We’ve had the distinct privilege the last two days of hosting 25 NAVY SEALS for an exclusive Polyface Intensive Discovery Seminar (PIDS), our signature on-farm two-day, six-meal behind-the-curtains education platform.  We normally do three a summer, usually in late July. 

                  This is the first one filled by a single group and certainly the first one completely devoted to Navy Seals.  About 6 of them were still on active duty, but most have left the service.  A couple brought their wives as well. 

                  Their stories of firefights, security details, foreign engagements and military policy were breathtaking.  I’m sure they withheld plenty of information, but what they were free to share was fascinating. 

                  The most interesting thing to me was their constant use of the term “apocalypse.”  I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word used more frequently than over these two days.  It became a joke as we conversed in our sessions.

                  These guys are all about preparedness and now view resilient farming as the foundation for that strategy.  As a group, they envision some extremely rough waters for America and the world.  Another consistent theme was that whatever you see in the media is distorted, half-truth, or agenda protected.  Name any major news story and you can be assured you aren’t getting the real skinny.

                  I asked them how much of Navy Seal success was mental versus physical?  They agreed it’s about 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical.  Applying this to newbie and wanna-be farmers, I find this is a similar percentage.  Over my lifetime, I’ve watched many, many farmers come and go.  Invariably, the failure was not physical; it was mental. 

                  Refusing to be creative, to think out of the box, to solve real problems, to perceive with clarity.  Goodness, refusing to ask for help, not listening to a spouse.  What makes farms fail seldom has anything to do what farmers whine about—what Alan Nation called the four horsemen of the apocalypse—weather, price, pestilence, and disease. 

                  Those are all physical elements.  The question is do you have the mental capacity to respond correctly to those physical things?  In a world celebrating victimhood and entitlement, mental capacity is everything.  I was taken aback that these guys were not physical brutes.  Several were extremely small.  But they had tenacity, mental acuity, and creativity to push through problems. 

                  We were honored to have these guys spend two days with us.  They were definitely a different group than we’d ever had.  But the commonality we found with them, dealing with big issues and cultural hostilities, was almost surreal.  Just to show their leadership in action, let me tell you what happened the final meal.

                  When we do these seminars, we instruct our staff to all eat last.  Let the guests go through the line first.  That’s our protocol.  Last evening, at supper, their leader came to us and said “we want your staff to eat first, to honor what you’ve given us these two days.”  Folks, we’ve never, ever had a group propose that inversion to us.  That’s servant leadership, and these Navy Seals had it in spades.  We thanked them profusely for their service—tears flowed freely—and they answered “it’s our honor to defend people like you.”  Wow. 

                  These guys who have learned to kill and demolish are now dedicating their lives to life and healing.  It’s a powerful and profound intersection, and we’re eager to see more Navy Seals come through our PIDS program. 

                  Do you know a Navy Seal?