It's a question often asked - as more and more real food and health products businesses get bought up or sell out and suddenly aren't so real or healthy anymore, or otherwise as they grow fall below their original standards and mission, can you build national businesses with integrity?

It was one of the best questions I was asked at the Ozarks homesteading event. Our buying club has seen this issue first hand - over the past decade, we have had to let go of over a dozen suppliers because of falling standards... victim's of their own success. Demand outstripped supply, and quality was the easiest part of the equation to get rid of in the quest for growth.

But not everyone falls victim to this. Some businesses - like Ancient Crunch, Masa chips - are going the opposite direction. As they grow, they are raising their standards. Bringing on not just organic but regenerative organic farms to supply the ingredients for their products.

It's a truly going against the stream task. The entire reason we now have a regenerative organic certification is because regular organic is at times barely different than regular anymore. The push in the industry - and by most businesses, is to lower standards. But not for Ancient Crunch. Success involves saving farmland and ecosystems and providing truly healthy foods to people as much as or more than any other metric.

So I'm very excited that Steven - one of the founders of Ancient Crunch - is joining us next weekend for Rogue Aberlin. On top of two farm tours (Aberlin and Farm on Central), a number of great speakers, a slew of fantastic workshops and more... Steven brings yet another part of the integrity food equation to the table and will be speaking on Friday.

He adds a special piece to our mix of successfully farmers like Joel, Michael, and Nathan, innovative tech and food distribution approaches like Max Kane/Farm Match and John Moody/Whole Life Buying Club, and others who will be speaking over the two days and available to chat with throughout the event.

So while there is still time, you may want to snag either a two day (plus bonus Thursday tour of Farm on Central) or Saturday standalone ticket to next week's event.

You can see full event schedule and details here.

Tickets are only available for a few more days.

See you next Thursday!

John