AdAgrA 2019: True Success

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Plenary

Immian Wolfe

True Success

How many of you have seen Simon Sinek's TED Talk on the Golden Circles?

This is sort of what we're working on here.

Tell me, when you're wanting to achieve these things on your farm, you're wanting to have an income, You're wanting to grow healthy food and be healthy yourself.

You're wanting to do it to have a certain lifestyle.

You're also wanting to do it for outreach and personal spiritual growth.

These were some of the reasons that I too had.

Work with my family, grow healthy food, earn an income, live a rural life, to learn the valuable lessons, both spiritually and otherwise, that agriculture affords, and to improve our spiritual connection.

When you're going to do these things, in order to accomplish these goals that you have in agriculture, What sort of disciplines are you going to need to bring to bear on the work every day?

What kind of, you know, we might call them character traits.

What would you need to bring to bear every day to bring success to your business?

Commitment, diligence, competence, order, discipline, self-discipline.

I've heard 2 here, accounting and somebody else?

We're really talking about the personal disciplines it takes to achieve success.

So, competence, diligence, order, sort of organization, discipline, faith, prayer, self-taught, independence, independence, focus, okay.

So some of the things that we need to do is we need to be, you know, we need to have order.

We need to be, we need to bring planning to bear in everything that we're doing in agribusiness.

By the way, I am speaking about agribusiness success and what it takes to have success in agribusiness tonight.

Having said that, if you're not currently in agribusiness and you're just interested in growing your own garden or working, you know, with plants, there's a spot for you.

Okay, yes, you need to bring planning, diligence, perseverance.

I had a feeling you guys were gonna say some of these things, so I just pre-populated some of my slides, okay?

These are some of the things that we're gonna apply every day, okay?

The why of our business is this is what we're wanting to achieve.

The how of our business is this is how we're gonna get the work done.

The what of our business is what do we need to do?

What tasks do we need to do to make agribusiness successful?

Yes, financial bookkeeping and record keeping are extremely important.

What are the tasks do we need to do to make a farm work?

So we need to work, we need technical and labor skill.

You're docked for not getting everyone, by the way, so let's hope you got everyone I put down.

We're all keeping self-grade, so I trust your honesty here.

We're gonna be doing soil prep, we're gonna plant, we're gonna do irrigation and weed control, pest management, we're going to harvest the crop, we're going to take care of the crop.

We're going to be doing business planning and if you haven't gotten that sense from some of the seminars you've been going through today, certainly you will by the end of your time here.

You're going to have to do staff supervision and management.

So you're going to learn how to be a leader of individuals, how to communicate and how to inspire to action because you need employees to have action.

You're going to need to have all of these skills.

So this is what you're trying to accomplish.

This is how you're going to do it and this is what you're going to do.

This is our why, how, what of agribusiness.

We're at an interesting point in time when it comes to agribusiness.

As we all know and we all hear about because we read these books and we hear those podcasts and all of that, we know that over the last 80 to 100 years, small farms in North America and throughout the world are selling.

They're going to somebody else, whether it's an individual or a large company, they're going to somebody else who already thinks that they can make advantage of that small farm.

And then as that small farm or that farm property gets absorbed into another business, that business gets bigger and eventually they get bigger and bigger and where are all the farms going?

They're going into the hand of larger stakeholders.

There are fewer and fewer mid-sized stakeholders in North America.

Interestingly, as we have gotten fewer and fewer mid-size and small stakeholders in agribusiness, what has happened?

That void is this connection with where our food comes from?

We, many of us here, are asking questions about how to grow it best.

We're taking advanced soil and advanced soil management or whatever classes.

We're trying to figure out how to fertilize this stuff.

Milton Teske

The Power of Greens

My objective this morning is that when I'm done, you will understand that greens, fresh greens, are an essential food group.

And you will be so convinced that you will have greens every day for the rest of your life here on this earth.

And the second part is the simplicity and ease of growing, preparing those greens and we'll continue some of that in the breakout session later this morning in 1 of the things about how easy it is to grow this essential food group that God has given us.

Now, thinking of essential food groups, When I grew up I was told there were 4 essential food groups.

It was first put out by the government in 1956 and these food groups continued on for decades.

This was the official, not only government position, but this was taught in the schools, in nutrition classes, from grade school up through, you know, very much higher levels of education.

Did you know that this isn't the first time the government told us what we should eat?

Back during World War II, was actually the first time the government officially told us what we should eat.

And this was 1 was before my time, so, but I find in there is they had the green and yellow vegetable group.

Then they had oranges, tomatoes, and grapefruit group here.

There was potatoes and other vegetables and fruits group.

There was milk and dairy products group, meat, poultry, fish, and eggs group.

And there was the grains, your bread, flour, and cereals.

And then there was a whole separate group just for butter and margarine.

And then at the bottom, you'll notice they added, in addition to the basic 7, eat any other foods you want.

So it was a pretty wide open advice right here.

And this was the consensus that they came up with.

But shortly after that, they came up with the 4 food groups and summarized it down, and we see fruits and vegetables was 1 of the 4, greens was 1 of the 4, poor cows, they made up 2 of the food groups.

But that continued on for, when I went through medical school, this was still the official nutritional advice.

First time they realized that probably that wasn't the best plan 1992 we came up with a food pyramid now many of you may have remembered seeing this now they realized there was a hierarchy in what we should eat and That the bread cereals right The grains made a foundation of a healthy diet.

Fruits and vegetables make up the next level.

And meat and dairy products got relegated to a more reduced minor role in the diet.

And of course, sugar and oil refined products, junk food got pushed way out here, eat sparingly only group right here.

And so this became the more balanced food group.

You'll notice something else they added at this point, which had not been recognized before in the official vice, and that was that dry beans and nuts were included in now what they called the protein group.

In other words, meat in and of itself wasn't essential, protein was essential.

And they recognize now officially that beans and nuts, you can get all the protein you need in beans and nuts.

You don't actually have to eat the meat and the fish here.

Now, but even with that, the dairy industry and the meat industry here were not pleased being relegated to a more minor position in the food pyramid.

They wanted to be the basis of a healthy, hearty diet.

And political pressures being what they are, and lobbying efforts, they modified the food pyramid.

Here in 2005, now we had a pyramid, and it was all divided up in these little wedges here.

So now everybody could be at the basis of the food pyramid and be the foundation of a healthy diet.

And so now dairy products has a little wedge here and protein, notice even in the full label now it says meat and beans.

So they realize that hey a plant based diet is a very acceptable form of protein here.

And of course, but still grains got the widest wedge of the pyramid here and your fruits and vegetables and this so together fruits, vegetables and grains got a fairly large strength.

Somebody says, well, we shouldn't leave out exercise.

They put steps on the side of the pyramid.

And I even saw 1 that had a glass of water here over floating in the clouds here.

So they were trying to throw everything they could to give us the best advice while still meeting the pressures of the dairy lobby.

But shortly after that, this is the most recent official advice and you may have seen these posters around.

And here they have now just put it all on your plate and sort of divided up portion sides.

And notice they've given grains a pretty good size, protein, vegetables a good size, fruits a good size.

And you notice the word meat kind of drops off and they just labeled it what it really is, protein is essential.

And dairy still insisted and they got a glass of milk on the side of the plate here.

So that is the latest official government advice.

Many of you may be familiar with PCRM, Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine.

He came out and has published his own version of the My Food Plate.

And he's increased the proportion of vegetables and whole grains significantly.

He's relabeled protein legumes and the glass of milk has disappeared there.

I like the last line of your song this morning, Eden's Plan, something really special in Eden's Plan.

If you ask a group of Adventists what's the official diet that they would recommend, what do they have?

You know, they point us back to the Eden diet.

And what was the Eden diet that God gives there?

He's given us all the fruits and trees and everything with seeds and stuff there.

All of these things start to be our food.

And we can probably accept that that probably is the official diet.

You know it fits pretty close on that food plate that PCRM came up with So science is kind of catching up to what gave us there.

But I'd like to bring our attention to something else that happened in Eden.

They left the perfect garden and they went out to live the life and we continue as their descendants to live the life in this world that is now greatly marred by sin.

Farmers are more aware of that than anyone else in this world.

Spent a lot of our efforts fighting weeds.

Physical exercise became a much more essential part of life.

By the sweat of your brow, you will eat bread for the rest of your life, and so hard physical labor became out there.

There is a blessing in the physical exercise we get.

As they left the garden, God instructed the angel to pass on the instruction to them, eat the green herbs.

You know, yeah, you used to have cherries and peaches and now you just gotta go eat some leaves too here, you know.

There was actually a reason for that, and we'll come around to that as we come to, before we finish this right here.

We now can understand some very unique metabolic reasons why God added greens then.

And I think you'll see it will be very helpful to you, to add those to you.

He who created man and understands his needs appointed Adam his food.

Upon leaving Eden, man received permission to eat also the herb of the field.

These foods, prepared in simple natural metals as possible, are the most healthful and nourishing.

They impart a strength, a power of endurance, and a vigor of intellect.

You know, these greens are there for a purpose, and they really are imparting a blessing to you.

The next big change came at the time of the flood, And the landscape was changed much more drastically than it was at the fall.

And when Adam came out of the ark, an agricultural lifestyle, growing his food of fruits and vegetables, legumes and greens was going to be exceeding difficult on the barren dirt and rock that was left for him now to start farming here.

And God said, you know, you used to live on fruits and vegetables and greens, but now I just give you everything, anything, whatever it takes to get the nutrition you need." And he reminded them back to that event at Eden, he said, as I gave you those green plants when you left Eden, He says, now just go ahead and eat anything.

Of course, even though he told him to go ahead and eat anything, even then he tried to restrict them to the more healthful.

And so they had the opportunity to start developing flocks and herds of those that were better.

You know, if you're not going to be a vegetarian, at least eat the animals that are vegetarians.

Pavel Goia

Now is the Time

I don't know if I say it properly in English.

Now I don't know how much you know about them, but the books talk highly about that plant, you know, that is excellent for your blood, it's excellent for your kidneys, it's excellent for your heart, it eliminates water that is too much water in the body.

You don't need to take pills if you have water and your body doesn't, you know.

You drink a little tea of stinging needles and that's it.

Well, my first experience, I was 6, I went to grandpa and you touch them, you are in trouble, big trouble, big trouble.

But if you chop them and put salt and leave it alone for 10 minutes.

And then if you put some lemon and leave it another 5 minutes and then mix it well and then you put olive oil a little, you can eat them, they will not touch you.

And you do that for a few days, your cholesterol goes down, everything is just amazing.

Try it, if you die, let me know, I will pay for your funeral.

My very first experience was, I was playing with my kids, my friends, I was 6.

And he had a whole garden of stinging needles.

And I fell off the house in the stinging needles and I was in a swimming suit.

Can you believe how I was all over my body?

And my mom looked and shook her head and she said, you will never be sick.

They say that if you get them, you never get arthritis.

I don't know if that's real, but I don't have arthritis, you know.

I wanted to mention, people go easily into extremes.

And I'm glad I don't know you, so you know that I don't talk about you.

And some people do only spiritual stuff, but never work.

And some people only work, but never pray, and never study.

God created us to do all these things together.

And it happens that God gave Adam to work what?

Now some people, they are so holy that they rest every day.

But I prefer to follow God's command and work 6 days.

In fact, I don't know how people can stand still because even if I don't have work, I find work.

It's the greatest punishment to keep me still.

And so, first time when I wanted to have a garden, I planted carrot seeds half meter under the ground.

I mean, not even potatoes, and you don't dig them so deep, you know.

Anybody knows European Bible School in Scottsdale, Norway?

My wife and I spent 9 months and a half there and we took healthy lifestyle and organic agriculture and we got certified in organic agriculture.

Now I cannot say much about agriculture because you are all professionals and whatever I say, you already know that.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to teach you agriculture because I need to learn from you.

And I thought the best way to share your experience is to come and help me plant my garden.

In Norway, before Norway, my father taught me that every single child, If you really care for your children, if you really love your children, you give them the gift of work.

And he always said, children and adults, when they do nothing, they do stupid stuff.

And so my father taught me that you don't need to pay anybody to fix the roof.

And we got, my father and I, together on the roof.

And he would tell me stories, and it was fun because of the stories, and we fixed the roof.

And I was about 9, 10 when I learned how to fix a roof.

And then my father taught me that you don't call a mechanic to fix your motorcycle.

So when I took my father's motorcycle when he was not home and I had an accident and I ruined it, he said, okay that's my gift for you but now you've got to fix it.

And so my father had me, it took 2 years, had me work with him, buy parts, and then fix the bike until the bike was new.

And when the bike was new, he took it all apart and had me fix it all again together.

He said, you need to know to do it with your eyes closed.

So I knew how to put the transmission and the engine and everything together, take it off, put it back, my eyes closed.

And later I would not have anybody fix my cars.

I would go buy a car from Germany, a broken car for 100 Deutschmark it was in that time, fix it and sell it for 5-6 thousand.

And I was only about 18-19, you know, I mean just, I learned how to fix cars.

And after that I learned how to build a house and that...

You don't have to pay somebody to fix your plumbing, you do it.

Laughter Yeah, and my kids, they do electricity and plumbing and construction and fixing cars.

They can build, rebuild an engine or anything.

So saying that, wasn't that what God gave us?

How does it help if you go to church and you keep Sabbath and you eat clean and you know all the doctrines, the state of the dead, and the 22, 300 days, you remember?

How does it help if you don't have a connection with the creation?

From theory, how can you have the doctrines of the God without the God of the doctrines?

I strongly believe in the spirit of prophecy and It is so clear and so serious the warnings if you want to save your family You need to get outside the city and you need to have a garden And she says several times pages and pages.

I have them in my computer several times God has been showing to me to tell our people to get out of the city.

If Israel would have got out of Jerusalem, they would have been saved.

And then she says if Lot would have built his house like Abraham outside the city, he would have saved his family.

And then she says, she gives you times if you watch carefully.

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