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An article about beef’s long push for eating quality got me fired up about pork. I started with a sharp critique of the industry—then realized I was handing the work of change to everyone else.

In this bonus episode from The Patio, I look at what The Other White Meat accomplished, the lean pig we deliberately created, and the choices that could make pork worth seeking out for its own eating quality. I was part of that pursuit of leanness. Now I think we need to invest in marbling, color, and a better experience on the plate.

Change takes decades. We’d better get started.

Be Safe Out There.

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Karl Shlagel joined me from the cab of a tractor while spraying pumpkins on his family’s fourth-generation farm near Waldorf, Maryland. The connection occasionally fought us, the tractor kept moving, and the conversation zigged and zagged—which made it feel right at home on the Patio.

Karl’s family grows fruits and vegetables that they sell wholesale, at farmers markets, through an on-farm store, and directly to consumers. While much of agriculture talks about what consumers want, Karl meets them face-to-face, and he has learned that we cannot assume we know what they value, what they can afford, or what they are willing to buy.

We talk about growing the farm business so another generation can return, why profitable farms are the best form of farmland preservation, and the institutional knowledge that can disappear when succession planning comes too late. Karl also explains why Southern Maryland’s attachment to tobacco may have prevented agriculture from adapting sooner.

The conversation moves into food safety, wildlife pressure, direct marketing, Farm Bureau leadership, and the difficult balance between respecting those who built an organization and creating room for new people and new ideas.

Karl is candid, opinionated, and willing to challenge one of the most dangerous phrases in any business: “This is what we’ve always done.”

This is a raw conversation recorded in the middle of a working day; exactly the kind of conversation the Patio was built for.

Be Safe Out There.

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Farmers have never had more information available to them. But more data does not automatically lead to better decisions.

Dale Durchholz has spent nearly five decades studying agricultural markets, analyzing data, and helping farmers make decisions when certainty is impossible. Dale joins Jim on the Patio to discuss what makes data trustworthy, why farmers sometimes accept bullish numbers while rejecting bearish ones, and what a career in the markets has taught him about being right, being wrong, and managing emotion.

Their conversation moves beyond USDA reports and price projections into farmer responsibility, marketing decisions, diversification, and the importance of building mental security into both a farm business and a life.

Because the question is not simply whether a decision proved perfect. Sometimes the better question is: Did it make money?

Until next time, be safe out there.