From Robyn

May 13 2023

Burying ‘Supermom’ to Become the Aircraft Carrier

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, the Supermom posts are flying around.

The intent behind them is, no doubt, very well meaning.

You ask any mom you know, and she’ll give you an honest answer, sometimes motherhood is so hard that it leaves you breathless.

I’ve rattled off the statistics about the health of our children more times than I can possibly remember, you can probably recite them with me:

1 in 4 kids now has allergies, autism, ADHD or asthma
1 in 2 kids born in the year 2000 (my oldest child’s age) are expected to be insulin dependent by the time they reach adulthood.
Cancer is now the leading cause of death by disease.
And suicide rates are escalating at a jaw-dropping rate, along with depression, anxiety, eco-anxiety (the new term to describe how our kids feel about climate change) and so much more.

So what to do about “Supermom”? It’s clearly very well-meaning.

But as moms, we are navigating unprecedented change in our kids’ generation: social media introduces so much, so early, 24/7 news cycles deliver an onslaught of worry and bad news (remember our parents turning off the TV when we walked into their bedrooms at night, as it was the 10pm news that had the more disturbing stories?), there is the professionalization of childhood sports, and the digitization of everything from porn to bullying to homework assignments.

It is so very much.

On top of that, there is economic turbulence, environmental turbulence, political turbulence, and more. If you ask any mom you know, she will tell you that she worries about how it’s all impacting her kids.

We worry, a deep, deep worry, the kind that wakes you up at night, or leaves you aching when a child shares a story, or causes you to take an extra moment in the car to collect yourself.

We’ve watched too many we love use addictions to numb pain, devices to replace conversations, and we now find another labeling beckoning us, as one of the loneliest generations.

So Supermom? It feels like a title that may fit every once in a while, but regularly? Maybe could you just put that out in the garage?

And yet……we never stop trying.

For so many of us, the last few years held the pandemic, academic disruptions, health crises and so much more. The underlying and unyielding rhythm was disruption. It revealed so much, causing a heartache so deep in some cases, that it felt impossible to recover.

And yet, every day, our feet would hit the floor, every morning, in an effort to stabilize things for our children.

Which is why I have come to think of us, not as a ‘supermom’, but as an aircraft carrier.

Perhaps it’s the ages of my four children now, 18-23, but it was three years ago, when things got particularly turbulent, and everywhere we turned was disruption, that I suddenly locked in on that visual.

My four children, still school age at the time, were like these jets that would fly off to do their things, to go school, to their events, to hang out with their friends, to play sports…..and then they would return, tired, worn out, hungry, ready to unload some stuff.

And I realized, I was an aircraft carrier. That they would take off, then return home, quite literally at times, to dump their stuff, refuel, tune up, get what they need, so that they could fly off again.

Stay steady, I thought. Keep the focus, an eye on the horizon.

It felt that my job was to stay steady on turbulent seas when everything around them was changing, when nothing felt familiar, when new people suddenly appeared, when the familiar fell away. To stay steady, when the seas were smooth. To keep the lights on, always visible.

You there, Mom? Can I come home for the weekend? Can you come into my room to talk tonight?

The job was never to be supermom, it was to be the aircraft carrier for our children, on ever changing seas.

Sometimes the seas are like glass, and sometimes they throw you so hard. The goal is to be steady, no matter the turbulence, no matter the ease.

So this Mother’s Day, yes, I know, there are those ‘supermom’ moments, but here’s to the aircraft carriers out there, the ones who are forever and always a steady landing place for their kids, no matter what the conditions are.

I hope that you can find time to pull yourself in to shore, so that all you’ve supported, the beatings you’ve taken, can be taken care of, too. And, if you have hands around you to help repair the battered, tired, worn out places, the kind and gentle hands of your loved ones, your friends and family, let them help you.

Find the people who love you, your family, your chosen family, your friends, and let them love you, because the work we do is some of the most important work anyone anywhere could possibly be doing.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Love,

Robyn XOXO

October 17 2022

Robyn O’Brien Interview: Following the ‘North Star’ in food systems transformation

Robyn O'Brien Food Financials, From Robyn 0

Carrie Norton at Greenbiz.com recently interviewed Robyn O’Brien about the intersection of food, finance and female leadership.

As the environmental and business landscapes continue to evolve, there’s a common thread: Systems thinking has never been more critical to solving the pressing issues of our time. And few challenges are more urgent than food system transformation.

To explore the intersection of food, finance and women’s leadership, I recently sat down with Robyn O’Brien, co-founder of rePlant Capital and a former financial and food industry analyst. Following is an excerpt from our discussion on courageous leadership, systems thinking and following the North Star in the journey toward the future of food.

Carrie Norton: What have you learned over the last decade that you’re taking with you into this next decade?

Robyn O’Brien: This month, I spent a fair amount of time reflecting on the last decade because It was 10 years ago that my book, “The Unhealthy Truth,” was published. I think one of the most important lessons I have learned is that courage is contagious — and one of the bravest things we can do is to own our own story.

I have this strange combination in my background: attending business school on a full scholarship to Rice University, going into investments on a team that managed $20 billion in assets, being a mother of four, launching a hedge fund. That doesn’t fit into anybody’s “box.” It made a lot of people uncomfortable, and I had to confront that discomfort. Through the process, I realized that discomfort is really just growth.

Our food system has a systemic, structural problem. In every problem, there is an enormous opportunity to create really smart systems that address the challenges we’re seeing. And to me, that’s inspiring. That’s my focus moving into the next decade: innovation and inspiration.

Norton: What you’re describing here is a solutions orientation.

O’Brien: Exactly. We need a lot of people around the table — farmers in particular. Our farm economy is completely upside down; there’s more than $426 billion in farmer debt. When I stand on these farms in Kansas or Nebraska or Ohio, my first thought is, what young family would want to move out here to grow our country’s food?

My second question is, what happens if they don’t? What happens if we really are hitting this shortage of farmers, this crisis in the U.S. farm economy? Additionally, farmers are hit with fires and floods and droughts. No one person or organization can solve this crisis. But if we come together as a country, we can.

Norton: As the CEO of Mars has stated, “The engine of global business — its supply chain — is broken.” I’d love to hear about your mission to finance and build the new food economy.

O’Brien: You can’t fix a broken food system with a broken financial system. I thought, if we’re really serious about this — and if 80 percent of citizens are trying something organic but only 1 percent of U.S. farmland is organic — why aren’t we tackling supply-chain issues? I realized that if I was the CEO of General Mills, even if I wanted to be putting more organic products on the shelf, the U.S. supply chain makes that incredibly difficult, and that Wall Street is measuring these companies with the same metrics as in 1985.

Click here to read the rest of this interview at Greenbiz.com.

July 26 2020

Not All Heroes Wear Capes: A Podcast with Two Remarkable Teenage Boys

Robyn O'Brien From Robyn, Solutions 0

We wear a lot of hats in the food industry: strategists, procurement leads, thought leaders, advisors, entrepreneurs, executives. For many of us, we are also parents.

If you’re lucky enough to find true friends in the industry, you support them in all of these roles. In 2020, we are navigating a lot together.

And when a friend shared the the work of her son, Jay, I was blown away.

Jay and his classmate, Karn, shortly after the death of George Floyd launched a fundraiser for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

You may think you’ve heard this story before, but you haven’t. The boys are fourteen years old.

One fourteen year old is African American and one is South Asian American. They are rising ninth graders who decided to very deliberately and clearly address why racism is on their minds and what they are doing about it.

We recently interviewed them on our podcast (link below). As you listen to these two young men share their thoughts, the wisdom is coming from a profoundly deep place.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen leadership this young.

As I watched today’s funeral procession of John Lewis, of his remarkable legacy crossing the bridge in Selma, Alabama, one last time, I thought of the legacy he has in these young men.

We’ve seen children lead before, when Malala began speaking out and writing about education at 12, when Greta Thunberg, at 15, began her climate protests .

It’s clear that the children are not only listening, they are also teaching and leading.

They are building justice into infrastructures where it didn’t exist, they are designing new organizations with justice at the roots and in the DNA, and they are building a better, more equitable tomorrow, for themselves, our children and their children.

On this episode of Take Out with Ashley and Robyn, I am proud and in awe to share the voices of these two young men who are working to raise $18,650 for the NAACP. They’ve already hit and re-set their goal several times.

John Lewis said, “You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it.”

He also said, “You must be bold, brave and courageous and find a way….to get in the way.”

Please make the time to listen to these bold, brave and courageous fourteen year old, young men. They are not only getting in the way, but they are also showing us the way. They are a beacon of light and bring faith to a brighter tomorrow.

Please meet Jay and Karn. LISTEN TO THEIR PODCAST here=> Episode 133 with Jay Bowles and Karn Kaura

You can also listen here on Apple iTunes.

July 11 2020

An Inspiring Conversation with Denise Woodard of Partake Foods

Robyn O'Brien Food Allergies, Food Heroes, From Robyn 0

I loved this conversation with Denise Woodard of Partake Foods! And I am so grateful for the incredible women coming into the free-from space, providing solutions for families with children who have food allergies.

Partake Foods’ Denise Woodard is the only woman of color to raise $1M for a food start-up. During her career with Coca-Cola, food allergies were never top-of-mind for her, but when her daughter, Vivienne, began eating solid foods, it suddenly became clear she had several. And just as suddenly, their lives began to change.

Listen as we dive into what it looks like to be a mom starting a business out of your kitchen (hint, it’s not all sunshine and ease!) and who her MVP is (again, it’s not who you think!). Necessity is the mother of invention. For Denise Woodard, that necessity resulted in the creation of her allergy-friendly cookie business, Partake Foods, in 2016. Thank goodness, and thank goodness for her talent, passion and ambition. You can learn more at www.partakefoods.com

June 26 2020

An Interview with Emily Brown, founder of Food Equality Initiative

Robyn O'Brien From Robyn, Food Allergies 0

Emily Brown, a former preschool teacher and mother of two, founded the Food Equality Initiative (FEI). FEI, under Emily’s leadership, has placed over $100,000 worth of “free-from” food into the hands of those in need. Her partners are powerful, but it is her passion and tenacity that are so awe-inspiring.

FEI is a voice for individuals who qualify for government assistance but due to their medical condition of food allergies cannot take full advantage of the program.

Black children are 7% more likely to have food allergies compared to white children, so FEI started the 7% Fund to address economic and racial disparities in food allergies.

Her personal story informed her organization, and her ability to quickly solve serious logistical challenges speaks to the extraordinary talent she is. I am proud to call her a friend and hope that you will share this interview with others! You can learn more at Food Equality Initiative.

May 3 2020

Hindsight 2020: A Bedtime Story About the Virus

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This morning, a friend shared this video with me, a father, reading a story to his children.

“Tell me the one about the virus again…” a young boy asks.

Hit pause on your day for a moment to watch it. It is a reflection on where we are, our realizations, and where we can be as we come out of this.

So very much worth the watch.

Tomfoolery is a tight-knit team of visual storytellers.

Their motto? Let go and love.

March 4 2020

Expo West: 10 Trends Missed and the Opportunity in Front of Our Industry

Robyn O'Brien Food Financials, Food Politics, From Robyn 0

It’s been two years since I wrote this article, reflecting on the state of the food industry, as seen at our largest trade show, Expo West.

Up until this last weekend, it was the most-viewed article I’ve ever shared on LinkedIn. My post, inviting the industry to collaborate on improving this platform, embracing the values 21st century attendees share around environmental impact, food waste, sustainability, inclusion, diversity and more, blew it out of the water by about three fold.

The challenges still hold, and while some progress has been made, we have a lot of work in front of us, especially when it comes to a more efficient platform, one that leverages 21st century technology to meet the needs of the 21st century consumer. It is a call to action for all of us.

Can we put a cap on materials used per booth? Can we offer carbon offsets to attendees? Can we offer credits to companies with the lowest environmental impact? Can we require that attending companies have boards that include women and people of color? Can we embrace the values of the B Corp community, values going viral across our industry? Can we upcycle the food waste from the trade show floor? Can we listen to the young entrepreneurs and get them on stage, because our future belongs to them?

There is incredible opportunity in front of all of us for radical collaboration to move this platform forward.

~~~~

Written March 2018:

In the food industry, we have a trade show called “Expo West.” It’s been happening for over 30 years, and its size is massive, with over 80,000 attendees and over 5,000 companies presenting. This year, many commented that “the show has lost its soul.” Others were totally and completely jazzed, a real bifurcation.

And while I thought about doing another trends piece, it didn’t feel ‘value-add’ to talk about collagen and turmeric, given the enormity of what we are facing as an industry.

So after discussions with many from the industry, from food+tech to finance, here are the top 10 trends that could use some attention and some examples of the companies that are getting it right:

B-Corps: There are a lot of trends to cite from the show: CBD oil and ingredients, collagen, more turmeric, even more fermented foods, but few as important as the rise of companies seeking B-Corp certification. So what is it? “B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Today, there is a growing community of more than 2,100 Certified B Corps from 50 countries and over 130 industries working together toward 1 unifying goal: to redefine success in business.” MegaFood is one of the companies leading this transition, and as more and more companies in our industry look to this certification, the B-Corp certifying team should have a prominent place at the show, answering questions, accessible and available, encouraging participation in meaningful change. The show could provide an incentive for companies embracing B Corp in the form of a booth discount, employee discount or more.

Transparent Financing: As we grow the industry, we are only as good as our capital partners. We can’t fix a broken food system with a broken financial system. Companies should consider the source of their capital as carefully as they consider the source of their ingredients; otherwise, their returns are benefiting the very industries and companies we are trying to replace. New Resource Bank is a shining example of a financing source that is getting it right. An important question to ask: Where does your capital sleep at night? And perhaps even more importantly: Who else is it sleeping with?

Funding the Future: When you look at the non-white CEOs in our industry, they are few and far between. I reached out to a colleague to ask for a list of the ones that came to mind, and of the 5,000+ companies that participated in the show, she came back with less than 10. It’s shocking and also why I am so excited about Carla Vernon taking the lead of Annie’s and General Mill’s natural and organic division. Her own mother was a hidden figure at NASA, similar to the women in the film “Hidden Figures.” Her DNA has “change maker” markers in it. If our industry is truly going to meet the needs of 21^st century families, it has to get past the “white savior” look it currently has and embrace diversity in its leadership. The future of our country is beautifully ethnic. Let’s fund that as an industry so that we can successfully grow the movement beyond the 5-6% of the food industry that it is today. So this serves as an open invitation to the investors walking the trade show floor. Otherwise, we run the risk of putting out white people solutions to white people problems.

Zero Waste – Follow the Super Bowl: While the show has taken some steps to tackle its environmental impact, it could follow the lead of the Super Bowl which declared the goal of “zero waste” for 2018. It’s time for Expo West to do the same. We are a trade show that talks about conscious capitalism, sustainability and the climate – non-stop – and we could learn a thing from the NFL. The 2018 Super Bowl launched a huge collaboration called Rush2Recycle that targeted zero waste at the US Bank Stadium in Minnesota. “The program successfully recovered 91% of all the trash. Nearly 63 tons of the 69 tons of game day waste were recovered through recycling or donation for reuse (62%) and composting (29%), according to the NFL.”

According to Environmental Leader:

In order to reach the 91% recovery rate, the partners took these steps before the Super Bowl:

US Bank Stadium replaced most of its food vessels, service products and utensils inventory for fans with compostable alternatives

US Bank Stadium worked with Recycle Across America to design illustrated signs for new three-bin waste stations to show fans how to sort items at the stadium

Recycling and compost bins were changed to become larger and more accessible to fans

Trash bins were shrunk in size, encouraging fans to consider using alternative containers

A LEED-certification-level waste audit last October identified materials for recovery in the stadium’s waste stream

A zero-waste trial run took place at a December 2017 Minnesota Vikings home game

Steps taken after the Super Bowl included:

The SMG team sorted all fan-generated waste into the right waste compactors

The waste hauling partners collected and provided weight-tickets at each destination, including the recycling facility, the composting facility, and the waste-to-energy facility

The waste data was reviewed by SMG and combined with the reuse and donation data collected by the NFL from their community partners

Supply Chain Focus: Every year we assemble our entire industry and fail to have a unified call to action. There is no greater issue confronting our industry than expanding our supply chain, given that less than 1% of U.S. farmland is organic. As the industry grows, rather than importing the organic ingredients needed, we should be growing them here, benefiting the U.S. farmers and economy. Companies like Kashi are tackling these issues on their own, but the goal of increased organic acreage benefits everyone – from Kellogg’s to General Mills to the tiniest of startups. It directly impacts their bottom line. Make a pledge to grow your organic acreage 30% by 2030. As Richard Branson always encourages, set a goal and write it down.

Diversify: Jennifer Garner, in her keynote with John Foraker on Friday, remarked that everyone at the show is so “clean and shiny”. As I looked around the room at the hundreds of people attending her keynote, it was also almost entirely white. Half of all U.S. kids are going to be non-white in two years time, by the year 2020. Once Upon a Farm wants to be the first company accepted into the WIC program. It’s that kind of creative thinking that is needed. The show does not reflect that, the industry does not reflect that. The running commentary at the dinner the night before was the same, too: “It’s so white.” What multi-cultural initiatives can be introduced? Can the Organic Center’s Dinner embrace diversity in its theme each year? Can it embrace an international menu? Can attendees do the same with their leadership teams? Can the show showcase the beautiful diversity of our country going forward? We do a great job showcasing the incredible foods and ingredients from other countries, let’s do the same with people.

The ‘Give A Shit’ Booth: This goes along with the zero waste issue, but the trash and food waste spinning off of the show was of epic proportions this year. The show could use a booth where people can sign up to be “zero waste.” Something along the lines of a commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle, perhaps with the ability to pick up a bamboo cup and plate to use at the show (I’m sure there is a supplier who would be happy to oblige!). Companies could be compensated for the number of employees who choose to participate. New Hope could offer some sort of kick back or discount to those that do. A compost bin could be available that is then delivered to a local farm at the end of the show. When you participate, your nametag is immediately marked, so that you are identified as someone who “Gives a Shit” beyond the financials. You only have to look to the remarkable success of Patagonia to see what happens when you fearlessly put the planet first.

Giveback: Maybe it was the hometown Super Bowl influence, but General Mills nailed it this year with their natural and organic booth. The entire thing was built incredibly mindful of its impact on the environment and with a focus on the reduction of waste. So much so, that the plants used to decorate their booth were going to a non-profit in the LA area. In fact, a few different companies were supporting the same non-profit. With so many non-profits working in the space and doing incredible advocacy work around clean food, gardening, reducing exposure to risky ingredients, I realized that it would benefit all involved to have a list of non-profits to whom companies could donate their products, materials, supplies after the show. With Will Allen having to shut the doors on his amazing program, it is important for companies to know just how many incredible organizations there are to support. The Salvation Army is even opening a grocery store in Baltimore (heads up: Expo East). Some other non-profits that come to mind are Made Safe and Civil Eats. It is impossible to understand how we as an industry failed Will Allen’s “Growing Power.” It would have been nice to have the NBA as a partner.

Packaging: I spent time with Scandinavian colleagues at the show this year, and they asked: “Why do your companies care so much about what goes in the products and so little about the packaging around them?” They were horrified at the chemicals that sit on top of and around the foods we eat, leaching into them. I told them that Kroger is doing a phenomenal job tackling this, in real time, as are a few others, and reminded them that while they did not have to fight to know what is in their food, we did and are only just now seeing the success of those efforts. First things first, I said, but duly noted. Let’s get on smarter packaging that doesn’t disrupt the health that the products inside are trying to support.

A Kroger Booth: Few other companies have done more to shift the huge, conventional brands than Kroger. It has a market cap big enough to present a real threat, so when they launched their Simple Truth line back in 2012, the big CPG brands noticed. Their Simple Truth line went from $0 to a billion in revenue in two years flat and is still growing. Their CEO, Rodney McMullen calls the division of the company “the bright spot” in its earnings. And with Jill McIntosh at the helm of their natural and organic division, the company rightfully has earned a prominent place in the show. Others are taking notice, so more change is coming.

What is clear this year is that the leadership is changing in the food industry. Both the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Organic Trade Association feel confused in their missions, as the dividing line between conventional and organic blurs. This is creating enormous opportunities for leadership by brands themselves in the marketplace. As companies like Kroger, Annie’s, Dr. Bronner and Patagonia step into that leadership space, one thing is certain:

Courage is contagious, and it is showing up in creative, regenerative new ways from a select number of brands in our industry that are certain to drive meaningful change for years to come.

Robyn is the co-founder of rePlant Capital. To hear more of Robyn’s work, you can listen to her podcast, Take Out with Ashley and Robyn on iTunes.

November 20 2019

Investment Insight: 90% of S&P 500 Bankruptcies Had This In Common

Robyn O'Brien Food Financials, Food Politics, From Robyn 0

As the CEO of Mars recently stated in an interview, “Right now, the global supply chain is broken. We’re taking more out of the planet than is sustainable. And we have to fix that.”

It’s an important call to action. The food system is broken, as I wrote about in my book, The Unhealthy Truth, How Our Food is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It (Random House).

A growing number of companies from Danone to General Mills are recognizing that their supply chains do not meet the needs of 21^st century families, so they are taking action. Global organic food sales topped $100 billion in 2018 and have grown 483% since 2000. However, only 1% of U.S. farmland is organic.

Farmers alone are unable to transition, given their backbreaking financial situation. In the U.S., there is over $426 billion in farm debt, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the median farm income is negative, a negative $1, 548.

As the food industry begins to replant capital and embrace regenerative, organic agriculture, Wall Street needs to ask better questions and employ relevant metrics.

One way to capture this is to look at the trends in sustainable investing.

A recent article by Joel Makower, the Chairman and Executive Editor of the GreenBiz Group, highlights what is happening:

“The S&P 500 in October had a market capitalization of just over $25 trillion.

There remains a huge gap between interest in sustainable investing and actual investments. A recent white paper (PDF) from Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing reported that a whopping 85 percent of investors it surveyed said they are interested in sustainable investing, an increase from 71 percent who indicated interest in a similar survey in 2015.

For more than two decades, sustainability reporting has been a relative backwater of corporate finance, of interest primarily to a small niche of socially minded investors. Increasingly, it is expected to approach the importance of financial reporting.

According to the US SIF Foundation’s 2018 Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends, as of year-end 2017, just over $1 out of every $4 under professional management in the United States — $12 trillion or so — was invested according to socially responsible investment strategies.

For good reason. ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing is no longer merely a vehicle only for so-called socially responsible investors. Increasingly, the process goes to the heart of investing fundamentals.

According to the B of A report, “ESG is the best measure we’ve found for signaling future risk,” superior to leverage or other risk and quality factors. Moreover, “90 percent of bankruptcies in the S&P 500 between 2005 and 2015 were of companies with poor Environmental and Social scores five years prior to the bankruptcies,” the analysts wrote.

They concluded: “Analyzing financial metrics alone simply won’t suffice anymore.”

Let’s repeat that last statement: Analyzing financial metrics alone simply won’t suffice.

How well does Wall Street know the Chief Sustainability Officers at the publicly traded companies? How well does Wall Street understand the B Corporation certification?

Because if the goal is to fix the broken food system, as stated by the CEO of Mars, the truth is you can’t fix a broken food system with a broken financial system.

November 15 2019

How Monsanto Bankrupted American Farmers

Robyn O'Brien From Robyn, Food Financials, Health 0

“America’s farmers have been bracing for a reckoning–and now it’s here,” begins an article in the Wall Street Journal. The stats are so appalling I found myself reading them out loud and taking notes.

Unfortunately. these headlines continue. If you want to fact check any of it, just head out to Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio or any other farm community to learn for yourself. What were once bustling communities now look more like ghost towns. Towns that once had three high schools are now down to one.

Is it any wonder that the U.S. farm economy is struggling, given the statistics shared below:

“U.S. farm households had a median farm income in 2018 of negative $1,548.

Negative $1,548.

U.S. farm debt—covering operations, land, equipment, livestock and more—last year climbed to more than $409 billion, according to the USDA .

Nationwide, the volume of loans to fund current operating expenses grew 22% in the fourth quarter from year-ago levels, hitting a quarterly record of $58.7 billion.

Last year, bankruptcies in farm counties made up 48% of the U.S. total of chapter 12 bankruptcies.”

On top of that, farmers don’t have health insurance unless they take an off the farm job.

Is it any wonder that our farmers are in crisis, that few from younger generations want to take over the farm? Or that there are more suicides among farmers than any other industry? The suicide rate for farmers is more than double that of veterans, according to the Guardian which ran an article “Why are American Farmers Killing Themselves?”

Farmers have literally mortgaged their lives to feed America.

We have to value their lives and refinance these farms. The business model is not sustainable, the career is not appealing, and without food security, we are a country in crisis.

Our lives, our national security, depend on food security.

It is time to break the operating model put in place in the late 20th century by the agrochemical companies like Monsanto. Operating systems that not only require farmers to purchase genetically engineered seeds rather than save heritage seeds, but that also require farmers to purchase the suite of -cides—pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides—required to grow them.

Farmers are no longer allowed to save seeds under the genetically engineered operating model. They have been forced into debt and bankruptcies to finance the repeat purchases of genetically engineered seeds and the products required to grow them.

The bottom line is that this recurring revenue model of Monsanto’s has bankrupt the American farmer.

The chemically intensive operating system of genetically engineered crops and the suite of -cides—pesticides, herbicides, insecticides—required to grow them have allowed a few corporate giants to generate earnings on the backs of American farmers. It’s no wonder Monsanto was sold to a German chemical company. They knew their time here was up, they leveraged the lives of our farmers.

At this point, I don’t have words for what they’ve done to generate their earnings on the backs of our farmers, except for one: extortion.

Thankfully, a growing number of farmers around the country are realizing that this costly input model cost them more than profitability. And they are turning towards regenerative, organic farming methods to reclaim the health of their soil and the legacy of their farms. It can not happen quickly enough, as resilient soil not only has a stronger capacity to conserve water but also sequester carbon. In other words, our farmers are stewards for some of our most precious natural resources.

For the companies who abused that, there truly are no words.

For the companies who now recognize the critical importance of our farmers in the health of our country and climate, thank you.

November 11 2019

A Grandmother’s Eulogy for Veterans Day

Robyn O'Brien From Robyn 0

As we reflect on Veterans Day this year, I can not help but think of my Grandmother. All four of her sons served our country, my dad and his three brothers, in Vietnam, Korea and during the Paris Peace Accord.

I was asked to give her eulogy by her boys, after she recently passed, two weeks shy of her 108th birthday. That is no small ask, and the task felt enormous, to honor her and her sons, our family, with 12 grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren.

So this Veteran Days, to honor her, a mother, and the countless mothers who have shared their children with our military, whose sons and daughters have served our country, here is her eulogy, as the grace with which she lived her life was extraordinary.

This Veterans Day, I can not help but reflect on the mothers who have children defending our country, the mothers with children in the Naval Academy, at West Point, those in ROTC, like my dad and his brothers were. So this is a thank you, not only to our Veterans, but also to the families that share them, that so generously offer their children in service to our country.

We knew her as Mary, Mother, Grandmother, Bunny and G. She gave us almost 108 years of life, love and adventure.

Please know that these words are from all of us: her four sons, her daughters in law, her 12 grandchildren, and her 3-dozen great grandchildren.

After reading decades of her diaries, passages from her Bible, speaking with her sons, our incredible family, it is clear that her life was a love story.
It is the story of how her love for God, her family, and her passion to live life to its fullest was her guiding compass.

My grandmother lived with a remarkable grace. She knew no stranger. She called you to a higher ground.

On any given day, you could find her reading the Wall Street Journal, tutoring a child from Kosovo, playing tennis or Gin Rummy, fundraising, swimming laps around Two Bear island or happily fishing in a boat or canoe. If you walked the halls (or ran them, as we did as kids) in her home on Cross Lake, pictures of her boys were everywhere and Mardi Gras beads were tucked into one closet and dress up gowns for her granddaughters in another. And when you speak with her sons today, the stories of their mother are pioneering, driving cross country with her to Canada, out on the lake, fishing, long portages through Turtle Lake to Whitefish Bay with just her, as little kids, or how at 92, she “landed the lunker of a lifetime.”

And while the last 50 years are the adventures that her grandchildren share, the earlier years contain countless stories of a fearless young woman who took a freighter by herself to Central America at 19 before graduating college in Minnesota in1934. Of marrying our grandfather, Charles Thomas “Scotty” McCord, Jr., and honeymooning on a ship to South America, of holding three jobs during World War II, never wasting a piece of bread, and stories of her deep faith, as her sons served our country in Vietnam, Korea and during the Paris Peace Accords.

If you had the chance, sometime in the last almost 108 years, to ask her which birthday she was celebrating, she would say with a laugh, “Why 39, of course!” because her life was not measured in years, but in faith, love, adventure, family and of course, chocolate! Whether it was hosting Taco Night for her grandchildren, adventures on the lake, attending church on an island or in a cathedral, a musical or a tennis match, cooking brownies, raising funds for the symphony or the Southfield School’s library which honored her just last week, with a tribute to her love of learning. She was known for who she was and not just what she did.

She challenged her own intellectual and physical capacities; she never stopped working on both. She could command any room she entered, and it didn’t matter if she was wearing an elegant ball gown at her beloved symphony or her favorite fishing gear at her beloved Two Bear.

She had an energy that was contagious. And thankfully, it can be found in so many places.A lot of people will tell you that they got the very best of Mrs. Mary. She certainly made you feel that way.

But as her son Rick wrote before he passed, “Her grandchildren will tell you that she called you to a higher ground and served as a beautiful role model, she faced life unafraid and with grace and charm.” She did.

She lived her life with an extraordinary Grace and a strength that came from above, not because life was always easy, but because it could be hard. She recognized the harmonies in that and the beautiful melodies not only in music, but also in God’s creations.

If she were here, I think she would remind us to see what she saw, to give thanks for it, the blessings and the lessons learned in the challenges every day. She would ask us to see His grace in all things, both bright and beautiful – in the roots of a Cypress tree strengthening the banks of a river, in the morning sunrise, as it brightens the sky, in the laughter of a child or the elegance of a blade of grass. To see His Grace in the symphony she loved the most, the sounds of the trees and birds, the rippling of the water.

We will remember her in the beauty of a lake at sunset or violins in harmony or the flickering colors of a fish or the sweetness of a ripe raspberry. She would say, “Stop, don’t miss it. Give thanks for this glory!”

So today and always, we will stop to celebrate and give thanks for the glory of her life and for her legacy, with the promise to go forward, as she did, recognizing His Amazing love and His unconditional grace.