Farm commercial uses humor to campaign for healthy lunches in American schools

Apr 22, 2016

Another clip shows one farmer’s way of thinking about money

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

In an effort to shed light on the importance of healthy school meals in the United States, comedy website Funny or Die and the American Heart Association produced a commercial that takes place on what may be the most unique farm in the country.

“Welcome to the pizza farm, where we are hard at work growing the ripe, juicy pizzas your kids love,” says Daniel Frances, a food expert played by Nick Offerman, known for playing Ron Swanson on the show Parks and Recreation.

The farm features vast acres of sun-kissed pizza, orchards of tacquito trees and fields of Sloppy Joes.

What does a farmer with such a unique bounty of crops use to grow them?

“The nutrients in the cola we use to water them,” he says, taking a drink from a hose.

Frances’s motto for healthy eating is simple:

“Listen, if it’s on a plant it’s good for you; who cares how it got there.”

Another clip shows someone who says he got into farming to “make a bit of money.”

The footage, which appears to be taken somewhere in Europe, shows a farmer in different spots of his operation talking about the money he makes from his products, including how chickens can be processed for meat or kept for eggs.

Please note the video contains strong language and is not suitable for family viewing.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.