The Shocking Truth About Produce Waste In America & Fixing The Broken Food Supply Chain Ft. Melissa Ackerman of Planet Harvest

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20:08Michael Bosstick:What is the risk to the public and the population if these supply chains and farms start to fail over time? I think like, again, you're talking about people not being aware of where their food comes from. And I think we take for granted that we can just walk into a store and there's this abundance of things on our shelves in other countries and places in the world. It's not always like that. What are some of the things that maybe the public's just unaware of when it comes to the dangers of having these things disrupted?

20:35Melissa Ackerman:I think the disruption is, I mean, how much is in America? Like, I think that that's part of it. Like we talk about local, but local can be, you know, 100 miles to 250 miles if you think about how big a state is and stuff like that. So I think it's how much is coming in from other countries. And again, this is a global issue. And if we're trying to do things with greenhouse gases and water emissions, like we need this on a global scale. But for us, it's like helping the American farmer first. So I think that's the first thing. the second thing is with the supply i mean we all could agree that food is medicine and food should be what is helping cure a lot of these issues so like we want to have as many options as possible if we have certain farmers that can't produce that food then you're not going to have those those food those products in the supply chain to be able to eat and to be able to use as what you are helping your body your children those flavors all of those things so i think if we can use all of it, it just gives more access to people and it gives more options to people and it keeps things close to home, which I think is super important.

21:36Michael Bosstick:And why are they at risk of potentially not being able to produce anymore? You mentioned earlier, like maybe the generations following these farmers aren't going into farming as often or supply chain issues or waste. Like what would be the reasons they would stop producing?

21:51Melissa Ackerman:If they can't afford it. I mean, if they can't afford to pick the products. So that's another really big reason why it's not picked. It's like if it costs more for them to pick it, pack it, and ship it than it would to leave it on the ground, that's what they're going to do. And they don't want to. They've already put in the water. They've already put in the labor. They've already put in all of those things. But ultimately, if it doesn't make sense financially, they are businesses after all.

22:17Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:Would you buy every single thing on the shelf, is there anything that you're never touching with a 10-foot pole? A fresh produce? Yes. I'm buying it all. You're buying it all. Yeah. I'm just wanting to know if you're like, oh, this one is like really nasty.

22:31Melissa Ackerman:There's nothing. There's nothing. I mean, I love fresh fruits and vegetables. I think that they are delicious. I'm trying to think if there's one that I would stay away from because of my own preferences. I love trying different things, new things, the introductions of things. Yeah. I love all of the different fruits and vegetables.

22:46Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:Do you know why they have those little numbers on the stickers on the produce? Yeah.

22:50Melissa Ackerman:So the PLUs. Yeah. So that helps to track and trace where it's from. So you can find out like where it was shipped from. So the biggest thing for a fresh produce industry is to be able to find where like the place before it came so that you're able to figure out exactly what products and where what farm it came from if there's ever an issue that they need to be able to pull something from the shelf.

23:12Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:You are a mom of three boys. How are you balancing everything you're doing? You have all these amazing headlines with Ivanka. You guys are everywhere. How are you balancing that with three boys?

23:24Melissa Ackerman:An amazing team at home and the organization I think is super important. For me and my family on Sunday nights, we have a meeting. We use an old time Word document with chat, with a different chart, with every person's name, what we're going to eat for the week, any tasks that have to be done even for the pets. And we organize and we divide and conquer. My husband's an orthopedic surgeon, so he's busy too. And he's out there fixing knees and hips. But I think ultimately, I love when my kids are asked, what is it that your mom does? And she says like, she fights to help farmers and bring food to your table.

23:59Melissa Ackerman:And they're with me. They're with me when we do these events and hand out boxes to fresh fruits and vegetables to people. They're there packing them. They're there going to the farms and seeing where it's all built. So it's being present at the moment where you are. It's about you can't be in two places at once, so I don't pretend to be. That's a hard one. And putting my head 100 % into what I'm doing and trusting that what I've built at home with preparation and a good team can help there. How do you think about leadership? Bringing people around me that I think could be the next step in the leadership process.

24:31Melissa Ackerman:I have an incredible team right now of all women, and it's been amazing. Actually, I have a few men, but not on the day-to-day stuff that I'm working on. And it's just incredible to bring passionate people that are skilled in their area and letting them and trusting them to be able to accomplish what they can accomplish.

24:48Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:If you could tell our audience one thing and you could have them take away one thing from this episode about produce, what would it be?

24:57Melissa Ackerman:Eat produce, love produce, ask for produce, and stop only eating with your eyes. Think about when you see something that might be a little big or small, think about where it came from and the route it took to get there.

25:09Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:So don't be so superficial when it comes to produce. Totally.

25:12Melissa Ackerman:You know, don't be so vapid about it. I mean, think about it like, you know, a dove commercial. You know, it's like all bodies are beautiful. All produce is beautiful. How can we support farmers by asking that we get more of that harvest, that full harvest approach, that whole harvest so that we can help the farmers and we can enjoy nutrient dense, delicious food.

25:35Michael Bosstick:What is the response from the farmers now with you now that you guys have gotten this project underway?

25:39Melissa Ackerman:It's amazing. Like the phone calls and the meetings that we can have where people believe in it, where we get to hear their stories, where they bring in their trade associations and all the different people from big to small size farmers. And they're like, you really think you can do this? I mean, we had the CEO of Chobani in the fields with us. That's one of our partners in our projects. and he, I mean, he was stepping over the rows. His hands were in the strawberries. He was holding, he's like, this is gonna be discarded. This is gonna be discarded. How is that possible? This is beautiful. So I think seeing it firsthand and having, and he's calling for others to join us in this change of trying to ask for all of the produce, asking for excess and bringing back American buying.

26:22Melissa Ackerman:So when I get to see people like that, that I find incredible leaders, incredible CEOs that have visions, It's exciting that I think we're on the right track. And it's something that I think the consumers, once they learn more about it, it's in that bucket of sustainability. It's in that bucket of healthy eating. It's a win all across the board.

26:40Michael Bosstick:So if you guys are able to kind of get rid of the waste, what are you then going to do with that excess? Is it for charities? Is it to feed people? Is it to put in shelves? Like what happens? Where does it go? Yeah, where does it go?

26:51Melissa Ackerman:So, for example, the bottom of the fruit, what you have on the Chobani yogurt, like that's a project that we're working on. We work, we create these food boxes, which ultimately are either going for impact work into communities that need it or in food as medicine boxes. So there's a movement to be able to use food as a way to treat any like diabetes, hypertension, high risk pregnancies. We create these boxes that can include the fresh, the excess produce. they have in them we partner with thrive ariana huffington's company so that we have that data the data the science behind it to say what kind of recipes what kind of products should be in it for each of these different ailments and then we have the products delivered directly to patient stores and then the doctors look back at it and see what are the the numbers and the things that are changing from having access to fresh fruits and vegetables so i think there's a big movement out there to eat healthier.

27:45Melissa Ackerman:And it's how do we get the products to food insecure areas that don't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

27:51Michael Bosstick:I think like the average American, if I was listening or watching this show, we see headlines all the time about people struggling to put food on the table if the economy's down or whatever. In other places in the world, people not having access to certain food. And then now you're hearing there's a ton of food here that is just sitting and being wasted while at the same time, and again, I'm an entrepreneur, so I start to think, well, there's all these programs that are setting people up to go and buy maybe things that are not nutritious and not healthy, but we have all this great nutrition that comes from the earth sitting over here.

28:22Michael Bosstick:So like, why is that not?

28:23Melissa Ackerman:So there are some government programs like section 32, which will buy if there's a huge amount of extras. But again, the specs that are there are usually, and I could be wrong on this US number one grade. So again, it's like, how do we change the grading system to allow for more of this product to get into schools, to get into. And I think that ultimately that's something that hopefully will happen over time, but nothing that we're working on directly with the government.

28:47Michael Bosstick:Yeah. I mean, like we'll go sometimes, Lauren and I will go to our kids' school for lunch. We pack our lunch and mostly because some of the foods that they're serving in these schools is not the most nutritious meals. And when I start to hear this, I'm like, why is some of this fruit and vegetables and produce not in the food? You know what I mean? Exactly. I think it's kind of like, it's probably much more difficult than I'm describing it and that's the world that you're in. But from what I hear, it's like common sense, like, well, we have this food and supply chain. Like, why is that not here providing nutrition

29:18Melissa Ackerman:to our kids? The grading has to change. The specs have to change and the allowance and tolerance has to change. And then, I mean, it's innovation. Like we're working with an incredible lettuce grower right now that makes those bag pack lettuces that you buy. And we're thinking about new ways to use broccoli leaves. Like you take the broccoli off the stock, but then you leave all the leaves in the field? How can we use that as like, you know, with the right dressings, it would be like a kale, a little bitter, but really nutrient dense. How do we continue to expand on what push the boundaries of what's popular within the diets of the American people?

29:51Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:In researching for this podcast, we text Ivanka and she wrote back a very, very thoughtful response. And so I was going to hit some of the points and see how you felt about what she said. something that she brought up was and i want to know how come no one has found a solution for this why is this the first moment that this is happening i think that there was so much momentum

30:15Melissa Ackerman:on just getting the right product to the shelf and getting people to purchase that there was no one that was really connecting the dots right i think we sit in a really really like you said amazing place where ivanka it knows so many people and i have a long history in the produce industry to be able to talk about this and bring this together. Feeding America, for example, does do a little bit of this, which is the largest food banking network. So they do something where they buy from growers that have excess. But even with what they're doing, there's so much more out there and so much opportunity to be able to do more.

30:50Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:Give us a detailed impact of what this has done to the livelihood of the farmers. You mentioned earlier there was a lot of emotion in the fields. Give us some examples of that.

31:00Melissa Ackerman:Yeah. So again, like I, we met with in the fields, Ivanka, myself, and Hamdi met with these strawberry growers that had three generations with them standing in the fields and just talked about like, we kept asking why, why do you leave this here? Help us understand. And it all came down to, they are not paid enough money to make sure that it comes out, that they need to make 10 cents more, 5 cents more, whatever it is to make sure that it can come out of the fields. and when we talked about what we're thinking about we talked about long-term contracts we talked about the idea that we would be able to put a three-year contract in place that we would guarantee the purchasing of this product and hopefully their whole harvest their number one product too they were just like tears like tears in their eyes they talked about how amazing it was and how you know they've never had anybody that was the other big thing nobody asked them nobody asked them nobody asked them why and this goes back to the respect and like the goodness that we want from our farmers they don't ask them for their stories and how they get there so So there's so much pain, sweat, tears, and unbelievable labor from our American farmers.

32:03Melissa Ackerman:And I think they feel respected having her out in the fields, having Hamdi out in the fields, and asking why goes along with that storytelling of this beautiful product that should make its way out of those farm gates. Tell us about the World Wildlife Fund. Yeah. So as I mentioned, the World Wildlife Fund, we're working with one of their tools to be able to measure the product that's left in the field. how much extra product is there available. To be able to actually measure exact. Exact. And then figure out what we can do to target with it. We worked on a pilot program with them already where we took strawberries.

32:37Melissa Ackerman:Right now in the US market, there's only a number one strawberry. So there's no number two fresh strawberry that people sell. So we worked with different organizations like Stanford's Cafe, Google's Cafe, different places in California where the chefs were able to taste and try these products that wouldn't have made it to the number one market, but could make it to the number two. And they were trying to figure out interesting ways to use it for fruit salads, smoothies, desserts, cut it, chop it, do different things with it and keep it fresh. We can pay our farmers the most when we keep the products fresh.

33:08Melissa Ackerman:So we were trying to figure that out. So through that partnership and through working with different distributors and different food service companies, we were able to test this and the chefs loved it. So now it's a matter of how do you make it mainstream and how do you push it so that you can use more of the non-perfect stuff within cafeterias and different restaurants throughout the country.

33:26Michael Bosstick:What is one of the main reasons that these farmers are starting to not be able to afford to either ship or pick or produce these products or these?

33:34Melissa Ackerman:It's all the different input costs of, you know, water, you can imagine labor. It's the competition, again, from other countries where they either have subsidies from their government to be able to move the product. It's less money for labor in those countries and it's less for all different inputs. So it's the competition internationally. It's the sheer amount of volume that's being grown. I mean, you would think right now, and I believe that with GLP-1s and the entire movement, people want healthier choices. And I think we'll start seeing as the data comes out, people are going to start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables along with protein fiber, all those things.

34:13Melissa Ackerman:So we just, as that movement continues to happen, this, I think that the fruits and vegetables are going to see their day.

34:21Michael Bosstick:Let's quickly talk about Experian and specifically Experian subscription canceling service. I love Experian. I've used it for over a decade now, mostly for credit monitoring, making sure that I can get my credit in the right place. They have an incredible tool that basically provides you with all the information you need on how to improve your credit and make sure that you're maximizing the most of your credit. Many people are familiar with Experian because of their credit monitoring service. But did you know they also have a subscription cancellation service that is incredible? I talk a lot on this podcast about how important it is to save that extra dollar, reinvest, make sure you're putting more money in your pocket, make sure that you're not working and wasting and spending all that money on things you don't need.

35:02Michael Bosstick:And what I love about Experience Platform is they can help put more money back in your pocket so that you can spend on things that you actually care about. And most importantly, make sure that your money is going to places you actually want it to go to. you. Experian can take the pain out of canceling subscriptions by handling it for you. Just keep the ones you want and put money back in your pocket. This is a no-brainer. Imagine you're sitting there at the end of every month like many of us do, going through your budget, wondering where the money went, wondering where you can save, trying to make sure that you're able to invest and save for your future, and you realize that you have a bunch of unwanted subscription service fees that are going out the door, wasting your money, taking money directly out of your pocket for things that you're not even using anymore.

35:40Michael Bosstick:With Experian's cancellation service, you no longer have to worry about that because it takes care of all of it, puts it in one place, and makes it easy to cancel. They have over 200 subscriptions that are cancelable on the platform, and you can also save money by letting Experian negotiate your best rate. They'll keep an eye out for new deals and savings opportunities that will negotiate directly with your provider. So maybe you've been paying for a subscription and they've offered a new rate since you've signed up and maybe a better deal. Well, Experian can make sure that you get that and take advantage of that deal so that Even if you are using a service, you're getting the best possible rate.

36:11Michael Bosstick:Again, there's nothing that drives me more crazy knowing that I'm wasting money, that my loved ones are wasting money. It's such a letdown when you see your hard-earned dollars go to places that aren't being used, that can't be beneficial to you. And again, in a time when it's hard to save and every dollar counts. And the best part is you keep 100 % of your savings. This is one of my favorite features of Experience Cancellation Service. They put 100 % of the savings back in your pocket. You could save$631 on average per year. Imagine right now if you just put an extra$631 back in your pocket, what you could do with it, how you could have fun with it, who you could help with it.

36:43Michael Bosstick:That's how I like to think about this. It's not only potentially helpful for you, but for your loved ones and people that you care about. Don't just take it from me. Over$25 million has been saved using both bill negotiation and subscription cancellation from Experian. So clearly there's a ton of people saving money and putting it right back into their own pockets because again, you keep 100 % of your savings. So again, get started in the Experian app now and save that money, put it right back in your pocket. Quick break to talk about free nicotine. Some of you saw my social posts the other day on Instagram where I was talking about free nicotine.

37:13Michael Bosstick:And to say I got a lot of questions about it is an understatement. So here's the thing. A lot of people have concerns, questions, qualms around nicotine and nicotine use. I've always personally been a fan of nicotine. And yes, I know it can be addictive. It's a chemical. You definitely have to be careful with it. But it also has so many potential benefits that aren't talked about nearly enough, which I think could potentially outweigh some of the concerns that people have around obviously nicotine being addictive. There's other substances that we use and we take for performance that are not looked at in the same lens.

37:45Michael Bosstick:And people have been using nicotine for generations. I personally love it and I love that with free nicotine, you don't have to smoke it. What I also love about free nicotine, it's really for somebody that's ready to lock in when you really need to focus, when you need to get stuff done. That's how I use it. And what I love about their brand is that you can control the dosage. So if you're new to nicotine and you're thinking about experimenting with it, you obviously don't want to go and take super high doses if you're not used to it. They have these 3 milligram pouches, 6 milligram, 9 milligram, 12 and 15.

38:12Michael Bosstick:So you can kind of like ease into it and figure out what's right for you. I take very little and then I take it only in moments when I really want to lock in and focus. Some people may not be aware of the potential benefits when it comes to nicotine. First, you can potentially increase your alertness because nicotine stimulates acetylcholine and dopamine signaling, which can increase wakefulness and mental alertness. That's how I like to use it. It can also, like I said earlier, improve attention and focus because nicotine activates acetylcholine receptors in the body. So again, when I need to do a podcast, when I have a lot of work going on, when I need to really lock in and focus, this is the tool that I use in order to do so.

38:46Michael Bosstick:It's also been said that nicotine potentially helps working memory and short-term memory recall, as well as also potentially being a neuroprotective agent. It can potentially help guard against things like Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Again, this does not mean nicotine prevents these diseases, but there is the potential that you can protect against these diseases. There's also appetite suppression, mood regulation, enhanced reaction time, so many different things. And like I said, I like nicotine as a tool to perform, to be on my best, to make sure that when I need to focus, I'm focused.

39:14Michael Bosstick:When I need to be paying attention, I'm paying attention. And when I need that extra edge to perform, I get it. I like the pouches. I like free nicotine because it's predictable, it's easy. And like I said, I can control the dosage. The flavors that I've really been leaning into lately are the watermelon flavor and the mint flavor. I think those are the best, but they also have a wide assortment of different ones. I think the watermelon's a new flavor. So if you've been seeing me post about free nicotine, here's why. Again, I'm always looking for the edge and I'm always looking to perform and free nicotine helps me do that.

39:43Michael Bosstick:And again, I know that you have to be careful with nicotine. It's addictive, it's a chemical, but it also could be potentially a great tool for those that use it responsibly. So if you've been thinking about experimenting with nicotine, check free nicotine out. Try free nicotine pouches today at freepouch.com and use code SKINNY for 25 % off for new customers only. That's frepouch.com and then use code SKINNY for 25 % for new customers.

40:06Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:Introducing the Skinny Confidential Ice Roller. Reimagined. Think sleeker lines, a softer pink, a custom buttery dust bag, and a silver roller, not pink anymore, that is ice cold. I wanted to do a zhuzh on the iconic ice roller. I wanted to update it. This ice roller for me has always been more than just a tool. It's about helping us de-puff and sculpt and calm the skin in a way that feels intentional. And I wanted the ice roller to feel evolved. It's changed. You've changed. So yes, the new gorgeous, stunning, beautiful ice roller is still going to do the same things. It reduces puffiness and redness in your face.

40:50Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:I used it this morning before I put on my makeup. It definitely helps with the under eye bags. Of course, it helps boost circulation and radiance. I just feel like it really helps stimulate blood flow and gives me that tighter, more radiant skin. And then it also is known to give you a smoother, tighter looking skin. So what I like to do is I like to combine facial massage with cold therapy. And this really helps give you a really nice foundation before you even apply your skincare. This ice roller for me is a full circle moment. I think that a lot of you bought the ice roller, you know, five, six years ago when we launched it.

41:29Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:And now I am launching something that feels more in alignment with where you're at. It's so beautiful, you guys. Like it's just softer and more effortless in every way. And I really put my own touches on every single little step from the packaging to the colors to how it feels to even the roller. It's all been elevated just for you. So the ritual, the Lauren ritual is you do cold therapy to help fight inflammation. You roll it, you glide it across your face. I put it on my jawline, my neck, I roll it down. Your skin is just going to appear smoother and tighter before you go in for the kill with the skincare and the makeup.

42:11Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:Don't skip the cold therapy. The new ice roller is an upgrade designed to meet the standards of today. And I hope you guys love it as much as I do. This is the beauty tool that started it all, redesigned to evolve with you. I'm showing it on YouTube too, if you're on YouTube, if you're seeing me visually. Get it while it's hot at shopskinnyconfidential.com. That's shopskinnyconfidential.com.

42:35Michael Bosstick:We're former California residents. We live out here, grew up in California. But when I hear 80 % of the lettuce is grown in California, and again, being an employer, understanding the cost to do business over there now, I worry because I'm like, if 80 % of the lettuce is concentrated there and it becomes too expensive for these farmers to produce there, what happens then if it just becomes unsustainable to run that business? If I was running that lettuce business and all of a sudden I couldn't make money running it and 80 % of the world supplies there, is that a vulnerability that people need to be aware of or think about?

43:12Melissa Ackerman:Yeah. When they grow the lettuce, it's around 60%. So 60 % of lettuce and it grows in Salinas, California, and then it moves to the desert and then it moves to Arizona. And as things happen and it gets pulled, it just won't be on the shelf. I mean, they've tried hydroponics and building inside and then having it and they're trying to find new microclimates to grow. They'll do a lot in Mexico as well, but it's a vulnerability. And it's something that we continue to lobby as an industry to make sure that these input costs stay at a place where we can afford to grow in the US. But ultimately, it's called the salad bowl of the world.

43:54Michael Bosstick:I approach it from, I guess, more of like an analytical P &L perspective. And I just hear that amount of concentration from that particular product and then the difficulty of being able to sustain a business to produce that product and i just think you know it sounds nice like raise minimum wage and never pay everybody more but like if if all of a sudden a massive supply chain gets ripped out from one of those businesses start to go under because they don't have it it's

44:18Melissa Ackerman:it's all connected yeah i'm not an expert on all of the different things but i mean for sure like if people are interested the international fresh produce association has like all of that information about what the causes are and the different things that the industry is looking to.

44:33Michael Bosstick:Then what again? What do I know? I'm just a podcaster.

44:36Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:I know that you and Ivanka and your partnership have also spent a lot of time volunteering in Miami after the fires in Maui and California. What did that look like for you? Yeah, she's been incredible.

44:50Melissa Ackerman:I mean, it's unbelievable that she's out there. She's handling handing the boxes. We've packed boxes. We've done all different things. But part of what our business is, is emergency relief. And so we have the ability to respond within two days to be able to get boxes. And we usually put in 10 to 12 pounds of fresh produce, beans, rice, milk, shelf stable milk. And so it's amazing. And we buy from where it is. So like with the stuff in Hawaii, we would build the boxes with fresh produce from Hawaii and help the local farmers. We did it. We sent stuff actually during Jamaica, we sent stuff with World Vision.

45:23Melissa Ackerman:So we work, we partner with different 501c3s to get that product quickly to where it needs to be. And it's, you know, sometimes they don't have anything fresh. We have to be really mindful. We try to be culturally relevant to what we're sending, make sure that the product is something that the neighbors there will want. and then we also are very careful to make sure like if there's no electricity like what happens in texas like when things shut down with the ice and you know stuff like that we'll make sure that it's like stuff that can be eat without cooking without a big kitchen to make it happen so we try really hard to be mindful with what we're doing when we do any of this volunteering and having her out there is just like a shock to some people that drive with their car and then they open their box and ivanka's there asking them how they are and how things are doing and you know it comes with wraparound services of other diapers that might be available and things of that nature.

46:13Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:I think that's amazing. My last question before you go is what drives you absolutely nuts that you see on Instagram when it comes to produce? There's got to be things that you see that you're like, no.

46:24Melissa Ackerman:It's that idea of like that. It's just so easy to get something from the farm, the idyllic farm to your table, and that it doesn't take, you know, all these people harvesting it, the trucks that drive it there, the sales arm that has to make it happen, the distribution centers, all of those things. And we're against a clock. This isn't toilet paper. You know, from the minute it's cut to the minute it gets to your plate, there's, you know, maybe seven days, 10 days to get it there. And so it takes a lot to get there. And there should be appreciation, I think, of how we get our food on our plate.

46:57Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:So you just think if you could infuse more appreciation from everyone when it comes to how long it actually takes for us to actually be eating it. It's not like snap your fingers.

47:07Michael Bosstick:I also think that there's, listen, like there's like the podcast circuits and the people and we've, you know, we've had some of these people come on the show and it's fine to talk, but I think there's this idyllic version where like everything is in these local small farmers markets and go to these small farms and like, that's how you should eat and you shouldn't ever shop anywhere else. And you got to watch out for this and that. And I think sometimes like, yeah, in a perfect world, if that actually exists in that way. Great. But how does the entire population get access to this kind of food?

47:34Michael Bosstick:And is that realistic for everyone? I don't know.

47:37Melissa Ackerman:You're so right. And I think that's probably something that bothers me more. I think local is amazing when available, but putting up like a road that like you'll only eat local. I mean, I live in Chicago. You're not getting local all year. You might be able to get some things that are grown in greenhouses, or you might be able to buy something in hydroponics. But outside of that, like we need the supply chain. And if we break this bigger system that is coming from all these different places, you won't be able to have the variety and the things that you want to be able to have the nutrient dense that you need for your bodies.

48:06Michael Bosstick:Yeah. And I think sometimes it's not fair to the farmers because a lot of these farmers are trying to mass produce in order to supply the supply chain that is required. Yeah. And there's a little bit of like, oh, they're doing it. Like they shouldn't be doing it that way. But again, if all of these supply chains start to crumble and go away or these farmers stop producing, the world is going to be met with a much bigger problem.

48:25Melissa Ackerman:Totally. And I think it's about bringing silos together. I think we can have local when available. I think we could support local farmers. But let's think about how do we bring these different things together so we have a holistic, healthy supply chain.

48:36Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:How can everyone support you and Planet Harvest?

48:40Melissa Ackerman:Planet Harvest on Instagram. And if you have any ideas that you have fruits and vegetables in your products, you can reach out to us to be able to look at how can you source, how can we look at your supply chain to get more access into that? and if you do anything for like impact work or any way of getting boxes out there, we would love to talk to you about getting fresh fruits and vegetables into what you do to give to communities. Amazing.

49:04Lauryn Evarts Bosstick:Melissa, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you guys.