Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–4yKHWxjJ0
The Joe Rogan Experience so I take this off and I it's a Whole Foods Market is continuously my biggest customer they used to be my virtually my only customer but my relationship with Whole Foods has been cooling for a decade and eventually I won't be in there anymore uh I I will will Harris me sold Whole Foods Market the first pound of American grass-fed beef that they marketed as American grass-fed beef 20 years ago and it all the time it was so lucky then it just caught traction and and they they wanted to buy all our souls and and and but today it's a very different Whole Foods uh and you know we won't be there what's the issue you know what green washing is green washing yeah no sort of pre-washing is big food advertising using words to make consumers believe that the food they're selling is the same as what I'm producing even though it's not hey is that if you got that uh a global animal partnership Whole Foods video where you can show it to show please so green washing green washing okay so what's this meat rating system about let me put it this way Step One is like it's the five foot so step five let's get a New York strip and definitely a filet what the hell does that mean I can't tell you how much that anchors me tell me what that means that makes me so good is that there that's their question I mean that is their video that they made yeah that was their hours come on it makes you laugh I'm sure it does sir but as me as a as a consumer looking at like what come on man the LA you're supposed to be Whole Foods Whole Foods to me is supposed to be a place where I can go and get healthy food that's like the the idea behind it Whole Foods started by hippies started here in Austin great Whole Foods I want Whole Foods let me go there but what is and this is what does that mean all right you have so many things you could tell me in a short period of time healthier better for the environment you know low
carbon footprint it's all those things they could tell me instead they go and that's their commercial all right so this this is about green washing okay whole food and Hope foods and Global animal partnership are are big on greenwashing okay what is step five and step four what is that so uh uh so let's talk about the global animal partnership okay the global animal partnership is an animal welfare non-profit that Whole Foods financed I don't know 15 years ago or something I don't know how long ago and I went to the first meeting producer meeting they overhead in Denver of the Whole Foods had for the global animal partnership rolling it out and uh and it was all about this uh I thought and by the way I thought it was a great idea at the time this uh Alamo welfare system so that step one which is low hanging fruit a little bit better than Industrial two three four five and five was great Animal Welfare uh no physical alterations can't castrate whatnot we used to castrate everything born on my farm that wasn't named Harris and we and we quit castrating you know all the things we had to do to achieve step five and it was explained to us at the time that uh you know we want to bring the industry into higher Animal Welfare which was right up my alley I did too and we're going to have this step one two which is low hanging fruit that pretty much anybody it's like get your foot in the door but all companies are expected to move up the continuum to until everybody step four or five okay I thought it was great sounds great yeah so I embraced it and uh and became a step five plus I don't think they have just a very few in the country we want um and they never would pay us any more for our product it would you know just it just but as a result in the case the meat case everything was step one step two maybe a little step three and they did allow producers mostly big multinational corporations to come in at step one student and languish there you know 15 years later they still step one step two which is not the way it was
supposed to work so now instead of even though there's five steps they talk about how it's all great and it's not already if you're going to do it with your hands and mouth like that guy you know so step one's like step five is like you're not it just pisses me off I would imagine but you go to Whole Foods you know and look and ask them how much okay step five how much step four and five you got back there and probably not much so most of it here goes Jimmy's got it here step one no cages no crates no crowding step two in gr enriched environment things to do step 3 enhanced outdoor access step 4 pasture centered based on an outdoor system step five animal centered no physical alterations that means castration and then step five plus which is you animal centered entire life on the same Farm as Shoppers can know exactly what the animal is raised for the meat they are buying just by looking for the same for the color-coded step rating on the pro product label as of October 1st 2014 step 5 program includes two thousand five hundred two thousand four hundred fifty one farms and ranches that range from step one to step five plus and raise more than 147 million animals annually but they added everything together there oh yeah step five in program look how they did that step five in program includes 2 451 Pro farms and ranches that range from step one to step five plus so by saying that it includes these 2451 Farms they're not saying how many of them are actually step five they're like kind of [ __ ] with you with the numbers there and I can tell you it's not many it's not two thousand four hundred fifty one but that's step one two step five one I'm not saying there weren't that many farms not that many step five the distribution would be greatly skewed right so if you go to A Whole Foods and say hey um so I want I want that how many you got it's less far less so they have to get very specific meat from places like you well I mean I think the reason they they had that particular segment valve is because they didn't have much step five back there so that that allowed them to say hey man it's all good right it's all good it's all better than
anywhere else you're gonna get yeah and that's green washing that's green wash that makes sense it devalues what the step five plus does yeah it's a kind of a it's a moronic way of describing it it's a different Whole Foods than the one I started with is it because it's corporate now and it's because it's owned by big companies and it's all about when you're involved in a gigantic corporation like that it's about maximizing profits everything you said is right the way I would state it is that uh industrialized farming and big food distribution co-evolve together you know prior to the end of World War II there was no industrial farming and there were really no great big food companies retail companies you know local Piggly Wiggly or whatnot but they weren't and those those all Koval big AG big food and Industrial farming co-evolved together to what it is now and you know the the guys that are managing the meat Department's Whole Foods really need to pick up the phone and say send me 48 000 pounds a truckload a 48 000 pounds of six ounce fillets to the following five distribution centers every week for the next month thank you well the will harrises of The World Won't oversee 48 000 pounds of six ounce Ribeyes oh families the only people that can do that are Tyson Cargill JBS Smithfield so that's that co-evolution here um so the only way this is going to work to do it your way is if someone's deeply committed to change yeah let me say this I also sell to uh a grocery chain called Market District one called moms one called Publix one called Kroger and I don't feel as used as window dressing by those stores so you feel that like your way of doing it is is almost like it's a trick they're trying to pretend that most of their meat is gotten from people like you that's that's my perception what you just saw it seems like that was the perception that I got from it too based
on the way they use that giant number yeah and said it's anywhere from step one to step five plus they kind of lumped everybody in together you know I'm so I'll actually sold Publix supermarket prior to selling Whole Foods I sold them before I did Whole Foods and they public stood I'm not it's not advertising they have ordered consistently from me every single week for 20 years they put it out there people buy it or not there's no [ __ ] there's no smoke and mirrors and pursue you know it's just no green washing no green washing it's just just honestly bad or not and you know again Whole Foods are still my biggest customer I'm probably this problem will get me thrown out if it doesn't think so huh do you think they will I don't know you just don't seem to care though there ain't much of a nice kissing business I like it oh they uh they completely I mean you know we'll have to work a little hard and sell a little more online you know but uh but you'd prefer that to [ __ ] yeah you know uh there was a time that well it's not good but this video yeah it's it's just that's that's very different company