun.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:14:47
Good natural disturbance is what we would we would

Kristina Walker - 00:14:49
call it. Right?

Kyle Krull - 00:14:51
Right. Well, I wanna really, like, hone in on the pig conversation here because I've talked to some folks in the regenerative space, and they they will sometimes say, like, there's no way you can regeneratively raise a pig. You know? And that's, like, not uncommon in this scene. And I think that idea is kind of insane because if it's an animal that lives on this planet, there is a natural ecosystem for it, and it can have an ecosystem purpose and function.

Kristina Walker - 00:15:12
So try

Kyle Krull - 00:15:12
to let's get into some of the details. Like, what is it that you're doing differently that nobody else is doing that makes your pigs regenerative? And and what sort of potential benefits come from or or are bestowed onto the ecosystem because you have those pigs doing what they're doing. Yeah. Bestowments are weird.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:15:30
I love when pigs are bestowing. That's a hell of a caliber Yeah. Only on this podcast.

Jason Walker - 00:15:37
Well well, a few cool thing cool things that we're doing. You know? So all of our crops that we raise here are we make into pig feed. So we've got regenerative. So, I mean, we're doing good things on the land for for where we're growing our peas and our wheat and, you know, all of our crops. So so we got the regenerative aspect going there, and then that pay that gets made into pig feed, and then we feed the pigs. You know, a lot of people, there's a misconception that you can just throw a pig out there on a pasture and and have a pig. Well, you could do that. The pig would survive.

Jason Walker - 00:16:07
You wouldn't ever make any money because it would take years to get it to wait and just

Anthony Corsaro - 00:16:14
The bacon wouldn't taste very good.

Kristina Walker - 00:16:16
No. There wouldn't be very much of it.

Jason Walker - 00:16:19
You know, and and pigs pigs are just made to eat grains, and they love to forage. They love to eat grasses. I mean, don't get me wrong that they'll spend all day out in the field, rooting around and eating stuff. But, you know, in order to get gains and stuff so the the great part is that we can use our own, grains off of our our fields that are all regenerative. As far as the pigs go, you know, we try to move them around. You know, we we give them hillsides to they can go rummage in the brush and and, you know, pick around, for roots and and whatever else pigs like to eat. But, yeah, I mean, it's a challenge. Obviously, the the regenerative aspect of it is trying to keep them from making it a muddy mess and having run off and stuff like that.

Jason Walker - 00:16:53
You know, we had 20 inches of rain the month of December, you know, which is unusual for us. And, you know, there was lots of spots where I'm like, okay. This this doesn't look like a beautiful regenerative scene, but, you know, the the pigs are still having fun. And so, you know, trying to trying to keep pigs from destroying the ground and stuff is is a constant challenge. But, you know, when you get them moved and get them out on a nice big, you know, chunk of ground and and they can frolic and and be happy. And then we go back and and plant some grains or some cover crops on on places that they've been and, you know, that all the manure and, you know, everything, you pig feed, everything that gets scattered around while they're there, you know, that's just helping build the soil profile and, you know, create some some good soil life.

Jason Walker - 00:17:28
Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:17:47
So you gotta bring them food and water though too wherever they're going. Right? Isn't in that size I'm just there's like a big trough kinda deal. Like, I'm assuming that's kind of labor intensive and hard at times.

Jason Walker - 00:17:58
Yeah. Most most of the time, we try to set up permanent water troughs. So we we we have insulated waters, and we put them on concrete pads. And and so then they can come to them year round. Certain situations, we just gotta, you know, use a a hose and and let it drip a little bit. But, but, yeah, we gotta constantly be moving feeders around depending on which paddock they're in and and, you know, kinda trying to move the feeders around so they get different impact in different areas. And so, I mean, it's a it's a little bit of a moving a lot of pieces around, but, you know, it's still, you know, what we feel like is it is good for the soil, good for the ground, and obviously, good for the animal.

Kyle Krull - 00:18:38
Right. I've gotta ask, like, you're you're painting this beautiful picture in my mind of, like, how this all works. And, you know, you see these videos of, like, you know, people herding cattle or, like, the dogs herding sheep. Like, how do you move pigs? Like, what what do you use to move them where you want them to go?

Jason Walker - 00:18:55
That is a great question because moving things is not easy. You know, I always say it's like herding cats and, you know, I'm sure people have heard that saying all the time, but, they're smart.

Kyle Krull - 00:19:05
But, like, like, 250 pound cats. Right? Or or, like, what, 3, 400 pound cats. Yeah.

Jason Walker - 00:19:11
Well yeah. Especially the sows, you know, they're and we've got Henri sows, you know, and you you start messing with their piglets and the piglet squeals, and and that sow will, you know, turn unhappy real quick. But, you know, we we kinda develop, you know, scenarios, and and we kinda try to create some funnels and some alleyways and and get them from spot to spot. But most of the time, they're curious enough to where you open a gate, and eventually, they're all gonna be heading that direction. And when when that one goes, the rest of them will follow pretty easy. So, you know, usually, it's the the the smaller guys that are a little bit more, you know, they're not really sure which direction to go, but they get a little older, they get smart, they get savvy, and and they kinda understand what's going on.

Kyle Krull - 00:19:55
Okay. I wanna see this. I I'm gonna have to come down and check this out. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:19:58
We're gonna have a pick it out. Last last curiosity for me on the pigs is is there a genetics component? Like, is there a specific genetic or breed that you guys use that you think is optimal for whatever this situation is?

Jason Walker - 00:20:13
Yeah. So we we get all of our genetics from an outfit out of Minnesota. They they've got a reputation of having great genetics, and so we get all of our breeding animals and our, boars from them. It also keeps a cohesiveness, for our meat quality and everything. So we know the genetics are the same. We're not introducing something else, you know, halfway down the road and all of a sudden, oh, how come we're not getting the yields or different fat content? So it keeps everything really consistent for us. So we can we can buy breeding stock from them pretty much at any time if as we need it.

Jason Walker - 00:20:41
And, we can also, buy, you know, artificial insemination stuff because we do a lot of that after after we breed.

Kristina Walker - 00:20:57
We we

Jason Walker - 00:20:57
try to do all natural breeding most of the time, but, you know, sometimes depending on the group and how many boars we have, we have to, AI as well.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:21:06
Yeah. Lot going on with the pigs. My the genetics question also triggered, like, I wanna go back to the to the cattle. Like, other than that breed just being incredibly cute and having beautiful feathery hair that Kristina can use for marketing content, was there any other, like, business reason for that decision and had you found, like, any other differentiation other than just it's obviously the coolest kind of type of cow there is from a from a aesthetic perspective?

Jason Walker - 00:21:34
Yeah. Well, full disclosure, that's that's how it started, you know, and we we still have a huge Highland herd. We probably have about we started off with 20 or so, breeding animals, and I think we're up to close to a 100 breeding animals now. But we have now now we have Angus and, you know, we Gotcha. We've developed 2 different markets for depending on which animals. So, the downside about the Highlands is, you know, they take about 3 years to to to fully, finish out. They just grow a little slower. But I tell you what though, you get to that 3 years and, I mean, it's the best quality meat that you can buy.

Jason Walker - 00:22:05
I mean, I'd like to tell people it's similar to buffalo, just really deep, dark, rich meat. And, they carry a heavy coat, so they don't have to carry as much, fat. So it's pretty lean, but it just tastes amazing. So I mean, you know, right now, we we have a upper tier that we we sell that Highland 4 the Highland v four, and then and then everything else is is Angus. We just in order to meet the demand, we had to kinda differentiate and and kinda have have some more options. You know, I can get Angus animals to finish out in 2 years.

Jason Walker - 00:22:41
So it it speeds up the timeline a little bit on on some of the markets and stuff we do, but which the Angus is still, you know, grass fed, grass finished. I mean, it's still beautiful stuff, but, the Highlands definitely a step above. But besides for them being really cute, I mean, they're they're they're a pain in the butt to get through, you know, working them in the corrals. They got big horns, but they're they're great moms. I mean, we never have issues as far as, with any calves or anything like that. So, I mean, there's there's so many benefits to them. But, you know, I think right now it's definitely Kristina on the marketing side is a big plus.

Kristina Walker - 00:23:23
We love them. We love them.

Kyle Krull - 00:23:25
I believe it. You know, there's a it wouldn't be a podcast episode if I didn't talk about a book. And I've talked about this book so many times. I I feel like everybody's practically read it by now if you listen to episodes, but this book is called the Dorito effect. And the book opens with the story of this woman who's trying to make this dish that for her husband, the same way his mom used to. And it's this chicken dish. And every time she does it, she gets it wrong, and he's like, no. It's not the same. It's not the same.

Kyle Krull - 00:23:46
It's not the same. And she eventually finds that she bought an older chicken from some guy who had an heirloom breed, and it was a slow growth chicken. And that was the flavor difference that made the husband finally be like, oh my gosh. This is the same.

Kristina Walker - 00:24:05
Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:24:05
So to your point, like, that 3 year growth curve, it will have a difference, you know, and it makes me really wanna try it. And I I eat a ton of bison. So the fact that you're, like, comparing it to bison is, like, yes. Like, I need to try this. Yeah. So it sounds fantastic. And, yeah, it it it does seem to demand a premium. Yeah. And I'm curious on the website. I'm I'm really asking this for myself.

Kyle Krull - 00:24:16
There doesn't seem to be a lot of, like, cut options for the Highland. It's only, like, the big boxes. I can't just go and buy 1 steak. Is that correct?

Kristina Walker - 00:24:32
I know. You know, we decided not to do the Highland again because it's so limited. We have a limited amount per year, so we decided to do boxes. It is kind of that higher end, and and not the cuts. And the thing is too, you know, when we're shipping direct to consumer, we have a, you know, kind of a minimum of what people need to order anyways. So we put together some good boxes in that Scottish island, but, yeah, you can't just can't just order one steak.

Kyle Krull - 00:24:59
I'll just have to make the investment, you know, to get a

Kristina Walker - 00:25:01
gig and, you know,

Kyle Krull - 00:25:02
get some friends over and

Kristina Walker - 00:25:04
have a good time.

Jason Walker - 00:25:05
Yep.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:25:06
Okay. I I have a super operations process nerd question. Is there significant challenges in processing that animal because of the different fur? What what's it called? It's called hair fur? What what coat?

Jason Walker - 00:25:18
Yeah. Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:25:19
I mean

Jason Walker - 00:25:21
well, as far as limitations with with the, you know, the the hair fur, whatever we wanna call it, there's not really limitations there. The limitations are the horns. So, you know, at our facility, I mean, everything's set up to, you know, have, you know, pretty much a non horned animal cruise through there. So so getting them through there and, you know, meeting all the USDA standards and certified humane standards, you know, It takes time. They get through there. They're it's amazing what they can do with their horns. I mean, we have 3 foot wide, horns that are going through a narrow suit, and they just move their heads slowly. And, you know, if it gets caught, they back up a little bit. They turn in a different direction.

Jason Walker - 00:26:00
And, you know, it's it's amazing to see and they're super gentle. A lot of people would, you know, expect or think that maybe but, you know, you can pretty much just, you know, help them along if you need to. And and, they're they're in the corrals. You don't feel like they're gonna jump or tack you or anything like that. So I think it's just their demeanor and everything enables them to get through there and and we can still, you know harvest them in a nice humane way.

Kyle Krull - 00:26:34
Mhmm. Got it. I hope AC, you go ahead.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:26:37
No. You're good. Go ahead.

Kyle Krull - 00:26:39
I think we might be going the same direction. This brings up the opportunity to talk about the processing facility. I think it sounds like this was a recent acquisition for you all. So let's first talk about what you were doing prior, why it was so important to you to end up owning your own facility, and what that means for the future of the company.

Kristina Walker - 00:26:57
Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna jump in there because, you know, we were back in 2021, we launched our first jerky product, and our jerky product was not organic. Now here, we have organic meat, and we were so excited to have an organic product, out on the market that was packaged. You know, we had our meat that we were selling direct to consumer, but we really wanted something even more. We wanted to add value. So we launched this jerky, and we could not find a processing plant. We could not find a co packer. We could not find anything that would label this jerky organic anywhere. We were going all over the place.

Kristina Walker - 00:27:30
We were going into Nevada, states all surrounding us, and we couldn't find it. So we had to Hold on.

Kyle Krull - 00:27:43
I just wanna pause it real quick because maybe some consumers might not know this, but, like, you can raise the meat organic, but if the processing facility does not have organic certification, the end product will not have an organic certification.

Kristina Walker - 00:27:55
That is correct. Yes. The processing facility has to be so you have to have the processing facility where you're getting the animal harvested and processed as well as the the co packer, if you're gonna have a co packer. Whoever's doing that value add piece of it also has to be certified organic to have that label on your package. And, so, we were we were frustrated. You know, so but, we went ahead and launched our jerky and it didn't say organic on it. So, you know, even though it was made with organic beef, and we were doing pork at the time too, so pork jerky and beef jerky. And, that was frustrating.

Kristina Walker - 00:28:20
And, we knew at that point that we had to figure out something with a processing plant. On top of that, we were also going all over just to get our animals processed as well. We were driving, you know, 4 to 7 hours trying to get our animals processed.

Kyle Krull - 00:28:45
Wow. Wow.

Kristina Walker - 00:28:46
And, we we went to, I would say, 3 to 5 different locations, like, in within a year, we would we would have to go to a different spot, you know, this place would be booked. Okay. Now we're heading north, you know, 4 hours or you know, all over the place. So this was super frustrating. We had a lot of major opportunities and contracts coming our way where we could take them on. We could scale, we could meet the demand, but we couldn't get it processed. That was our hang up.

Kristina Walker - 00:29:10
So we knew right then that in order to scale and move forward with the direction that we wanted to go and hit some of our goals, we had to build our own or find our own by our own processing facility. So in 2023, we actually found a piece a property a piece of property, and we thought we were gonna build. We had a consultant come down, we were planning, we were in the planning stages, and we were on the property, which actually happens to be right next door to the processing facility that we have now. But that that processing facility that we have now is actually it was closed down at the time, but, we had heard it was gonna reopen. And so we were over there, we were out outside, you know, planning the whole thing, and he the the consultant that was with us, he's he looked over and he's like, there is a nice, gorgeous, huge processing facility right there. Why would you build? And and we we had said, you know, we had already talked to them once. They weren't, you know, they're gonna reopen with their brand.

Kristina Walker - 00:30:10
They're we're we need to do something. And they weren't doing pigs at the time either. So we knew that they weren't going to do pigs. We had to figure out something for our pigs. And he said, you know what? I would before we go into this whole thing of building this, why don't you go over and talk to him one more time? So Jason said, yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:30:28
Let's let's make that happen. He went in, talked to them, and they said, you know what? We are ready to sell. So we were able to acquire the processing plant that was already built, you know, gorgeous facility, value it had a whole value add section, so we knew that we were gonna do be able to do our own jerky there as well. So not just the kill and the processing, but actually be able to do our our, value add products. And so

Kyle Krull - 00:31:03
value add. It's like like finished good products. Like, you're you've got retail ready packaging coming out of that facility.

Kristina Walker - 00:31:08
Yeah. And value adds really when you take that and you're adding ingredients or something. Ford jerky, beef snack sticks, bacon, you know, those are the value add products that we're able to do. And so within 4 months, we actually had from that conversation, we had acquired the plant and 2 months later, we were up and running. So, it was very quick. And it it you know, that would happen at the very beginning of 2024. So, it's pretty recent. And because of that, that's why we've been able to scale in in 24 and and, now into this this year of 2025 and a lot to come.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:31:47
Yeah. Amazing. Just a just a 3,000 acre farm, a big processing plant, and a and a CPG brand, you know? Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:31:52
Like, what is

Anthony Corsaro - 00:31:53
like, why not? Like, let's send it.

Kristina Walker - 00:31:55
We have big goals. We love it.

Kyle Krull - 00:31:57
Well, I I wanna highlight this organic processing piece and manufacturing piece because I think that it's it's really hard to do all of these things. Right? To to be a regenerative farmer, to process your food in. We talk a lot about in a lot of episodes, the different barriers, and this is like one of those non sexy barriers that I don't think gets enough attention. But the lack of processing infrastructure and the impediment it leads for brands who are trying to do the right thing. Like, why would you go through all of the work to become rock certified if you can't sell your products with a rock certification?

Kristina Walker - 00:32:27
Ugh. So frustrating.

Jason Walker - 00:32:28
So frustrating.

Kyle Krull - 00:32:29
I could only imagine. Yeah. I mean, you must've I I don't know the words I would have said. It would have been that. It would not have been recorded. I mean, it's just important to highlight that because I think as a society, as we deindustrialize our food system, we need to figure out how we create more access and pathways for people to do the right thing and and be able to sell their product for the premium that it deserves. And I'm glad that you all have been able to navigate that for yourselves. And, it seems like you're tuned up and ready to go and and grow more out of this facility, which is awesome. Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:33:00
And we, you know, we did it for others as well. I mean, you know, it's not people are kind of around in our area coming to that, you know, realization regenerative, maybe a little bit organic, but definitely regenerative is is important. And so, we the processing plant, we do other farms and, animals as well. So

Kyle Krull - 00:33:19
Amazing.

Kristina Walker - 00:33:20
Yeah. So, we're doing Northern California, Southern Oregon. So, I think I think you're absolutely right. It's so important to have these facilities that we can, utilize in the way that we're intending to grow our brands and get a good product out there.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:33:35
And have somebody operating it that understands the farmer context. Right? So many times we see that the these middle market players, whatever they may be, like, they really don't understand the regenerative farmer context and they don't build the economics, like, correctly, I guess. And I don't wanna put the full onus on them, but we just need more, I think, transparency and understanding there. But, yeah, I cut you off, Jason. What were you gonna add in there?

Jason Walker - 00:33:58
Oh, I was just gonna mention how nice it is to for the animal wise. I mean, we're we're literally driving 20, 30 minutes from the farm Yeah. To the processing facility, you know, and and I've I've shipped cattle before that have had to go, you know, 6 hours to get, you know, or more to get to processing facility. And so, I mean, I just think about the welfare of the animals. I mean, we all know perfect scenario would be farm far on farm, but, you know, this is probably the next best thing. We're we're, you know, less than 30 minutes away from from it. And so I think it's it's it's got a lot of wins and and plus, like Kristina mentioned too, it's a great for the community as a whole too to be able to have that local access to processing.

Kristina Walker - 00:34:40
Mhmm.

Kyle Krull - 00:34:40
No doubt. Well, while we talk about value added products, I I make pizza every Sunday. It's like a ritual. I make pizza, and I watch hockey. And I have yet to find a pasture raised pepperoni, like pork pepperoni. So

Kristina Walker - 00:34:54
I'm just telling you, if you will, if you

Kyle Krull - 00:34:57
don't wanna take a jump, I will be a very loyal customer every single week buying a pack of pepperoni. So to start off

Jason Walker - 00:35:06
I'll have I'll have to admit we have a laundry list of of those sorts of things that we're, you know

Kristina Walker - 00:35:11
That are coming.

Jason Walker - 00:35:13
Yeah. That are coming. You know, it's it's it's almost tough at sometimes to, like, the opportunities are endless and especially with meat. There's just so many cool things out there that we wanna obviously have have our brand on or or at least be be part of, at least at least our meat in them. And, so anyways, we we've got some cool, things in the works that are gonna be happening here this year, and and so a lot of things will be rolled out.

Kyle Krull - 00:35:39
Let's AC, you go ahead.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:35:41
Yeah. No. It's a it's a great segue, and I I think y'all have had a lot of different things historically, and you have a lot of options in what you do, like, moving forward. So this is gonna be a dense question, but could you, like, take us through by channel what the market outlets for these products has historically look like and what you are building towards in the future? Like, historically, on the wholesale side, it was this, and then we did d to c, and now we're kinda doing, like, branded retail stuff that's gonna be, you know, in retailers like Sprouts. Right? Like, break that down, what that evolution has looked like, and where you're going in the future, and then we can dive in specifically to kind of, like, growth strategy in each one of those maybe.

Kristina Walker - 00:36:16
For sure. Yeah. So, you know, it did. It started off with that, you know, we were we were selling wholes and halves. You know, that's really what it started off with. Just, you know, wholes and halves kind of. And then we went into direct to consumer and we decided, you know, we want people to be able to have options. So we offered everything. You know, we have so many SKUs on our website and all the cuts. You know, beef and pork.

Kristina Walker - 00:36:36
So, and then, obviously, from there, it was it is just that that d to c, all of those products. We knew we wanted to add value, so that's when, you know, the jerky came in. And then it was getting into retail. And a little bit, we talked about private labeling, doing some private labeling too. And we had a big pork contract that came in for deli meat for ham. And it's like one of the 2nd largest deli meat companies out there and they were looking for domestic organic pork.

Kristina Walker - 00:37:07
They couldn't find it at scale and they said, are you guys willing to scale bigger so that we can buy this domestically? And that's what enabled us to do what we're doing now. We said yes, as long as we had a processing facility. We knew that we had to have that piece of it. But once we had that, we said yes, let's get this contract going. And we were able to scale that portion of it.

Kristina Walker - 00:37:38
But then that also gave us a whole another kind of, puzzle to solve was now we have the rest of the pig that you know, what are we gonna do with that? Because we have a large amount of that as well. And we knew that we wanted the best something you couldn't get anywhere else. You know, the organic pork piece of it, we knew. Like, domestically, there's there's not a lot of that, here. So that piece, but the rock part of it, when we when we brought that rock certified, we're able to label it rock. That's that's awesome.

Kristina Walker - 00:38:06
So that piece of it. And then we have a lot of products that we're doing from there. So our bacon we're going into retail. We're doing fresh a few fresh programs. And then also just packaged, programs as well into retail. And a lot of this the retailers we're in about 10 real retailers right now that have our jerky.

Kristina Walker - 00:38:32
But with the pork and the beef, we're actually moving into some of those retailers with our beef and pork. Now the kind of the cool thing is is that because we are so different, we're in this this, I don't know, this kind of area right now where we get to really make some decisions of where we want to be, because we have a lot of restaurants coming to us. We have retailers coming to us. And when you were talking about the piece of you know, the the processing facility and how that's a hang up for, you know, the farmer and getting that that product to the consumer, that's in we've learned now being in retailer that that's in so many areas. I mean, even with your broker or with your distributor, getting into retailer, I mean, there's so many different pieces of that. And the people who don't understand the farmers, the, you know, the people who are growing the food, like, the people that relationship needs to be cultivated more so that these products can end up in the hands of the consumers.

Kristina Walker - 00:39:30
Because the consumers, I think, want them. The farmers are willing to raise them this way. So we have to figure out how that that middle ground can happen a little smoother. And so that has been the piece of it where we're navigating now, trying to figure out, you know, are we going into more retail? Are we going into restaurants because it's a little bit easier to work with those bigger restaurants because they want the product? And so that's kind of where we're at right now is is, you know, making those decisions. But I think we're always going to be in retail in some capacity.

Kristina Walker - 00:40:13
And we have a lot of products coming out. So those will be going into retail as well. But yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:40:30
Well, it sounds like there's an overwhelming amount of opportunity. Yes. Plus with the the 2 primary animals, and I think I've also seen chicken on your website as well. Yes. So maybe a a tertiary animal as well. Something you all have a lot of influence, obviously. And if I can share any quote wisdom, and this is all what I've learned from other folks that we've had on the podcast. I've never had to make any of these decisions myself, but we've had a handful of brands talk about their experience in food service and how that channel is to your point, lower barrier to entry and can help to fund some of the deep pockets you'll need for retail. Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 00:41:04
And that that seems to be a relatively I don't wanna say it's like every episode, but, you know, there's there's been a good handful of brands who have done that and they seem to be some of the most financially viable regen brands out there today. So just just sharing that little tidbit that we've been

Jason Walker - 00:41:19
fortunate enough to

Kyle Krull - 00:41:20
learn from others in that space.

Kristina Walker - 00:41:22
Mhmm. For sure. And that's that's the exciting part of it too is that there's options. And so I love that input because that's kind of what we're seeing already, and we have some really big, you know, partnerships that are coming up with with restaurants, and, we're we're excited about that.

Kyle Krull - 00:41:39
I subsequently just wanna ask, like, how many pizza places are you talking

Kristina Walker - 00:41:42
to? Yeah. That's What's the demand

Kyle Krull - 00:41:44
for pepperoni. Pepperoni. Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:41:47
Well, we

Kyle Krull - 00:41:47
we can just I I'll promise may maybe only one more poke this episode. I can't I can't swear I'm not gonna do it. So

Anthony Corsaro - 00:41:54
Something that we haven't talked about, which would be good for y'all to to educate us on or just walk us through is, like, we know how it works for you guys to get the packaged ambient beef jerky into the sprouts innovation set. We know that's happened for your brand.

Kristina Walker - 00:42:06
Mhmm.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:42:06
But, Kristina, you just mentioned, like, fresh programs. And for the audience that doesn't understand, that's like putting bacon behind the meat counter at the at the grocery store.

Kristina Walker - 00:42:14
Right.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:42:15
Does that product also flow through, like, a UNFI, KeHE type distribution system, or is it totally different? Like, what is what is that look like or maybe, like, packaged refrigerated bacon versus typical CPG world that we've talked about, like, ad nausea on the show?

Kristina Walker - 00:42:29
For sure. You know, we're learning all about that right now. I I can't tell you how much we've learned in the last year. It's been I mean, when I look at a year ago to what we know now, it's like, oh, wow. So so, basically, with the fresh program, we're we're actually in talks with a big retailer that is out in Texas. And, we have found that there, we actually can the distribute the distribution part of it is a little bit different than, you know, your normal CPG product. And so we're actually, we would get the product to their distribution center. And so we wouldn't use a KeHE or UNFI. We would actually get the product to them, which isn't a problem on our end.

Kristina Walker - 00:43:10
And then from there, they distribute it out into their retail local retail stores that are in that area. And and that fresh program is where then, you know, the meat goes behind the counter. Now one challenge that we just came across, we didn't know before, is because we're organic, if the retailer does not already have an organic protocol for a fresh program, that also provides challenges. Yeah. Because you're talking about now having the conventional meat, fresh meat behind the counter, as well as the organic. And that that has, that has, you know, brought up a few issues that we have talked through and we are are looking at trying to figure out.

Kristina Walker - 00:43:48
But in that case, you know, there's been some times where they've just said, you know, we just need it in a package. So then we're it'll it'd still be a fresh program, but it would be packaged. So the bacon would already come packaged. They wouldn't be or the meat, you know, the the beef would be packaged already from our facility fresh to their facility.

Kyle Krull - 00:44:19
Additional question on the sort of fresh channel. Is that a branded play? Can it be a branded play? You know, because in my mind, I think that it's one of the I hate the lack of transparency there. It's like, oh, hey, you just buying ground beef. You don't know who is from, you know, where it came from. You don't know what what, you know, maybe it's Gap this or Gap that, but can you have branded fresh in those sorts of channels?

Kristina Walker - 00:44:41
Yes. Yeah. Definitely. And actually, the retailer that we're work working with, they would like to have that brand, that story. They want us to come into the store, tell that story to the customers. So that's that's a very, you know, exciting part of it too. So I'm glad that we are able to do that.

Kyle Krull - 00:45:00
Nice. Love to hear that.

Kristina Walker - 00:45:01
Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 00:45:02
We've said it a couple of times on the podcast. Y'all are doing a lot. This takes a lot of capital and support. Like, what has that journey been like and, you know, how are you doing all of this, I guess?

Kyle Krull - 00:45:14
Well, it's rich uncle is really the question.

Kristina Walker - 00:45:16
Right? Yeah. Really. We wish we had one. That would be helpful.

Jason Walker - 00:45:20
There's times where that would be very helpful. So, yeah, it's it's definitely been a journey. You know? We started off just pretty much self funding everything and and trying to trying to figure out how to how to manage the the peaks and valleys, and and then we realized that, okay, we have to build some inventory of, of, animals and infrastructure. And and then we brought on a a a great partner, Mad Capital. They've they've actually they've helped us, greatly in in acquiring, you know, give you some funding to acquire some some animals and to get some breeding stock. And and, so so that's been a big boost. You know, we also have a a kind of a a thing that it's it's fun and it involves, peep gets people involved. We call it the cattle club, but, you know, people can can actually, you know, purchase, essentially purchase cattle, but basically, you know, help, fund the operation and be part of, us, you know Wow.

Jason Walker - 00:46:07
Buying more animals. And so that's been cool because we get, you know, friends, family, acquaintances that that want they love what we're doing. They wanna be involved. They they, you know, how can we help? And it's a good way for them. They get they get a good return on their money, and it's a good way for for them to, feel like they're part of the system.

Jason Walker - 00:46:33
But, you know, I think, one of the downfalls of, you know, farming in general, but really, CPG and, you know, regenerative and organic. You know? We're we're definitely pushing a direction that, you know, mainstream, isn't isn't necessarily going. You know, we we've got a good I would call it a cult following, but, you know, I mean, regenerative is is growing like crazy. Organics had steady growth for a lot of years, but the percentage of, the food that's out there is obviously very small, on the organic and regenerative sign side. And so it's no different with the funding. You know?

Jason Walker - 00:47:13
It's getting getting people aware of what you're doing, why it's different, why you, you know, need the funding, need the kind of the help, the the push, especially to get into retail. There's a lot of, a lot of carrying that's involved there of of, you know, send you know, we raise these animals for years, and then we process them, and then we ship them, and then we wait to get paid. And it's it's kinda funny because we we've got all the risk and and, you know, and the the minimal reward, I guess. Let's say that. So so it just takes, you know, lenders and and, you know, I think there's a lot of push towards it now. I think there's a lot of interest in, you know, the private world and and, venture capital world.

Jason Walker - 00:48:01
But, you know, I think the more that we can get those people involved and seen what we're doing, most of those people seem to wanna put money in agriculture anyways. And so, hopefully, they can they can gear it towards the the people that are really doing doing good things. And we have a product. We know we've we've gotten the the emails and the inquire inquiries about our regenerative organic, beef and pork. And so we know the demands there. It's just a matter of, making sure that we can put all the pieces together to get it out to the people.

Kristina Walker - 00:48:44
And another thing too with that is, you know, we one of our goals is to show that regenerative organic beef and pork can be profitable. And so, that's been a big piece of what we do, what we wanna kind of put out there. And it reminds me, Jason and I talk about this all the time, but Jason's dad had this sign up in his office that said, if I had a $1,000,000 I'd keep farming until it was all gone. I mean, that's kind of, you know, out there that was and I remember seeing that when I was younger and thinking like, oh man, like, that doesn't that doesn't sound good. You know? Like, should we not be in farming? And I think sometimes, like, that is the perspective of it's expensive to be a farmer and how can we change that mindset for not not only, like, the consumers and the people that are out there, but for the farmers too.

Kristina Walker - 00:49:22
And especially in our, you know, area, in our county, there's a lot of people that think, oh, we cannot switch to organic. We cannot become regenerative organic certified because it's way too expensive and we're gonna lose all of our money if we do that. I mean, that's kind of the mindset. So we've been really trying to show people and be leaders in in just our area of we can do this. This can be profitable, especially if we link arms together, especially if we get more people involved, if we collaborate on, you know, bigger, higher levels with other people, other farmers, other investors, other brands that are doing the same thing and make this really come, you know, just bring it up and, noticed more. And so one of the things that we've done to do that is we we have a kind of a partner producer program for our pork.

Kristina Walker - 00:50:22
And because we have these larger contracts for rock pork or organic pork, which we can talk about more. But, you know, the thing is is we can actually go ahead and get these other farmers involved that maybe wouldn't have done it before and say and give them the blueprint. Here's what we did. Here's how we like, from all the way from buying your sow, buying your breeding herd, to raising them all the way through. Hey, we'll give you a contract at the end of that time. When your pork when your pig is ready to sell, we'll buy that pig from you because we have these contracts and we can put it into our contracts.

Kristina Walker - 00:51:02
And so, it's kind of just a win win situation. We're holding kind of holding their hands saying, hey. We've done it and we'll do it with you. So, that's what we're doing right now on the pork side. And, we have had people interested. People are starting to become partner producers with us us in our area, and that's kind of one of the ways that we're trying to change the mindset a little bit.

Kristina Walker - 00:51:22
And, hopefully, that will grow.

Kyle Krull - 00:51:35
I there's a lot to unpack with everything you 2 just shared, and I think it's all super, super important. First and foremost, Jason, really appreciate you shedding light on the the funding difficulties. And, you know, obviously, we talked to a lot of startup brands and raising money for a brand is is, you know, we we talk about a lot. But to do it with processing and farming and a brand all at the same time, like Yeah. I can only imagine what that must be like. So really appreciate that, Cher. And and you're spot on. And and you missed one critical detail. The first time you ship product to retail, it's free.

Kyle Krull - 00:51:55
You don't even get paid for that. You know? Then you then then you have some way to get paid.

Kristina Walker - 00:52:07
Yeah. True.

Kyle Krull - 00:52:08
True. It's it's really brutal. And I could only imagine that, you know, raising these animals and then having to deal with go through the entire part of, I'm losing my train of thought here, but producing from 0 to 100 instead of just like 50 to 100. It must be really difficult to deal with that. Kristina, really like what you talked about, like highlighting the community aspect and how you're bringing these opportunities to other potential farmers in the community to say, hey, we've done this. We're going to help you do this, and potentially sharing some of the demand that you all have received, which is really, really cool. I do wanna circle back to what we discussed previously. Like, the 2nd largest, I think you said, was a ham producer, is now sourcing your organic ham or pork or hog or whatever the proper terminology there is, but they're not gonna be using the rock label.

Kyle Krull - 00:52:41
So there's, like, secretly, this is regenerative organic pork, the first in the world, and that is not going to be conveyed to the consumer.

Kristina Walker - 00:52:59
Right? Exactly. It's so it's frustrating, you know, it it it's it's kind of this, thing where it it propelled us to be able to do this. So we're excited and we're grateful for that. Right? But they're not gonna be using the rock label. So it's just the organic pork that they wanted. And we have had a lot of people come to us and ask for especially bacon. I mean, obviously, you know, everyone wants bacon.

Kristina Walker - 00:53:16
And, so they want the organic bacon, but we really want it to be labeled rock. That's super important to us. We've passed on a lot of opportunities because we don't want to let it just go, out into the market. We also would like our brand to be on it. You know, there's some things that we would love to collaborate on but to, to let it go just labeled organic, not rock is not really what we want to do. So, we're kind of hoping to have that only be the ham, that part of it. The rest of it, we're hoping we'll have that rock label on it.

Kyle Krull - 00:54:02
Yeah. That's super tough. And I'm curious, like, from the the and I I don't wanna, like, poke too hard and have you share more than you should. But why are they choosing not to share regenerative on this? Because in my mind, like, why wouldn't you make this seem like the best possible product that it is? Do they just not see the value in that term right now? Is it too early? What's the thinking?

Kristina Walker - 00:54:21
I think that they were looking to find an organic producer domestically to replace, you know, something that they were buying, international. You know, just they were looking to replace a product that they already had. So they haven't looked at expanding into that rock, portion of it yet. We're we're constantly pushing that. Hey. You know, what else could you even offer? And let's get it labeled rock.

Kristina Walker - 00:54:41
But, there there hasn't really been the interest from them yet.

Kyle Krull - 00:54:52
Got it. Well, credit where credit is due, mysterious hand producer, thank you for looking for domestic organic pork. Awesome. Good on you. And maybe you can help. And I'm sure, you know, you 2 will do a better job than anyone just trying to convince them that, like, hey. There's some there's some validation here in this regenerative thing. Come check out our farm. See what we're doing. Understand what this reason why it's important. So all in time.

Kyle Krull - 00:55:04
Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 00:55:12
Yeah. We're always inviting anybody who comes and, you know, wants to to buy our products or we're saying come and look and see what we're doing. I mean, that's that's the key piece of it right there. The more people that we can get, you know, on the farm to check out any any regenerative farm and what they're doing, it's it's really eye opening.

Kyle Krull - 00:55:30
Mhmm. Yeah. And I I wanna touch a little bit on, like, resiliency. And, you know, we've just had these incredibly devastating fires in California. We've had an insane hurricane season on the East Coast and in the Carolinas in in particular. You know? And I think good business practices creating resilient agricultural land. Right? And implementing these regenerative practices is theoretically supposed to be helping with this sort of stuff. And, Jason, you talked before about, you know, 20 inches of rain.

Kyle Krull - 00:55:49
And I'm curious to know, how does your land hold up against that type of, like, a weather event versus some of the land around you? Have you all noticed any significant differences in how you can tolerate weather systems like that versus everyone else?

Jason Walker - 00:56:11
Yeah. I mean, especially on on my cattle ground, you know, any of my irrigated pastures, you know, it's amazing how much water storage they can take. Sometimes you don't even notice it. You know, you get 20 inches of rain, and there's no puddles out there still. Whereas, you know, you got neighboring fields that are, you know, maybe more monocropped or something like that, and you can you can see the runoff happening. So I I see that a lot. You know, I don't think we have we're not in a a heavy corn or soy or, even a heavy tillage area. It's a lot of more permanent crops like alfalfa and and pastures, stuff like that. So so we don't see terrible things like I know happen in in the Midwest.

Jason Walker - 00:56:45
But, you know, I think the benefit of running animals on your your your land is it's just it's obvious, and everybody knows it. I think there's just a few people that are maybe just, you know, they they can't quite wrap their head around the intensive grazing or or moving their animals more often or or kinda just leaving leaving a lot of extra, you know, overburden and stuff when you're when you're grazing because that all helps with the soil, helps with the, you know, micro zobi and everything in the soil just creating this ecosystem. And so I think slowly people, even neighbors, you know, they look over the fence, you know, what are you doing? Every time I do a cover crop or every time, you know, we do something that's a little out of the norm of the area, you know, but it's kinda make a notice and and keeping tabs. And I I see people that, you know, maybe maybe steal some ideas that we've been doing, but, you know, I'm more than happy to to share all that information. You know, we talked earlier, but, you know, it's like we're an open book.

Jason Walker - 00:57:53
You know, we've been to lots of seminars and meetings and stuff, and it's like, I'll tell people all the good, the bad, and the ugly of of what this is. But, ultimately, you know, our goal, especially with the regenerative is, you know, we wanna create we want this land to be here for for generations, and we wanna create a good, ecosystem in the soil. And and I think we're doing that with the animals is is really the the best way to do it.

Kyle Krull - 00:58:22
Well, I'd love to hear that what you're doing is kinda creating a, region curious community. People, you know, poking their heads over the fence and like that. You mentioned you wanted this land to be here for generations. So let's talk a little bit about the future. What is I mean, it's we've been talking about this a lot, but what is next? Are you all hoping to get access to more land? Are you focusing on these different channels? Is it more product innovation? Like, do you have a plan for, like, what's to come in 2025?

Kyle Krull - 00:58:40
What you're hoping to achieve in 2026? Are they like hard concrete? Can you can you share any, like, new products that will be coming to market soon with us? I'll stop asking more questions because this has gone on a while, but just tell us tell us what you got planned.

Jason Walker - 00:59:00
Well, we're we're always looking at expanding. You know, it's it's kind of I don't know if you call it an addiction, but, you know, I I Yeah. I love seeing when when stuff comes for sale or for lease, you know, I love seeing the potential. I I love buying animals. I mean, I we're constantly buying cattle and and expanding pigs and everything. And, so so I get excited about that, really. You know, not that I want I need to have, you know, a 100,000 acres, but, you know, I love seeing ecosystems change that.

Kyle Krull - 00:59:31
Want you to have a 100,000 acres, man. I need it. I need you to have that.

Jason Walker - 00:59:35
I might I might not will take it on. My hair would get even grayer than it already is, but, we enjoy we've got a great a great team, and and so so we're definitely prepared to be able to take on more. But, you know, I I think expanding not only our livestock and our land operation. I mean, our our big thing is obviously expanding our our SKUs and our expanding with the capabilities that we can pump out of our processing plant. And Kristina and her team on the marketing and and, distribution side. I mean, they're they're working on this stuff constantly every day and and bouncing ideas off of each other. And and so, I mean, I'll let her share some more, but I meant they do an amazing job.

Jason Walker - 01:00:12
I you know, it's my job's pretty, not easy, but I just get to be outside all day and and, you know, grow grow grow grass and grow animals, and then she's gotta figure out a way to to get this out to to the world and, you know, really, you know, make this process work. But, you know, she could she could share some of the stuff we got coming out.

Kristina Walker - 01:00:38
Yeah. I mean, always expanding for sure. I mean, I think every night, you know, if we if we get a chance to get a walk in together, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about what's coming next, and there's a lot of things coming. One of the exciting things I'm I'm it's coming here in the next couple months is we are going to be launching our beef snack sticks. And, in our pork snack sticks, we are also going to be doing a fermented version of our beef snack sticks. We're also going to do

Anthony Corsaro - 01:01:07
for all of that.

Kristina Walker - 01:01:09
Oh, yeah. And, you know, they're gonna be labeled rock, which is so exciting. And then we will also be doing, an ancestral blend snack stick as well. So yeah. So we have you know, that's kind of right now, we're working on the the snack stick piece of things. And, we were hoping, you know, January, but we're looking at, you know, February, March. We're giving ourselves a little bit more time than that short turnaround on the jerky that we did. So, that's kind of the next thing coming. But then after that, we have a lot of products, that are, you know, cooking tallow, and that'll be labeled rock. You know, all these things that we're just we want to there's so many options. Right? I mean, we have beef and pork, and we have so many options.

Kristina Walker - 01:01:50
Jason's favorite thing. Well, I'll let I'll let you say, Jason. What's your favorite thing? He's been talking about it for years, and it's it's coming.

Jason Walker - 01:02:06
I and yeah. I love I love pork rinds. I love pork cracklins. And There you go. I don't know. It's just such a great snack when you're, you know, out working all day long and, you know, I usually throw a few bags in my my truck. And the thing is is there's not an organic option out there, much less a regenerative organic option on that side. And so I'm I'm kinda excited. We're we're our chef right now is kinda working on some preliminary stuff and, you know, we gotta figure out, you know, how we're gonna mass produce it and get it out to the world, but, I'm hoping we can have something by end of, end of this year on that line too.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:02:46
Oh, yeah. Well, we're looking forward to the proliferation of product innovation from Starwalker Organics coming coming soon. This has been a super fun conversation, y'all. We'll we'll take it home with the final question that we ask everybody. How do we get 50% how do we get ReGen Brands, excuse me, to have 50% market share by 2050? How do we do that?

Jason Walker - 01:03:09
Yeah. So, I knew you're gonna ask this, and I I I've been I've been pondering over this. And, you know, my my biggest thing is is really is, like, how can we get the distributors and the retailers onboard and understanding that this not only did the customers want it, but how do we get them to work or, create some sort of infrastructure together? And I know you guys are working on that too, and and we're super excited about here and how that all develops. But, you know, how can we get some cohesiveness between those two things and, you know, ultimately, the farmer? I know sometimes there's a processor in the middle or there's there's everybody's kinda trying to dip out of the pot, but if we can get them on board and and get them, you know, understanding that this is what the customer wants and how they can support the farmers and and the people, you know, producing the products, I think that's really the key. Because if we don't have those distributors and those those retailers on board, it's it's gonna be an uphill battle. I think every region region brand is willing to take that battle on, but we can definitely move this along a lot quicker with with their help.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:04:25
Amen. Yeah.

Kristina Walker - 01:04:27
Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:04:28
I'm sorry.

Kyle Krull - 01:04:28
I'm really hard not to share a personal anecdote on that right now. I'm going through this exact problem launching a specific region SKU with a specific distributor who has, like, red tape that won't allow me to do what I need to do because it's a limited product release. There's only so much supply.

Kristina Walker - 01:04:41
Yeah.

Kyle Krull - 01:04:42
So to your point, we we run into these non sexy hurdles that make it really difficult to get these very well intentioned products to market. And if we don't get them to change some policies or some, you know, remove some red tape, it's gonna be really, really hard. So I think you're spot on. It's a big big call out.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:04:58
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we we started the podcast to try and, like, get more airtime for this narrative around needing to create market demand because we felt like that was missing from this whole regenerative conversation and brands are at the nexus of that. And underpinned this whole conversation was y'all had this one specific brand that gave you the sport contract that really opened a lot of a lot of the doors that are now kind of sprouting to all kinds of other good stuff. And the next level of that is these distributors and retailers where it's like, we can say that they're supporting air quotes regenerative as much as we want, but until there's a real economics, like, in those supporting mechanisms wherever they are that are making it all the way back to the people that are actually doing the work on the ground, like, what what what are we actually doing? So, yeah, I don't know. There's there's not an easy fix there, but we'll keep all chipping away at it together, hopefully.

Kristina Walker - 01:05:49
Yeah. Well, we can do that. Sorry. Go ahead.

Kyle Krull - 01:05:54
I gotta cut you off too early.

Jason Walker - 01:05:58
Well, I appreciate everything you guys are doing on your end as far as, you know, with the podcast and and, some of the things you're starting up. And I I think that creating a community, you know, it's not what you know sometimes it's who you know, and and so creating those connections, if we can all work together, you know, we're gonna we're gonna move this this needle really quick.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:06:18
Mhmm. Amen.

Kyle Krull - 01:06:19
No doubt. Yeah. Thank you both for being here. Anybody who's interested in purchasing some product in in particular, the Scottish Highland Beef and soon coming pastured pepperoni, go to check out starwalkerorganicfarms.com. Beautiful website. I can't wait to order some food. And again, thank you both for everything that you're doing. Really, really cool stuff.

Kristina Walker - 01:06:40
Thank you so much. It was great great to be here, and we love everything you guys are doing too. So thank you. Thank you for all your work.

Jason Walker - 01:06:47
Fun conversation.

Anthony Corsaro - 01:06:51
For transcripts, show notes, and more information on this episode, check out our website, regen-brands.com. That is regen-brands.com. You can also check out our YouTube channel, regenbrands, 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 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can also subscribe to our newsletter, the ReGen Brands Weekly, and follow our ReGen Brands LinkedIn page to stay in the know of all the latest news, insights, and perspectives from the world of regenerative CPG. Thanks so much for tuning in to the ReGen Brands Podcast. We hope you learned something new in this episode, and it empowers you to use your voice, your time, your talent, and your dollars to help us build a better and more regenerative food system. Love you guys.