E60: How One Company is Building a Parallel Food System in America | Pete Strayer of Azure Standard

America’s food system is changing, and the homesteading movement is playing a bigger role than you may realize. In this conversation, Pete of Azure Standard shares the inspiring story behind the nationwide organic food company, their mission to strengthen regenerative agriculture and local food systems, and why more families are seeking clean, trustworthy food sources. We also discuss supply chains, small farms, community resilience, and the growing movement toward rebuilding American agriculture from the ground up. If you care about food freedom, regenerative farming, and creating a healthier future for the next generation, don’t miss this conversation!

In this episode, we cover:

How a family health crisis led Azure’s founding family to embrace organic farming decades before it was mainstream
The surprising story of one small Oregon farm growing into a nationwide food distribution network
A behind-the-scenes look at Azure’s relationships with hundreds of small farms and family businesses
How Azure keeps food distribution more resilient through privately owned trucks, warehouses, and logistics
The challenges rising fuel costs and supply chain instability create for companies delivering food nationwide
Why Azure is expanding with a major East Coast warehouse and what that means for the future of food access
Why the homesteading movement is creating new opportunities for small farms, local food systems, and community
How Azure is working directly with conventional farmers who want healthier soil and more sustainable farming methods
Encouragement for families who want to be part of rebuilding a healthier, more trustworthy food culture

Thank You to our sponsors!

Earthley.com | Clean, natural, and affordable herbal remedies and body care that support health and wellness naturally

MittySupply.com | Portable milking machines designed for small and medium-sized farms to save you time and simplify your daily routine

About Pete

Peter Strayer is a seasoned Chief Marketing Officer, master communicator, and business strategist with over 25 years of experience working with iconic global brands and innovative start-ups. His expertise spans diverse industries, enabling him to offer a strategic perspective that fosters growth, personal development, and business success for his clients.

Throughout his career, Peter has held leadership positions including Chief Marketing Officer, Director of Public Relations, Senior Marketing Strategist, and Business Administrator. He has collaborated with renowned companies such as Gibson Guitar, Azure Standard, General Dynamics, and Osteo Strong, a leader in biohacking.

Recognized for his sharp insights and exceptional leadership, Peter has consulted for top organizations across sectors like Food & Beverage, Arts & Entertainment, Health & Wellness, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Government Contracting, and Philanthropy. As the founder of Altavana Insights, he is dedicated to business consulting, personal coaching, and business publishing. He has authored numerous articles and created influential series including Phronesis, The Powers of Ten, Altar Ego, Inner Idols of Business, and The Command of Communication.

Peter and his family are committed to living a clean, healthy, and organic lifestyle, and he takes pride in being part of the leadership team at Azure Standard, a company renowned for its commitment to quality and sustainability.

Residing in Middle Tennessee with his wife of 25 years, Peter has raised two children and continues to inspire others with his dedication to excellence in both business and personal life.

Resources Mentioned

Find an Azure Standard drop near you!

Connect

How One Company is Building a Parallel Food System in America Transcript

Amy Fewell Welcome to the Homesteaders of America Podcast, where we encourage simple living, hard work, natural healthcare, real food, and building an agrarian society. If you’re pioneering your way through modern noise and conveniences, and you’re an advocate for living a more sustainable and quiet life, this podcast is for you. Welcome to this week’s podcast. I’m your host, Amy Fewell, and I’m the founder of the Homesteaders of America organization and annual events. If you’re not familiar with us, we are a resource for homesteading education and online support. And we even host a couple of in-person events each year with our biggest annual event happening right outside the nation’s capital here in Virginia every October. Check us out online at HomesteadersofAmerica.com. Follow us on all of our social media platforms and subscribe to our newsletter so that you can be the first to know about all things HOA (that’s short for Homesteaders of America). Don’t forget that we have an online membership that gives you access to thousands—yes, literally thousands—of hours worth of information and videos. It also gets you discount codes, an HOA decal sticker when you sign up, and access to event tickets before anyone else. All right. Let’s dive into this week’s episode.

Amy Fewell Welcome back to the Homesteaders of America podcast. Thank you guys for joining us again this week. This week I have Peter Strayer from Azure Standard. Welcome to the podcast, Peter.

Pete Strayer Thanks, Amy! Awesome to be here!

Amy Fewell Yeah! Okay, so I think most people in the homesteading world know Azure Standard. I think most of us have probably ordered, or at least heard of it, or gotten a catalog. Why don’t you tell us who you are and what Azure Standard does?

Pete Strayer Yeah, so like you said, I’m Pete, and for a little over four years now, I’ve been the Chief Marketing Officer at Azure Standard. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Azure, really it’s described best as a family, a farm, a food distributor, and what we like to think of as like instant community. We’ve been around for nearly 40 years, and we deliver food. We sell it online on a website, AzureStandard.com, so you kind of go and have an e-comm experience, but we deliver to community drop points. So in that way, it’s similar to a co-op. And at present, we have just about 4,300 of those community drop point in all 50 states. So we love the idea of community, connectedness, self-reliance, and small businesses. And as far as my role goes as a marketer, you know, we just try to do stuff differently at Azure. We’re decidedly non-transactional. This is odd in the business world, but we really like to emphasize relationship and community first, and then do what I call “revelatory marketing,” which is just to reveal what’s real about Azure, and then let that community sense and resonance kind of bring in people who feel like they want to be a part of the community. It’s just worked so beautifully, and I’m so happy to be a part of Azure.

Amy Fewell Yeah. Okay, so tell me how this organization—this community—how did it even begin? You said it began 40 years ago, so what does that history look like?

Pete Strayer Well, it’s a really interesting history, and one that’s extremely inspiring for anybody that’s starting up a homestead, that wants to have a garden, or maybe grow something on their counter. But years ago in the Pacific Northwest—and Azure Farms is based in Oregon, just about 40 minutes east of Mount Hood out in the rural areas of Oregon—the founding man, David Stelzer was a young teenager. And basically, through a series of events in his family—where he had been very ill as a child and his grandfather had severe advanced heart disease—they ran into a naturopath in the area that recommended that they clean up their food on the farm, like stop using pesticides, any harmful chemicals. And so they were one of the first farms to abandon any conventional ag practices in lieu of organic farming. Well, over the next few years, the grandfather got well and David got well. They didn’t even expect him to survive childhood. And this was the beginning of their devotion to clean, natural farming practices that really emphasize stewardship of the land and things like that. Well, over time through a series of events and unfortunate events, they had a tax dispute with the IRS. And for a while, David’s dad—anything that he made would be, you know, taken by the IRS. And the IRS one day, actually, with about 28 agents, pulled up to their farm and literally removed every piece of farming equipment. And so this is something David as a teenager witnessed. But something about the Stelzers that everybody should realize is that they’re very faith-driven and purpose-driven, and adversity doesn’t affect them. So the long and the short of it is: David basically went to a farming neighbor—because farmers enjoy community with their fellow farmers—and basically said, “Hey, I’m happy to work for your farm. I’m an experienced farmhand. I may be young, but I can do it.” And the farmer’s like, “Great, what are we going to pay you?” And he goes, “Well, how about this? How about you just let me use your equipment on my family’s farm in the evenings and weekends so that I can farm for my family and provide for them.” And a deal was struck. Over time, David—who, of course, had to quit school in the middle of high school to do this—farmed his family’s land. And it became so successful that he thought, well, where can we find a market for this? And so he found a little truck, and he started loading the family’s flour into a truck and driving up and down the Pacific Northwest, literally asking mom and pop stores, “Hey, can you use organically-grown flour or fruits and vegetables?” And over time, he developed dozens and dozens of accounts. And eventually, well-known brand names like Bob’s Red Mill—most people know Bob’s Red Mill—well, Bob and David and Bob and David’s dad knew each other really well, and Azure Farm grew Bob’s Red Mill flour. Over time, this little operation and this little idea became a vision to bring healthy food to families who were not in a position to receive it or afford it all across America. And slowly but surely it grew out of the Pacific Northwest. I think in the last five years, we finally hit our 50th state. Now we’re as densely populated east of the Mississippi as we are in the Pacific Northwest with millions of customers, and like I said, all these drop points. But over the years, Azure faced so much adversity just from the conventional agricultural community, governmental entities—you name it. And through a commitment to the customer and to the community, somehow it has survived and thrived. It’s just a joy to see the company coming up on now forty years of thriving—it truly is. People should know that while it’s a huge company, it’s still family run. Like when I was originally brought on as a consultant—I’m in Middle Tennessee—so I flew out to Oregon. And, you know, I’m expecting the trappings of success, and I found none of it. I found a humble farmer, David, driving a dust-covered car to an old renovated ’70s bank office building in this little town called Dufur, Oregon. I was just stunned at the fact that there was no ego, that there was no mercenary motive, and that they were truly, truly connected to and dedicated to their community. So it’s been a really great journey. And now going forward, we’re expanding it. Now we’re bringing food from the drop points to people who can’t get to the drop points. Sometimes that’s elderly or people with physical conditions and things like that, and other times it’s just people with busy lives. But it just speaks to Azure’s commitment just to really support and serve anybody who wants to just eat a little bit healthier and use products they can trust.

Amy Fewell Yeah, so obviously with its growth, it’s not David just growing everything anymore because you guys have a ton of products online, so where are you guys sourcing all of this amazing healthy food?

Pete Strayer Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, as part of the Azure value system, we try to be, at all times, America first. We want to support independent businesses wherever possible, so Azure’s 16,000 products come from a mixture of about 700 independent businesses across the United States. And hundreds of those happen to be small mom and pop farms and homesteads. And it’s a joy to do it because when you go relationship first versus transaction first, there’s a connection to your supplier, A, that helps us verify that they’re maintaining standards within organic practices and regenerative farming practices, and then B, that when push comes to shove, we know we’ve got a sure supply chain of food. And right now, as you know, the culture is dealing with a lot of fear around the food prices, supply chain gas prices, and things like that, and Azure being completely top to bottom, privately owned—even our tractor trailers; we own all of it, so we are beholden to no one—and as long as we have those tight relationships with these families and farms, we’re confident that we can feed America for years to come.

Amy Fewell If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to live a healthier, more natural lifestyle, you’re not alone. That’s why I want to share one of our favorite resources: Earthley. Earthley is a family-owned company focused on helping you take your health back into your own hands with clean, plant-based remedies, herbal products, and natural body care you can actually trust. What I love most is that they don’t just sell products—they equip you with knowledge. Their mission is all about empowering families to care for their health naturally using simple, time-tested ingredients. From immune support to skincare to everyday wellness, they’ve created over 100 products designed to support your body without the junk. So, if you’re ready to simplify your wellness routine and get back to the basics, head over to Earthley.com and start your journey today. Thanks, Earthley, for being an HOA sponsor.

Amy Fewell So, saying the “tractor trailer” reminded me—with the gas, diesel, and fuel prices right now, how is that affecting you guys? I’m sure it is, but you’re going from the West Coast to the East Coast. Do you have midway storehouses or is it all coming from one storehouse? How is that working for you guys and how is the fuel cost driving you?

Pete Strayer Yeah, that’s another great question because right now—and this happened a couple of years ago, if you remember; I don’t know what the conflict was—but a couple years ago, prices really spiked in fuel, and that always translates downstream to the increasing price of consumer goods, right? Including food. And so at the time, what we did back then, the prices I believe spiked 25% within a span of about two or three months. And David Stelzer, our CEO, went online and he goes, “Look, I’m just going to be honest and let people know that we cannot absorb an increase in cost of 25%. But instead of raising our prices 25%, what we’re going to do is just raise it 5%. We’re going to eat most of that ourselves, and then when things settle down, we’re actually going to lower our price back down to where it was, or maybe even better if we can.” And we did. And in this case today, as you mentioned, our main distribution center is in the middle of Oregon, but we’re building a new one in Ohio this year. And so we’re super excited about that. It’s really going to change the complexion of how we distribute in the eastern half of the country, as well as involving more family farms east of the Mississippi for our supply chain. But we’ve got an innovative system to hit these 4,300 drops. And it’s about as complex as an airline traffic system because that’s a lot of drops to hit, and a lot of trucks on the road. But we have what’s called a continuous route system where there’s always trucks coming back and forth from Oregon and they simply meet up the trucks that deliver downstream to the drops in a specific state. So it means we’re very efficient. We make sure that all of our trailers are full, and besides saving our customers shipping costs, it also makes us fuel efficient. But what we’re having to do now is really keep an eye on some of these prices. And I don’t expect yet that we’re having to go out and raise our prices, but if it continues too long, we may do something similar to what we did a few years ago. But I can tell you, too, another neat thing about Azure: David Stelzer is a guy that doesn’t just sit behind a desk—he’s out in the field, he’s still a farmer, his hands are dirty when he comes in, his boots have mud on them, and he also knows how to get into the computer system. You know, any e-comm businesses have a complex computer system, but David knows how to get in there, and he monitors prices personally. And I’ve seen him many, many times go across the board, pull up the price pricing app, and basically say, “Okay, we’re dropping 10 % here, we’re dropping 5% there,” because for David, it’s not about accumulating profit, it’s about dropping prices and making food affordable. And I think with what’s happening now, we’ll just keep an eye on the news and what’s going on, and hopefully this will settle down sooner than later, but we’re ready for it.

Amy Fewell That’s amazing. You answered my next question: Do you have any intentions on building here on the East coast? Because I’m sure you have a ton of drops out here. We don’t have a drop, but we obviously do go to a drop at times. And so one of the things that I’ve been looking into is, okay, well, if something happens, you know, dramatically in the country, I don’t think my food is going to make it all the way from Oregon to Virginia, right? And so, you guys are already on top of that. You’re building another warehouse and that’s incredible. And one of the big things that we are into is the food system and its structure and how fragile it truly is. So it’s really encouraging to see a company like Azure kind of in the thick of this that is creating, literally, a parallel system. That is what you’re doing. And you’re working with farmers and homesteaders. So I know people are going to ask—this is going to be the next question—if someone has a homestead or a farm and they’re interested in partnering with you on their products, whether it’s wheat or applesauce or whatever it is, what does that look like? What kind of process do they have to go through?

Pete Strayer Yeah. Well, first of all we love the fact that the homestead movement is exploding in the United States now. You know, five years ago, I took a look at the numbers and what I was determining to be a community size of somewhere 4 to 8 million persons has ballooned to, this year, seeing it look like 18 to 20 million persons. And this is unbelievable. It’s a cultural movement that really doesn’t get a lot of play in mainstream media at all. And as you know—you have your own homesteading conference—when you have these conferences to bring homesteaders together to learn skills, to be in community, and to kind of be inspired by one another, it does something. It changes a community, and it changes the complexion of a state. And Azure—we’re at a lot of these conferences. We’re there meeting people, and it isn’t a team of people meeting them—it’s David, it’s me, it’s the senior leaders and family shaking hands, getting to know names, and hearing stories, and what we hear from people is that there’s a crop of new homesteaders who are gaining skills, and then there are people who kind of have it dialed in and are doing well. Well, the people who have it dialed-in are people that we do keep an eye on as future vendors because if they get into a position where their farm is producing enough to meet commercial licensure and things like that to go along with selling food, we want to know you and know what you’re doing. And if we can’t contribute to your success through Azure, we’re happy to support you otherwise. So for Azure vendors, we’re always looking for ways to connect and begin that conversation. And at our website, AzureStandard.com, there’s ways to contact us. But typically the family itself, we’ll have a conversation with the vendor. Like for example, I just talked to a farm in Wisconsin this week who grows organic corn, but for popcorn, which is just… Who doesn’t like popcorn? And Azure, we have a lot of it. But this farmer called me and he said, “Hey, first of all, I want to tell you about the success we had in removing the indemnification for the chemical industry and the farm bill. And then second, I want to tell you, I’ve got an awful lot of corn sitting here. Would you guys like to sell our corn?” But what I’ll do then is typically connect them to Zech Stelzer, he is David’s eldest son, and he is over the farming operations and the logistics and warehousing operations of Azure, which includes our product team. David’s sister is also part of that product evaluation team. And what they would do is respond to an inquiry—they would call, get to know the farm, understand what the commodity is or what the crop is that they’re looking to sell, and just begin the conversation to see what would possibly work best for everybody. And we’ve seen it 100 times from farms of all sizes, and as you guys know, this isn’t going to stop anytime soon. And as Azure continues to grow at the rate we’re growing, we’re going to need more than one warehouse in the eastern United States. So we’re planning out 20 years in the future, and to keep that supply chain going, we’re going to have to nurture the homesteaders that are out there, the farms that want to convert from conventional ag over to regenerative organic agriculture, and just keep the movement thriving. But anybody who would like to reach out to us, just go onto our website—there’s a portal to contact us, and we would love to start the conversation.

Amy Fewell Yeah, and just a reminder, you guys who are listening: these are not like, you know, one-acre homestead growing tomatoes. It needs to be on a much broader scale, just to be clear. Like I know someone will be like, “I grow a hundred tomato plants.” No, that’s not what we’re looking for. These are people who are trying to make a business out of it. So that’s really encouraging. You know, one of the best parts of a business model is not looking at the just right here and now. It’s planning, what you just said, 20 years ahead. It’s how are we going to change this system and its little steps every year, right? It’s little connections every year. And so it’s really encouraging to hear you say that. And of course, I’m sure that comes with its challenges. What are some of the challenges you faced as being part of the organic, non-GMO food system? What’s some of the pushback that you guys have faced?

Pete Strayer Well, Amy, you probably know as well as I do that there are a lot of interests in agriculture that aren’t necessarily aligned with the wellbeing of families and those who want to have their best health. And I think when it comes to Azure, we already banned 75 ingredients. It’s food you can trust, and I know we’re not the only ones. There’s a lot of commercial entities who we literally call friends who are trying to meet that need. And it’s an interesting thing to do this in an ever-more public way because for most of Azure’s 40 years, it was a word of mouth. It was a community-driven thing—it was moms or dads or whoever picked up the food talking to their friends and saying, “Look, I’m part of this co-op thing called Azure Standard.” Well now, the proliferation of digital media and social media and podcasts and things like that, give us a much broader platform to talk about what we’re passionate about. And as we’ve done this, obviously the profile of Azure has risen, and now we’re influencing policy, we’re talking to entities in Washington, we’re trying to move the needle in any possible cultural way that we can. But unfortunately, where it doesn’t need to be perceived as a threat, sometimes it is perceived as a commercial threat. And some of the conversations we had in Washington revolved around this perception that organic and clean agricultural practices can’t be successful economically at scale. They’re ready to admit that a small farm can grow stuff organically, but they weren’t ready to admit—and really just because of the lack of information and data—that you could do it in a massive way economically. And so when we came to the table, Azure, I said, “Well, look. All I need to show you is our drop map, our customer base, the products we sell, the farms we support, and you’ll know right away that it’s economically viable. It does work. It can work.” And persons like Joel Salatin and others have been saying this for years. But now we’re having to have a little more frank conversation with persons who want to push back. And for example, we were at a homesteading conference in Illinois, right in the middle of, you know. Middle America agriculture, and a lot of farmers would come to these conferences and, you know, it’s all about skill sharing and community building, but I would see these guys come up and they would have their wives and I would say, “Hey, it’s great to meet you. What do you guys do?” “Well, I’m a commercial farmer.” “Are you? Great. Okay, well, what do you grow?” One guy I talked to said, “I don’t know if I can call it food,” but it’s, you know, corn and soybeans and things like that. And I said, “Well, what interests you in a conference like this, where people are trying to have clean farming practices and things like that?” He goes, “Well, my wife has a 10-acre organic farm on the back acres of ours.”

Amy Fewell Yeah, that’s crazy.

Pete Strayer So I’m like, “Let me ask you a question: if Azure could help you rehabilitate your soil and make it biologically strong again, and if we could give you a direct path to market to sell to the Azure community or others, would you take it?” And none of these guys—I asked half a dozen of these guys—none of them hesitated more than a second. They said, “Show me the way. I’m down.” And this is the potential for this movement, just from now for the next 10 or 20 years, to literally change the face of American agriculture. And if that happens, we change the phase of American health and it’s very exciting.

Amy Fewell Yeah, this is the side of Azure Standard that people don’t get to hear about, right? Like most people hear about the food, but they don’t hear about the food system that the food’s coming from.

Amy Fewell If you’re milking by hand every day, you already know it’s time-consuming, it’s tiring, and some days it just slows everything down. That’s why I want to tell you about our HOA podcast sponsor, Mitty Supply. Mitty Supply provides portable milking machines designed specifically for small and medium-sized farms. Whether you’ve got one goat, a family milk cow, or a growing herd, these machines are built to save you time, protect your animals, and make your daily routine so much more efficient without over-complicating your setup.What I love is that they don’t just sell equipment—they actually walk you through it. From setup to troubleshooting, their team is there to help, so you’re not left figuring it out on your own. Whether you’re brand new to milking or ready to upgrade your homestead system, this is one of those tools that can change your life day to day. So, if you’re ready to simplify your milking routine and get your time back, head over to MittySupply.com and find the setup that works for your farm today. Thanks for being an HOA sponsor, Mitty Supply.

Amy Fewell Why don’t you tell us a little bit about how you’re helping farmers? Have you, you know, successfully taken farms from commercial farming into regenerative ag? What does that process look like?

Pete Strayer Well, we’re beginning to do this in a more aggressive way, but for the last several years, Azure has literally bought several conventional farms in Oregon and transitioned them over to organic. And in this case, it was orchards of pears, cherries, and things like that. And currently, you can’t just buy something and then say, “Well, we stopped using chemicals on it when Azure bought it. Now it’s organic.” They won’t let you do that. So you have a designation called transitional that lasts for three years. And after those three years, then you can officially call it organic. And depending on the area, the soil, and the level of conventional chemical usage, almost any farm can transition out of conventional ag practices and see their soil become healthy again. So at Azure, we’ve got a lot of fertilizer products formulated more for a small homestead or a gardener. We get probably hundreds of calls each year from people who say, “Hey, I just bought some property. I know it’s got a garden on it. It’s most likely that somebody was spraying chemicals or herbicides on it. What should I do? How do I know this is…” you know, and we recommend soil testing. You can find out exactly what’s going on with a test, and then there’s almost always a biological element that can go in and either scavenge and eat those chemical properties and render the soil healthy again, biologically active. And we’re actually talking right now about scaling this because as we continue to grow, we’re going to need to go to bigger and bigger and bigger farms and say, “Hey, do you want to join this movement?” And we already know the desire’s there, so there’s conversations in Azure right now about making this a major part of our push in the coming 10 or 15 years. But it’s really about a desire, a commitment, and patience. And some farms, we understand that they don’t have the time to be patient. Most farms are right on the red line of profitability, and as you probably know, most farms are owned by an aging population—farmers are typically 65 and older. So we’re going to see the transfer of millions of acres of farmland to a younger generation. And so we’re focusing on educating the younger generation and getting these kids excited about clean, regenerative farming. I think we’re having a lot of success.

Amy Fewell Yeah, man, that’s incredible because, you know, we talk about this, right? We talk about the aging population of farmers. We had this conversation on social media a few months ago when we saw the whole glyphosate thing happening, and how do you turn big ag into regenerative farming, and it does take time. You know, the soil has to heal, these things have to happen, so a lot of people will see that and become so discouraged because they’re like, “Oh, it will never happen.” But then we love sharing stories like this because you’re on the opposite side of that. You are beginning to teach these farmers how to do that. You’re showing them it is possible. You know, about a decade or more ago, we saw a really huge decrease in small farm dairies. And, you know, it’s funny because we go through these cycles and back then people said, “Well, the small farm dairy will never return. It’ll just never happen.” And, you know, we have multiple people that we knew that went out of business having a small dairy. And now it’s coming back. Now we have all of these small herd raw milk dairies and small family farm dairies, and they’re growing, right? They’re not just small anymore. You know, it’s not just a few cows—now they’re having, you know, 100 cows or 150 cows because they’ve learned the regeneration process. And they’ve learned that there actually is economical value, there are people who will buy it, and there are people who will support it. Now it’s kind of like we’re moving into the vegetables, the crops, and the things like that that we’re starting to bring back. And, you know, we are such an instant society. We want everything to instantly happen overnight. But the reality is that to change the culture, and to change this system to where you’ve built something that can last, it takes time. It takes effort, it takes re-education, right? Like these mindsets of big ag farmers, they’ve been through the thought process of, well, it can never change, but if someone helps me and if someone teaches me, then maybe it can change. And so it’s so encouraging to see you guys doing that. I personally had no idea that that’s what you did. I thought, you know, it was just a business—you’re giving good, wholesome food to people, and you’re running trucks on the road and trying to allow different ways to gain access to organic food. But Azure Standard is doing more than that—you guys are trying to change the culture and the system in America, and that’s pretty important. And I know that you guys will hit more pushback in politics and all of these things, but it sounds like that you have a pretty solid foundation there with your families, your faith, and your convictions that you guys are committed to. So this is a great conversation that I know people will be encouraged by. I want to wrap up just real quick because I want people to go to your website, and I want them to buy your products and set up drops or join a drop. But at the end of every episode, I always open it up to our guests and, you know, say, “Share whatever.” It can be about Azure. It could be about something totally different. What has been on your heart or on your mind that you could share with the Homesteaders of America audience? If it’s just one thing, pick just one thing you’d want to share with them.

Pete Strayer Wow. Well, I appreciate that, Amy. It’s so good to be here with you. And I think the message that’s been on our hearts at Azure is we’re witnessing a crisis right now in the country. Part of this is driven by AI and fear of AI, and things like that, so you have this crisis of authenticity and authority. And this is something that we look at as an opportunity to restore things, and I honestly believe you’re going to see a restoration in the next 10 years, even as the proliferation of AI gets deeper and deeper and wider and wider, and jobs and the economy are changed, what’s going to happen is you’re going to find people retreating from that back into traditional skill sets, family, community, durable trades, and multigenerational businesses in ways that you haven’t seen in the last 50 years. And along with it will become a restoration of who to trust. I think that the country is looking around and going, “Who can we trust? Who’s authentic? Who’s true to their word?” And I know there are many, many, many in our community and in the homesteading community that resonate with this and that are living this every day. And as we become more visible to the broader American public, it’s really the power of a lesson observed versus a lesson preached. And so rather than doing battle with the other side of the argument, whether it’s food cleanliness, ag practices, or economic forces, we’re striving to be the best possible example of the solution and the vision that we’re all trying to see happen—from the smallest of homesteads where somebody maybe who’s grown herbs on their kitchen windowsill, to a company like Azure with hundreds of farms in our community. And we’re just so encouraged about the future. I think everybody should believe very strongly that we’ve got a bright future ahead, and no matter what we have to weather, we can do it together.

Amy Fewell Yeah, absolutely. This community is growing stronger and stronger. It’s really interesting to see how it’s changed over the last 10 to 15 years. I mean, it’s hard to think that just 10 years ago, it wasn’t even on the main spectrum. You know, homesteading was not something a lot of people talked about. And now in just 10 short years, it is a massive movement. Think of 20 years from now, what it will look like, and how many more people will be homesteading, and how many more people will be supporting a different food system, a more non-GMO, organic food system like Azure. And think of how many more warehouses you might have, right? So thank you so much for coming on here and talking about this because I think it will… You know, especially in the homesteading community, we’re so very quick to talk about doom and gloom and all of these things, apocalyptic things, but when we can actually bring to the table solutions, and we can show people there are solutions and there are people who are actually trying to make a difference, it begins to just deeply root that hope in others. And now you’re not homesteading out of survival, you’re homesteading because you have a mission and you’re part of a bigger mission like what Azure Standard is. And so I appreciate you coming on and we’ll have to have you on again another day.

Pete Strayer Lovely, Amy. Thank you, it’s been such a pleasure. There’s so many good things ahead and we look forward to seeing you again.

Amy Fewell Awesome. All right, guys. Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Homesteaders of America. Make sure you check out all the information we talked about in the show notes of this episode, and you can find a transcript on our website. Any questions that you might have, you’re welcome to leave them below on our Spotify podcast or YouTube, whichever, or shoot us an email if you need to. Thanks, guys, and happy homesteading.

Amy Fewell Hey, thanks for taking the time to listen to this week’s Homesteaders of America episode. We really enjoyed having you here. We welcome questions and you can find the transcript and all the show notes below or on our Homesteaders of America blog post that we have up for this podcast episode. Don’t forget to join us online with a membership or just to read blog posts and find out more information about our events at HomesteadersofAmerica.com. We also have a YouTube channel and follow us on all of our social media accounts to find out more about homesteading during this time in American history. All right, have a great day and happy homesteading.