Revolutionizing Agriculture: Dr. Nicole McCauley's Tower Gardens and Vision for a Sustainable Future

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Greetings everyone. Joseph Varghese here, rulesforsuccess.com I am grateful to be interviewing Dr. Nicole McCauley from McCauley foundation today. Nicole, it's great to see you. We connected earlier this year. We reconnected a few weeks ago. You shared with us like a tip for our community. And we just thought it would be amazingly valuable to really share your mission, what you're up to, the world, particularly with the Macaulay Foundation. We'll be playing a video very soon. Nicole, how are you and what are you passionate about today?

Well, thank you so much for the invitation. This is an honor to be here with you and I'm so glad to share space and time together. And I am over the moon passionate about so many things that I do. But our focus here, here at the practice is about working on neurobiological development and all the things we can do with our babies and our pregnant mamas. And then in my spare time, my free time, our focus is on our foundation. So our family has a foundation called the McAuley foundation and we create agricultural ecosystems and that's for nonprofits around the world. So our goal, of course is to feed as many people as possible as nutrient dense food as we can. Well, that's my big passion and a.

Big part of that, it's incredible passion. So important to have be able to create an impact in the world. And a big part of that is realizing that the people starving of the world, tens of thousands of people starving every day, that with some of the resources you have, a lot of this is about being resourceful. We're all resourceful people. You're able to help communities around the world. Right. And we'll look at a couple of things you're doing here very soon. Senior center, you've applied this to what, what got this started? So I know about the, your practice around helping mothers and children. I know about that prenatal. But what got this other facet of your life Your mission started around agriculture and doing things this way with these, these tower gardens, vertical tower gardens.

It's a really fun story and I appreciate you asking. So I was at a crossroads in my life and I was trying to figure out purpose and how to go forward. My husband and I weren't able to have children and that was a big blow for both of us. And I always thought I'd be a mama. I thought I would impact the world by doing that. I also had some challenges with one of my businesses and so I thought, okay, you know what? For the first time in my life, I am going to fast and pray and ask for an answer and go with what comes. And I am excited to show you this video because it will give you a little bit of background. But in that a few days later, as I was into this, I actually got my life purpose. And that purpose was to go out and feed children and do whatever I could to get that done. And so I said, ok, I asked for it. I was given. Here we go.

Incredible. We're going to watch a quick video shortly. And remember, this video can access all of us@rulesforsuccess.com and here we go.

Imagine a five year old girl. She's so excited because she's on her way to Disney World and this matters to her because things aren't so great at home. Mom and dad are fighting. Her parents decide to turn the car around because no more are they going to go to Disney. They're also no more going to be a family. They decided to get divorced and everything changed. There was nobody there for the kids. They didn't have enough food and so they had to go to the food pantries. It was quite embarrassing for them. When she was at school, her behavior wasn't the best because she hadn't been eating. And her grades were so suffering because she hadn't been eating. One day this teacher saw her and said, I see your potential. You can do the work. And she had compassion. And she said, you know, your past doesn't have to be your future. And as they kept talking, she kept sharing her lunch. And they started learning about multiplication tables and they started talking about the life cycle of a plant. And so that little seed was planted in that little girl's mind. She had made a decision that no matter what, she was going to be able to feed herself and other people. And so she put herself through undergraduate school and graduate school and started a business at 25 and made that successful and pushed and pushed and pushed until she realized it's time to give back. I have more than enough. Let's go. Let's. Let's get on this mission. And that little girl was me. I'm Dr. Nicole McCauley, and I'm the CEO and founder of the McAuley Foundation. The McCauley foundation exists to serve the 1 billion people that are suffering from food insecurity around the world. The world is coming to a place where we're just running out of land. We're not going to have enough to grow our food for all the people that are on the earth. So we create agricultural ecosystems for nonprofit organizations, and we do that here domestically in America, as well as we are working with the global creative economy and the United nations to serve the other countries around the world. We're growing vertically. We're not dealing with the erosion issues. We're not dealing with drought issues, ground pests. There's so many challenges that can come from trying to farm an area that's not set up for agriculture, like the desert, for example. We can grow in a desert year round. It's just phenomenal. What's possible when we're growing with aeroponic technology. We're at my pediatric and perinatal chiropractic practice, and this is my residential tower garden. We have lettuce down at the bottom, some Salanova, it's this beautiful red. And then I have some Swiss chard here and some romaine and some head lettuce, basil, and microgreens up here. They're a great addition to your salad and a wonderful snack. So we have the basin with the water and the minerals, and there's a pump in there that will bring the water and minerals up through the. The center of the column, and then it'll rain that water on down. And so this is called aeroponics. And aeroponic technology exists because half of the time the plant roots are exposed to oxygen, and the other half of the time they're being exposed to this water and mineral blend. And that helps them grow three times faster. So we're producing 30% more produce in less time with 2% of the water and 10% of the space. It's a really, really efficient way to grow. The biggest challenge that we face is that there are approximately 10,000 children that die every single day of starvation. 10,000 that needlessly die, and we can't get the food to them fast. We are always looking to partner with ministries and missions that are on the same path that we are. When I see somebody who hasn't had the Opportunity to have food, put it in their mouth. That's when I know we've reached our goal.

I have chills watching that. It's incredible. So thank you for that and, and so incredible mission, what you're doing, particularly as we know where the world's headed and some of the challenges that are out there with regard to growing forestry, the environment. And so this can go anywhere, right? For the most part, as long as there's sunlight, they can go anywhere.

Yes, absolutely. So they have created a way to be able to grow in the desert, to be able to grow in a rainforest all across the world. The only place that we haven't tried yet was Antarctica, but I'm sure that's on the list of things to do.

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure this will solve a lot of problems, particularly as the world is expanding. I mean, the population, from what, from what I've read, has more than doubled in the past, like 100 years or so. Right. And it's going to keep doubling thanks to Moore's Law and how we grow. And unless we populate another planet, solutions like this are really, really critical, really, really important for the sustainable future, really to really take care of our growing population, growing needs. And as you mentioned in the video, 10,000 children are dying each day because of starvation. It's very sad and so very true. It's extraordinary. Mission really is. And beyond course, what you do in practice, what's your hope out of this Macaulay foundation and impacting people? What's your hope? Where do you see this going over the Next, let's say, 10, 20 years as this progresses?

Absolutely. Our goal, of course, is to stay on mission no matter what. If we're looking at the population like you talked about, as things are growing and progressing, we have India and China that have always been the leaders in population. But if you think about it, hunger would be number three if hunger were a country. There is so much hunger out there, there's so much starvation, there's so many things that we can fix. And we're not making any more land, as you said, unless we populate another planet. This is what we've got. So growing vertically and continuing to find out what is the next most innovative way to do things so that we can continue this purpose and continue this process. We have the opportunity to feed as many people as we would like. You know, the challenge is always getting politics in the way or finding the source and connecting with the person who needs it. But that's. That's why we're here. That's what we're doing. We're going to overcome as much red tape as we possibly can to get that food into those people's mouths. Because everybody deserves to be able to eat nutritious foods. So we are on par for that. We're working, as I mentioned, with the global creative economy. So we are hooked into the United nations. And our goal is to make sure that we have farms in every country. That way we have incubators as well. So we have the opportunity for people to come and learn how to grow food themselves. And so that someday, when they're ready to go out on their own and have their own farm, excuse me, whether it be soil or aeroponic growing, they have the experience to do that and they get to learn how to prepare the food as well. It's our goal to make sure that everybody has access.

What does it take to get access to this? How many of these tower gardens exist around the world currently?

Oh my gosh, I'm not sure I even have a number for you. I really don't. However, if you're interested, if you go to the towerfarms.com website, you can see at the bottom, there's a place where you can look at the map of where they all exist in the world currently. And that's where the farms are. There's a domestic version of this which you saw in the video, and that exists in so many people's homes as well as in. We talked about senior centers and in schools. Schools are a huge passion of mine. And senior centers because we're hitting the young end as well as the aging end. How do we make sure that those folks who sometimes get overlooked get that nutrition as well too? So museums. We just set up a farm and a museum here in Springfield, Missouri. So it shows a neat, innovative way to grow food and. And teaches children what's possible there too.

It's so important. My daughter and I are part of a community garden which is a two bucks from my house. We're really blessed. We had a birthday there. And I just think that it all starts early. So being able to educate children at a young age, even the whole aspect of seedlings growing, because children are indeed that in a lot of ways, given these tools, it's the next generation. They're the ones making the decisions for our future. At some point in recent years, I've heard a number that we may not exist two generations from now as a world, as a planet, least way pollution's growing and also with population and so forth. And having solutions like this sort that can clean the air, clear the air, where food can go anywhere. It's just so, so essential. I'll share the screen again shortly to show just one example of a community that has been impacted. A senior living facility near where Dr. Nicole is. And our members can see that. But before. I'm curious, though, what can grow on these, these gardens? Like, can avocados grow or is it just like leaves and lettuce and berries? What are the things that can grow?

That's a really, really, really great question. We focus on growing anything in the tower that would grow above ground that doesn't have a woody stem. So, yes, lettuces and greens grow fabulously. So do herbs. They're the easy crops. That's very easy replicatable. You're going to get a huge bang for your buck with that. But we can also grow fruiting crops in there, so cucumbers and tomatoes, beans. We're growing beans right now out at the senior center. Pumpkins, strawberries. So it's. The sky's the limit. There's over 190 different varieties of foods that can be grown. There are some foods that do grow better in a soil environment, and we absolutely need to make sure that we're being careful with our soil, too. We want to have both opportunities there. But, yes, man, it's been really fun to try my hand at eggplants and see what's going to happen with that, too.

Incredible. And of course, this technology is evolving, so like Moore's Law, things expand, kind of optimize every year, double each past, each year. That's kind of an engineering term. My background is an engineer. But let me just share my screen and I'm going to show all of us, all of us watching the podcast to kind of see one demonstration of this at a senior facility recently. And can you see this? Yeah.

Yes.

Great. Excellent. This is kind of the red tape or the green tape that they're cutting to demonstrate this. And this is one of the tower farms, is that correct?

Yep. That's a tower garden that you see there on the left of the screen. And so the tower farm is when we have about 10 of those or more. So that's scalable. You can have as little as one tower garden all the way up to as many tower gardens as you could imagine, clumped together, making a tower farm. And, and what you're seeing on the right there, back to that last picture, that's what's called the dosatron system. And so the mineral blend, the Macro and micronutrients that are necessary to add to the water to make this functional. That's used with the dosatron. So you don't have to go and make sure that you're measuring everything constantly and adding this and adding that. It just does it for you. And that adds to the accessibility because it's easy. It's something that. That anyone can do.

Incredible. And next picture here. This is. What type of lettuce is that?

That is called butter Crunch Rex.

Wow. Okay.

It's a really beautiful, crunchy, good lettuce. It's similar to the bib lettuce. And if you look just behind her on the tower, towards where her shirt is. Yeah, that level right there, waist level. That's romaine. And until I grew in a tower, I never saw romaine that dark. It's always kind of that white to light green. And just below there, you can see an example of the green beans that are coming in there as well.

Amazing. I've had hydroponic butter lettuce from a store, and it was delicious. It's quite delicious. This is. I guess this is like the shared facility where this is like kind of a community gardens they have. Where members can come and pick and drop off or maybe even trade. Barter.

Yes.

Some of the items. Yeah. Amazing. This is the garden. Right. So it takes, I guess. I guess imagine it takes a number of these, maybe six to eight of these to kind of create a garden of sorts. Is that accurate?

10 will create a farm, and 8 creates a community garden. So 8 still has to be monitored one at a time by a person. But once you have 10 or more, you can use that dosatron. So it just. It makes it very, very simple. They're all connected to each other.

And how long. What's the lifespan of. Let's see, one of these towers? How many years will it last?

That's an awesome question. I'm so glad you asked. I hadn't even thought to mention that, but it's wonderful. And this is a great way we're impacting the world as well. Each tower there is meant to last 100 years. So it's not like you buy one and have to rebuy another one in five years or 20 years or 50 years. It's meant to outlast the person who purchased it. And. And that's important because the last thing we want to do is start filling up landfills with things that are falling apart or broke or didn't work. Aside from the pump that we have in the base there and that it is designed to outlast you.

Incredible. And wow, it's blown away by that. And the cost of one of these is $800, $600.

If you separate each of these commercial towers out, each one is approximately $600.

Incredible.

And if you put together in a farm, a farm of 10 is roughly 9 to $10,000. If you wanted one of those versions for home that you saw in my video with the light kit and everything that comes with it, it's approximately a thousand a piece as well.

It's incredible, particularly for as long as this lasts. You mentioned 100 years and what it provides.

That's if you're spending more than $12 a week on produce at the grocery store, it pays for itself in as little as 10 months.

Incredible. I think I want one of these. I have to convince my wife about it. Excellent. So some of the links around this will go even deeper into the podcast very soon. But as since we're sharing the screen here already. So terraforms, you can kind of see how this technology works where in the world's being utilized. If you as an individual are looking to get one. There's a site nicolemcauley.towergarden.com and with this podcast we have a link called it's like a mind map. We do this for every single one of our interviews. You go to rulesforsuccess.com you can access all this information, including the video I shared earlier from the Quality foundation, how this all works, links to Dr. McCauley, the other work she does, and much more. So check that out. RulesForSuccess.com Back to the main screen here. This is when I see this. This is mind blowing. This is so important, particularly around creating impact in the world. I'm curious. We often ask this question to the people we interview with, people I interview. So at this stage of your life, if you have to go back in time to the point, let's say where you're entering college, maybe you're 18 or maybe you're partly through college. 21. What's some words of advice, some points of advice would give to your younger self?

Oh, gosh. I would say the most important thing I could have told myself was you cannot fail. Just keep going. Failure is stopping.

And failure is a good thing. Right? Embrace failure and keep on going. Pick yourself back up. Incredible.

Yeah.

And. And how does I know you've spoken on stages? You mentioned recently you were on stage. 10,000 people. What is your, what is your mission to people out there? Just Speak on stage. What is your why as you get on stage to impact people? What do you think of yourself drives you?

My drive, of course, is that little girl, that five year old that I told you about. Because there's a five year old in your backyard, there's a five year old in your neighborhood, there's a five year old down the street from everyone. Hunger is everywhere and we can't get away from it. It's something that's easy to overlook with 10,000 children dying every single day and having an opportunity to stop that or at least make a huge impact on that. Why are we just sitting here? Let's go. So that's the fire that burns inside me. That's the passion. It's my job to ignite that spark in everyone that I speak to. And I will not stop talking about it. I talk to everybody. I talk to the UPS store gal, the dry cleaner, my hairstylist, anybody. If you know me, you know my mission. I mean, you've known me for a few minutes and you all know where I'm coming from. It's that important to me. That's what I want to talk about.

Yes, it's so important to have a mission, particularly one that impacts people and to continue sharing it too as well. Also, it's a conversation. One thing we believe in the community success circles is that conversations kind of disappear since they die down. And when we enroll impact people, it just, it's out there, right? You create leaders who share like I'm a leader for Dr. Nicole here sharing this, this message exists, it's out there and more people hear about it, get inspired and all of a sudden you have a revolution and all of a sudden you don't have, at some point you don't have 10,000 people dying, 10,000 children dying each day just from one person or two people really honing at this mission and taking it out there. Dr. Nicole, how do you define success? What is success for you?

Success in my foundation is seeing the look on the faces of the people when they get it. Whether it's getting the concept or actually getting the food and putting it in their mouth, when we know we've made that connection and inspired them to want to do the same thing for someone else. That's success.

And how will you know when this is successful? I might have asked you some variations earlier on, but just curious.

Yeah, well, we know we're successful when everybody's full, every belly is full, and we're not going to stop until we get there.

Incredible. Well, I'm inspired by this. And I hope anyone watching this on our site podcast, replay the audio, the video is inspired by this, is willing to take some action toward getting one of these towers in their community, maybe in their home or as Dr. Nicole said, in the museum, or in a place where children have access to this, where they can be inspired, because they are the next generation, they are our future, and they are what will save our planet. Dr. Nicole, any final words you have from our audience?

Yes, we're actually working with a number of schools, and our focus with schools is to make sure that we have a farm that will exist in order to feed the cafeteria needs of those students and send home food with those who don't have enough. I would have definitely benefited from that. We're adding to existing programs that might already be there where they're sending home calories, but not necessarily nutrition. And we're going to send with that a card. Each time as we send that card, it tells the parents what this is and two simple ways to make it with their child, because it's entirely possible that the parents aren't aware of good, nutritious food either, especially in our food deserts. With each of those farms, we also plant half as much more to be able to donate consistently and sustainably to local food pantries. We're creating a job for every farm that exists because they have to have a greenhouse manager. And so we're working to bring that community together, community partners, students from the local university to come and be able to be interns and really, really make that a cohesive thing where we can all come together around the quote, unquote farm table. So that is my goal. That's how we're doing it here in America. We're always looking to find new schools that would be interested. We're always looking to find partners, whether it be a strategic partnership or financial partnership, to be able to make that happen. Because the more we can get this done, the faster we get to that goal.

Absolutely. That's amazing. I love the vision for that. It's so important. Again, this is schools. I know. It's already happening, right? And anyone out there can see this happening by just doing a search for this. I really appreciate your time today on this podcast for our audience. Go to rulesforsuccess.com access the replay, access the mind map links to everything. Don't Dr. Nicole is doing out there. And that's it. So let's go. Let's go rock this. Let's go. Let's go out there and feed and impact generations to come. See you on the other side.

Thank you.

That's it for today's episode of rulesforsuccess.com podcast. But the journey to success is far from over. Join us next week for another inspiring conversation with a successful entrepreneur. Until then, remember to be bold, be courageous, and go after your dreams.