The “Green” Sham and Religion of Veganism | Chef Mollie Engelhart

Summary

Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark Episode Summary: The “Green” Sham and Religion of Veganism | Chef Mollie Engelhart Release Date: October 29, 2024

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, host Alex Clark engages in a transformative conversation with Chef Molly Engelhart, a former vegan and current advocate of regenerative agriculture. Molly shares her journey from leading LA's most prestigious vegan restaurant to incorporating meat into her menu, highlighting the challenges and revelations that prompted this significant shift.

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Molly Engelhart's Journey from Veganism to Regenerative Agriculture

Molly Engelhart, once a dedicated vegan for 46 years and the executive chef at Sage Regenerative Kitchen, discusses her pivotal realization that purely vegan agriculture may not be scalable or sustainable. She challenges the notion that veganism is the ultimate solution for environmental and health issues, advocating instead for a balanced approach that includes animal products processed through regenerative methods.

Notable Quote:

• Molly Engelhart [05:38]: "No, that was my realization. And I was a vegan chef in Los Angeles, super successful stores doing $7 million. And I heard this TED talk with this guy, Graham Sait and he breaked it down so clearly about how cows were not the problem, it was food waste."

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Challenges Faced in Transitioning to Meat-Inclusive Menus

Molly recounts the backlash she faced after introducing meat and dairy into her previously all-vegan restaurants. From employees quitting in protest to condemnation from the vegan community and accusations from organizations like PETA, Molly details the personal and professional costs of redefining her culinary philosophy.

Notable Quotes:

• Alex Clark [00:57]: "She's the lead chef of the most prestigious vegan restaurant in LA and despite tremendous backlash from the press and loyal patrons, she just added meat to the menu."
• Molly Engelhart [12:18]: "I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to know about it."

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Regenerative Agriculture: Principles and Benefits

Molly delves into the principles of regenerative agriculture, emphasizing soil health, biodiversity, and the symbiotic relationship between animals and plants. She argues that regenerative practices not only enhance environmental sustainability but also improve nutrient density in food, benefiting both producers and consumers.

Notable Quotes:

• Molly Engelhart [27:32]: "Regenerative agriculture is the principle of treating the soil as important as it is. And so we think a lot about, in the environmental movement, people are like, they're the dolphins or the bears or the this. And we're thinking about this macro life, big life, but some huge percentage of life on the planet."
• Molly Engelhart [44:19]: "Anybody else that are just grinding up the plastic from like grocery stores. That's happening too."

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Impact of Chemicals and Glyphosate on Health and Environment

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the detrimental effects of chemicals like glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) on soil microbiology and human health. Molly explains how these chemicals disrupt the gut microbiome, leading to issues like leaky gut and reduced nutrient absorption.

Notable Quotes:

• Molly Engelhart [47:19]: "Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, and it kills anything with a shikame pathway. And so all plants and then funguses and viruses and bacteria have this shikame pathway, and it just completely dries them out."
• Molly Engelhart [50:05]: "And we continue to do this. And so yes, it matters. And it matters most Right now in the wheat and the oats."

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Social and Cultural Repercussions of Dietary Shifts

Molly discusses the societal resistance to moving away from veganism, often framing it as a near-religious commitment for some. She shares personal experiences of ostracization, including friends and community members wishing ill upon her and her family due to her dietary changes.

Notable Quotes:

• Molly Engelhart [24:23]: "They wished that my children would die of a slow, horrible death. They hoped that I would get cancer."
• Molly Engelhart [25:22]: "I think that there's a lot of things that are religion. Anything that you put above God is a religion."

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Economic and Logistical Challenges of Regenerative Farming

Transitioning to regenerative agriculture poses significant financial and operational challenges. Molly highlights the higher costs associated with organic and regenerative practices, making such food options less accessible to the broader population. She also points out the inefficiencies and environmental costs of conventional meat production systems.

Notable Quotes:

• Molly Engelhart [34:28]: "I don't know. We're having a really hard time. In full disclosure. Really, it's really expensive."
• Molly Engelhart [35:10]: "We're using fat works, all grass fed American tallow. And it is $250 for a five gallon bucket."

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Reflections on Environmentalism and Political Agendas

Molly critiques both liberal and conservative approaches to environmentalism, arguing that current policies often overlook the harmful impacts of chemical use in favor of simplistic solutions like reducing meat consumption. She emphasizes the need for true environmental stewardship that encompasses soil health, biodiversity, and sustainable farming practices.

Notable Quotes:

• Molly Engelhart [33:15]: "The left has completely abandoned the chemical conversation. So I don't understand how we can be talking about the environment, but we're not talking about chemicals."
• Molly Engelhart [64:15]: "We're being sold a lie that is going to take away our freedoms."

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Personal Health and Community Well-being

Molly shares personal anecdotes about the health benefits of her dietary choices and the adverse effects of processed foods laden with chemicals. She underscores the importance of whole, nutrient-dense foods and the role they play in maintaining personal and community health.

Notable Quotes:

• Molly Engelhart [32:46]: "No sugar, no sugary thing without raw milk to help you process it."
• Molly Engelhart [53:24]: "There's nothing that I would want to feed my children."

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Conclusion: Healing a Sick Culture

Chef Molly Engelhart concludes by advocating for a holistic approach to healing societal ailments through dietary reform and regenerative agriculture. She calls for a collective shift towards nutrient-dense, whole foods that respect natural ecosystems and prioritize human and environmental health over convenience and profit.

Notable Quote:

• Molly Engelhart [69:06]: "Nutrient dense whole foods in their whole form."

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between diet, agriculture, environmentalism, and societal values. Chef Molly Engelhart's insights challenge conventional vegan paradigms, presenting regenerative agriculture as a viable path towards a healthier and more sustainable future.

Follow Molly Engelhart:

• Social Media: Chef Molly
• Ranch: Sovereignty Ranch

Support Molly's Ventures:

• Touring and Events: Available for tours, retreats, and events at Sovereignty Ranch and LA's Sage Regenerative Kitchen.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements and non-content segments to focus solely on the substantive discussions between Alex Clark and Chef Molly Engelhart.

Transcript

[Molly Englehart]

NPR came out with a hit pace against me. Why can't we all agree on this? Why are you attacking me because I want to feed my kids a different version of nutrient dense food?

[Alex Clark]

People are addicted to comfort and if they acknowledge that what we're saying is true, that means it would require change. Which means it would require them to do some work and people just don't want to do it.

[Molly Englehart]

There's nothing that someone else can say or do. They will have to have the aha moment for themselves. We have to also stop trading our convenience for the freedoms that come with knowing what's in our food.

[Alex Clark]

She's the lead chef of the most prestigious vegan restaurant in LA and despite tremendous backlash from from the press and loyal patrons, she just added meat to the menu. Molly Englehart describes herself as a card carrying vegetarian for 46 years. When she announced that her all vegan restaurants in Los Angeles would be shifting to carrying meat and dairy products. The soy meltdown was in full effect. Some of her employees quit in protest. She faced cancellation from thousands in the vegan community. On social media, even PETA accused her of committing the ultimate betrayal. This sudden worldview shift was so abrupt, so bul bold and so self confident. I had to know more about the chef who risked it all for regenerative farmed meat. What did she discover that convinced her meat was the way after nearly 50 years of preaching the opposite and being a pillar of a food centered community so intense it's been likened to a religion? Molly Englehart flew from Texas to be with us in person today and you can see me and her on the real Alex Clark YouTube channel made possible by tax deductible donations from listeners like you who want to heal a sick culture physically, mentally and spiritually. Find the link in the bio or leave a free five star review telling others why this podcast is a must. Listen. Molly Englehart is a regenerative farmer at Sovereignty Ranch and executive chef at LA's first regenerative restaurant, Sage Regenerative Kitchen where they are committed to food sovereignty, soil regeneration and educating on homesteading and self sufficiency. Welcome Molly to Culture Apothecary. I know this girl. She is a die hard vegan. She is also the sickest person that I know. She is so depressed, so weak, doesn't get out of bed. By the way, she's in her early 20s and she's always asking people you know what vitamins can I take so that I can feel better. What would you tell her Molly?

[Molly Englehart]

That probably she shouldn't be a vegan. I'd say that what we put in our body has to work for our body. And I'm not going to tell every single person on the planet that they should eat meat. I don't eat meat. But I'm not going to also pretend that everybody is going to be able to eat a balanced diet of legumes, carbohydrates and processed food. Like the reality is that everybody should only be eating whole foods in their whole form. And then you need to find the combination of whole foods that work for your body. And likely there's some animal products in that. And I'm not trying to be funny, but show me a third generation vegan. They don't exist. Show me a third generation vegetarian and they exist. It's a whole continent, India. So you probably need some animal protein for your brain to function properly. And I'm so grateful. My mother was raising us vegan and she tried to make us cookies and she got margarine at the store and she left it in the oven and forgot about it. And the stick of margarine melted into a sheet of plastic and she was like, this is literally plastic, like. And she said, no more margarine. So we were raised vegan, eating butter. And I feel like that that really helped me in my brother's iq that we always had that animal fat. Like we were cooking everything in butter. My mom was not into seed oils. She was way ahead of her time. And so I think that if you don't feel healthy, if you feel like you need to supplement your diet, then you want to shift your diet and you want to eat nutrient dense food and there's no one way. And so people that are like, I'm eating carnivore, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, great, that's working for you. And whatever is working for the person, we should honor that. That's choice, freedom of choice. But this woman who doesn't get out of bed and feels weak and feels tired and all of that, her diet is not working for her. And that is the reality. And different times in your life, different seasons, different diets may work for you. I was vegetarian my whole life, vegan, many, many years. I was just telling you before we started, I've been breastfeeding for nine years. I feel depleted. I'm looking at like, should I implement, bro? Add bone broth to my diet? I already do eat raw milk and raw yogurt and raw cheese. But is there something else that I need to bring in nutrient density? Because I've been depleted making for human beings and then feeding them for all those years. And so we have to listen to our body. So what I would tell that person is to listen to their body.

[Alex Clark]

Is there such a thing as truly vegan food?

[Molly Englehart]

No, that was my realization. And I was a vegan chef in Los Angeles, super successful stores doing $7 million. And I heard this TED talk with this guy, Graham Sait and he breaked it down so clearly about how cows were not the problem, it was food waste. And so I was like, oh my gosh, I need to get a farm and I need to get rid of all my food waste. I got to compost it. And I started farming because I wanted to do the right thing. And when I did that, I realized there is no vegan food. All organic food is grown with bone meal and blood meal and chicken meal and chicken and cow out of the consolidated feedlot system. If you don't have your own animals on your farm to get those inputs from, somebody's going to write a comment and they're going to say, I know somebody that's a veganic farmer and there is this veganic fertilizer you can buy made from kelp and great. There's no scalable examples of growing food for the masses without animal inputs. If it was a scalable thing, they've literally tried to convince us that eating animals is the worst thing for the whole planet. So if vegan agriculture was scalable, it would be what was happening everywhere. Believe me, that's what people were. They're moving us towards eating bugs and lab grown meat. So it's not scalable. And the reality is all organic food is grown with animal products. And to be alive is to have reverence for what died for us to be living. And we can't forget that. And even if I choose not to eat a steak and you choose to eat a steak, there's not less death on my plate than your plate. In fact, there may be more death on my plate because we grow vegetables often in these monocrop systems that cause a lot of death. And we can graze grass fed grass. Finished beef or sheep or goats can coexist in an ecosystem that doesn't have to kill everything.

[Alex Clark]

How does, how is there more animal death when you're just growing plants?

[Molly Englehart]

Have you ever. I drove along the highway and you just saw a field of cabbage or a field of cilantro. There's nothing else in that field. There's just dirt and those plants.

[Alex Clark]

Yes.

[Molly Englehart]

Everything else has been sterilized out of the situation. And so there is no life. But if you walk in the field where my dairy cows are or beef cows are, there's birds and there's grasshoppers and snakes and rabbits and foxes coming out of the grass. The cows are not displacing those animals. They're coexisting together. And then if I kill a cow, we just harvested three cows. It was four big trunk freezers. That's going to feed my family for an extended amount of time. And that's one cow or three cows. To feed a lot of people for a long time to get that same amount of calories from vegetables is labor intensive. You think about calories in, calories out. We're always putting more calories into tomatoes than we're taking out. There's no way to grow enough calories of tomatoes to cover the gas and the. All the inputs that are going into it. And so cows are taking grass, something we cannot eat and is just growing freely. It's sunlight and water and turning it into nutrition. And vegetables that we eat in the grocery store are not grown like that. And much of the meat, just to be clear, is also not grown like that. That's why it's important for us to care about how our meat was raised.

[Alex Clark]

Here's what I like about you. You are a disruptor. This girl, she is not afraid of anything. People need to understand. Molly was the vegan queen bee in the community. Very famous, very famous. And now you're slaughtering your own animals. You've actually always farmed, but you had a rule and that was, I will never slaughter animals. So how do you go from that to now having a bison burger on your menu regeneratively farmed with a two cheddar on a wheat sourdough bun?

[Molly Englehart]

I had a farm and I, my husband was gracious with me and I said nothing could die. And the farm, everything was going to live to old age. And I fully believed regenerative agriculture was the way forward. But I wanted to prove that it could be done vegan. When we disconnect ourselves from nature, we're capable of believing lies. And as I got connected to nature, then the lies fall away. You can't believe the things that they tell you when you are touching creation. But I had ducks and these ducks were making more ducks. That's what they do. They sit on eggs, they make more ducks. And we were not killing any of the boys. And none of the natural behavior of pushing the boys out was happening because there's. They're in A confined orchard, and they have plenty of food. And so none of that's happening. And these ducks are in my regenerative system. They're eating the snails off of the avocado trees. It's amazing. And they're waddling around, and it's awesome. And I wanted to get some more ducks because we had an infestation of snails on the avocado trees, and we didn't want to use any pesticides. Blah, blah, blah. I get these khaki Campbells. I have them in the backyard on my back porch. I raise them up. They get big enough to go into the orchard with the other duck ducks and 19 female ducks. The first day of life. They waddle out, the water is spraying, and they're in the grass. And I'm like, look, I'm really doing this regenerative agriculture thing. I'm going to go to the restaurant, and my husband calls me, like, two hours later. He's like, you're not going to be happy. And I said, what happened? He said, all the ducks, and he used a bad word, but basically got had sex with to death. Were I come home, like, I've been taking care of these ducks for, like, eight weeks. So they're my little ducks, and they're all dead. And the boy ducks are still humping on them. 19 ducks dead. And my husband's like, I told you we needed to kill some of those drakes. You can't just let there be the same amount of boys and girls. Nature never allows that. I was so upset, and I called my dad, who came to these realizations before me. People might remember the Huffington Post and every cnn and were so up in arms. The owner of Cafe Gratitude ate a hamburger. I called my dad, and my dad goes, that shit will bring a vegan to her knees. And I was like, I want someone to kill those ducks. And I'm like, crying. And so the next day, I told my husband, I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to know about it.

[Alex Clark]

But just get it done.

[Molly Englehart]

I don't want to ever see those ducks again. And my husband gently and quietly, where I did not see it. And then one other thing happened is my neighbor dogs got in and killed all our sheeps in one night. Every single one of them. And I'm just, like, so upset. And my husband just, like, jumps into action, gets a gun. They're still alive. He shoots them, gets the bucket, gets the forklift, ties them all up, skins them. And he's like, call people. Call people. We don't have room for all this meat. Spends 12 full hours butchering. And he's calling all the farm workers and the employees in the restaurant and everybody's coming, driving up and we're just handing people five gallon buckets, veganized buckets filled, vegan, empty veganized buckets filled with lamb. And this is like still notorious around the area. Ladies will just see me in the grocery store when I was still in California, like, oh, mucho gracias para de borrego. Is like, thank you so much for the sheep. And I'm like, oh yeah, no problem. But I, that day I watched a man do what was right in a situation and like man up. And. And I realized like, you realize men.

[Alex Clark]

Being men is hot, but it's also like necessary.

[Molly Englehart]

Like I was just going to put it in the compost pile. And in nature there is no waste for sure. It still would have broke down and all of that. But. But he was present to like, how many families are trying to feed their family in our ecosystem? And these are like, we've been feeding them organic, blah blah, blah, blah. And he was not about to just let it go to waste. And I thought, wow, nature is far more brutal than anything human beings are going to do to animals.

[Alex Clark]

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[Molly Englehart]

Yes.

[Alex Clark]

Can you elaborate on that?

[Molly Englehart]

Well, I lived in a nice neighborhood and had my nice vegan restaurants and I was indoctrinated to a lot of ideas. And I drove a hybrid and I took my reusable bags to the grocery store and I thought that we were going to transition to renewables and whatever I believed. And when I got on land and I was touching soil every single day, you start to see how the world works and you start to see how perfect nature is and you start to see how brutal and beautiful it is. And that these ideas that humans have put on us to believe are not true. And nature never lies. It never lies to you. This is a controversial thing to say, but the other day my kids were watching the cows in the field and 7 year old daughter goes, oh bubba, the bull's in here. And I said yeah. And she said when the girls Jump on each other. No, babies come. But when Bubba comes, babies come. Now that's just like obvious factual truths. But that 6 year old said something that she could get canceled for.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, and you got canceled. You survived cancellation. You learn all of this, you get reconnected back to nature, how the world really works. And you're like, okay, we cannot keep just being a strictly vegan restaurant anymore. And I. And I want people to understand how popular your restaurants are. It's more than one restaurant, right? Well, yeah, the family owns a bunch.

[Molly Englehart]

Family owns a bunch. Mine were. We did have five, and through the pandemic, three were lost. So a lot of people think, oh, she's doing this for money. Well, the truth is, if we want to be really, really honest, I wanted to do this in 2019, but I was in a deal for 25 to 31 million dollars for all of my restaurants. And then the bureaucracy in California shutting us down for two years destroyed that deal and made all the venture capital money disappear.

[Alex Clark]

So evil.

[Molly Englehart]

So I worked so hard, spent so many hours away from my children, and then they destroyed it. Destroyed it, literally. Were in the deal, doing the due diligence, end of 2019 into 2020. And then you know what happens in the first quarter of 2020? I wasn't trying to disrupt the boat when we're doing $7 million in a store and it's working and. But I'm realizing, like, this is not the pathway forward. Seed oils are causing inflammation. My third child, I could not eat any seed oils. Like, I couldn't eat. I basically couldn't eat at my restaurant because I just. It tasted like I could taste something bad. And my third child was born in November of 2019. So that gives you a sense. I was already saying, we gotta change, we gotta change. But I didn't wanna rock the boat. If somebody else, a big vegan firm, wants to take this on and do it, that I could do a regenerative thing over here. But then that all got destroyed and that it wasn't the right time to change through the pandemic. So we were struggling just to make ends meet, to pay rent, $40,000, $50,000 rents. It's like crazy. And Los Angeles, like, raised minimum wage multiple times and all of these other things that the pieces were just no longer fitting together. And so I went from about to get $25 million to 31 million, depending on how it went to. I'm just closing stores because I can't make payroll. And so I was thinking, like, I'm Just going to close my last two stores. I moved to Texas and it. And then I just thought that doesn't have integrity. Like at least let me try. And if it doesn't work, it was not working right now anyway. But this is the truth. And I was just watched the whole pandemic where everybody was just terrified to say what the truth was. The vegan thing is part of the indoctrination. It's part of us believing that we are a pestilence on the planet. Instead of that like we are divine and we're meant to be here. They can only fool us to believe we shouldn't drive on Thursdays and Fridays and we shouldn't do this and we shouldn't have babies. That we shouldn't do this because we don't belong here and that we're destroying it. And none of that's true. We can be the keystone species and completely alter the pathway forward and work with God in his grace rather than against him. I decided on Earth Day I was just gonna like step out and do.

[Alex Clark]

It and so how did you, how did you announce that the, that the Mecca of vegan restaurants in LA was now going to start serving meat? Do you first have an employee meeting? Do you just talk to your husband about it? Do you just immediately go to the press and then that's how your employees find out?

[Molly Englehart]

People are very sensitive. So we had employee meetings and felt with people's feelings and people quit.

[Alex Clark]

And people quit over you. People quit. What did they say to you? Was it angry quitting or.

[Molly Englehart]

Oh yeah, like writing emails about how I've turned something that was so beautiful into a cemetery of chopped up body parts that the horrors of I'm a murderer slit. Slit.

[Alex Clark]

I every time I talk about meat and stuff it's the vegans say things like you're supporting the. It's the rape and murder of animals. I love like saying that.

[Molly Englehart]

I think most animal sex if we put our standards on it is rape. Like I mean chickens will have a favorite chicken and sometimes I gotta move that favorite chicken away because she's getting bred so much that she has bald spot on her back and this is like in a huge acreage of. But the chickens just, they chase them and then they grab onto their back and then they do their business and then they chase them and grab onto their back. Cows, I mean have you ever watched the cow, the girl cow is literally running away and a thousand five hundred pound bull is getting on top.

[Alex Clark]

They have a warped idea of just how the animal kingdom even Works.

[Molly Englehart]

No, no, no. But what. That's not what they're calling rape. What they're calling rape is when you are artificially inseminating animals. And I don't use AI I believe that things should happen in the natural way. It's not, I'm not judging farmers that use AI or whatever. But I have a bull, I have a male pig, I have a male goat, I have a male sheep. We switch the males out every two years so there's no inbreeding. And. But I, I believe in that. I believe that God made it perfect and we don't need to stick a. What's it called? Like, put. And I also think it messes with the genetics. Like, I just read this thing about how 90% of dairy cows are all related to each other because people are buying thousands and thousands of semen from the same bull and then they're impregnating all of these cows. So I do think it's important that we have genetic diversity and so we try to have what we call hybrid vigor. So we try to breed different varieties of pigs or cows or whatever so that there were not getting just the same. The same, the same. And I believe in having a bull. But they're talking about preg checking. What they're saying is rape is preg checking and artificial insemination.

[Alex Clark]

How, how did the vegan community on social media treat you after this announcement?

[Molly Englehart]

They wished that my children would die of a slow, horrible death. They hoped that I would get cancer. They said that I was the colonizer. Just everything you could imagine. Like, are they in a religion?

[Alex Clark]

Is this, is veganism a religion, you think?

[Molly Englehart]

I think that there's a lot of things that are religion. Anything that you put above God is a religion. Anything that you worship. I think it's a very small group. When we say vegans are. I just want to say that I think a lot of people eat different ways for different reasons. But the group that is wishing for me to be killed or my kids to be killed or that is saying that I'm the worst source of misinformation or that I'm carrying water for the oil and glass gas companies, like, what? Those people have some suffering in their life and I just have to keep praying for them because what else can I do?

[Alex Clark]

Were people even protesting outside the restaurant?

[Molly Englehart]

Yes, protesting and then throwing.

[Alex Clark]

Talk to them. What?

[Molly Englehart]

Fake blood, I assume, but throwing fake blood. Oh, yeah, I talked to them. There's like a whole video where I'm breastfeeding a baby and they're screaming at me. And I engaged for a good 45 minutes to an hour and just continued to ask them like, can you see that I'm on your same side, that regenerative agriculture is asking for people to eat meat that was treated better? We're not going to get to a world. Another lie that maybe I believed at some point. But we're not getting to a world where everybody's going to be a vegan. So we do need to have better options. The meat and dairy industries in many ways are broken and highly married into the government and having a lot of issues. But so we should support farmers who are doing better practices. So it seems obvious to me that we're on the same page.

[Alex Clark]

And the reason, just for the listeners to know, because we talked about it before we started recording, the reason you are still vegetarian sort of because you're eating raw cheese and milk and everything. But the reason that you're not eating meat yet is you're working your way up. You've spent basically your entire life since a child eating that way. So it's not that you're against me, you're just working your way up. Like your body and your mind just aren't used to thinking of that as food. So you're getting there. Your husband is trying to get you to drink bone broth.

[Molly Englehart]

Yes, we're, I, I'm getting there. And my kids, you know, I have three, four, five kids and one of them only is a vegetarian. She eats a lot of egg tacos though. So she's eating a lot of eggs and a lot of yogurt but she doesn't eat meat yet. And then I don't eat meat. But the family eats. I mean we eat a lot of meat. We have sheep and pork and all that from the farm. So all. And cows and goats.

[Alex Clark]

We're hearing a lot about regenerative agriculture from RFK Jr. Talk about how important it is and, and you sat on some pretty important boards having to do with regenerative agriculture. So can you tell us about that?

[Molly Englehart]

Regenerative agriculture is the principle of treating the soil as important as it is. And so we think a lot about, in the environmental movement, people are like, they're the dolphins or the bears or the this. And we're thinking about this macro life, big life, but some huge percentage of life on the planet. And there's some studies that say it's 25% and some that say it's 50 something percent. But some huge percentage of life on the planet lives in the top Eight inches of topsoil. And we have been treating that top 8 inches of topsoil like, terrible.

[Alex Clark]

How do we treat soil? Terribly.

[Molly Englehart]

We till it and we plow it. We spray it with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and everything that's in the soil is in the food. Is is microbiology. 70% of that microbiology is compatible with a healthy gut. So when you think about people say, oh, well, roundup doesn't hurt you because you don't have a shack, a shikame pathway. You're right. I do not have a shikame pathway. If you're talking about the skin bag that is housing my soul, but the microbiology that's 50% of what's keeping my body going. Like that skin bag, without all that bacteria, fungus, virus, all that on me, I don't live right. That my immune system is. That microbiology is 70% compatible with healthy soil. And so we're eating sterile food. We no longer eat food where we just grab a cabbage out of the garden, we rinse it off, and then we ferment it, or we make food with it. We are getting cabbage that's been dipped in sterilizer, wrapped in plastic, and sat somewhere for however long. And we're no longer eating off of the bushes or off of the plants. We're no longer eating raw milk. So all of those things are having our personal microbiology be highly diminished. And we're having like an industrial or an urban microbiology that is causing health issues. The best way for us to reverse that is to heal our soil.

[Alex Clark]

There are some people who are like, that's we have to be pasteurizing milk. Why would you want to drink bacteria?

[Molly Englehart]

Yeah, because I'm thoroughly aware that the bacteria of life that keeps us alive is creation. Why do we always say, like, trust your gut, your gut instinct, your gut knows your guttural instinct, all that, that is God taking on shape, form and experience in you. That is creation. That the microbiology is what keeps, keeps everything alive. And we have disconnected from it. We are so sterile. We are washing our hands with sterilizer, we are spraying ourselves with sterilizer, and we have disconnected. And then our mind, body connection, our gut brain connection is so messed up that we are depressed and we are unhappy. And it's so many ways that we're destroying our microbiology. We're getting born via C section, and then we're feeding ourselves formula instead of breast milk. And a good question of why do I want the bacteria? Breast milk is the perfect food. The most Perfect food on the whole planet. And it comes out of your breath, breast perfect, and it's not pasteurized. And this idea that we need to fix what was done is crazy.

[Alex Clark]

But they're saying, well, but that's for baby cows. Like, that's the whole point is, yes, human milk is good for humans, but we shouldn't drink the raw cow's milk. What do you say?

[Molly Englehart]

The bacteria in microbiology in cow's milk is like 94% compatible with the human gut. Lots of people that have had health issues are doing raw milk cleanses where they're only doing eating raw milk in order to reset their microbiology just like they were when they were a kid. But I know a few people who have done it and to really reset, because breast milk does set the foundation for all the other microbiology to come in. But when we're having a C section, you're getting cut out of your mother into the sterile operating room instead of coming through the vagina and over the butthole and getting inoculated with your mother's microbiology to set you in the right direction and then being fed from the breast. That was one of my realizations about why veganism didn't work. Is I'm breastfeeding my baby, like, oh my God, this is gold. It's the best thing. I'm so good because I'm breastfeeding my baby, like, whatever I'm telling myself, and then I'm like feeding my 2 year old oat milk from Costco and then I'm milking off the quarter of the cow that the calf is not drinking onto the ground so she doesn't get mastitis. And I'm thinking, this doesn't add up. If my breast milk is gold, he'll Una's breast milk is gold too. And so then I started giving raw milk to my kids and they love it. My kids, My kids were like, oh, we're not. Someone will try to give them a sweet thing and they'll be like, we're not allowed to have a sweet thing unless we have raw milk because it helps our body process the sugar better.

[Alex Clark]

I like that. I like that rule. That's a good parenting tip.

[Molly Englehart]

No sugar, no sugary thing without raw milk to help you process it.

[Alex Clark]

We're seeing for the first time in 40 years, I would say, an overlap between liberals and conservatives who agree that our food supply chain, the current health crisis, this, it's not sustainable. Regenerative agriculture is something that both the left and the right can agree on and support. Why?

[Molly Englehart]

I thought that was true. Like the simple idea that we treat our soil good, we cover it, we have diversity of plants and we graze animals. I thought that was true. But when I made this announcement, NPR came out with a hit pace against me saying that I was misinformed and that the best way to save the environment is just to stop eating meat.

[Alex Clark]

What is this obsession with that? Is this, does this have to do with like the carbon stuff that they're just so obsessed with?

[Molly Englehart]

They love the carbon stuff. But I do think there's a segment of the population that is liberals and conservatives that they can just agree about no poisons, no tearing down the rainforest, no, like this idea that we just take care of our soil and we grow good food and it's nutrient dense. And I talk about this all the time. Like, why can't we all agree on this? Why are you attacking me? Because I want to feed my kids a different version of nutrient dense food than you want to feed you like this. We don't need to fight. Like, I'm a vegan and I'm a this and I'm a carnivore and I'm a keto. And what if we're like, I eat whole foods with no poison.

[Alex Clark]

How many seed oils are at your restaurant now?

[Molly Englehart]

Zero.

[Alex Clark]

Is it feasible for most restaurants to switch back to beef, tallow and olive oil and ingredient in lard, or is it just not going to be possible?

[Molly Englehart]

I don't know. We're having a really hard time. In full disclosure. Really, it's really expensive. The food that I'm serving is the highest quality American regenerative organic food that I can serve and the price that it needs to be. People don't want to pay. And I understand. And people talk about this with me all the time. It's like it's a privilege to eat organic food. It's a privilege to eat regenerative meat. It's a privilege. Yes.

[Alex Clark]

Why stay in la? Why not move Sage Regenerative Restaurant to Texas where you are?

[Molly Englehart]

People are willing to pay more in la. Yeah, but, but, and if it won't work in la, I don't know that's gonna work in Texas. Like, people in LA do care about this, but it's like this weird thing that we're in this weird in between right now. But what I was gonna say is that it is expensive, but we're. There's a cost to everything and we're going to pay now. Or you're going to pay later. Think about how many People, you know that are young and have health issues already and think about older people and think, my, I lost my best friend to cancer. Like we're all going to pay someday. So we can pay now for healthy food or you can pay for treatment of some sickness later. And the other thing I want to say is that cheap food that someone else harvested and got sick harvesting is a cost that we should also care about. If we care so much about the animals we care so much, we should also care about farm workers. I had a woman that cleaned my house. She was on a group of six women, five women. That was a strawberry pickers. Four of those five women had cancer before the age of 45.

[Alex Clark]

It's the chemicals.

[Molly Englehart]

It's the chemicals. And I know so many farmworkers that went back to Mexico and have cancer or have lymphoma or have these things. And I think that we don't see it, but it is also a privilege to eat cheap food that someone put on a white suit and a mask and sprayed chemicals on so that you could have it. And so there's a cost in everything. And I think that as a society we have to start backing up and looking at the cost of all of it. And so yes, it is expensive. We're using fat works, all grass fed American tallow. And it is $250 for a five gallon bucket. You could get seed oils for like $40 for that much. So you know, you can get the beef that we're serving the wholesale. My wholesale price for the beef that we're serving is like $14 a pound. So yeah, it's expensive. And if we don't care about what we're feeding ourselves and our children, then we're really like just lost. And I know that when people start to wake up and they're like the endocrine interrupters and the this and the perfume and my makeup and they just start to feel the cleaning products in my house and everything is bad. Yes. But we just gotta take one thing at a time. And food is actually an easier thing. Like just buy whole foods from local places. It's actually not that hard.

[Alex Clark]

So let me ask you this, is steak still worth eating if it's not grass fed?

[Molly Englehart]

I would say that steak is always better than chicken. A hundred percent.

[Alex Clark]

What do you mean? Why is it always better than chicken?

[Molly Englehart]

First of all, every time you eat chicken, it's like was a life like or two people ate it, then it's a life. It's like not a lot of meat for a sentient being to die. So the amount of, the amount of like breeding, feeding, killing, breeding, feeding, killing. And they are being fed even when they're pastured and we serve chicken at our restaurant, even when they're pastured, their whole diet is grain. So all the energy to grow the grain and then to turn that into chicken, it's not very much meat. And so unless you're getting it from a local guy, but there's still going to be. It's a highly input, much inputs are going into it, highly intensive meat for what it takes in the world. Grass fed, grass finished beef is the best. But if you're just going to have a steak at any restaurant, it was grass fed till it was 9 months, 15 months however, until it went to the sale barn. And so the majority of that cow's life, it'll probably get harvested at two years. The feedlot system, they might be able to speed it up to 18 months. And on grass fed, grass finish, they're going to live for like two and a half years because it takes a little bit longer on grass. But the majority of that cow's life is going to be on grass. No matter what it is. Nobody is just getting a cow. There's no business operation where they're just getting baby cows and then feeding them grain their whole life. All cows are on pasture. That's why when you say grass fed, it's kind of like a lie. Unless it's grass finished or grass until the last two months or whenever you want to learn more information. But every single cow the majority of their life was on grass. I would just look for American beef and try to get American, American, American. And a lot of times with the labeling, it's very deceptive because if they can buy the whole cows cut up and then packages here and then it says American beef. And so I think it's important. A.J. richards is a guy who's doing a lot, a lot of research. He's a friend of mine. But you want to find a farmer that you know and that you trust and get a box delivered to your house. And if you're out, out at the restaurant, you want to go beef and never go pork.

[Alex Clark]

Why?

[Molly Englehart]

Unless you're buying it from someone like me or something. Because 87 or some high percentage, I think over 80% of the pork is controlled by China in our. Because Springfield was sold to a Chinese company and the system that they're growing up in is not kind. So you want to get pastured pork and you don't want to eat it out. Never eat. Eat pork out.

[Alex Clark]

Real sugar, like what you find in fruit or honey isn't bad. The problem is America puts artificial sugar, which is bad in everything. We are getting way too much sugar on a daily basis and we don't even realize that. You think, well, I'm not like a dessert person. No, you're still getting too much sugar. From our sandwich bread to baby food, orange juice to salad dressing. I love squeezed juice because they never use added sugar in their fresh squeeze. Non gmo, never from concentrate, no water, added juices and antioxidant lemonades. Get a big jug for the fridge or a small individual lunchbox size. Choose from 100 mandarin pomegranate juice in antioxidant lemonades. The Mandarin juice is my all time favorite. Squeeze juice is shipped cold so you can take a drink of this Mandarin juice as soon as you open the box. Squeeze juice is so pure it's like squeezing it at home without the work. Only two or three real fruit ingredients like mandarin, lemon, pomegranate or cucumber. No more high fructose corn syrup, artificial food D juices. We just want the real thing. Go to shop.squeeze juice.com use code alex for 25% off that shop.squeeze juice dot com with code alex for 25% off squeeze juice. I know Paul Saladino recently said on the show that he's anti kale for your tummy, but he didn't say anything about the face. Did you know that Neemi Skincare has a completely clean skin line? Look on their website for the product products with the Neemi Clean certification like their Kale Protein facial cleanser. Use twice daily and enjoy key ingredients like kale, carrot and lemon, antioxidants like green tea and soothing agents like aloe vera and chamomile. The Neemi Skincare Kale Protein Facial Cleanser strengthens skin's barrier and fights free radicals, hydrates and soothes and is also a great face makeup remover. If you're looking for a more hydrating cleanser, struggle with sensitive skin or want fragrance free products products you will love the Neemie Clean Skincare line. Go to Nini skincare.com use code Alex Clark for 10 off. That's Mimi skincare.com use code alex clark for 10% off. What I hear a lot from some farmers is that regenerative farming is just not sustainable to feed the country. They say that, you know, we're going to always have to have some factory farms. Are they right?

[Molly Englehart]

Depends how flexible people are willing to be. If we could go to eating more beef. Beef and less chicken. And I think that pork can be done in regenerative ways. Like we're doing pastured pork and then we're using a waste product coming out of the breweries and the distilleries to feed our pork. So our. They're getting the restaurant scraps and then they're getting brewery waste. So when they're making. So it's a byproduct that is would. Has already been used for something and now it's going to be used a second time. There's lots of ways that that pork can be done using the waste stream. And that sounds weird, but when there's people making cheese, the whey, lots of whey gets made into like whey protein and stuff like that. But also whey gets fed to pigs. There's other things that get fed to pigs. Vegas, I think, has a whole pig system at their dump where all the. Because there's so much buffet waste that is going into pigs. But you want to make sure that it's done right. Where they're not just grinding up the plastic from like grocery stores. That's happening too.

[Alex Clark]

That's disgusting. Well, AJ talks about how they're being fed, like just candy wrappers and stuff.

[Molly Englehart]

Yeah. All the plastic. So you want to make sure that you're getting pork from somebody that you know and you know what they're feeding them. But I think it is sustainable to do it because the math that they're doing that's saying that it's not sustainable. And I don't know about. For chickens and eggs, that's where I, I, but I read this thing that if every person just had three chickens, it would be enough for everybody to have chick eggs. So I think we just need to like, up the amount of smaller farms when it comes to the chicken. But the amount of chicken that we eat. Yeah. Doing it regeneratively. No, that we just eat a lot of chicken.

[Alex Clark]

As Americans.

[Molly Englehart]

You mean as Americans. I've never eaten chicken. I don't know what it tastes like, but it must be like, amazing because people are really into it. Right. But I think we need to move more towards nose to tail and eating the whole animal. And so when they're telling you that the math that they're doing, it's not that their math is wrong. The math that they're using is like regular stocking rates, like, oh, this 20 acres per cow, per, blah, blah, blah. But when you're doing high density grazing, you can use way more stock Weight per an acre. We move our cows twice a day. So you can do like a million pounds per an acre, but you're moving, moving, moving, moving. So the ground is never getting messed up, but it's getting Foley pee poop and all. Saliva microbiology, feeding the soil. And then that land rests for 90 days or a year. Depends on what, how much rain and what's going on.

[Alex Clark]

So what you're saying is a little pee pee, a little poo poo, a.

[Molly Englehart]

Little slay, and it's good. That's what keeps the grass growing. And so you can have way more cows on the same amount of land. And then all this acreage that we're feeding corn and soy, if we just. Even if we didn't take it out of corn and soy, if we just did a cover crop and graze those crops through the off season, then that's much more acreage that we could be grazing on. So, no, I think that regenerative agriculture has a real powerful future. And I do think that we have to shift the way we eat right now. We are addicted to our convenience. I talk about it a lot. And we have to stop trading our convenience for resilience. We have to also stop trading our convenience for the freedoms that come with knowing what's in our food. Like, we are. We are being dumbed down and drugged down by the pharmaceuticals that are in our food, in our water. And the pharmaceutical industry and the agrochemical industry, they are together. Bayer, Monsanto is one company, and so Bayer is selling cancer drugs, and Monsanto is selling Roundup, which is causing cancer. Like it's. It's this marriage of they're keeping us sick and keeping us addicted to these drugs and addicted to sugar and addicted to unhealthy food.

[Alex Clark]

Is the fear about glyphosate overblown?

[Molly Englehart]

No. So glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, and it kills anything with a shikame pathway. And so all plants and then funguses and viruses and bacteria have this shikame pathway, and it just completely dries them out. All of us have a gut lining that is protected by this microbiology and mucous membrane that keeps everything that's in our intestinal tract inside and doesn't let it leak outside. And it also keeps the food getting digested and moving along. Roundup is killing off all of that microbiology and giving us all leaky guts and having us not be able to process food, not be able to uptake nutrients. Roundup started out as an antibiotic and then it was a drain cleaner. And then they were cleaning drains and they figured out that it killed everything that was outside of the drain when they, when it came out. And so think about something that's an antibiotic and something that is a drain cleaner and also is now an herbicide, pesticide. Do we want that in our food? And it's never actually been studied in that way because what it was brought to market for, it's like they're using it for an off label purpose. But when you think about antibiotics and how detrimental they are and all that, we're eating it every day. And the studies and what they looked at, they thought about it as something we're going to spray on the ground before we plant the corn. So the weeds are gone. Or when you have an orange tree, you're going to spray the ground around the lemon tree, orange tree or avocado. And then it's not spraying the tree. Right, they're spraying the ground for the weeds. But in the mid-90s, they figured out that it kills everything perfectly on time. So if you have a field of wheat and you want to harvest it and you don't want to wait for the perfect hot sunny day for it to be the perfect dryness, the chemical company said you can just spray it with roundup and wait 14 days. Because that's the regulation. The regulation was never meant to spray it directly on the food that we're eating and then wait 14 days. It was to spray on the ground around an avocado tree and then don't harvest the avocados up here. 14 days. But so what they're doing is they're spraying it on wheat, barley, oats. It's in such high levels in our food and our cereals that we are destroying the microbiology of our children.

[Alex Clark]

Is there a safer alternative chemical that could be used? Or you think we should use no chemicals? Or what's the protocol for like keeping bugs away?

[Molly Englehart]

The thing about regenerative agriculture is that by bringing balance to the soil, then you don't need to use as many chemicals. That's the one thing. But vinegar, strong, strong vinegar, there's other things that kill and there's other herbicides besides glycophate that are just as bad. These are all chemicals of war that we are putting on our food. Bayer is like terrible Nazi Germany.

[Alex Clark]

Like, yeah, we're talking about like Agent Orange, but it goes on. Our food basically is what glyphosate is.

[Molly Englehart]

And we continue to do this. And so yes, it matters. And it matters most Right now in the wheat and the oats. And the problem is you're taking a tiny little baby that's trying to grow their microbiome that maybe was a C section, maybe got fed formula. It's already struggling to get this. And then we're feeding it Cheerios as its first food.

[Alex Clark]

I have a close friend who lives in the middle of the country and they live next to a field of a farm that does spray glyphosate. If you were in her shoes, do you think like, you need to move or you think they'll be fine?

[Molly Englehart]

I lived in Ventura, California in an avocado orchard. It was with everybody spraying all around me. I do feel grateful to be in Texas, in the hill country where there's less spraying. But my neighbor sprays pre emergence. I think living in rural communities, I think that it is. But I would get my well tested.

[Alex Clark]

Oh yeah, the water well.

[Molly Englehart]

If she's on a well and he's spraying right above it. My neighbor is downstream of me. But I still had my white. I still had my well tested. But I also know that we would notice the kids getting sick or getting rashes. Not just with glyphates, but they spray things from helicopters on the avocados and they're like, it's just oil, it's just this, it's just that. And I would notice my kids getting rashes, getting my. My one son had eczema the whole time we lived in Ventura County. These dry patches all over his skin and when we move and a rash like between his legs right here. And when we moved to Texas, it went away.

[Alex Clark]

What do you know about the stuff they spray on the vegetables in the grocery store?

[Molly Englehart]

They dip all of our vegetables in, even organic vegetables in sterilizer of some kind, sanitizer of some kind. So it really is better if you can get. It doesn't have to be all of your food. Like people get overwhelmed, but if you could get some produce from a local person, you're replenishing that microbiology. If you can get out into nature and breathe in different natural places, you're replenishing your microbiology. We are meant to live in nature like we lived in huts and dirt floors and we ate with our hands and we sweat and then that sweat got absorbed back into us and the dirt of the whatever. Like we have so disconnected from nature that we are deficient of the microbiology that keeps us strong and healthy.

[Alex Clark]

Is there anything that you think that the current health and wellness community does fear monger about?

[Molly Englehart]

I go to the local grocery store in Bandera, Texas, Lowe's. And there's nothing that I would want to feed my children. The tortillas have a hundred ingredients that like, I just, there's nothing that I want to feed my kids. There.

[Alex Clark]

See that's the thing is that people that are just, just diving in, just dipping their toe in and hearing this information. That's what they say. They say this is all fear mongering. I can't take it. Like we're, you know, we're going to die anyway. They, they get upset.

[Molly Englehart]

And I get it. My mother, it was way ahead of me on the 5G and all this stuff. And I used to be like, mom, just stop it. Like, I have to have a cell phone. I have to do my job. I have to have wi fi. And, and I still do have WI fi. And I like, I didn't, don't have WI fi because it's, but my mother would be like, why fry? It's why fry? And, and I get it. And here's the thing. Don't get overwhelmed. Just take one thing out at a time. Like I would say that the number one thing that we need to do is take all the fragrances out of your house. Like that would be if I was going to go first. Like one first step. No Glade plugins. No fabuloso. No. Get rid of all the scented products in your house.

[Alex Clark]

Get rid of the car air freshener.

[Molly Englehart]

I always say, like, why? Who thought it was a good idea to hang up some chemicals in your car and then roll up all the windows and drive?

[Alex Clark]

No, I'm serious. I cannot take that. When I get in friends cars and they, it's just it, the whole thing makes me want to throw up. I, I, that's like my number one throat.

[Molly Englehart]

I get a sore throat.

[Alex Clark]

Yes.

[Molly Englehart]

My mom raised me with no scented products, so I'm super sensitive. My husband's always like, oh, you're like the canary in the coal mine, right? But I'm like, yeah, but if I'm getting sick and we have to like when we get a new person that works in our house. My husband is always like, I can't believe it. I have to have this conversation. I'm like, I, my Spanish is not good enough to have this conversation. And he's always like, okay, so you can't have any perfumes. You can't wear scented.

[Alex Clark]

No fabuloso.

[Molly Englehart]

No fabuloso. No. Don't you have to use non scented clothing soap and the for the last many Years. Like, I will buy the lady that's cleaning my house her soap for her clothes because I don't want to feel like I'm breathing tide every time she walks past me. And people think I'm crazy. And my husband definitely thought I was crazy, but now that he's detoxed, all that. And he's been married to me for 13. No. The other day, we were in the bank, and I was. I smelt it, but I wasn't making a deal. He was like. I was like. And he's like. I'm like, you're gonna get punched by that guy. And he's like. He took a bath and cologne and he's like. I think that we. Once we detox from it, we notice, and it. Nothing happens overnight. I started this journey however many years ago, but we're literally eating meat that is from the farm, eggs from the farm, milk from the farm. And, like, we are doing this, but it was totally overwhelming. And we just. One step at a time, One step at a time. And so I don't think we're being hyperbolic about how bad the food system is and how bad the pharmaceutical industry is. I think that it's the craziest collusion ever.

[Alex Clark]

People are addicted to comfort. And if they acknowledge that what we're saying is true, that means it would require change, which means it would require them to do some work. It would require lifestyle changes, worldview changes, and people just don't want to do it. They just want to ignore it, pretend like it's not there.

[Molly Englehart]

They want to just take a pill. People tell me this all the time, and you know what? Everybody's going to come to it, or they're not. I have a really dear girlfriend, and she is. Is an amazing nutritionist, and she grows all this food for her family, and she's so committed. And her husband has diabetes, and he's not committed. And I watch her, like, struggle. And she makes him meals, and then he orders something else.

[Alex Clark]

That's my father. It's this. It's the same situation. I'm like her. And then my dad is that. And my dad is very, very sick. So. See, it's very interesting. It's like. And I have grandparents. I have a set of grandparents who has. They just, you know, they just don't know anything about this. And they eat a lot of processed foods, seed oils, all of that. Then I have a set of grandparents who have always, since I was a child, been organic, real food. And they are in their 80s, pinnacle of health, skiing all kinds of stuff. It is amazing you see the difference in people.

[Molly Englehart]

Yeah. And of course genetics like pay play a role. All my grandparents lived to into their 90s and they've passed now. But I remember thinking like, how did that grandparent that didn't eat as well? But then I was starting to think like, well, she was 94, for how many years was seed oils is just not a thing. And she was eating real food.

[Alex Clark]

Yeah, real food. Butter and stuff. Because butter wasn't demonized then.

[Molly Englehart]

Butter wasn't demonized then. And so she had quadruple bypass surgery and drank smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and lived to 96. So of course there's going to be those people. But the food that we're eating today is not the food that our grandparents were eating. And so I know people say, well I, I'm fine, I grew up on it, I'm fine. Well, but that's, it's not the same. Like the ingredient list for everything has quadrupled.

[Alex Clark]

Yep.

[Molly Englehart]

And so yes, people don't want to acknowledge it because they don't want to change. But if they really just take a moment and sit with it and pray about it, I think that they're going to know that it's true.

[Alex Clark]

Besides your own restaurant in la, what are some. Just for fun, what are some of your other favorite restaurants in la?

[Molly Englehart]

Well, if you're gonna get vegan food, my dad has Gracias Madre. It's a beautiful outdoor patio in West Hollywood and It's amazing. Like 50 different kinds of organic tequila. It's amazing restaurant. And then my dad also owns Cafe Gratitude, so I would be remiss to not mention those things. And I'm going to tell you the truth, I never. I've been in a restaurant every day for 13 plus years. I don't go out to eat very much. I'm not like trying to be funny right now. The last thing I want to do is be in a restaurant when I'm.

[Alex Clark]

You're working in one. You know, that's fair, that's a fair answer.

[Molly Englehart]

But my brother has this awesome restaurant called Highly Likely and it's really high quality meat and, and dairy and there's two of them in la. And that is actually the last restaurant I went out to in la.

[Alex Clark]

So what can somebody say to a friend or family member to get them out of the vegan or nothing mindset?

[Molly Englehart]

I don't think that you can. When someone has identified with a belief system and you see this with left and right and vegan or when you identify, when your personality is attached to your gender ideology or your food choices or your political party or your skin color, there is no moving away from that. There's nothing that someone else can say or do. They will have to have the aha moment for themselves because they've put that thing at the center of everything. And vegans love to tell you that they're vegan. They love to have that communication like, I'm vegan. They've put that at the center. I know people that just don't eat meat and it's like, not a big deal to them. And it's like nbd. And then I know people that are not speaking to me anymore. Like, literally people that were my friends for years and they're not speaking to me anymore. And so I think that this conversation that we're having and all the conversations that I've been trying to have hopefully leaks in and people start to say, like, oh, obviously she cares about the animals. Obviously she wants a better future for all of us. And I think that a lot of people that are vegan are doing it for the right reasons. I hope that they start to realize the same reason why it doesn't make sense to drive an electric car. Like, there's a lot of things that we all think are the right thing. And when someone tells you it's not and that some child was slaved to re get the minerals for the battery for your car out of a pit that people don't want to hear about.

[Alex Clark]

That'S a fascinating rabbit hole of the way we're getting these electric cars in, the crazy slave labor and everything behind it. I've never talked about that yet with my audience. So it's something I've just learned about and I'm. It's mind blowing.

[Molly Englehart]

We've all been told that moving away from fossil fuels is what we need to do, but we're all completely turning a blind eye to how the minerals that are needed for these batteries are being mined. How are they being mined by human beings? And even the people in your cell phone and your computer. The tech industry completely has a total pass and they are having human beings, many children, digging by hand in horrific conditions with no clothes on, so they can't steal anything. Digging these minerals. And the amount that we would need to dig to get every single car to be electric would be a desecration to the environment in so many different places. And so this idea that electric cars, it's like this shiny new thing that we can move towards it's just a complete and total lie. But if you tell someone who just spent their saved up and got themselves a Tesla, they're not. And they want to believe that now they can do whatever else they want because they are doing this and they made their footprint smaller. It's not true. Like, a Ford F150 is not even going to be worse for the environment than the Tesla until like 12 years. It's not a real solution. And then the same with solar panels. Like, China has Uighurs enslaved making solar panels. These are people that are Muslims that are enslaved in China making solar panels super cheap to feed this green addiction. And we're like, oh yeah, it's all green. And then my cows are like the worst thing for the environment. Let me tell you something, my cow will break down to nothing.

[Alex Clark]

So what it all boils down to, Molly, is that this green New Deal stuff that the left is obsessed with is one of the most diabolical, deadly lies that people are being sold. And they think that it's better for humanity and it's actually making humanity worse.

[Molly Englehart]

Yes. And I believe that nobody can argue with my track record on environmentalism. Like, nobody can argue that I care deeply for the environment and I've put my money where my mouth is over and over and over again. And so in saying that I'm not just some talking head, I'm not left wing, I'm not right wing, I'm a radical centrist. And I am telling you, we're being sold a lie that is going to take away our freedoms. Everything about keeping us safe is a lie to take away our freedoms and everything that they're selling us about. Carbon, carbon, carbon, carbon, carbon. And monetizing carbon is to take away our freedoms and control our behavior.

[Alex Clark]

I have a prediction and I think that RFK Jr. Has brought a lot of attention to this where otherwise conservatives have basically turned a blind eye to it and really just don't care. I think we're going to see a total change in conservatives embracing true environmentalism, the original environmentalism that we used to do, you know, caring for our national parks, things like that. Not all of this like Green New Deal, basically a way to usher in Marxist socialist crap. I think we're going to see a resurgence of that and people starting to care about that more, especially on the political right. What do you think?

[Molly Englehart]

I think that a lot of conservatives are environmentalists. A lot of conservatives are living closer to nature. They're living more rurally, they're hunting, they're enjoying fishing they're, you know, part of. Through the COVID and all my awakening, I remember being like, Tucker Carlson's an environmentalist. I think that for sure the right is embracing more ideas about true environmentalism. And the left has completely abandoned the chemical conversation. So I don't understand how we can be talking about the environment, but we're not talking about chemicals. Like it's just carbon, carbon, carbon, carbon, carbon and spray whatever chemicals you want on the ground and it's fine. The left is also like the party of war, where the Nordstream pipeline, like there's nobody can tell me any different. Like they blew up the Nordstream pipeline, pipeline. And if we care about carbon, did we really just bomb a pipeline and just let all the gas go up into the ocean? Like it's crazy, right?

[Alex Clark]

So that doesn't make sense to me. Doesn't make sense how they're obsessed with war now, funding all of these unnecessary wars that we don't need to be involved in. It also doesn't make sense that they're obsessed with saying that like they're the side for the people they care about the little guy. They. And the number one talking point is always like conservatives are in bed with all the big corporations. They care about the top 1%. Like literally every single massive corporation in America is ran by leftists. They are donating to the left. It's all control. Amazon, Apple, all of these people are leftists. Where is this idea coming from that it's conservatives that are all the top 1% and doing all this? It's just not factually true anymore. There's been a complete switch.

[Molly Englehart]

I think it comes from a Bush error conversation and people are still using those talking points and I don't think it's true. And I think that there's also all of this new ways that they're controlling money, having a DEI score and all of this stuff that it's crazy to think that it's somehow the right that's controlling big corporations. And the other conversation that's on the left, that's not true. That's a lie. And if we're connected to nature, we would know that it's a lie. Is that like the capitalism is bad? That so capitalism, true capitalism, not like government funded crony capitalism. Crony capitalism, not highly subsidized corn and soy industry. No true capitalism. I build something for the community, and if it works for the community, the community supports it. And if I don't, it tumbles down. And that is nature. That is what happens in nature. Something gets built up. It's working for the whole. It thrives. If it's not working for the whole, it gets taken out. And, and capitalism is the closest thing to how nature is if we let it be without all these government incentives and government and these back room deals and that this paid for this. And so now I have to vote for this. That is not good. And so I don't like the idea that we're saying capitalism is bad because it's not capitalism. It's government interference in private business that.

[Alex Clark]

Is the problem in Chef Molly's opinion. What is the way to heal a sick culture?

[Molly Englehart]

Nutrient dense whole foods in their whole form.

[Alex Clark]

You know, you got to eat, you got to eat steak.

[Molly Englehart]

Now I got to eat a steak.

[Alex Clark]

Where should people follow you on social media?

[Molly Englehart]

At Chef Molly and then at Sovereignty Ranch, is our ranch in Texas.

[Alex Clark]

And can people tour?

[Molly Englehart]

Yeah, we do tours where we have a restaurant that's open on Saturdays. We do retreats, we do weddings, family reunions, anything like that. And then the kind sage is the restaurants in Los Angeles.

[Alex Clark]

Thank you so much, Molly for coming on Culture Apothecary.

[Molly Englehart]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Alex Clark]

The book you need to read homework about the horror show that entails in order to create electric cars and iPhone batteries is called Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara. He has also been on Joe Rogan talking about this fascinating interview. You fascinating book. Must read. Do it, do it now, do it, do it now. If you're in la, support Molly's restaurant or tell LA people that you know to check it out. She is doing incredible things and she is friends with a lot of people that I love. Like Hilla brought a Gore and Hillary Boynton from school of lunch. If there was something new that you learned in this interview, there was a couple things that I learned new. Please leave a five star review. Tell me about it and thank Molly for coming on. Every Monday and Thursday at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern, a new guest joins me with their remedy to heal a sick culture in between episodes. Make sure you're following us on Instagram at Culture Apothecary. I'm Alex Clark and this is Culture Apothecary.