Our Story
How We Got Here
The Root Cause of America's issues today is the degradation of the soil beneath our feet. Our mission at Roots Cause is simple. We Build Soil. I am going to switch over to 1st person if you don't care. I feel like a goober referring to myself as "Drew" when I write. My hope is that if I explain my story, you will be able to understand where I am coming from with my beliefs. The polaroid was taken with the love of my life a month before I started Roots Cause. But I'll start a little before then.
Roots In Appalachia
I wasn't blessed to grow up on acreage. I grew up in a small suburb outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. My goal was to become a rancher in my old age. I heard about guys who lived to be over 100 because the only thing they ate was food they either grew, raised, or hunted. That always stuck with me. My path to getting there was a career in the Air Force. I'd serve, retire, and save every penny I could to buy some land one day and start raising livestock.
My First Passion
I enrolled in the famous Det 800 at the University of Tennessee after high school (Go Vols). They provided my officer training while I worked through my Supply Chain Management degree. I excelled in my leadership training and fell in love with what I thought my future would be. I commissioned as a 2d Lt in the US Air Force in May of 2019 as a Distinguished Graduate. Everyone was extremely proud of me, and I thought I was on the right path.
The "Dirty" Dreams of a Suburban Airman
Shortly after entering my Active Duty Air Force career however, my passion left me. Military culture had changed, a lot. I still excelled but my plan to retire in the service went out the door. Shortly after that, the world was rocked with the pandemic. I, and many others, started looking for a change. I wanted to work in the sun and get my hands dirty. I wanted to feel like a human, to have purpose again. Luckily, I had plenty of time for reading, and stumbled upon an author by the name of Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia.
They Took a Chance on Me
I devoured all of Joel's books. I knew nothing, and I emphasize NOTHING about agriculture in general. He wrote about a lifestyle that I connected with however. Producing nutrient dense food, profitably, while improving the commons. He introduced me to Regenerative Agriculture, although I had no idea what that meant. By the end of 2020 I knew, for well a multitude of reasons, that I would not be in the Air Force much longer. I applied for an internship with Polyface Farms. I had zero experience or knowledge. The first time I touched a chicken was on Polyface grounds. But for some reason they took a chance on me. For that I will be forever in debt, and thankful to them.
Greener Than Chicken Littered Grass
You ever seen a more green kid? Look at that ridiculous hat. I genuinely asked someone that week if cows ate grass... The picture is of my first day of the internship, what Polyface calls their "Stewardship Program". It was a five-month agricultural intensive. There were nine other stewards with me, along with our four apprentices (stewards from the year before who elected to stay and lead us). We worked, ate, lived, and learned together. It was like being back in boot camp.
The More I Learned, The More I Knew, That I Knew Nothin'
I was blessed to have an amazing peer group around me. We were the "Covid Class". All walks of life who during the Pandemic left what we were doing for what we saw as a higher calling. We pushed each other to work beyond points we thought possible. More importantly though, we were an echo-chamber of regenerative ag knowledge. That's all we wanted to read about, talk about, and do. No TV, no reliable reception, just a library of ag books and each other. It became clear to me that I would never be able to learn EVERYTHING about this career field. I could work and study my whole life, and just scratch the surface of the complicated systems that rule soil health, animal husbandry, and agribusiness. It lit a fire in me that will burn till the day I lay down in my pasture never to wake up again.
A Solid Foundation
I spent the next five months building up my foundational skills and knowledge. I gained experience with pastured poultry from brooder to consumer delivery. I learned how to move 100 head cow herds with only slight body movements and essentially "electric baling twine". We raised pigs on pasture, baled hay, and I got to help with a sheep flock as well-something that stuck with me. Joel and Daniel Salatin, along with their management team, went out of their way to not only show us the tactical "how". They taught us the strategic "why".
Flying the Coop
The five months flew by faster than I wanted it to. A friend from back in Florida where I was stationed before offered me a job managing his pecan farm, and running a manufacturing enterprise from pecan waste. Leaving that community was hard, but we all remain close to this day and work as a Regenerative Mastermind of sorts. It amazes me to hear of the successes these folks are having building soil on their own now.
Advantage of Beginning with the Right Paradigm
I moved to a rural Florida town on the Alabama line. I could no longer see mountains in the horizon, just crop fields. Everyone around was tilling, throwing dirt in the air to grow cotton and peanuts. I had never seen so much soil runoff on roads and gullies. I didn't understand what they were doing. I just left an echo-chamber of soil health and profits. I didn't understand the conventional mindset of heavy inputs, heavy soil degradation, and little profit. But I realized that I had a competitive advantage not growing up in this world. I had no pre-concieved paradigms to break. I learned what I thought was logical. It was the first time I stopped feeling sorry for myself for not inheriting land.
Rural Community in Decline
Farmers weren't making money. Their farms were only good for one salary- and that was pushing it. They didn't have room for a salary for their children off their land, nor any farm labor. Industry was gone, over seas in the name of globalization. There were no jobs for young adults. So they moved away. Money wasn't flowing through their economy. Stores were closing left and right. It once took me five days of hunting and an hour and a half drive to get my hair cut. I saw first hand what happens to rural communities when profit left the farms- their whole local economy collapsed.
Soil Microbiology Deep Dive
I no longer had the close-knit friends who shared my passion that I could continue to learn with. Feeling stagnant, I took an expensive online course about soil microbiology. If you're from this world- you know which one I am referring to. The compost teas I paid to learn how to make didn't end up being practical. However, the soil education I received was worth every penny. While I believe the "how" was bad, I gained the understanding that everything comes down to soil biological health. Truly. Everything.
The Lesson of Context
Missing the mountains, my family, and well, an economy, I went back home to East Tennessee. I secured a job as the Farm Campus manager of USARAAI, a teaching farm attached to Timeless Fence. It was the perfect role for me. I managed a steer herd, a cow-calf herd, and a no till regenerative garden while teaching anyone who would listen what we were doing. Russ Israel, my boss, ensured that he would send me to every regenerative meeting, summit, and field day I could want to go to. In one year, I took him up on 12 of those opportunities. I not only got to get more hands on experience doing the actual doing, but I got to hear and see what successful, profitable farmers and ranchers were doing in their contexts. I learned there was no one way of doing it, no formula. YOU have to adapt to what is best for the context of YOUR land.
The Starter Flock
I was given the opportunity to use excess grass from the Farm Campus I was working at to get my own livestock. Sheep were all the rage at that time. All of the magazines, and Youtube videos were ranting about the profitability of sheep. So, I looked to get a starter flock. Nothing fancy, just genetics that haven't been babied so much that they could survive on grass. You know, how they do in the wild. Well I couldn't find any near me. I got what I could. I have this 10 year plan to grow my flock, cull heavy and be able to get a kid like me some genetics that he could raise without the crutches of grain, dewormer, and a wintering barn. I'm two years in now, I'll let you know if it worked in 2033.
Change of Season
This was about the time when I started dating the beautiful lady from the polaroid. She didn't think I was crazy when I ranted about the food supply's nutritional deficit, or the agricultural industrial complex. She even thought it was cute when I talked about grass for thirty minutes at a time. She loved me for me. Unfortunately, the me at that time was one step from being homeless. I lived rent free in my boss's spare room as part of my compensation. I knew that she was the one, and that I had to transition from my season of learning, into a season of earning. Hell, I had to find a way to buy that farm I always wanted right?
Paid to Solve People's Problems
I transitioned from Farm Manager of Timeless Fence's non-profit, to a Salesman of Timeless Fence (a USA made electric fence system, which works best for regenerative ranchers). I hated salesmen my whole life. But turns out I just hated bad salesmen. Good sales folk are just consultants helping you make a decision. I just offered solutions to problems that farmers and ranchers were having, and got paid for that service. It was a real win-win and I loved it. I still got to talk to new people and learn about their contexts, and I made enough to at least move into my own place. And I still got to go to as many regen ag shows as I wanted to! I missed my cattle moves, but I got by with taking care of my sheep.
Will Build Soil for Dopamine
This is when I started Roots Cause, well on the side. A ranching influencer on Youtube named Greg Judy sells a bale unroller that works really well. I had used one the last winter when I was farm campus manager. People would call into Timeless looking for them all the time, but they didn't have any. I decided I would help meet the supply. I got a loan from an old Air Force buddy who is into Regen Ag too and became a supplier of Greg Judy Bale Unrollers. I really felt a sense of purpose supplying folks with quality soil building equipment. I got a huge dopamine hit when they would tell me how much value it brought to their operations.
Bugz in Jugz
A few months later, I traveled to New Mexico to set up a Timeless Fence booth at a regen ag conference. I really hit it off with the folks at the booth next to me. Too bad I didnt believe in their product. Their company was called Wind River Microbes. They were a bug-in-a-jug operation. I had seen 50 of these startups pop up and fizzle out in the last few years. Great idea, but they could never make it work. The microbes had the lifespan of 3 months after bottled, or you had to "feed them". What you need on your soil was native microbes anyway. Context! Plus I was a big believer in achieving all of your regen goals with zero inputs, all animal impact. CJ, the guy from Wind River I talked to the most, convinced me to at least bring home some samples of their Balancer2 formula to give to my sheep. He was nice, so I obliged.
Taste of My Own Medicine
It took me about a month before I mixed the Wind River Microbes into my sheep's watering trough. When I got around to it I was amazed. See my sheep aren't the greatest genetically yet. They had been on nothing but stockpiled grass for 2 months in the winter. No hay, grain, or inputs of any kind besides Sea-90 salt. They had some poopy butts. After one week, my sheep's butts had no new manure stuck to them! On top of that my guardian dog May's fur had came out clean, soft and shiny. I get that is hard to believe, but you just have to try it for yourself. I knew the microbial potential of what I saw, I was just amazed that I achieved it with a bug-in-a-jug. I got a taste of my own paradigm shifting medicine I always get annoyed with others not taking.
Research Findings
I immediately dug my head into Wind River Microbe's website to do research. They had figured it out. They were able to get the microbes in their formulas to go dormant to keep them shelf stable without refrigeration. They utilized bacteria that use Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) to grow your soil's native microbe population. And they had been doing it for over 20 years successfully. I saw the soil building potential, not only for conventional farmers, but gardeners, land scapers, parks and golf courses. After a few months of mulling it over, I called CJ and signed up to be an Authorized Reseller for them out here in Appalachia.
We Build Soil- Full Time
After I got my first product haul in, I brought it to my friends and family and saw incredible results. I made the decision, to go full time with Roots Cause after that. I was gaining too much fulfillment seeing the usefulness of Wind River Microbes and the Greg Judy Bale Unroller to not give it a full time effort. As of this writing, I am one week into that leap of faith into entrepreneurship.
Wrap it Up!
So why do We Build Soil? What are the symptoms I see in society that I think soil degradation are the root cause of? There are a lot to list, but off the top of my head; The physical health of our citizens from not getting the nutrition they require. The overpopulation of cities due to rural communities dying from lack of profit generation from their land. The degradation of the fish and water industries from the poisoning of our water ways. The degrading mental health of our citizens who were designed and inclined to take fulfillment from profiting off of the land. The over centralization of our agricultural sector giving too much power to "authorities" whose decisions will never be able to match the invisible hand of the natural free market economy. Those are at least a few bigger ones. If you made it this far I am humbled by your curiosity. Thank you for taking interest in my small venture. I hope I have passed along a little bit of interest in you building some soil yourself, with whatever level of land you steward.
The Future
I proposed to that wonderful woman from before and we will be getting married one month from this writing. If I have one wish for Roots Cause, it is that it can provide enough value to my community to be able to support the family I am forming. Amanda and I will be so fulfilled working with you to make everyones life a little greener. Joel Salatin always used to emphasize the power of a sacred mission. I am betting my livelihood that mine is sacred enough.