This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. Agriculture. I know you talk about this. I know we do, Matt a lot. It's a leading source of pollution in many countries. We often talk about the companies that are looking to basically up in the egg industry, figure out a more sustainable and less impactful way on the climate to produce all the food that we need everywhere.
Yes, and you know a lot of people say reduce the cars or maybe lower the speed limit, and I say, look at the cows, look at the cas I like driving fast, but maybe that's a little selfie we need to do all. The thing is I also love eating steaks and butter, so I need those cows.
I'm going to tell Tom Ryan, our next guest, how much you love butter. Tom Ryan is president of Jutera. It's the sustainability business of Lando Lakes, who makes butter. Of course, as you know, he joins us on Zoom from Minnesota. Tom, Nice to have you here with Matt and myself. First of all, just lay out exactly what you guys do it Shrueterra.
Yeah, good afternoon, Thanks for having me So Tutera is a leading egg sustainability business that offers consultations, tools, and solutions for the egg and food value chain.
What does that mean? No, no, no, break it down. So what does it mean. You're working with farmers and you're doing what you're working with companies and what do you do?
Yeah, so we really exist to create new market opportunities for farmers and egg retailers, and we do that by helping them adopt economic, economic, and environmentally sell practices on their farms that benefit the soil and the animals, the farm itself, yes, the environment too, and then the local communities that they're resigned in. And that's backed by that one hundred year Land of Lakes co op system that
you reference. And everything that we do is with the farmer at the center, backed by a network of egg retailers that they trust.
So what does that mean in terms of like tell us what a week in your schedule looks like?
It's great, it's you know, we really do serve three audiences here. So we have the farmer where we really provide them support and tools that help them adopt practices on their farms, guide it by their trusted advisor, their a retail salesperson that works with them on a daily basis. And so we work with those eight retailers to educate them and get them prepared to be able to provide
those solutions to the farmers. And then we work with a wide array of companies companies that have made sustainability commitments, and we really bridge the gap between all three of those stakeholders to come together with a common plan around a common goal and a common execution that is that meets the goals of all the parties involved.
So I got to say, Tom, we do talk about it a lot here on our broadcast and certainly as part of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, but really a company over all, Bloomberg News with their green vertical and just looking at sustainability and how do we make it better agriculture, they've got to make some changes right in terms of how we produce food to make sure that we've got enough for everybody and that we don't kill the climate in
the process. So you know, when you talk with farmers, when you talk with ag retailers, when you talk with CpG companies, I mean, what are the top two things that need to be done that maybe aren't being done so far.
I think the first of all was recognizing that what we're asking farmers to do is fundamentally change the way that they have farmed in many cases for generations, and that comes with risk and they need to you know, back to my initial statement about balancing the aeronomic, economic, and environmental that needs to be addressed. And so, you know, farmers all are the ultimate definition of regenerative egg because if they're not leaving that land in a better spot
than when they've found it, they cease to exist. And at UTERA we work to help them create that those practices that that guide that and that lead to that result. But then we also work with both public and private sector investment to manage the risk versus reward so that it's economically viable for the farmer to you know, maintain or add to their current bottom line.
How many of the farmers you deal with are, you know, family farmers. I always have this I don't know if it's a misconception, but I always have this picture in my mind of giant you know, corporations have bought off all of the local farms. But then I drive around, I'm from Ohio, drive around my hometown and I still see families that I've known for my whole life out there farming, So I guess there must be some.
Yeah, I think. I think it's a broad misconception, you know, as a farmer myself, so I farm in southwest Minnesota with my family. We farm twelve hundred acres of corn soy means and have livestock as well. Or a corporation, just because I think there's this misnomer of corporation equals bad. It's a way to manage and structure your business in our case, in order to do the succession planning that it takes with my dad who's seventy eight years old
and in retiring. So you know, big isn't always bad. Corporations isn't always bad. You know, again, back to the fundamental principles. We got to drive the right practices that leave the land in a better spot, manage the opportunities for farmers and the retailers, and then meet the needs of the environment. And that happens on farms of all scale, small, medium and large.
This reminds me, by the way, Carroll, that documentary I was telling you about The Biggest Little Farm is a fantastic film I've seen it like four times now about this couple and I think they have a kid. So this family who takes over this wasted, you know, drought destroyed California farm where I guess they've grown the same thing over and over every year forever and ruin the soil.
They they have all of these practices probably that Tom knows quite well, in order to reinvigorate the land and take care of certain issues without necessarily having to use chemicals, and it turns into this beautiful green oasis that I highly recommend people watch The Biggest Little Farm. And I'm guessing that's the kind of stuff that you tell people Tom to put into practice.
Yeah, I think. You know, we really focus in on a couple of core factors around the practices that we're
focused on. First and foremost, it comes with, you know, how do we prevent and mitigate the movement of nutrients or soil, and we do that through different types of tillage practices, So, you know, moving away from tillage practices where we turn the soil over which makes it you know, vulnerable to erosion or blowing in the wind so to speak, and adopting uh, you know, where we leave more residue,
which allows permeability, keeps the soil in place. Andre is the overall structure, and then the implementation of things like cover crops, so you know, when you remove a crop or when you harvest a crop at the end of the year, we actually plant another crop in its place to provide those same kind of benefits that talked around, like erosion and soil structure, and just overall building up the overall health, which again ties back to those three
pillars of the agonomic and economic, and environmental, resulting in that that improved soil health. So we truly are focused in on, you know, mitigating the impact that farming has on the environment while still feeding a growing population and you know, meeting the needs of the consumer.
Tom, why are you doing this? And I asked this because I remember talking with the abn Bedplate folks and they were really into sustainability because they were seeing issues with water and you can't make beer without water. And I just wonder, what is it that you guys and your team and the farmers that you talked to. What have you seen the wine industries the same thing, whether it's fires or droughts, Like they are seeing things firsthand in terms of our climate that they know if things
don't change, there isn't going to be certain industries. So what is it? And just got about a minute left that you guys are seeing that says to you, if we don't do something different, you know, this isn't going to be good.
You know. Being part of the one hundred year old member owned cooperative with land Lakes, we were we were founded on the principles of a strong early coonomy and those farmers coming together to you know, blend their resources to create, you know, a successful operation and that span generations.
I think this is the same you know, by by adopting the right practices and really delivering the kind of results we are you know where we've paid over nine million dollars to farmers, delivered more than four hundred and sixty thousands of carbon assets. We're doing that. We're driving the viability of rural America while addressing the needs of the climate. And uh and that's a unique position to be in and one that we're very pound to play as TRUETA.
In land Lake.
All right, Well, nice to spend some time with you on this Wednesday. Tom Ryan, he's president of Trutera, joining us on Zoom from Minnesota,