157. Grassroots Carbon is the San Antonio Startup Reinventing the Ranch Economy

WEBVTT

00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:11.439
Welcome to Big City, Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Rubard.

00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:52.619
Our guest today is Brad Tipper, the CEO of Grassroots Carbon. It's a San Antonio company started in 2021 by well-known tech veterans and local entrepreneurs, Lou Moorman and his partner, Ed Byrne. Grassroots Carbon works with ranchers in Texas and beyond to adopt regenerative grazing practices for their cattle herds to promote better grass growth and then carbon capture in the soil. Free-ranging, grass-fed cattle produce healthier meat for consumers, and ranchers see improved grass production by adopting the more natural cycle of land management. Grassroots Carbon pays the ranchers an annual fee to participate in the program.

00:00:53.259 --> 00:02:17.030
Carbon-burning corporations—think airlines, manufacturers, and others— purchase the federally recognized carbon credits from Grassroots Carbon to offset their own energy usage profiles. Well, this San Antonio company, which many may think of as a startup, has actually become a national leader in the growing carbon capture industry. And we're going to learn a lot more about that here in the next 45 minutes. Brad Tipper, welcome to Big City, Small Town. Great to be here. So tell us a little bit about you and your your personal story and background, because I know at one point you were an organic farmer in Maine, which is sort of as far away from Texas as you can get in this country. And a private equity executive before that. So how did, how did you make the transition to San Antonio and meet Lou and Ed and take the leap and say, yeah, I'll join this 2-year-old company and move my family here and get busy? I think like a lot of great stories are very unplanned. So I spent the first decade of my career in New York City working in private equity. The latter part of that was at MidOcean Partners, mid-market consumer private equity firm, really focused on clean, kind of a clean ingredient thesis, vertically integrated manufacturing thesis, and really creating better-for-you products. So was there, you know, for the first part of my career. Unfortunately, that chapter coincided with a period I call an unfortunate privilege. I lost my mother to a long battle of colon cancer.

00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:50.159
In 2010, and then, you know, got really curious about organic regenerative plant-based therapeutics and how can I take some of the commercial kind of underpinning that I learned in my years in New York City working in finance and apply that to emerging categories like regenerative and organic. So somehow found myself still living in New York City, but purchasing a farm in Maine back in 2018, post-Farm Bill, and building out what became the largest single-source hemp manufacturing facility in New England. First, actually USDA organic certified, launched about 100 products.

00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:55.379
The first clinicals with UCLA and their medical cannabis and CBD research institute.

00:02:55.379 --> 00:03:24.610
And I was— that was a really fun journey, learned a lot, kind of my first entrepreneurial sprint. Um, exited that business in late '22 and somehow found myself here in San Antonio and could not be happier. Was Maine a friendly state to that endeavor? We see what's happening in Texas right now with the lieutenant governor's push to outlaw just virtually all forms of hemp production and and sale. Yep. So you think 2018, you know, the last farm bill, you know, so all lower 48 was friendly at the time of the thesis.

00:03:25.569 --> 00:03:47.770
And so Maine, incredibly fertile for us, but importantly was actually the farming heritage that came with midcoast Maine. We were fortunate to be in a tiny little town of Prospect, largest employer, one stop sign, a streetlight, and but sat on the same aquifers as Poland Springs. And so we had just the most fertile ground for us to really be investing in soil health, right?

00:03:47.770 --> 00:03:55.229
Something that has kind of carried me through my career and organic principles that allowed us to create some of the most efficacious plant-based products in the market.

00:03:55.949 --> 00:03:59.669
Well, that's quite a leap from a suit and tie existence on Wall Street.

00:03:59.669 --> 00:04:34.089
Yes, sir. To a one-stop sign town in Maine. How did you connect to Grassroots Carbon and decide to make the move to San Antonio? My wife is originally from San Antonio and we were probably the most quintessential pandemic couple and story that you can imagine. So, and we were sharing stories about our love of the historic architecture of San Antonio. That's, you know, been a passion of hers after UT study at Parsons in New York and has always had a passion for restoration and rehabilitation of old homes. So we found ourselves falling in love with a house in Monte Vista during the pandemic.

00:04:35.129 --> 00:05:41.050
And, you know, I was puttering around after being fortunate to exit Prospect Farms and was active in an organization here called YPO, which Lou and others are members. And Young Presidents Organization. Yes, sir. And so we went from having, you know, a similar coffee conversation like this and Something in that first meeting really stuck with me is, and it continues to be the thesis of Grassroots today, that there's more carbon in soil than the entire atmosphere and above-ground biomass combined. So think about this. We've always talked about all the CO2 emissions that are happening around us atmospherically and what we can do to mitigate that. But soil, the most underserved part of this conversation, stores more of it. The first meter of soil is more than all the atmosphere and biomass combined.. And Lou really had an interesting perspective as an Ed on how can we build a thesis to capture this incredible natural resource and be able to really stand up at the forefront of, you know, our willingness and interest investing in agricultural systems. And so I was fascinated, still am. That was, you know, 2 and a half years ago and we decided to make San Antonio home. Kudos to your, what is your wife's name if we can ask? Georgie.

00:05:41.050 --> 00:06:12.019
And what's her maiden name since I'm here? Shambright. Okay, well, we're fortunate that she brought you from Maine to San Antonio. I'm fortunate that San Antonio has embraced us. It's been a— it's been quite a fun journey so far. People that are in our audience are going to know a lot less about carbon capture than they probably know about solar or wind, other renewables. And so the science behind this, you just, you know, gone over very quickly for us civilians.

00:06:12.180 --> 00:08:27.610
But obviously that's federally recognized and there's been legislation passed to enable companies like you and landowners to engage in carbon capture practices and corporations to benefit from that? What's the basic history of that that underpins the business? Yeah, no, great question. I think, you know, we've always said that sometimes the best solutions are the most simple. And at times when we're trying to solve problems, we lose our curiosity. You probably know a lot more about actually natural carbon capture than you think. It's photosynthesis. We lose a lot of our principles, right? You know, I always tell people, don't cut your grass for a few weeks. Call me up if it's taller. If it is, you're actually seeing that natural exchange, right, of CO2 and CO2 equivalent being stored by healthy grassland systems into soil. And so we, you know, for us, it's really about how do we work with ranchers to implement and scale regenerative practices that help support and enhance that opportunity for grasslands and soils to act as a natural carbon sink. We've been really fortunate to, when we look at the constituent that we serve here in Texas, right? That's about 100 million acres of ranchland. We look at the, taking a step back, the US more broadly, it's 655 million acres are actively grazed grassland systems. That's 40% of our US landmass. And that's just cattle grazing. That's cattle grazing. That's not corn production. No, that's less than 5%. And so, you know, it's the most, in our view, the most often overlooked, yet should be commanding some of a larger conversation just given the sheer size in which it is operating here at scale in the US. And so, okay, we're, we believe all solutions should have a conversation and should be not only regulated, should be invested in by corporations, but up until Grassroots Carbon, there has not been anyone really focused on the largest TAM that exists here in the States and globally, which is grazing and cattle. And so we're really fortunate to, you know, stand behind what we joke around is thousands of years of R&D to really be able to enhance this opportunity to not only store carbon in healthy soils, but have all the other incredible upstream benefits from water to biodiversity to animal health and human health all connected.

00:08:27.610 --> 00:08:45.700
And when did this become federally recognized? So, so right now in the United States, it's still a voluntary program, there's federally recognized standards and disclosure requirements. California is probably the most stringent in terms of its disclosure requirements.

00:08:45.779 --> 00:09:34.799
Our corporate participants, you know, are as far as EU, Switzerland more dominant. You're seeing a rise in regulation in Asia. In the United States, it's been much more voluntary in basis. Okay. You're working around the world. We are. That's impressive. How many countries are you in? 3 regions, North America, uh, EU, and APAC. But all of the carbon work that we're doing, all the work that we're doing to support ranching communities and ranching families is here in the US. Okay. Did you say there's 100 million acres of grazing in Texas? In Texas alone. How much of that is Grassroots Carbon, uh, so involved in it? So, so Texas is our second largest state. Um, and we're working on about 400,000 acres here in Texas with a deep commitment to scale our footprint over the next year. We're not your largest. State? We're in Nebraska.

00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:37.759
Really? Yep. Who would have guessed? Cornhuskers.

00:09:38.399 --> 00:11:32.460
Cornhuskers. Yep. But a lot of cattle grazing going on there. A lot of cattle grazing. And, you know, importantly, we work with all, all sizes of cattle operations. So everywhere from, you know, some of the larger, you know, 100,000-acre-plus cow-calf operators to small, you know, 100, 167-acre ranches here in Texas. I know from personal experience, Brad, that Texas ranchers put a great deal of value in tradition. Yes. And as do we. Are reluctant to adopt new methods, welcome outsiders, or change in general. This must be a tough sell to people to come to a rancher who engages in maybe multiple generations of cattle grazing and production and talk science with them about carbon capture and the benefits to them? Yeah, no, we always say our industry moves at the speed of trust and we've been really fortunate to invest heavily in building, you know, trusted relationships and partnerships, not only here in Texas, but across the states. You know, again, our value prop is to give ranchers access to this new market opportunity, which is being paid for stewardship, being paid for the carbon that they have currently in their soils and are able to sequester. And so we often say we're not here to take away from that heritage. We actually want to keep the cowboy on the ranch. All right. A lot of these other opportunities are doing the exact opposite, right? We want to keep working lands working because we believe that working lands are a public benefit, right? This is our food systems, right? This is our ecosystems. And without that, we don't really have a lot of economies that can be supported. And so we look at this from a place of trust. Um, you know, and we've been really fortunate from everywhere from, you know, Kingsville, Texas, the birthplace of the American cattle industry, all the way to the Pacific Northwest. We've been able to find trusted partners that share this ideology because ultimately it's a stewardship focus, right?

00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:50.669
Better stewardship leads to better soil health, leads to better financial opportunities for ranchers. And, you know, I think because we're attacking it from that opportunity of really leading with trust and following through with our value, right? You know, we're really proud, as you shared, you've quietly become the largest carbon removal company in the United States on ranching.

00:11:50.669 --> 00:12:13.629
That's impressive. And we've done so with humility and we've done so with aligned interests, right? And through that growth, there's no company in the US that's provided more financial assistance to ranchers in participating in soil programs than Grassroots Carbon. And I think through that, actually following through on that value prop has opened a lot of people's eyes to accessing this new opportunity.

00:12:13.629 --> 00:13:43.700
Keeping cowboys on the ranch sounds like a country and western hit. Can't say enough. But clearly the incentive for ranchers, many of whom are land rich and cash poor, is that this is a revenue stream that is new. And I would assume most are keenly interested in that. Is there some ratio between acreage of ranch land and annual revenue that you can share with us? We've been able to see that in South Texas, we're looking at, you know, some of our ranchers are making over $25 per acre per year. By participating in a soil carbon storage program. When you compare that now to your traditional cow-calf operation, they're making more money in stewardship and investing in grasslands health than they're doing on traditional cattle operations. And when you look at cattle plus carbon plus wildlife, you're now making ranches more economically viable than they've ever been before. And we look at these as really working within the ecosystem, not trying to, you know, be an affront to the existing system. And so we want them to continue other recreational purposes. We want to, again, keep the cowboy on the ranch and keep investment in ranches, right? Then that's really important for us. So we're not satisfied with that $25 per acre on the higher end, but we continue to kind of invest in that. And we've seen a really strong corporate receptivity because ultimately we're the market maker here, right? We're the ones who are working with corporations to build long-term structures that allow capital and financial opportunities to flow back into US grasslands, grazing systems, and cattle families.

00:13:43.700 --> 00:15:01.230
And we've been really thrilled to see their level of support for about what we're trying to build here at Grassroots. How do you prove to ranchers that, that you're prospecting, that their neighbor who you're working with has captured more carbon under your program than they were previously capturing using traditional grazing methods? How do you measure that? The best marketing that exists for us is actually the, just the health of the cattle and the health of that grazing system. Uh, you know, we were in, uh, Bay City just a few weeks ago. And at the time, you know, that ranch had not seen a drop of rain in 4 months, yet they had thriving forage, right? They were still running cattle and they did not have to destock. Shared fence line, their neighbor had been supplementing with feed and hay for the last several months and actually expensive, very expensive and had to destock. But by implementing and scaling these regenerative grazing practices, we're making that ranch economically viable and we're supporting thriving ecosystems and, you know, even a guy like New York City, those came to Texas just 3 years ago, can clearly see, right, that this is a healthier, more thriving ranching system. And nothing is more powerful than the eye test, right? And we've been really proud that we have ranchers in our program that want to celebrate and show that. And so their neighbors may not call us directly, but they'll ask their— they'll ask Bob, right?

00:15:01.230 --> 00:17:33.009
They'll ask Cory, you know, hey, so what are you doing, right? Because I've had to destock, or I've been supplementing,, for the last several months and gosh, we're, we're getting the same amount of rain yet you look like you're doing great. And over here, right, we're, we're struggling. Um, and for us, there's, we wanna make sure that that ranch is no longer struggling. We wanna give them the confidence to adopt these new systems and the assurances that they're not gonna fail. And so we do that with a, a tremendous amount of technical assistance on the ground. So seeing is believing, but is there a more technical way for, um, measuring actual carbon capture that allows you to differentiate how efficient one rancher is being compared to the next, because it's up to the rancher to, to actually live up to the practices of regenerative farming, regenerative ranching and grazing. It's one thing to embrace it, but it's another thing to actually carry it out. Right. And so I'm sure some are better at it than others. That's exactly right. So, you know, every ranch, when they enter our program, we build out a very comprehensive baseline understanding of what is their current carbon stock. And we do that with some of the most advanced soil science methods in the world. And so we take exclusively meter-deep soil cores and we take enough soil cores on that ranch to understand at a statistical confidence how much carbon actually exists there today. What is their plant species diversification? What has been their historical grazing management approach? And then we bring in a third-party expert and we work with them across the United States, everyone from Dr. Alan Williams to Jeff Goodwin with Texas A&M, and we help design the most optimal grazing system for that specific ranch. Um, and, you know, through that we'll do a lot of advanced, uh, modeling about, you know, with the introduction of these new grazing systems. For us, it's a really heavy emphasis on increased rest periods and increased rotations. Um, what does that impact have on the overall plant species health? Right? Because you can't always see carbon, but you can see the result of carbon, right? You can see more thriving and healthy grasslands. You can see the forage availability. You can see, honestly, the overall health and body score condition of the cattle. And, but we do design grazing systems and do a lot of modeling, whether we remote sensing and biogeochemical modeling. I stand behind about 7 now PhDs and advanced soil scientists that have specific domain expertise for every key land resource region here in the States. Essentially all that is a fancy way of saying like we have data-driven insights that we feedback to the rancher to make sure that they're always driving to the best results, not only for their cattle operation, but also for their carbon opportunity. Because as we shared in that example in South Texas, Ranchers are being able to cash flow more of their stewardship through carbon than they are through every, any other revenue stream on that ranch.

00:17:33.009 --> 00:18:08.349
So I don't know how many acres you have to own, Brad, to tell people that you have a Texas ranch, but what's the minimum size that somebody could have to work with your company? I assume somebody that has an 80-acre ranch outside Fredericksburg is not— We would love to talk to them. Really? Yep. Ultimately, one of the biggest value props that we're looking at is a ranch is never out of pocket to participate. And that's important for two key reasons. When you just look at the, you know, the economic environment of farming and ranching in the States, right? The, you know, the USDA just reported that the ranching farming industry has $550 billion in debt load.

00:18:08.349 --> 00:18:56.470
Just let that sit in. I mean, that's a massive financial burden that's existing on our food systems and that's acceptable. And Tom Vilsack, who's a proud alum of Hamilton College where I'm a graduate, one of his last reports was that 90% of farmers and ranchers require off-ranch income. To be able to sustain their agricultural system. That's 9 out of 10 people. I mean, that, that is, we should all be furious with that, right? Again, that's, that is our food systems that are basically the ranch economy is not a viable economy with, without, without outside infusion of revenue. That's exactly. And that's, that's why we exist. And so we believe every ranch should be out, it should not be out of pocket to participate because of that macroeconomic environment. And so, you know, for us, size just really determines the speed in which we're able to enroll that ranch in the program.

00:18:56.470 --> 00:22:13.339
But I can work, we're, you know, gladly, um, and willing to partner with 8-acre ranches in Fredericksburg or 100,000-acre ranches in the Sandhills of Nebraska. That's really impressive. Are you at risk from, I mean, it's interesting that here you are the largest carbon capture company in the United States in Texas. Last legislative session in 2025, state elected officials went out of their way to increase inducements and benefits for the oil and gas industry. It was almost toxic approach to the, to the renewable energy industry where they eliminated any incentives for, for companies in that space to come to Texas. So I would think you're a little bit at risk. And I just wonder whether or not Do you rely on the Trump administration to, to, to allow this, or is there anything the federal or state government could do that would undermine your business? A really great point. And again, you know, I would say from a personal perspective, I'm a maximalist, right? I'm a huge supporter of all forms of the engineered solutions and natural solutions, whether they be from forestry to commodity crops to renewables. I would say, you know, there is limited financial resources available to support carbon capture opportunities. And unfortunately, the industry, you know, this time last year actually pitted what we're trying to do in soil carbon against those renewable resources. And so, you know, when you had an IRA, when you had actually a tax incentive of $85 a ton to do some of those renewable projects, that was funding that was no longer going to grazing or soil projects. With a lot of that unwinding, we're seeing increased corporate investment in agricultural-based, nature-based projects like Grassroots Carbon. And so it's been a, you know, fortunately for us, a very big unlock to corporate demand. And we're quite proud to work with some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. You know, it, because they're willing to invest heavily into stable natural ecosystems. And some of them have some of the, you know, the brightest soil scientists in the world because they need to know grazing systems, they need to know reclamation, they need to know remediation. And so they see what we're building here. And they look at it as one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and durable carbon solutions that exist globally. And so we're really fortunate to be aligned with some of those leading partners. So my question almost sounds like it was— it's wrong, but that the fact is that you're poised for remarkable growth under the current, you know, conditions in the country that— yeah, we were fortunate to always take a grassroots carbon perspective and we've always taken a quality-first approach, which has insulated ourselves from a lot of the more policy dynamics. And probably the most enjoyable part of my job is you'll have constituents from Redwood in Seattle coming down to Falfurrias, Texas, and all believing ideologically they disagree on everything else in the world, but they believe that we should be investing in grazing and cattle and grasslands and soil health. And what a remarkable story, right? That we're seeing coastal investments here in Texas and across grasslands across the country because we all know that again, a stable natural ecosystem is paramount.

00:22:13.579 --> 00:22:20.779
Soil health, right, is something that we should all be investing in. It can help corporations meet their carbon goals and it can help families stay on their ranch, right?

00:22:20.779 --> 00:22:35.480
Because it's not just about carbon, it's about all the water outcomes that this supports, the biodiversity uplift and the wildlife habitats that it's also enhancing. How do you, how do you sell yourself? Let's just say I'm a rancher in Montana. Am I, how am I going to know about this company?

00:22:35.480 --> 00:24:42.339
Relatively small when you look at the larger potential market of acreage in the United States that's under grazing. So I'm leasing out a ranch in Montana and I'm using federal lands that I'm leasing to ranch. Would I, would I do business with you or even know about you, or how would you approach that? Sector of the industry? We've been fortunate to be thoughtful in our kind of our growth and our footprint. So while we are San Antonio-based, you know, just a few short steps from, you know, the studio, our reach has now expanded to 22 states. So we have boots on the ground, grassroots employees in Montana, in Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon, right? Really investing because again, if we want to participate in the communities in which we're trying to serve, we need to be active in those communities as well. And so we're really fortunate to have both grassroots employees as well as representatives of our business in all kind of major ranching and cattle communities. And the reality is, while it's a huge land use region, right, 655 million acres, it's still a small industry and your reputation is paramount. And again, we invest really heavily in building trust. And I think if you go to those communities in Montana and Wyoming, the industry itself may not always be the most trusted, but when grassroots comes up, we want to always be represented with the highest integrity in the market. So word of mouth is important. It's everything. You know, Scaleworks, which is Lou and Ed's umbrella company— I kind of consider it their umbrella company— they do a lot of B2B acquisitions and turn companies around and then sell them. Is that what's going to happen with your company at some point? Is it such an attractive target for someone much bigger? Maybe perhaps somebody with a really heavy carbon profile is going to say, you know, we ought to own this company. And by, by doing that, we're going to scale it up in a way that they'll never do out of San Antonio. Yeah, I mean, I think it's always reasonable and thoughtful to think at a certain scale and size, there's going to be a better owner and operator of this business. That day is not today.

00:24:42.339 --> 00:26:25.289
Again, you know, people like myself have relocated their families and are building families here in San Antonio, and we're committed to building our San Antonio-first presence. But again, if we're successful, which, you know, we hope to continue to quietly be, you know, the largest and most scalable carbon business in the United States, if not the world, at scale, there's going to be, right, there's another operator, another owner for this business. And, you know, that's the thesis of a fund, right? We have a certain lifecycle in which we can build and scale this business and make it attractive to an owner that day. Again, hopefully we're working really hard to increase the potential for that, you know, the scalability of this business well beyond myself or anyone else in the business. But, you know, there's a lot of work to be done until we're having those conversations. This may seem like an unlikely opportunity from your perspective, but my wife Monica is very involved in the Wildscaping Urban movement, and you run into a lot of resistance there, particularly from neighborhood associations that see nothing wrong with using non-native turf. Very expensive, costly, water-intensive irrigation systems to keep that turf alive in the Texas climate. Is there an opportunity here for people saying, I want to let my grass grow in the urban environment, not only to attract pollinators and create a more natural habitat, but because it's increasing carbon capture? Or would that be so incidental in a city that I'm, I'm daydreaming? I don't think there's anything incidental. You know, scale really is the conversation. But no, I mean, I think there's, we're still unwinding a lot of cultural misunderstandings of cattle and carbon, right?

00:26:25.450 --> 00:28:50.719
You know, make no mistake, you know, cattle is still one of the most vilified words in any climate conversation, let alone soil and grazing. You know, it's a, we're fortunate now to be the largest, but most people have still not heard about us in a global conversation because, you know, we're trying to reverse this understanding of conventional systems that have infiltrated in cultural ideologies for decades now. You know, success with successful marketing campaigns of plant a tree, not successful marketing campaigns of keep a living root, right? And so we do have a lot of work in front of us in terms of how do we build more of a community and cultural understanding of why it's so important to invest in grasslands and grazing. I can tell again, born and raised in New York City, that wasn't part of the cultural vernacular to talk about why it's important to protect our working lands, right? And our private lands. I think you're seeing some, you know, cultural attention through the Taylor Sheridans of the world, bringing some attention to a very heritage-focused industry. But I still think if you were to poll the average San Antonio citizen, this is not something that they've heard of. They're investing in and they're, and they're not aware about how best to support. Neither are corporations that are, they're looking at the space. And so again, we're, we're really thrilled with the momentum that we have, but we know there's a tremendous amount of work in front of us to, to kind of win hearts and minds and understanding of what we're trying to build here. Well, now I have to ask you, is Taylor Sheridan on board with regenerative ranching or is he an opponent? Taylor Sheridan is definitely a person that we need to continue to influence, right? And again, I always go back to, it's about building trust. You have a politically adept way of answering questions, which I admire, and I'm not trying to pin you down politically, but President Trump has called climate change a hoax. Those are his exact words. It's a hoax. So do you find yourself and Lou and Ed and others that are in this every day in, in Texas, which has been such an opponent statewide of climate remediation, do you find yourself constantly having to defend what you do for a living or arguing with the people over whether science is real? Yeah, every day. And I joke around, it doesn't matter what I believe in personally. It believes in how we can, again, what I do believe in and what I hope most of our, the ranchers and families that we serve believe in is the importance of working lands.

00:28:50.719 --> 00:29:09.539
And so ideologically we can disagree about a number of different things. I would say from the Trump administration, from the NRCS, from those officials in senior agricultural positions, right? There is a mutual trust and understanding, right? That we have a shared interest here. We may be doing it for very divergent motivations, right?

00:29:09.539 --> 00:29:32.019
Some of us may be coming at it from a deeply passionate climate perspective. Others may be doing it for a multi-generational working lands perspective, right? It doesn't matter. It's that we all believe that there should be continued investments there. And so we've been, you know, we are operating kind of navigating all of those kind of policy and sentimental shifts.

00:29:32.019 --> 00:29:38.240
I could say our business would be growing exponentially more if we didn't withdraw from the Paris Treaty.

00:29:39.579 --> 00:30:11.650
You know, and we're always looking for creative solutions to be able to capitalize because I can tell you there's much more corporate demand for what we're trying to build here. If we had a more favorable position on, on climate, carbon and related policy. But despite those headwinds, we're Again, very encouraged to be now the largest business here in the US generating verified carbon removals. And so I get excited about any kind of sentiment shifts towards our favor. But until then, we're going to continue to work hard and impact families here in Texas and beyond.

00:30:11.650 --> 00:31:16.210
So we're running— we're running out of time, Brad. But if someone is watching us on YouTube or listening in on one of the other platforms and their family has ranch land, they can go to, I assume, your company's website and connect with you that way or what do you suggest? Please, whether a corporation, a rancher, or honestly just someone just interested in learning more about what we're trying to build and inspire here at Grassroots, I would encourage you to visit grassrootscarbon.com, contact us. And again, we're excited to continue to expand our reach, our commitment, and our passion for really spurring more investment into ranching and regenerative ranching here in Texas and beyond. And what if a, what if a family says, we don't, we don't, you know, we don't have a cattle herd, but we're out farther west than the Hill Country or the Edwards Plateau and we have sheep or goats, or we have a ranch in the Hill Country and we don't have, you know, we have a wildlife exemption and we don't have any domestic animals on it. Can, can those individuals do business with you or is it strictly cattle? No, I'm actually so glad you brought that up.

00:31:16.210 --> 00:31:26.539
So we work with all ruminants, so all of the animals, whether it be, you know, most of our focus is on traditional cow-calf cattle operations, you know, stockers up through the Great Plains.

00:31:27.259 --> 00:32:47.380
But actually, it would be shameless of me not to plug, we work with some of the largest sheep and wool producers here in the States. And a few of those sheep ranches that we're working with through Shanicle Wool actually just got some great press earlier this week as they're supplying all the wool to Ralph Lauren for the US Olympic opening ceremony on Friday. And so when you see the Team USA proudly walking out in the opening ceremony ways, you'll see 100% U.S. wool sourced from grassroots carbon partner ranches. And so again, the reach of what we're doing is not just strictly in the cattle industry. It's, we're working with sheep and bison, you know, incredible bison ranch just up the road here in Gillespie County, right? Roam Ranch, Taylor and Katie Collins have known for Epic and now Force of Nature, right? So we're working with all types of grazers. And frankly, what we see with some of our more tenured regenerative ranchers is they become multi-species grazers, right? Because cows and cattle are going to have a different selective grazing behavior than sheep and goats. And so you'll see a lot of different grazing systems designed around multiple species and multiple animal impacts on that, on that ranch. Well, congratulations on all your growth and so quietly building a nationally transcending company. That's, I think it's, you've flown below the radar.

00:32:47.380 --> 00:34:11.739
Up till now in the city and the state. And that ought to change soon as, as, uh, people start to get, um, you know, more acquainted with you guys and what you're doing. We, we appreciate it. Again, for us, it's— we want to continue to inspire trust through, through track record. And it's, it's about, again, working alongside, uh, you know, those, those ranching and cattle families, again, in Texas. And it's continuing to earn those trusted corporations. And, and we do it through not just words, right? But through our commitment, you know, I think some of the things that we're most proud about is, yes, we're now the largest carbon removal business in the US, but what that's allowed us to do is we've been able to, you know, finance over $40 million back to ranching families across the US. Let that set in. I mean, we're now the largest private, you know, financer of soil health programs and systems, which is remarkable. And through that, we're doing it all with, I'd like to think, the highest integrity approach. We have over 30,000 unique meter-deep soil cores. It's the largest soil library. And, you know, in every step of the way, we're getting better. And as we continue to advance the system, that's just allowing us to be able to expand and scale our impact back to ranching. And so we're excited to be at this moment. Again, we'll continue to be thoughtful in terms of our growth and our conversations in the community, but we're excited for many more of these conversations and bringing attention to not just grassroots carbon, but importantly, the work that we're doing on the ground.

00:34:11.980 --> 00:34:23.260
So preserving ranch culture and heritage in Texas and beyond. Exactly. Yeah. Arvin Brad, Brad Tipper, CEO. Thanks for coming on to Big City Small Town and keeping the cowboy on the ranch. There it is.

00:34:23.260 --> 00:35:27.750
Thanks so much for sharing the story. As we approach this podcast's 150th episode later this year, we'll be adding some new sponsors that reflect the robust growth we've enjoyed this year after welcoming producer and co-host Corey Ames to our enterprise, launching our YouTube channel and our weekly Monday Musings newsletter. If you do not yet subscribe to my free digital commentary, I hope you'll do so now by going to our Big City Small Town website and clicking on newsletters. The local media presence in San Antonio has been steadily shrinking since 2007. Believe me, I've experienced it personally, first as the executive editor at the San Antonio Express-News from 1997 to 2011, and then as we launched the Rivard Report in 2012, where I worked until 2022. If your company or organization would like to consider supporting our local journalism and programming as a sponsor, please drop me a line via social media or to my email at robertjrivard@gmail.com.

00:35:27.989 --> 00:35:56.489
Thank you. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Big City Small Town. Please share this episode with friends and colleagues, and if you haven't already, sign up for Monday Musings, my weekly newsletter. Just go to bigcitysmalltown.com and add your email. Big City Small Town is brought to you by Western Urban, building a city our children want to call home, and by Geekdom, where startups are born and smart ideas become businesses. Thanks to Corey Ames of Ensemble Texas for the production of this show. We will see you next week.