Stories That Move

Zach Tucker | Maple Leaf Farms

• DreamOn Studios • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Ever wondered how a passion for sustainability can transform a family business into an environmental trailblazer? Zach Tucker of Maple Leaf Farms joins us to share the riveting story of his family's evolution from humble agricultural beginnings to becoming North America's largest duck producer with a robust dedication to sustainable practices. Embracing a heritage rich in tradition, Zach switched gears from medicine to take the helm of the family legacy, steering it towards a horizon where green innovation and corporate responsibility converge.

In this episode, we wade into the world of duck farming with a touch of humor and a wealth of knowledge, thanks to our guest, Zach Tucker. The conversation takes flight as we uncover the advancements in duck breeding programs that revolutionized the industry—imagine healthier, larger ducks with minimal environmental footprints. It's a narrative that's not just about the birds; it's about the seamless blend of financial savvy and eco-consciousness that has propelled Maple Leaf Farms to new heights.

Closing the loop, we wrap up our chat with an insightful look into how sustainability initiatives are the heartbeats of the company vision at Maple Leaf Farms. Zach opens up about the importance of creating fulfilling job roles, investing in community well-being, and setting a standard in agricultural stewardship. Through these stories of innovation and community connection, we're left inspired by the profound impact that one family's legacy can have on the broader canvas of our world. Join us as we explore how Maple Leaf Farms is not just raising ducks, but also setting the bar for a future where businesses thrive by nurturing their people and the planet.

Zach Tucker
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-s-tucker-16393550/

Maple Leaf Farms
https://mapleleaffarms.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/maple-leaf-farms/
https://www.facebook.com/MapleLeafFarmsDuck/
https://www.instagram.com/mapleleaffarms

Speaker 1:

Isn't that the point of sustainability? We're trying to do more with less. It's fine if we want to do some of these environmental programs, but my question to you is are you both environmentally sustainable and fiscally sustainable?

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the very first episode of Stories that Move brought to you by DreamOn Studios. I'm Mason Geiger, ceo and co-founder of DreamOn, and alongside me is Matt Dool, my co-pilot in this journey of storytelling, as well as our executive producer and co-founder here at DreamOn. Matt, how are you feeling about kicking things off today?

Speaker 3:

Man, I am beyond excited to be launching Stories that Move. You see, in our everyday world we have the privilege of interviewing just some incredible people and we get to hear their whole story. Yet so often, so much of that is left on the cutting room floor because we're making short-form content for our clients. So what got us so excited about Stories that Move was the opportunity for us to pull back the curtain and hear so much more of the story.

Speaker 2:

And speaking of stories, today's episode we are chatting with Zach Tucker from Maple Leaf Farms. Zach and I go way back and it's been incredible to see the journeys we've embarked on since those early days. Zach's story is a testament to the legacy of family innovation and a commitment to sustainability.

Speaker 3:

So, without further ado, let's launch this thing and dive into our conversation with Zach Tucker.

Speaker 2:

Well, hey. So we are so excited to have Zach Tucker on Stories that Move. This is our inaugural show kicking this thing off, Thanks guys. I'm honored honestly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we are so excited for this.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, kind of Zach, if you could just give us, for our listeners who might not know you or are new to your story, could you just give us a brief overview of your journey, yeah, what life looks like for you.

Speaker 1:

So, zach Tucker, I am the director of sustainability and corporate social responsibility at Maple Leaf Farms. Maple Leaf were North America's largest producer of duck, but we're right here in Casiasco County, so up at Leesburg is our headquarters, and we still have operations in Milford, gosh and several other counties that we have over in Cromwell, we're up in Syracuse, manchester, you name it, and a few other places around the country, but Casiasco County is certainly home, and I find myself in this interesting position now. It's kind of where the world's going as far as this corporate social responsibility, sustainability side is concerned.

Speaker 1:

So your question being was kind of how I've got here?

Speaker 2:

right. So give us a little, back us up to your journey.

Speaker 3:

My journey well take us back to the beginning.

Speaker 1:

All the way to the beginning Day one.

Speaker 2:

Wow, you see the light.

Speaker 1:

So for me, growing up right, you know, maple Leaf Farms is, we're a family business. I have the benefit of being a part of the fourth generation of this company. My great-grandfather, don Wensel, founded it in 1958. He had accounts, you know. He worked up in the Chicago Board of Trade, worked for a company called Redcombe Feed in Chicago and one of his accounts were out in Long Island, new York. And what happened was is you?

Speaker 1:

know, if you know anything about Long Island, that's where ducks were first domesticated in the United States on a large scale. Okay, and one thing that he thought to himself is what the heck, why are we doing this out here on Long Island? I mean, even on the agricultural side of it all, it was still extremely expensive Real estate, the infrastructure there was not good and, you know, road systems were non-existent for the type of equipment they were trying to get in and they had a barge feed in there, believe it or not. And he's like this is crazy. They're spending an arm and a leg to do this one. Why couldn't we just bring it back here to the Midwest?

Speaker 1:

without the foods being grown. So we did that In 1958, purchased a farm up in Milford, where that's still our original location, where we started and got some ducks and the rest is history, as you say.

Speaker 1:

And here we are. Well, we jumped forward a few generations. My grandfather took over 10 years. Unfortunately, my great grandfather passed away of a heart attack 10 years after founding it. My grandfather took over Terry Tucker, and then my dad and uncle, scott Tucker and John Tucker respectively, are currently co-presidents. My dad's slated to take over CEO at the beginning of this next year fiscal year. And then here we are. We've got what? Five G4 members now in it, myself and my sister and three of my cousins now. So it's a family affair. It really is. So, as far as my journey, I didn't really ever want to be in the business. I'll be honest with you. I really did not. I was like do I really want to be a part of this? Everyone's like, oh, were you in 4-H when you were younger or you know FFA? I'm like, no, I wanted nothing to do with that.

Speaker 1:

It's funny because you know, I'm like, wait, you're part of one of the larger ag firms around here and you want that. I'm like, yeah, no, I'm doing my own thing, right. You know, I said I want to be a doctor, I want to do something like that, went to school, that was my original intention and then from there I moved past that to say physical therapy, training, things like that. And then, you know, I had a couple internships at Maple Leaf and I realized very quickly how proud I was of what we had built there as this legacy, this tradition, and I kind of flipped a switch in my mind. I'm like, wait a second, this sounds awesome. I do want to be a part of this, and I think it was halfway through my junior year of college. I'm like, well, let's move away from physical therapy and let's go into agriculture, let's go into animal sciences.

Speaker 2:

Wow. And what were you at Purdue at the time At Purdue?

Speaker 1:

So I graduated from Purdue in 2012. Four and a half the four and a half year track.

Speaker 3:

You know that's not bad, Going from physical therapy into agriculture. Yeah, adding only a half year.

Speaker 1:

It was a very drastic switch but it worked out. I was able to get it and get out there relatively quickly. So animal sciences, animal agribusiness in particular. And then I got an opportunity to start with the working with the business.

Speaker 1:

I did any number of things, from like research coordination within the business to auditing, you know, animal auditing, things like we can talk some more about that as far as some of that sustainability journey in a moment, and then from there I've overseen things like our compliance program, labeling, retention programs, you know, efficiencies, hr related stuff, and now I find myself here. So that's about 11 years, almost 11 years later, wow, wow.

Speaker 2:

Crazy. And then you went back for your master's correct?

Speaker 1:

So I, yeah, so right now. I went back for my master's and some people might call me crazy, you know, because I had a what? A less than a one year old at the time, or I had a one year old at the time when I started, and then, oh, let's add another child on top of it while I'm still doing the program. So, but yeah, so it's a program through the Purdue Center for Food and Ag or Business and it's actually a dual master's program. You come out with a master's and ag econ from Purdue and then you get an MBA from Kelly School of Business at IU. So I'm currently in my final term for the IU MBA. So December, that'll all be done there you go Incredible, nice, nice.

Speaker 3:

I'm excited, that's awesome. So starting off, you you know, obviously the family business was a huge part of your family. I'm sure you were surrounded by it. You're thinking I don't want to go this direction, and then you have this pivot. So talk to us about how that family legacy really just shaped you and kind of you know, maybe even steered your direction to make that pivot.

Speaker 1:

You know the legacy I've always been someone somewhat of a traditional individual in the sense of I appreciate why certain things are being done a certain way, if there's a reason for it, and I felt like what we stood for and what we stand for as a business, you know, we're standing for a quality product that we're trying to provide and we're and we want to feed people too. Right, that's that's, you know. Certainly, for me, if you want to talk about like a type of love language, if that is a Type of love language, right, it's like get me in the kitchen, right.

Speaker 2:

You know I got.

Speaker 1:

I hate cooking for myself, but you got my family involved. Oh, give me a second. I'll whip something up for you, don't worry so. But yeah, some of that, those stories we've told over the year, like the, the meals. I always think about you know, Christmases or thanksgivings with the family, and you know all those times where you're like, oh, like. These are the types of things that we're trying to promote as as a business right.

Speaker 1:

These, these, these family opportunities, these these opportunities to, to you know, have Fellowship with, whether it be friends, family, you name it. So, yeah, just bringing people together, that was probably one of the biggest things I'm like this is this is what we stand for, and I wanted to be a part of that.

Speaker 1:

I felt like it was just a bigger thing than myself In that regard. And, yeah, I think, beyond that, I, you know, maybe looking in this role now, and I all, I I've always thought to myself, you know, as far as a business concerns, some people might say, hey, isn't the point of a business to make a profit? I mean, and while, yes, you know that is very important, I would say that you have to do that, otherwise you can't do anything else, right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you can't you have to make sure you are financially? You know sound so, but I'm like, well, if you have this opportunity, especially as community partners, why can't you take this business and and utilize it as a vehicle for Benefiting the community, benefiting your people, so on and so forth? So I try and look beyond that, you know, and then just just other than it being the legacy of the business, but what's the legacy of our family within the community, within, within your industry, so on and so forth.

Speaker 2:

So I love just like here and I cure your heart and passion for the community. I mean, growing up here, it's like this is your home and so like wanting to see, yeah, our community grow and cross, prosper and it's like being a part of that. Is is incredible. So, and I know that you are very passionate about sustainability and your job, so let me get get this right. So your job title is so you're the director of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I know, unpack. It is a very convoluted title, I know it's. You get some people. I swear that I really like those long titles and I'm just like I was trying to find. Can we abbreviate? This somewhere and like well, are people gonna know what that is?

Speaker 3:

my fine, well your business card is extra large.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, by 10, you know, it's just so sustainability right, like With with sustainability, and then CSR. You know, I think what you've seen is kind of this push towards. You know a term called ESG and stands for environmental, social governance right, and you know, depending on who you talk to, you might say, oh, esg is the best, and then you have other people like this is the worst, and I Like to find myself somewhere in the middle. Between that. I think there's been a lot of Really bad things that have been done with ESG. You're looking at even Companies being judged based upon this. You know, especially like public companies being based upon these ESG scores, like you know, you think about like Silicon Valley Bank was one of those that was really heavy on the ESG. They.

Speaker 1:

They were very invested in more like the environmental social side of things. But if you look at their governance score it was not good and there's a reason why they.

Speaker 3:

Went under.

Speaker 1:

It's because they were not actually Making sure that they were making money properly. They were not getting returns on investment, which, as a bank, they should be looking to do that always. That's that again. I said it earlier. Profit is very important. If you can't get a profit, you can't do all these other things that you want to do. So you got to make sure your house is right first. Before you know, you can go out and change the world right.

Speaker 1:

So, so anyway, I actually always say I should have been like GSE or or GES or something like that, because governance needs to come first when it comes to those sort of things.

Speaker 1:

So, esg, you can look at it that way. As far as you know the environmental sustainability side of things, you know you want to make sure that we're being good stewards always right, I'd like to. I would say that, as farmers, as people in the ag side of things, for the most part we are pretty darn good stewards. We're trying to do always more with less, and so I want to repeat that more with less.

Speaker 1:

Yeah so when it comes to sustainability, isn't that the point of sustainability? We're trying to do more with less, and it's fine if we want to do some of these environmental programs. But my question to you is is are you both environmentally sustainable and Fiscally sustainable? Yeah, because if you can't do both, if you're spending crazy amounts of money, like I think about wind turbines right, how much? I mean how much money those things cost to put up Are you ever getting return on those is my question to you. I don't know. I haven't really looked at the numbers lately. Maybe it's improved as they've become more prevalent, but I know very early on it was not the case. We take 20 plus years to pay them off and they're probably replacing a lot of parts by then. So yeah.

Speaker 1:

Trying to stay away from those greenwashing things, those fake environmentalism type items.

Speaker 3:

I want tangible, real environmentalism and Sustainability if we're gonna do those things that have a real impact, real impact and real return.

Speaker 1:

Yeah because, again, sustainability and environmentalism, we should be doing more with less or with less. So I'll give you an example. People sit there and think about, you know, oh, ag, we're polluting things, or we're using all these natural resources. You know whether that be water, whether that be Feed, you know, let it corn, soybean, wheat, you name it. Okay, so let's, uh, we'll step back to 1979, 80, you know 1980, when we started really focusing on our breeding program. Right, so an animal ag. The purpose of a breeding program is to do a couple things. One You're trying to increase your yields based upon, you know, the best possible animals that you have, and yet you're doing this in very varying levels of success depending on how you know much you know resources you have.

Speaker 1:

You know like, for example, we have a geneticist that on staff, who he's? Literally we can trace back our lineage With our ducks 30 years, 30 plus 40 years. I'm not kidding you, not. We can trace all of our, all of our breeding ducks back like 30, 40.

Speaker 3:

Ancestrycom for the ducks for the ducks, right.

Speaker 1:

So so you think about this he's looking for how can we improve not only the, the traits and, like the yield of the bird, how can they be a little bit bigger, those sort of things. You naturally I need to point out, this is a breeding program. We're not doing Franken duck here.

Speaker 2:

Okay, yeah that's not what we're doing, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Breeding, but then we're also looking at how can we get them more efficient. So if we look back in 1979? It was taking anywhere from 50 depending on the strain. And I say strain, that's a tight. It's essentially a breed within a breed, like they're the same breed but they're different, like that, you know, it's like it's like you or I, like we're both humans, but like a different strain.

Speaker 1:

Essentially, a different lineage or something. So, depending on the strain, it could be 50 to 60 days for them to get to market weight. Back in, back in you know, 1979 80, they have feed conversion. So feed conversion Essentially means the amount of feed that they have to eat in order to get a pound of gain. Okay, so back then we're looking at probably anywhere from three to four and a half, you know, depending on strain. Then let's talk about the fact that ducks consume, from a water standpoint, a 4 to 1 ratio of water to feed. They're a waterfowl after all, they drink a lot of water. That's part of the process. That's significant research. Now let's fast forward to today. We're looking at anywhere from a market weight burden 30 to 35 days at the maximum end. As far as getting the market weight, let's cut in half.

Speaker 2:

That's all just based on the strain of being able to.

Speaker 1:

Then let's talk about the feed conversion. Now You're talking anywhere from 1.5 to 175 today. That's great. That's the amount of feed that they're getting to that market weight, so less feed less days In other words, instead of eating three pounds or three and a half pounds for one pound a gain, they're only eating 1.5 to 1.75 pounds to get that pound a gain.

Speaker 2:

now, Because they've become that efficient.

Speaker 1:

Then I mentioned the water 4 to 1 ratio. You're talking for every three pound difference right there, or two to three pounds. You are literally significantly reducing your water usage too, that's real sustainability right there. That's the thing that I think farmers in general, we have done such a terrible job of telling our story, our sustainability story over the years. We have reduced incredibly the amount of resources that we've used over the years. It's incredible what we've been able to accomplish. Then financial sustainability it equates to millions, tens of millions of dollars worth of savings right there because we're doing more with less.

Speaker 2:

Wow, this is again without getting too deep in the weeds.

Speaker 3:

I don't want this to go over, because I know of our head listeners.

Speaker 2:

How does the strain affect that? What is it about that?

Speaker 1:

The difference is there are different types of ducks. Some of them are better suited for other things. Some might be more so meant for egg laying. Some might be more so like a larger body type. They might have a larger leg situation as opposed to a larger breast meat situation. Those tend to be more like your Asian style ducks or something like that. If we were to do what's called a HOFO a head on feet on duck the Asian markets really enjoy those. We haven't done those for a little bit. We're mostly focused on whole body these days, which is your standard. Look at it in the store. It doesn't have the head, it doesn't have the feet Awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it just depends on what you're looking at.

Speaker 3:

I think what Mason is asking, though, is it sounds like the ducks are getting smarter. Will they ever take over the world? Is this a AI situation with ducks?

Speaker 1:

This is what I will say about this. Chickens and turkeys. I've worked with chickens, turkeys, ducks in school. Ducks are smart is all I'm going to say they are smart. Turkeys are wily, chickens are just a little crazy. They're the wild card.

Speaker 3:

They're just kind of like birds, whatever.

Speaker 1:

No, there's a reason I focus on poultry science. That was my big thing. I do poultry in general. You go into a turkey barn and they're charging you.

Speaker 2:

They're coming at you like yeah, let's go.

Speaker 1:

What's up? You get some of these toms that are like 60, 70 pounds, sometimes easily. They're like, oh my gosh, this guy knocks me over, am I? Done for no, but ducks are incredibly smart. Who knows, maybe they do. What's the show coming out? The Swarm. Here soon, oh my gosh, are we going to have the flock?

Speaker 2:

here soon or something yeah.

Speaker 1:

Just a bunch of white ducks coming down the road at us.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

That was wild. Obviously, in 1958, long Island, new York, corporate sustainability was not a thing. This is a newer initiative, something that corporations are expanding, introducing more and more. You've been with the company for about 10 years, is that right? Yeah, almost 11 now. Talk to us about just the evolution of how you ramped into this role, and then just some of the things that get you excited about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, kind of how I ramped into this role is in my previous stint. One thing I've been doing is, as I'm trying to learn the business, I've been doing rotations in various areas of the business, whether that be live production that was my background. I spent a little bit longer time there, qa and then just recently finished in HR. I did close to two years in both QA and HR. Hr was the one where we started thinking about this a little bit more. I'm thinking about things with looking at retention and what can we do, what can we improve.

Speaker 1:

The problem was, I think, the way the structure was set up and where the world's going, that there needs to be a bigger emphasis, particularly on not just sustainability but on the corporate social responsibility side of things. That was the big thing that we were looking at as well. Beyond sustainability, we've had a sustainability program. Over the years We've reported on certain things. I would say we've focused on some of that actually longer than some other companies, but we haven't formalized it in a way that it's integrated within that corporate social side of things. It's not the community piece or the industry piece that a lot of these places are doing now, whether you see your Tyson's, purdue's. They've got some really nice literature slash presentations that you can see. They've got some really telling a nice story. Check them out.

Speaker 3:

Stories. They are nice stories.

Speaker 1:

They are. While I was in there, though, in HR, one of the things that that's my thing is I've got a heart for people, and that was a nice thing about being in HR is I got to really interact with our people a lot and but I Realized that, based upon where I was at, I was not getting the top down, you know, support. I needed right to really implement some change that was necessary, that I saw or felt was necessary within the company and whether that, you know, I felt like this could influence any number of things, not only Retention, but also it could influence just overall financial performance, as we, you know, talk about. If people are loyal to you, that they're, they are gonna want to work for you because they, they, you know, at that point they're like we belong here. You know we want to do this is part of you know, this is part of you know we're the team, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, so there was that aspect and I said, well, is there a way we can look at Improving, like in this regard, like I really think we're missing the ball here in regards to our people Not getting the support that they need Beyond just the financial side, beyond just some of the you know, cuz I feel like we have pretty strong benefits in many regards, but Are we missing the mark on certain areas that could really be instrumental in terms of people feeling the difference between just feel like, oh, I'm a Maple Leaf employee versus I'm a Maple Leaf team member. This is, this, is, this is my Family outside of my family. Yeah, that's what I want to see people feel like. Eventually is like, hey, maple Leaf is, is part of my fan, is like my secondary family.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I want that like, that's the culture I want to, so that's and that's kind of how I happen.

Speaker 1:

Right is is we saw this opportunity. I talked, I talked with my dad, I talked with Scott Reinhold, who is our current CEO, and we started talking about and we said, you know this, this really does have some Weight to it as far as what we can do, especially considering all the things going on in Not just our industry, but in in in business as a whole, as we look at some of these ESG things and and whatnot. You said, well, you know, can we start to to look at this a little bit? You know more, and so that's kind of kind of snowballed from there and yeah, yeah, this is kind of where we're at. So, yeah, I'm still in the process, believe it or not, of really Developing this program because it's it's brand new to us. That's the thing is, it's it's really neat being able to like just build something From the ground up within the company. You're like, oh okay, I can, I can just pick the team I want right here You're saying like.

Speaker 1:

I get to. You know I get the. You know my committee, I get my team, that I, that is gonna be like my, my all-star team. You know I'm. You know this is the dream team, right. I can do it, you know we're not going to the Olympics, but but that's cool.

Speaker 3:

I mean a sense of entrepreneurial Spirit, of building something inside of an established company.

Speaker 1:

You know, I and that's you're right, but you know that entrepreneurial spirit within a company, I think is Is another thing that I think about as well is is how do we empower our people To have that mindset as well? Because I want people to speak up. I want people. How do you feel about me? And tell, tell you like did you think I'm just full of it? You know what I'm saying here right now, or or do you want to come along with me and can I prove? Prove, you're wrong.

Speaker 1:

All right you know, that's a that type of situation. I want people to be honest. I want people to feel like they have the ability to say hey, I Think we could do this better, you know, instead of just being like, oh, it's the manager's making the decisions, or what I, oh, no, no, no, like why are we not trusting our boots on the ground, the people who are close to things? You?

Speaker 1:

know, I would tell anyone, you know, if someone was, like you know, higher up, saying my responsibilities, to get ducks out the door and everything like Well, you're a manager or beyond, no, no, no, like you're, you're here to support the people within the, within this, you know. Yeah, ultimately it's your area that does that, but the true responsibility Lies within those individuals who are touching the product, who are packing the product, who are putting it on track. That's their responsibility at the end of the day, not your direct responsibility.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, just thinking through and trying to understand and put myself like in your shoes, like what does your day look like? And trying to like you're thinking about some of these global, like the impact Company, because I mean it whenever. I mean we had the opportunity to come up to her. Yeah, maple Leaf, I mean credible facility. Love what you guys have done, like the old elementary school, like that's an incredible story in itself that I Would love to be able to dive into it to in here.

Speaker 2:

But it was the realization of like there's so many companies that you guys have and the touch points you have all across the world, of like that it's not just, yeah, maple leaf farms, but you have all these other brands. Can you just give us, you know, in our listeners, a little bit of a scope in this, the scale as?

Speaker 1:

far as our brands and as far as where we're. So we we're exporting to somewhere between like 38 and 40 different countries right now. Wow, and that's various products, whether that be whole body duck, whether it be a boneless duck, breast on and so forth, legs, roast half duck that you know, that's one to become one of our flagship products was just fully cooked products. So there's a lot of coverage we've done, you know, in terms of duck, right, like that. That's what's, you know, really been amazing over the years is what we've done with it, where we've essentially had to create markets almost on some of these products. Like the roast half duck was one of those where there was not a single fully cooked option out there back in what? The late 70s, early 80s, right. So, not a single option. And because most of the people out there using duck were chefs and they wanted to break it down themselves. Well, we've developed this situation where it is more easily accessible at home.

Speaker 1:

So, but as far as brands are concerned, so maple leaf farms is our flagship brand. Like that is the parent company. From there we have an international company called MLF, index or Indux as a whole, so index. I know we always have to add duck in some regard, it seems like. But that's, that is our kind of technical support and genetic sales program. So you know, we, not only are we a producer of duck product, but we're also a breeding company. Not just are we doing it for ourselves, but we're also taking our our ducks and selling them to other companies throughout the world. So okay.

Speaker 1:

So that's another, that is another thing that's important. So we, we can actually impact other companies efficiencies In that regard and we can reduce not just in our, in our backyard in this country, because we have several customers here in this country as well but also, you know, go to like England or, or Germany, poland, hungary or a number of places, one of the other side sides of it all and this is let's talk about sustainability again Like, how are we utilizing our, our resources? How are we utilizing even our waste Feathers? Are our concern in the poultry industry, at least for the chickens and turkeys?

Speaker 1:

because, they don't have a lot of value to them. You know it used to be. You could make feather meal where you could grind it down and you could get like a nice methionine amino acid supplement from it with feather meal. They don't even really want to allow that anymore in very few countries, even because they're concerns of the birds eating pieces of birds.

Speaker 3:

There's concern there. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Now what we do, though we have a benefit being a waterfowl. So if you want to know some of the biology, unlike chickens and turkeys that lose their down feathers, we don't lose our down feathers. We keep down feathers through their lives and that's why you can see them out on the lakes in the middle of the winter. In terms of their feet, they really don't have the receptors, the cold receptors that they, so that they're out there just patting around in freezing water. But so the feathers right. So we actually have three feather companies. There is Eurasia Feather Co. So that's more of like a broker and or distributor of feathers, so that one. I'll tell you a little bit about some of that in just a second, but we have down incorporated that as a finished goods operation. So that's like high end. I mean, we've been selling to people like Casper Creighton Barrel, people like that, in terms of our down products comforters, pillows.

Speaker 1:

And Lake Michigan Feather Co. That's actually down in Mexico City. That one is similar. That is a finished goods as well, but we're looking at transitioning that a little bit. And how can we vertically integrate the whole process and say, oh, can this be a cut and sew operation down in Mexico and say oh, this is doing all of our shells, this is doing all of our inputs, and then we bring it up to Michigan, in Grand Rapids, which is where Eurasia and down Incar, and then let's finish them there. So we've got a few other answers. He's currently a China entity as well, but we have locations, operations, over there too.

Speaker 2:

Wow, impressive though, like the global reach and impact coming out of. Leesburg, Indiana, Seriously.

Speaker 3:

Well, at Leesburg Seriously no, and that's what stood out to me as we toured your facility of. Obviously we are famously the orthopedic capital of the world and the orthopedic gets a lot of the credit and it's walking through your facility like hold on a second. There is a global company here that people know, maple Leaf, but I think understanding and unpacking that scope was really, really impressive.

Speaker 1:

Hey, you got to appreciate the orthopedic companies. They've done quite a bit for the community.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

They have over the years, and I got plenty of friends who are in it or have been in it, and so you know, it's definitely part of our community legacy as well. So, yeah, I like to think that we're also a very important part of that legacy too. So it's. I appreciate you guys saying that.

Speaker 3:

So, as you are, you know again on the beginnings of this role and you are developing vision for what it means to create more and more sustainability. What excites you about the future, Like what are you seeing in the next five years, the next 10 years?

Speaker 1:

I think one thing for sure is you know we're going to see bigger pushes, one on automation. You know you're going to see that for sure. And I want to break down the misconception that automation means people are losing jobs. Right, like that's the. That is a misconception, because what you're doing is is you're transforming, you know, certain jobs into even more skilled jobs, and the idea is is we want to be able to invest in our people and be able to bring them up to speed to that level where you know they're not just on the line anymore but they're able to manage setting up those machines, getting them up and running the way they need to. Because what it does is it gives you know they're still going to be working, but guess what they're doing? This position that is not just a repetitive nature, it's you know, you want to talk about health wise.

Speaker 1:

You know there are. I mean, there are implications there, certainly, you know, in terms of you know we appreciate what they do, but, yeah, you have a better quality position in my opinion at that point. So certainly, you know, we'll continue to look at how we can improve in those areas. And again, that comes with the sustainability, those efficiency side. How are we doing more with less? You know one of the things. So that's the the more sustainability side in terms of the processing plants.

Speaker 1:

And now I think about kind of the social side of things. You know how I mentioned how can we be better partners to our people? So what does that look like? You know any number of organizations in the community that we might be tied to in some regard, or we have people within the organization who utilize those facilities, like I mentioned Joe's kids earlier. Byc is another perfect example. I want that. I'm thinking about maximum impact. There's so many studies, for example, on the kids right, if you can get early intervention with children, whether that's therapy, whether that is providing a safe space for them to, you know, just be kids, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Guess what? It shows that they excel. You know, the quicker you get them there right Sure and so that maximum impact. How can we, how can we do that right, supporting those types of organizations but then also supporting our people through that right? That's the key is I want to make sure that we're all, we're covering our people and the community at the same time. Another thing that and who knows if HR wants me to talk about this or not they're probably like you shouldn't have said that At some point down the road.

Speaker 1:

What we're hoping to do is build an on-site clinic for our people. I think long-term, maybe within the next five years, I'm hoping build an on-site clinic, have be able to get a nurse, practitioner or someone of that nature in that can see our patients, or our patients see our people, and can provide medical care on-site. Not only that, but also have it available to all the families of our people as well. We'd be able to provide one. They're getting all the care there. It's not coming out of their pocket. We're covering that. Two meds, your standard meds, those are coming, not coming out of pocket, those are coming through us. All those things. How can we focus on healthy people, keeping our people healthy? How can we take care of our people's families? And, financially, how can they be financially taking care of better? In that regard, it's not just the salary, it's not just the wage. At the end of the day, it's important. It's important, but how can we provide other benefits that also minimize that financial impact to them.

Speaker 2:

For sure. I just think of the ripples of them that has through the community. It's like you get the employee, you care for the family, the family cares for the community. It's just so cool. I love what you guys are doing.

Speaker 1:

Try and lead by example, I guess, in that regard, I think, unfortunately, the corporate world, I'll be honest, we've probably fallen short plenty of times there too, where we just haven't thought about our people as much as we probably should have In terms of they're the reason why we're successful right. Without our people, what do we have? We don't have it, it crumbles. I want our people to know absolutely without them, we don't have Maple Leaf, we don't.

Speaker 2:

I love the heart that you have just for people and the community. I love what you guys have going on right now. As a fourth generation family member, how do you want Maple Leaf farms to be remembered in terms of your commitment not only to the environment but to your community?

Speaker 1:

I certainly want people to think that, hey, we're trying to be role models as far as an ag company is concerned. We're trying to always reduce waste. How are we trying to minimize environmental impact? The one thing I'll quote and this has been quoted to me by any number of people within our ops, our operations side, the processing side, is, on any given day, we probably do 40, on average, 40 to 45,000, maybe 35 to 45,000. We're in there. It just depends on the day of ducks a day. In that time, as far as what we do, we probably only have maybe 1,000 or so pounds worth of waste. Considering of those 40,000, they're weighing six and a quarter to seven pounds each.

Speaker 1:

In some way, shape or form, the waste is getting used in some way, shape or form. It could be rendered down in some way, shape or form, utilized for pet foods, things like that, feathers being utilized for anything from pillows, comforters, garment industry. I know we've worked with Patagonia over the years to an extent. You want to talk about a situation. I spent six months auditing every single one of our facilities with an outside auditor from NSF. That was quite the project, but that was what it took to be a part of their traceable down standard at the time.

Speaker 1:

Now we're working towards the recyclable down standard right now I believe, so I'd have to talk with them.

Speaker 3:

I'm not amazing at math. I was told there'd be no math, but you're saying every day, 180,000, 240,000 plus pounds of duck being processed, 1,000 pounds of waste.

Speaker 1:

Typically only 1,000-some pounds of waste really is what I've been quoted. Now again, that's what I've been quoted, Sure.

Speaker 2:

You know caveat, I don't have the numbers in front of me.

Speaker 3:

We'll apply some grace to those numbers, but assuming that you're close, that's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1:

Because that has been one thing and you want to talk about this goes back, you want to talk about the sustainability right there, and you want to talk about a legacy of that. This is a phrase my grandpa coined back in honestly, I think it was the 70s or 80s early 80s and he said we use everything but the quack.

Speaker 1:

We use everything but the quack. Well, guess what? I mentioned the rendering process and those things. Well, we're selling the voice boxes now and those entrails, so we are using the quack now, when you think about it.

Speaker 3:

So we are selling the quack.

Speaker 1:

So it is one of those things, right. That is what we're about. We're trying to use everything that we can on that bird. So it's just that important to us and it's been part of our legacy for 40, 50 years easily. Just that quote alone, right? And then trying to find better ways to do things has always been a part of our legacy as a company.

Speaker 3:

Man Zach, this has been awesome and, as we wrap this up again just want to say thank you so much for joining us. Love what you're doing, love your heart for people, your passion. Yeah, it's been a privilege to get to know you and, like you said, we all have our unique stories, so getting to connect with your story has been awesome. So, as we wrap up, what are ways listeners can connect with Maple Leaf? And maybe even some of the sustainability initiatives that you are putting out there.

Speaker 1:

So connect with us on any number of the social medias, whether that be anything from LinkedIn, instagram, facebook or even TikTok.

Speaker 3:

I'm not the biggest fan of TikTok, so that's after my time.

Speaker 1:

Personally, I feel like I want to watch a little bit longer video than any number of those things. Sorry, tiktok, they're doing OK.

Speaker 3:

So any of those things.

Speaker 1:

As far as sustainability is concerned, with COVID we used to try and release an annual sustainability report. My plan is to revamp that, so hopefully next year, probably end of Q1. I'm hoping to have a report for 2023. And I want to expand that report beyond just sustainability. I want that to kind of be more the company report Again stories. What's our story? How are we telling it? What was our year in review as a whole, not just the sustainability side of it all.

Speaker 3:

Awesome, cool, well, zach, thanks again. Everybody connect with Zach on social media and Maple Leaf Farms. Appreciate your time and we look forward to catching everybody next episode of Stories that Move. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Stories that Move brought to you by Dream on Studios.

Speaker 2:

Make sure to subscribe so that you don't miss the next episode and remember if you or your organization have a story you're eager to share with the world, dream on Studios is here to bring that story to life.

Speaker 3:

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Speaker 2:

We believe every story has the potential to inspire, to move and to make a difference. Let's make yours heard.

Speaker 3:

Until next time, keep moving forward and keep telling those stories that matter.

Speaker 2:

Take care everyone. See you next time on Stories that Move.