The Political Plate: Unpacking Power, Policy, and Our Food

Our food choices are deeply intertwined with the political landscape, yet many of us are unaware of the powerful forces shaping what we eat. In a recent episode of the Real Men Eat Plants podcast, Bryan and co-hosts Jim O'Quinn and Geoff Palmer, and special guest Ella Magers dissected this complex relationship, revealing the ways in which politics influences our food system, the environment, and animal welfare. Today, we bring you the key takeaways from their insightful discussion and empower you to make informed choices.   

The Erosion of Transparency:

This episode highlighted the concerning trend of declining transparency in food production and marketing. As Jim O'Quinn, with his background in branding and advertising, pointed out, the industry often employs deceptive tactics to manipulate consumer perceptions. From misleading labels like "free-range" to a lack of disclosure about animal treatment, consumers are increasingly kept in the dark.   

Policy and Power:

Government policies and subsidies play a significant role in shaping the food system, often favoring large corporations and industrial agriculture. This can lead to environmental damage, reduced biodiversity, and the prioritization of profit over ethical considerations. The guests on the podcast emphasized the need to hold policymakers accountable and advocate for change.   

The Climate Connection:

The environmental impact of our food choices is undeniable. Animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and water pollution. The guests stressed the urgency of transitioning to a more sustainable, plant-based food system to mitigate climate change.   

Animal Welfare and Ethics:

The ethical treatment of animals in the food industry is a growing concern. The podcast shed light on the cruel practices often hidden from consumers, such as those in the dairy industry described by Geoff Palmer. Ella Magers and Jim O'Quinn emphasized the importance of compassion and the power of living by example to promote change.   

Empowerment and Action:

Despite the challenges, the podcast guests offered a message of hope and empowerment. They highlighted the power of individual choices to influence the market through "voting with our dollars" and supporting ethical brands. They also emphasized the importance of education, activism, and staying informed to drive systemic change.   

Conclusion:

The Real Men Eat Plants podcast episode provided a comprehensive overview of the complex relationship between politics and our food system. By understanding the challenges and embracing our power as consumers and advocates, we can work towards a more sustainable, ethical, and just future for all.

Keywords:

Plant-based, vegan, food system, politics, policy, environment, animal welfare, transparency, sustainable living, ethical food, consumerism, activism, health, nutrition, climate change, corporate responsibility.

Key Episode Themes:

• The political influence on the food system.   

• Lack of transparency in food production and marketing.   

• The environmental impact of food choices.   

• Ethical considerations of animal agriculture.   

• Empowerment through informed choices and activism.   

• The role of plant-based living in creating positive change.   

Subscribe to the Real Men Eat Plants podcast on YouTube or your favorite streaming platform today and stay connected with our ongoing exploration of the complex plant-based business world.

🔗 Useful Links:

Visit Jim O'Quinn's website: https://www.broprovegans.com/

Visit Geoff Palmer's website: https://cleanmachineonline.com/

Visit Ella Mager's website: https://sexyfitvegan.com/about-ella/

Episode’s Transcript

Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.

Bryan (00:02)

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Real Men Eat Plants podcast. This is where we keep it plant-based, punchy, and politically aware today. I'm Bryan, and today we're digging into something deeper than the soil. We're talking about power, policy, and how the political machine is shaping what's on your plate. So in today's episode, we're hoping to discuss the current political landscape and what it has done to the food system, the environment, and especially to the animals. Spoiler.

Spoiler alert, it's ⁓ not so good. But we're not here to rant. We're also here to try and find the cracks of light and ⁓ get into it here. So without further ado, I appreciate everybody joining us. I want to do a quick round of intros and just sort of say I had a baby last year and she is turning one year old next month. And so excited. But that did cause me to slow down a little bit on the podcast.

Jim O'Quinn (00:42)

you

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (00:50)

Yeah.

Jim O'Quinn (00:54)

Thanks.

Bryan (00:59)

Life gets in the way with the family and stuff, but we're back and we'll be doing our best to throw out one episode or maybe more every month so If you're new here to the podcast,

Jim O'Quinn (01:09)

you

Bryan (01:10)

we're trying to really find that cross-section where plant-based living meets purpose-driven conversation Where we're trying to tackle culture climate health and ethics through the lens of food So with that I will do a quick intro here

And welcome to the show, Ella Magers. She's a powerhouse in the plant-based world and a dedicated vegan since age 15. Everybody beat here except Geoff, maybe. ⁓ And Ella is the founder of Sexy Fit Vegan and the host of the Rise and Thrive podcast and a wellness coach who's been featured on the Today Show and a whole bunch of other cool places. So welcome to the show, Ella.

Ella Magers (01:52)

Well, thanks for having me, Bryan. I'm so excited to be here.

Bryan (01:56)

And next up is Jim O'Quinn, a veteran advocate and boots on the ground organizer. Jim has decades of experience in community health, food justice, and some other grassroots campaigns. And welcome to the show, Jim. You are also connected with the Bro Pro Vegans, right?

Jim O'Quinn (02:13)

Thank you very much.

Yeah, I'm the founder of Bro Pro Vegans. Yeah. Thank you.

Bryan (02:21)

Love it.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (02:22)

Happy Anniversary!

Bryan (02:27)

And last but not least, Geoff Palmer. How many years now is it, Geoff?

40 year vegan. That's right. And Geoff is the founder and CEO of Clean Machine, a 100 % plant-based fitness nutrition company and ⁓ does a whole bunch of other cool stuff on behalf of vegans. So thank you, Geoff, for being here and we appreciate you.

Jim O'Quinn (02:35)

Hahaha!

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (02:54)

was great beer.

Bryan (02:57)

I wanted to tie it up with the food system first and foremost, you know, and we can start with the foundation around that. You know, I think transparency is being gutted from how food is produced, how it's marketed. And I think we're seeing fewer rules around what producers must disclose, especially when it comes to how the animals are treated or how the food was sourced. But I think, you know,

The twist is if you eat the plants, I feel like you're kind of sidestepping that and just clean, traceable, ethical food. So I got a few questions for each of us just to try and unpack this topic a little bit more. So Geoff, I'm going to let you go first, set the stage for us. When I was trying to prepare for this episode, was saying like your brand.

Jim O'Quinn (03:29)

Yeah.

you

you

Bryan (03:51)

is really built on the integrity and transparency. And I know that's what you talk about on a regular basis. So what do you see are the biggest challenges with when ethical brands try to compete with corporations hiding behind these loopholes and all that kind of stuff?

Jim O'Quinn (03:56)

you

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (04:09)

Yeah, so first let's back out even a little bit further to the macro level. ⁓ Right now we are seeing an unprecedented sense of greed and selfishness. ⁓ More billionaires in this world than ever before. ⁓ It's greed gone wild. And it's self-serving. I see two personalities on this planet. Those who are interested in service to others.

and those who are interested in solely service to self. Now, when you look at all of nature, including our own physical biology, all of our cells work together, collaboratively and cooperatively. If our cell goes rogue and says, I'm gonna just thrive at the expense of all other cells, we call that a cancer cell, and it's deadly to the organism.

That's the macro and micro is the same. When we see this self-service to self at the cost of every other being, including animals or other people that are not like us or other people from another country or whatever imaginary boundary we create in our minds, that we start behaving like a cancer cell. And we need to get back to our original design.

Jim O'Quinn (05:35)

you

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (05:35)

our own biology and how the rest of nature,

including the astrophysical universe itself, all works cooperatively. And we need to start adopting that before we become the cancer that wipes out life on this planet.

Jim O'Quinn (05:53)

you

Bryan (05:54)

Very well said. Maybe I shouldn't have let you go first. You said you have an eloquent way of describing that. ⁓ Thank you very much. Ella, it's going to be a tough act to follow. you know, I was thinking about this, like even when I trained my mom, like she buys the black beans that are 20 cents cheaper. But I point out to her they have 20 percent sodium in them versus the ones that are 20 cents more of zero or three or four percent sodium.

Jim O'Quinn (05:57)

Hahaha

Ella Magers (05:57)

Yeah.

Bryan (06:23)

you know, just to chase the, the salt equation on that front. like, I look at it as like the deception that sort of baked into the system, you know, especially around like what's net natural or humane and those things, you know, free range eggs and misleading things like that. Like what guidance do you give the people that you work with as they try to align their food choices with their health and their values?

Ella Magers (06:50)

Yeah, one of the first mantras that I asked my clients to adopt is I approach myself and the world with curiosity and compassion. And because I feel like if we can come from this fundamental place of getting really curious, of challenging the beliefs that we think are our own, but they're actually programmed beliefs that are not our own. Right. And we just don't know it.

So if we can start to challenge our subconscious programming, the beliefs that were programmed into us, usually, you know, when we're very young and we just hold on to those often until the day we die, as opposed to taking a step back and saying, hey, maybe these aren't my own beliefs. Maybe these were, ⁓ you know, all programmed into me by the influencers in my life, my parents, my teachers, the media.

And now more than ever with social media that is just feeding us confirmation bias of whatever is already programmed into us. So my first kind of recommendation to people is to kind of let some of that go. You know, we're so ego driven if we can let that go and just get really curious and so that we're not just constantly confirming the biases we already have, if that makes sense.

Bryan (08:18)

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, very, very well said. And and Jim, like, I guess what what's your reaction to Alan and Geoff's description of some of that stuff and like, how does the lack of transparency hit hardest in the communities and the places that you're you're actively involved in?

Jim O'Quinn (08:42)

Well, it's quite interesting because when you look at all of this, brainwashing that has been going on from day one, I've been a part of that. Unfortunately, my background is from the branding and graphic design and advertising industry. And now I wasn't directly involved in some of these things like milk makes a body strong kind of crap, but all said and done, the whole idea has always been to

navigate people's minds, thinking and beliefs and corralling them into a complete different way of thinking that's natural to them. You might think the sky is blue, but my job back then was to tell you it's actually purple. If you really look, and this is why, and I'll give you a whole bunch of examples, and it makes them think to question, wow, maybe it is purple. And that's what's happened throughout the longest time because people have been told

that the meat is good, don't question it. It's what our ancestors have been doing for the longest time. It's the right thing to do. But what I love hearing now and seeing now is, to your point, Ella, the curiosity, the defiance, the people who saying, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you've been telling me the wrong thing. This is a lie. And I'm stepping forward and I'm saying this is wrong. So these people are becoming...

enlightened, becoming awake and aware of what's happening in the lies and the scams that are going on with regards to the food that they're eating. It's almost being, it's a strong match of wills. You've got people who are trying to do the right thing, educating, like that's what we're doing here, to educate people and clearly show them the right side of the way to live. And then you have these industries that are getting stronger.

And the restraints are coming off. They're able to find every loophole under the sun to just go wild west and do whatever the hell they want. And it's really, really scary because, you know, they can blatantly lie on a package now and have very little repercussions because of that. So it makes our job a whole lot more challenging to take that away and say, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Listen, we've been trying to show you that that's a lie. This is proof. And that's how it goes. So the one thing that I like to use as a technique to help educate people and make it clear to them, live by example and just show, listen, 28 years vegan, strong, healthy, fit, happy. All those people saying this way of life, a healthy vegan lifestyle is wrong. They're wrong. Cause I'm living proof. Geoff.

Living proof, Ella, living proof. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. We're all there. It's fantastic. And that's where our message, should lead by example.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (11:35)

Thank you.

Bryan (11:48)

Thank you, Jim. I appreciate that. I don't know if my computer is playing nicely or not. So can you guys hear me? OK. OK. ⁓ I think it was catching up, but I I've caught most of what you said. So I apologize for that on my side with the computer. If it happens again, I may need to drop off and come back in on that front. So like we know, you know,

The food system we know is being impacted by the government and the decisions that they're rolling out as they subsidize different pieces of this and set the laws and the standards and stuff. like, what are like the action items that we should do or be different? Like, I know just a couple that I looked up was, you know, local harvest. I think it's localharvest.org.

where you can buy from verified local producers, buy from verified vegans, those kinds of things. You can support like foodispower.org and support the plant-based watchdog organizations that are helping double check this. Do you guys have some other really tangible things that we can do as we explore the food side of this and make sure that...

You know, what can I do today? What can I be watching out for as I go to the grocery store? How can I, you know, influence it the way I want to? Do you have some tangible things that you each do perhaps day to day?

Jim O'Quinn (13:26)

I can go first if you want. So voting with your dollars, we all know is the most powerful tool we all have in our toolbox. you were talking about this earlier, Bryan, when it comes to buying our, well, it was more along the lines of, you know, how are we going to show the big government and even big farm and all those different huge organizations where we stand. And I think by

Bryan (13:27)

Either way.

Jim O'Quinn (13:55)

boating with our dollars, what we're buying is going to be the clear way to do that. And we bypass the whole issue of the animal products. If no one's buying the animal products anymore, it's almost like it's not relevant anymore because they're going to not have a demand for it. They're not going to produce them. So my point is just focus on helping educate people how incredible and diverse

the plant world is and what you can do with it and that there is nothing lacking. Every vitamin, macro, micronutrient you could possibly need is a part of every plant you're going to eat. And it's as simple as that. And just show how much fun and flavorful and incredible it is. And then the benefits for the body, how strong, fit, energetic, healthy you're going to be just by all doing all those things. And here in Canada, where our

opportunities to go to a local farmers market are short lived because it's winter here almost all the bloody time it seems. So we have a very short window to go and enjoy those opportunities but we can still keep buying them from the grocery stores. And even if you are unfortunately having to buy from huge ⁓ farm giants, farming giants,

Nonetheless, if you're buying these company from companies that are just producing massive amounts of soybeans, okay, I'm cool with that. You're not buying them because they're feeding cows anymore. You're buying them because they're making them for humans. Good job. It's that type of thing. So it's just keep promoting to buy the plant-based stuff.

Bryan (15:36)

Love it.

Ella Magers (15:37)

Yeah, I think whenever, for those of us that are privileged enough to be able to make choices like buying from fully vegan companies, going to fully vegan restaurants, for those of us who have that privilege, for sure that's something that I do my best to support fully plant-based companies and businesses.

You could get vegan tattooed all over your body like me. And it's like you said, to your point, Jim, just being a living example, right? And I got the tattoos in part because now I don't have to say it. Like I can be me and why probably Geoff, you wear the vegan shirts all the time, right? Like, so we get to be, and I think part of this is being the most healthy, strong, fit,

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (16:22)

Thank

Ella Magers (16:29)

and joyful people, which is really challenging in this political climate, in this day and age, when there's just so much division, so much hatred, so much more hate, I don't know, hatred, towards vegans, right? And I really think we can't meet that with more hate and more criticism. We've got to meet that with compassion and being the best humans that we can be.

Jim O'Quinn (16:31)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ella Magers (16:58)

and representing what we think it means to be vegan, which is compassion for all life. And the most challenging is having compassion for the people that are causing the suffering. But if we let that get in our heads, if we don't have the emotional tools to deal with that, and we've got to help each other out, ⁓ vegans, to help each other process that. And this is, I've got my master's degree in social work. This is something that...

that I help people have the tools to do because it's tough. It's really tough. It's a scary time. so I think having that wherewithal to do what we need to do to take care of ourselves and spread peace and love and joy and all the things that veganism really represents is really important.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (17:46)

And for me, growing up, know, biocyte majoring college, both my parents taught at the university level. So teaching and science geeking is in my blood. I love it. It's, it's candy to me. I'll stay up all night reading studies because they're just so fascinating to me. But you know, in this age of sharing information, which I do daily on my posts, the latest research and health and nutrition and fitness, especially in the plant-based things.

is exciting, but at the same time we have this orchestrated, well-funded animal and industry ⁓ misinformation and even paid for industry funded science papers being written that are just blatantly false. They're blatantly biased. not even trying to hide anymore. It's just because they're feeding to people's bias.

I want to believe that study and not that one. Instead of looking at critical, we've lost this sense of critical thinking. And trying to appeal to that when people are so leaning into their own bias, they'll gravitate towards the misinformation that is being spread by these industries. And it's marketing. It's not science. It's marketing. It's getting people to continue to buy their products.

Bryan (18:46)

Mm-hmm.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (19:15)

rather than move away from it. Now, there's a great app. I think technology is actually gonna save us. And it's weird for me to say that because I've been a bit of a troglodyte most of my life, back to nature boy. But in this case, I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I was reading about an app today that you can take a picture of your food and it will tell you the nutritional value of everything. It'll tell you to say, hey,

remove that piece of meat and add some more vegetables or some berries and you're going to get better health results for it. It's not bias. It's focusing on what does the body need? What are your nutritional requirements? What are in the elements of the food that you're eating? Analyze that data and give you the facts. Now, I think this can help people.

whether they're saying, I wanna be healthier or I wanna age slower or I want to lose fat or I want to gain muscle, it's going to tell them the right things for our human physiology. So with the advent of quantum computing, we can basically realistically take every known cellular function in the human body and then put that data, every known...

chemical, phytochemical, every nutrient in nature and put that in and know how that's going to respond. Quantum computing is going to tell us that we are not only herbivores, but that we will excel when we fine tune and optimize an herbivore diet in whole food plant-based nutrition. It's going to end the debate. It won't be this study against this study.

It will be quantum computing that can spit out information and do calculations, trillions of calculations within seconds. So taking all of the available data that we have about our entire physiology and all of what's in nature and match it correctly. And it's going to tell us the truth, the truth that humans are herbivores and we will excel and repel.

disease states by putting the right food in our body. It will end this debate. No more carnivore diet, no more keto diet, no more plant-based diet, just the human diet. And that's will be the truth. I believe that, mark my words, it's going to happen.

Jim O'Quinn (21:41)

Mm-hmm.

Bryan (21:46)

So fund your local quantum computer club and help drive that forward so you can get there a little quicker. I still think Ella wins on this one. We need more vegan t-shirts, vegan tattoos, and love on this planet for all of us to. But yeah, no, excellent. Awesome, awesome points. Thank you all. I wanted to switch over to the climate. I think I was reading something about methane regulations were slashed. The EPA is trying to overturn.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (21:49)

Yeah.

Jim O'Quinn (21:50)

you

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (21:59)

Okay.

Bryan (22:14)

the authority to regulate carbon pollution, who's winning? It's really the oil companies and factory farming and who's losing? I feel like it's the rest of us. But what's the silver lining that I'm looking for these cracks of light and stuff? think that individual states, startups, us as individuals are trying to step in and the movement is heading more and more every single day towards the plant-based lifestyle.

whether politicians like it or not, it's gonna happen. maybe Ella, if I start with you, you're coaching people on their wellness journey, you know, and that journey connects people to these bigger systems that we're all living on. We only got one planet, right? Like, how do you help people understand their power to impact the climate through their daily food choices?

Ella Magers (23:06)

Well, you know, I think this is the power of some of these documentaries too, ⁓ just for people that are interested. And you know, I'm always meeting people where they are. So some people come to me saying, you know, everyone wants to be fit and healthy, but some people that's their main motivation. So we start there. And what happens is when people start to make the changes and start to move toward the plant-based living,

they kind of let their guard down, like defenses down about ⁓ the repercussions of eating meat and animal products. And so then, you know, and everybody's wants this planet to be here for a long time to come. ⁓ So like I said, I'm meeting people where they are. And then when, if they're interested in the environment, then we start to explore, you know, wow, you're making these choices and look how it's going to affect the environment. And here are some great.

documentaries to watch. find that ⁓ Cowspiracy, Seaspiracy, Eating Our Way to Extinction is another one that I don't know if a lot of people have seen that one, but I think that's one of the really amazing one. ⁓ So those are three documentaries I'll recommend because sometimes it's just helpful to hear it through ⁓ that sort of lens as well. So we start there.

Bryan (24:24)

I love it. I agree completely on that front. I want us to outlive the length of time that the dinosaurs were here. You know, they were here for millions of years doing great. Kind of a thing. We've only been here, however many thousands of years, but we're not doing very well to outlive the dinosaurs. That's for sure. So I hope I hope we could.

Ella Magers (24:42)

Yeah, that's for sure. And I will say,

will say, mean, admittedly, and you can cut this out if you don't like it, but I go back and forth sometimes, I'm not gonna lie. I'm like, you know what? We are screwing things up so badly. Like we're either gonna get it straight and we're gonna prevent this next mass extinction, which is on its way if we don't make changes. Or maybe we just go ahead and like...

have that extinction and let this planet be peaceful. I have to say, I wonder sometimes.

Bryan (25:19)

That's true. That's ⁓ Jim, you you've seen the ground level effects of environmental neglect, I think. Like, what would you say to someone who doesn't think climate change impacts their food or their family?

Jim O'Quinn (25:23)

Yeah.

I just want to add one thing to Ella's perspective there. And that is with regards to the people who are, I've dealt with so many people like the world's falling apart. I don't care anymore. I can't make a difference. Or they don't believe that eating meat is bad for them and that it's causing heart conditions and stuff like that. Nobody believes any of this until it happens to them on the spot. You are in the hospital, you had a heart.

cardiac arrest of some sort. Then it's like, my God, why did this happen to me? Well, let me explain it to you again. But my point is these people who are defiant and saying, I'm just going to ride it out and not care anymore. I try to bring to their attention. Would you rather live a healthy life with no pain, no sickness and all that stuff, or live the life you're living carefree, don't care what's going on, but then you get sick.

and worse off every day because of your food choices. I would think that living this healthier way is the way to go. And if everybody were to adopt that kind of mindset, I want to live the healthiest, strongest, happiest I can be. Well, here's the opportunity to do it. Eat a plant-based diet, done. And then you see part of the philosophy of Bro-Pros and mine overall has always been, I don't preach. I don't say you got to stop doing that. Don't do that. I live by example.

They're, what are you eating? ⁓ I'm eating this great big hummus thing with the chopped vegetables and everything and nan bread. Damn, that looks good. And they love it. And it's so good. So I'm not preaching. Don't eat your burger. I'm preaching how I'm living so healthy and strong and so are all the people around me. So I like doing that. And to your question about the environment and how the perspective of people around are misguided and they're not seeing

the fire in the forest that's happening in front of them, well, and putting the dots together, I tried to explain to them with the documentaries that do a fantastic job. And one I also wanted to add to the list is Christspiracy. That one is phenomenal because that, that locks into something people have been talking about forever, religion. And, it's part of my culture. Well, what has your culture been doing for all this time? So,

Back to the whole documentaries, it's really good because they have this very 10,000 foot perspective to look down and see the damage that's being caused. Cause it's very hard to see the damage is happening when you're standing too close to it. But when you realize that, ⁓ I have no water in my Creek. Why is that happening? because the cows a thousand miles away are drinking it all. ⁓ that's why now it makes sense to me. So.

But one-on-one, where we're standing, it's a lot more challenging to convince people and to make them understand it until they can see it for themselves in a fantastic documentary. And then you can throw out the stack, the statistics and facts and other things to help reinforce that.

Bryan (28:50)

I love it. Excellent points. ⁓ Geoff, I know we've talked before, think briefly about methane and land use and, you know, those are some strong reasons to go plant based. I feel like with that policy sort of failing us, like, where do you see the real momentum coming from now?

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (29:11)

Yeah, and I don't want to disempower the individual, but 80 % of all of our food is produced by 11 companies. We got to start at the top. They are making food decisions. The United Nations last year, the year before last, brought together some of the top food scientists, agriculturists, farmers.

health scientists, people from MIT, top Cambridge, all over the university, brought them together and said, okay, we need to change our food system. The whole system is broken. This is not sustainable. We cannot feed people the way they are eating with an animal-based diet, an animal-centered diet. We will run out of water. We will overpollute this planet. We will not be able to sustain that.

food prices, animal food prices will soar. ⁓ We have just the impact of Ukraine, which was the breadbasket of Europe. Once they went into the war, we saw chicken skyrocket, ⁓ eggs skyrocket. If that's just one country, one small country, relatively, not even a major country, imagine if we have an economic downturn or collapse in some of the larger companies that are producing or a drought or

a natural catastrophe, are we going to be able to handle this? We can't continue to feed 14 pounds of grain to yield one pound of meat. This is just not sustainable for 10 billion people. It's impossible. So we have to change. The question is, are we going to get creative and use our brains, use our technology and use this amazing, tremendous amount of wealth that we've created at the top to

Jim O'Quinn (30:49)

So

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (31:02)

get companies to say, a minute,

We need to shift gears and invest in sustainable products. Now, the other thing is that I don't get what big corporations haven't seen. How do they make their money? The consumers buying their products, right? If your products are killing your consumers, is that a sustainable path to growth? Is that a sustainable path to profits? No, you get less profits from less people.

more sick people, more dead people is not going to sustain your business growth. It's business counterintuitive. If you want better, people, healthier people buying your products, supply healthier products. And we know over and over from the research that plant-based is the way to go to improve people's health. So stop killing your own customers and start making products that you do it. Now, the good thing is if we can spend

$11 trillion a year producing food we know is harming people,

Jim O'Quinn (32:07)

you

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (32:08)

we know is killing people, we know is causing diseases. Imagine how much more we will be excited about producing food that we know helps people, improves people's lives. How much better is a CEO and all their employees gonna feel good about what they're doing for other people, for the planet, for the animals?

Jim O'Quinn (32:21)

Mm

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (32:32)

That's what I think can motivate us. If we can get this far, doing something we all intuitively know is wrong and bad, imagine when we're actually invested in doing something we know is good. That's going to drive some radical change and it'll drive it quickly. That's what I'm counting on. But we're right up to the edge. We're at the tipping point. We've got a real clear choice to make. We either start investing in change now or f***.

Jim O'Quinn (32:46)

Mm-hmm.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (33:01)

Change will be forced on us and it won't be pretty.

Bryan (33:05)

Yeah, I question whether or not we've crossed the tipping point in the past year or not. That's probably a topic for a completely different episode. So tune in for that one. ⁓ I'm going to lay out a couple of quick tips that I track down. But when we get to the next section, you can lay on the last round of tips. But if you want to slash your climate footprint with food, check out EatForTheClimate.com. Even if you aren't on the vegan bandwagon like the rest of us, you could still

Jim O'Quinn (33:20)

So.

Bryan (33:33)

help out a whole bunch by eating a few plant-based meals every week. Check out dsireusa.org and you can check out local renewable energy incentives that your states and cities are doing to help be part of that change. And obviously I strongly support Veganuary, inspiring some people to go vegan and try it out for 30 days with us. But let's focus on the last segment, which is the animal side of it. I think the cruelty is almost intensifying.

The government's rolling back oversight on animal transportation, animal slaughter. There's longer transportation times, unfortunately, fewer inspections, less accountability. It's all corporate profit, like you were saying, Geoff, over animal welfare. But I also think, like, I'm seeing more and more ⁓ of a surge of ⁓ rescues and shelters, and the resistance is basically growing. ⁓

Investigations are going more viral. feel like plant-based diets are rising Maybe just not fast enough for the likes of us. But you know people are choosing compassion over the convenience. So Jim like have you kick us off like how have you seen animal suffering tied to like public health inequality economic inequity Human suffering all those kinds of things

Jim O'Quinn (34:58)

Well,

one thing that's kind of interesting that I just helped out the

It kind of finalized last year and that was a slaughterhouse that was being completely operated by inmates from a local prison. And this defied all logic in every perspective because you have people in there who were already broken mentally, who had very little structure throughout their life, who are now forced into this environment of perpetual

pain and suffering and trauma. What good is that in any respect? So I work with a gentleman who was a strong ⁓ force behind shutting this down. And over the course of two years and a whole lot of work, it got shut down. So the whole point behind that saying, you know, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, you know, no one would want to eat meat.

That transparency that we're seeing more and more on social media is helpful in some respect and letting people be aware of the absolute atrocities that are happening on a regular basis needs to be identified. the challenge is again, I've seen this time and time again where you see people doing the activism, they're out there showing these

gruesome images and that, it's scaring people, but it's very, very short-lived. It's that shock and awe scenario where, ⁓ I'm not eating meat. And they change their mindset for about a week until they go to a friend's place and the burgers are being served again. It's like out of sight, out of mind, we're done. And I unfortunately have to pull it back to the whole, if you don't even...

focus so much on that, but live this healthy lifestyle and just keep showing people how to be the healthiest they can be. That sticks with them a whole lot more than that traumatic visual that they saw one day or that one flick through a doom scroll that they saw of a baby cow being crushed. that would like, I know these things are being brought to the surface. Everybody's becoming more aware of them.

but it's not sticking. And the reason it's not sticking because it's not personal anymore. It's, yes, you can inform somebody that that burger or that glass of milk, let me just show you where that came from and that will scare them and gross them out and upset them for too short a time. But if I show them the huge benefits by ditching dairy, just because it's not healthy,

and soy milk, almond milk, this milk, this milk. and by the way, check out this ice cream I made with this, this milkshake, this thing, this thing. Now they have something to believe in. Now they have something that they can walk away with and share with their friends and be excited about. That's the kind of avenue I like to go down.

Bryan (38:09)

I love it. Well said. Well said. You stole the answers to some of the other questions I was going to ask. ⁓ Ella, if I turn over to you, mean, like you're in the coaching space in a big way. You know, I'm sure some people come to you with grief. And like, how do you how do you help turn some of these people that have grief towards some of these atrocities into action?

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (38:16)

Thank

Ella Magers (38:34)

Yes, it kind of goes back and I think we need to come at this at all different angles because different ways of relating help different people and connect differently with different people. But yes, and this is why I'm on the board of Hogs and Kisses Farm Sanctuary. So yes, these sanctuaries are, you know, it's a drop in the bucket, the animals that are rescued, and they get to act as ambassadors and help people make that connection. And I think one of the most powerful

connections people eventually make is how is this individual pig different than my dog? Right? Making that connection and seeing these animals as individuals as opposed to, you know, the factory farm of, you know, you see the pictures of and videos of thousands of animals. It's harder to connect and relate to one. So.

Jim O'Quinn (39:08)

you

Ella Magers (39:29)

I think that's the power of sanctuaries. Of course, every life is precious and every rescue is important. And having them be ambassadors is really important. And as far as the grief goes, yeah, this is a tough one and I deal with it a lot with my clients. ⁓ And we really start looking inward at accessing peace in the midst of devastation. ⁓

realizing that it doesn't have to be an either or, either I'm depressed and grieving or I'm peaceful and happy and joyful. We get to have it all as part of this human experience and that's what I help my clients kind of realize and one of the most powerful sayings that I teach is ⁓ the goal is not to feel better, it's to get better at feeling.

Jim O'Quinn (40:23)

⁓

Ella Magers (40:27)

And this really helped me in some times of deep grief in my life, the death of some of my own pets ⁓ when I didn't know how to deal with that grief. And I remember, Geoff, actually, I reached out to you and when my dog had passed or when my cat had passed, and he said, think your animals earned their ascension. And I was like,

Jim O'Quinn (40:33)

you

Ella Magers (40:55)

powerful. And then I started kind of really getting into understanding grief and, and this idea that we get to allow these emotions to be there. ⁓ And we don't have to act on them right away. It's how I help my clients also who turn to food for emotional reasons, who self sabotage with overeating or binge eating. Right? It's often this

this reaction of I've got to run and hide and distract myself from these negative emotions right away in some way, or form. And if we can learn to ⁓ sit with them and be with them and be okay with having these emotions and then to learn to deal with them in healthy ways. And so we explore tools of how to do that and realizing this is an and thing. I get to be sad and grieve the loss of all these animals. I mean, I turned.

Jim O'Quinn (41:25)

So

Ella Magers (41:49)

vegetarian at seven years old and vegan at 15, so that's 30

years for me. And I just remember the devastation of really connecting with the suffering of this incredible suffering on this planet of billions and trillions of animals that are dying unnecessarily at the hands of humans. And it's been a lifelong journey of learning how to deal with that. So that's a little, I hope that helps a little bit.

Bryan (42:17)

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you sharing that. think that's powerful stuff. Geoff, know, Jim already answered my question for you, but I'm sure you've got some reaction to what Ella and Jim said. So fill us in.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (42:26)

You

Yeah, like Ella and I'm sure Jim too, I'm vegan for the animals. Health is a benefit. Environment is necessary. But I'm vegan first and foremost for the animals. I'm an animal. I know what suffering feels like. I lost my mother, my father, and both brothers. The pain drove me into suicidal depression. So intense that I attempted to take my life, not once, but twice.

I couldn't take the pain. didn't want to live with the pain anymore. I don't want that for anybody else. It's a horrible experience. Not only to see your family die all around you and feel powerless to do anything about it. That's part of the reason why I got into the science because I wanted to help other people not have to experience what I went through. ⁓ So that compassion is at the root of everything I do, but I understand

People have become jaded in this modernized society. We've objectified everything. Women, people of different color, people of different sexual preference, people of different sexual identity. Everything has been objectified and distanced and disconnected. We're disconnected from nature. We're disconnected from other nationalities. We're disconnected from other religions and belief systems.

Jim O'Quinn (43:35)

Mm-hmm.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (43:55)

We're disconnected to ourselves, to our own sense of purpose and relationship to others. It's a hard time to be alive right now with this level of disconnection. And with this, it feels lonely and people turn that loneliness into anger, into fear, into projection. This is a difficult time to be alive. And here we are trying to tell people be compassionate. What is that?

Where do I find that? So, you know, I look to saying, wait a minute. What do we do on a daily basis? We eat and we move. Everybody does that. We have to to survive. So I started there with exercise because if you exercise, you feel a connection with your human body. You feel that mind, body, soul connection.

Jim O'Quinn (44:33)

you

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (44:50)

You feel it when you exercise intensely. Anybody who gets into exercise knows that feeling. And it is reconnecting. Same with the food. When you eat healthy food, you feel how that makes you change. You feel more energy. You feel more alive. You feel healthier. When I became raw for four years, my sense of hearing, my sense of smell, my sense of taste, my vision, acuity,

all really greatly enhanced. And I'm like, I'm living a different experience than I see people numbed out, dumbed out. You know, they're walking around with all their senses turned down to one instead of 10. And it's like, it's no wonder we're stimulation, stimulation, stimulation all the time, because we're not feeling anything.

When you find somebody who's clinically depressed, what do they do? Burn themselves, cut themselves. They need to feel something, because it's better than feeling nothing at all. And that's almost the state we're in right now, with this constant overstimulation of marketing, of yelling politics, of all this hate on social media and judgment. It's difficult. I said, all right, we need to find some nutrition out there that is

way above, you know, because it takes a drug now, a synthetic chemical to realign our body back from a disease date. We have to go to extremes to counter the negative extremes in our own body. So I'm saying, all right, let's find the absolute best in nutrition we can find out there and get people to consume it. Because if we can create even just a little sense of shift, like, my God, I'm consuming this

Amazing fungi, the amazing mycelium that's got all these incredible health benefits that aren't even in the plant kingdom. Maybe, just maybe, that little bit of shift inside will trigger somebody to say, what else can I do? What else is there that I can shift? If this makes me feel a little bit better, what else can I do? I want more of that. And I'm hoping that nutrition...

can be an exercise can be a way to create that shift in people. Because I've tried talking to them straight on, they blow me off. They put up the walls. They argue the counter arguments ad nauseam. my God. If you're on social media, you've heard them all. And we can make fun of them. But the problem is humans are not changing and humans are causing the suffering to animals. Two trillion fish are taken from the ocean every single year.

This equivalent to being waterboarded to death. When you pull a fish out of the water, it has too much oxygen. Just like if you put water on somebody's mouth, they'll breathe in too much water. So we're basically waterboarding two trillion animals to death. The most extreme form of torture to human beings we're doing to two trillion species on this planet every single year.

Ella Magers (47:47)

Thank

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (48:09)

and we call that health food.

We've got a long way to go, but let's keep educating. Thank you for bringing us together, letting us share some of these ideas and hope we can reach some people to say, there is hope and that this can be viral. If a TikTok video can be viral and go millions, good information like this should be able to do too.

Bryan (48:36)

I think so too, Geoff. I appreciate you sharing that. I, as you were saying the part about the fish, was thinking, don't worry, Geoff, we'll run out of fish in a few more years. the suffering will stop, but we will lose all of our health food per se. But no, I think that's an excellent, excellent point. I want to try and wrap it up where we can. I love each of you to give me like, what's that one website or action item that we could do for the environment or for the animals that you highly recommend along with.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (48:46)

⁓ my god. ⁓

Jim O'Quinn (48:46)

I'm gonna go.

Bryan (49:06)

How can people get in touch with you and learn more about what you have going on and support you on their journey and support you on your journey as well. So, Jim, you want to kick us off?

Jim O'Quinn (49:19)

Sir, I think to recap what we're all doing here together is the goal of empowering people. Because when you give somebody who's lost, disoriented, upset, sad, angry and everything, if you give them the tools, the ability to become empowered and knowledgeable, they have that strength, inner fire to keep going, going, and to defy all of these obstacles that are at them. Because through nutrition,

You teach them how to get rid of their diabetes because of all the crap that they've been eating. You teach them to get rid of their cholesterol and feel so much stronger, healthier, more energetic. They are now empowered. They want to share the joy. They want to hand that torch over to the next person and say, my God, I got rid of all my medication because I started going this way. And then they light that fire, fire, fire, fire. And everywhere there'll be a blaze all over the place by just doing that, by empowering them.

And on top of that, it just splits down all the meat. Cause you know, everybody asks, why are you vegan? For the animals, for the environment, for me, right? I'm all three mixed together, equal ratios. But now somebody who's in it completely for the animals, well, guess what? I've just empowered you to make a stand, to defy those power monsters out there. And now you can show that you're making a huge difference.

environment, same thing, all those different things. So empowering people is the absolute way to go. And that's what I'm doing with BroProVegans. If you want to learn more about BroProVegans, go to broprovegans.com. It's all there. There's a forum there right now for guys to learn to chat, to support and educate one another and to grow together and inspire each other.

There's a whole educational component coming soon, which is going to be phenomenal. It's a big volume of everything you can possibly need to know to be the healthiest, happiest, strongest you can be. And at the same time, make bonded friends with other guys who are all like-minded. It's unbelievable. So that's me in a nutshell.

Bryan (51:35)

Thanks, Jim. Appreciate that. ⁓ Geoff.

Geoff Palmer, Clean Machine (51:39)

Yeah, we're starting back up a new podcast. So I'm going to be focusing on our latest product launch, the United Nations study that brought everybody together. They asked the single question, what could be the biggest impact in shifting our food system to a sustainable approach? And they came up with one response, one unified response, which they published in 2024, which is

shift our protein growing to mycelium. And that's what I'll be launching this summer, the very first 100 % whole food mycelium protein powder. ⁓ Higher in amino acids, branched chain amino acids, essential amino acids than plant proteins. The richest source of spermidine, the most anti-aging polyamine ever discovered addresses all 12

aspects, improves all 12 aspects of aging on a cellular level. This will singularly change the way we think about protein, the first whole food protein powder with chitosan, which binds to cholesterol, triglycerides, and even PFAS, the forever chemicals, and pulls them out of the system. From detoxification to weight loss to anti-aging, the health benefits in this whole food source

will change the way we approach protein. I'm so proud to be the first and only company in the world to bring this to market this summer and I hope it makes a really big difference, especially on the dairy industry. If anybody knows anything about the dairy industry, it is one of the most grotesque and brutal industries in the world. The female is raped.

continuously impregnated against her will, continuously, and then having her children immediately after they're born stripped from her. I can't imagine what the emotional anguish that that animal goes through. It is the absolute worst industry in our industry, and I'm hoping to change that because this protein is actually shown to be more anabolic, more muscle building than whey protein.

No other plant protein has ever shown to do that. We now have a way to get rid of the $22 billion dairy industry and whey protein and replace it with my serum. So that's my contribution, my give back. I'm going to keep looking for give backs like this to get people a better choice than the animal products they're using so they don't have to contribute to this amount of suffering in the world.

Bryan (54:31)

Thank you, Geoff. Well said. We look forward to supporting you as you launch that. So hopefully you can come back on the show over the summer and tell us more about that. ⁓ And Ella, last but not least, tell us where they can get in touch with you and any action tips you might have.

Ella Magers (54:47)

Yeah, Bryan,

thank you so much. It's such an honor to be here and ⁓ great to spend this time with you, Jim. And you guys, Geoff is who I reach out to and I bug him all the time. If we've got a nutrition question, there's nobody on this planet who knows more than Geoff, I swear. definitely check out his YouTube lives and all of this. ⁓ And for me, I think the best way to stay in touch and see what I'm doing is my newsletter.

Jim O'Quinn (55:02)

Yeah. Yeah.

Ella Magers (55:15)

called the Soul Aligned Sunday Newsletter where I share about my journey, is really a diverse journey. I just retour my ACL. I've been a lifelong athlete. I'm a personal trainer. I'm a wellness coach, holistic fitness coach. And I share pretty poetically about my journey in ways that bring a lot of value to the reader. So elemajors.com forward slash newsletter is where you can sign up for that.

Ella Magers dot com last names M-A-G-E-R-S dot com is where you can check out my coaching and Ella at Ella Magers dot com if you are interested in getting coaching whether that be more fitness or if you've got ⁓ cravings that you can't seem to get a grip on emotional eating ⁓ that's my specialty when it comes to coaching. ⁓

Yeah, thanks Bryan for doing what you do and great to be here with all of you.

Bryan (56:20)

I appreciate all of you being here. Thank you so much for this great conversation today.

⁓ I know the headlines might be grim, but I do think the movement is stronger than ever. So remember every time you eat plants, you're opting out of the cruelty, you're opting out of pollution, corporate deception, all the things that we talked about here. And I wrote down real men eat plants, but real people eat plants. Real people stay informed on these topics and real people do not wait for Washington to do the right thing. They do it themselves. So really appreciate all of you being here and go out there and be

the change that we all want to see in this world. Thank you all for listening and we hope to have you back on another episode soon. Thanks everybody.