JD Consulting

11/02/2024

It took us longer than planned but we are so excited to launch our new business in the coming weeks right here in Burnet County! Life happens but this has been a dream of ours - cofounders, Ty and Jeri (Caela for y’all who have known her since she was a girl), - since Jeri landed back in Texas in 2019! We’re so excited to bring our dreams, goals and mission to Hill Country, Texas. Stay tuned!

05/26/2023

JD Consulting's final paperwork is filed in California and we are closing our doors. It's been an AMAZING 13 years of organizational development, instructional design, learning and development, and events for clients globally. JD Consulting started transitioning from corporate and direct nonprofit work to agriculture and wildlife in 2019. I thought to keep the firm and move it to Texas since it was MY name, MY consulting firm and MY transition but the time to move forward and create something new, something bigger, with new lines of business, is here. And that requires a new organization, new name, new mission, new people, and new goals!

Thank you *ALL* for following, liking and supporting me the past decade plus. A HUGE thank you to my first client in 2010 - and a repeat client throughout the years - Cisco Systems. Taking that call on the roof of my U-Haul to maximize almost non-existent cell signal on August 3rd, 2010, in the middle of Iowa on my way from Virginia to California with all my stuff, my kid and my pets, and your offer to onboard a total unknown, brand new firm launched by me less than a year earlier, literally changed my life. And a huge thank you to ALL of my partners, clients, friends, referrals - big and small - throughout this amazing time of change, certifications, changing my own direction, huge success, bigger failures, massive life lessons and finally figuring out how to start aligning my passions and hobbies with my life's work, and my education and certifications and make money doing it. Whew. It's been a wild ride.

And a huge THANK YOU to my trainers, my biggest cheerleaders and the ones who always show up regardless of life getting messy, complicated and/or crazy mad and full of joy. Those riding the rollercoaster with me are the keepers.

And thank you to the terrible ones. The biggest lesson I've learned in the past decade plus - especially the last few years - is that *no one* can take anything from you, to forgive others for yourself and to let them GO!

Please follow and like Phoenix Rising Farm & Ranch Consultants and look for new announcements and our launch in the next 60-90 days! And look for another announcement and a new line of business coming directly to the Austin and Dallas areas (psst think food AND wine). This page will stay up but all new posts will be via my new business pages. Stay tuned and move forward with me for all the new adventures!

12/15/2022

JD Consulting is evolving as of 12/31/2022 with the launch of Phoenix Rising Farm & Ranch Consultants in 2023!!! It's an exciting time and we want YOU, our followers, to be part of it. Please follow Phoenix Rising Farm & Ranch Consultants and stay tuned for more! Thank you for ALL of your support over the last 12 years!

08/08/2022

I will always treasure being in this space and this moment with these four amazing geldings. It’s a bitter reality that this moment will never happen again. Spartacus. Sammy. Harpo. Zar. They are individuals with names, emotions, experiences and an emotional intelligence that surpasses what we as mere humans can understand.

My heart is absolutely broken that as of 2:00 today, Harpo and Sammy will be gone. Sometimes I wonder if there is any grace, any divinity, left in this world. There’s certainly a significant lack of good, of justice. What to do about it is the question that plagues me.
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04/11/2022

Thank you World Finance for your interview and including me in your article, “The growing sustainable eating trend
From vegan products to cellular meat startups, the alternative meat market is booming, creating huge opportunities for investment.”
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EXERPT: But while that might well bring about huge environmental benefits, what would it mean for the conventional agriculture industry and the people within it? Transitioning to a new dietary model means uprooting one of the world’s biggest sectors from the bottom up – and that impact is not to be undermined.
Indeed the effects are already starting to be felt by farmers in the US, according to Jeri Devereaux of JD Consulting, who specialises in helping farms transition from animal to plant-based agriculture. “As more people embrace a plant-based diet, the effect is experienced in every area of farming and ranching, including the farm owners, their workers, animal truckers and meat and dairy processors,” she said.

“If farmers don’t embrace regenerative measures and diversify their agriculture production to include non-GMO food crops for humans, the reduction in consumption of meat, dairy, chicken and other animal products will absolutely affect their bottom line and their ability to meet new market demands,” she said.
“The USDA’s Economic Research Service found a 22 percent decrease in the consumption of dairy milk beverages from 2000 to 2016, and in the same time period, the consumption of plant-based milk increased by triple digits,” she added. “We are already seeing small family dairies collapsing into bankruptcy along with major producers like Dean Foods and Borden Dairy Company filing for Chapter 11.”

If you’re interested in reading the entire article, click on my Linktr.ee in my bio!
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09/24/2021

As we work together towards a regenerative planet where there is balance and sustainability between the soil, the water, humans and animals, we need to educate ourselves on the plight of the modern farmer. Every being along the food supply chain is treated as disposable—farmers, pickers, transporters, slaughterhouse workers, processing plant workers and YOU, the consumer.
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FACT - Farmers amass and assume an incredible amount of debt regardless of what they choose to raise and “produce”. Poultry farmers lead the charge. 69% of them are in debt. 67% of dairy farmers, 56% of hog farmers and 29% of cattle for “beef” farmers… but it also affects farmers raising crops too. 48% of grain and soybean farmers are in debt as well.
FACT - Our food system relies on keeping farmers and ranchers in debt and pass along cost savings to consumers at the grocery store through a complex subsidy system that appears to support farming and ranching communities but really only keeps farmers on the brink of collapse instead of actual collapse.
FACT - This subsidy system is embedded with and influenced by big pharma, big chem, the medical community and the banking system.
FACT - The systems at play are designed to keep us, the consumer, confused and sick. We are literally paying with own wellbeing for what feels “affordable” at the grocery story, regardless of whether of what we buy.. and that includes produce.
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What can we do? Educate yourself. Click on the link in my bio to educate yourself about the current contract system. And shop local. Go to your local co-op, purchase from local CSAs, or hit up your local farmers market. Volunteer on local farms. Educate yourself on regenerative practices and permaculture. Plant community gardens. Do your homework before supporting organizations and farmers. Don’t know where to start? Contact me. I’m happy to help! ✌🏻🌱💚

09/07/2021

So I’m a day late, and a dollar short in starting the Farm Life Challenge! That said I’m excited to participate even if I am running a little behind. The first of my two posts today starts with busting ONE misconception about farm/ranch life. Let’s go ahead and bust two.
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MYTH #1 - Organic food production has less impact on the environment than traditional food production. Let’s unpack this for a minute. Traditional agriculture uses the insecticide pyrethrum, while organic agriculture employs pyrethrin. The truth of it is that these are essentially the same compound and though they perform the same task, pyrethrin is a natural insecticide and breaks down more rapidly in the environment. This creates the need for an increased number of applications, which leads to the destruction of not only harmful insects, but helpful ones as well. Also, tillage and cultivation characterize w**d control in organic productions. This increases soil erosion, whereas conventional agriculture has switched to no-till crops or reduced tillage practices on more than 72 million acres to prevent erosion, according to the Agriculture Council of America.
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MYTH #2 - Global hunger is caused by animal agriculture and a worldwide shortage of food. In reality, through plants alone, globally we generate enough plant-based food to feed everyone. And while animal agriculture is a contributor to climate issues that impact our food chain at the soil level, it is actually the social, political and economic factors that cause the hunger issues and food insecurity we see currently. The UN estimates 1.15 billion people, about 1/5th of our planet - are food insecure. And while animal agriculture has its place in the problem, it’s really the Jeff Bezos’, the Bill Gates’, our Congress, etc. that is the root of the problem in this country.
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So what’s the solution? Regenerative agriculture practices. Period. And we will discuss more about what that means and what that is, in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned! 🙏🏻🍁🌿🪴🍄🌻

09/01/2021

“There is a clarity about September… the sun seems brighter, the sky more blue, the white clouds take on marvelous shapes; the moon is a wonderful apparition, rising gold, cooling to silver, and the stars are so big.”
- Faith Baldwin
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08/17/2021

I'm so humbled to be included in Vox's article, "What a meatless future could mean for farmers"...

"But converting steel barns intended for growing chickens into places to grow h**p or mushrooms requires extensive planning to get right, explains Jeri Devereaux, a business consultant and vegan who works with farmers making that transition. Farmers can’t afford to have gaps in the concrete floors, for example, since these could interfere with the delicate climate conditions needed to grow mushrooms, she noted.

Another major challenge to such a pivot is that the plant-based industry just can’t match the predictability of the contract meat business. With chickens, you grow just one uniform product in the same way and sell it to one guaranteed buyer. The market for alternatives, be it h**p, mushrooms, or microgreens, is more volatile."

Read the entire article here:

A plant-based food system would be a win for animals and the environment. How workers would fare is less clear.

08/02/2021

On September 9, 2011 a movie called Contagion came out. It was about a pandemic that started when bat f***s was introduced into the food system through a pig that was then slaughtered and eaten. The virus was highly contagious, was passed to humans and then ran rampant through the world and our ability to travel globally, quickly. Sound familiar?

I watched this movie when it came out. I was not a vegan at the time. This movie did not make me consider the greater impact of my diet and consumer choices on my own health and other humans, much less the animals in the food system and their intersection with and our impact on wildlife. We had direct representation in front of us provided by Hollywood and the science available to us through a Google search. Yet we did nothing. I did nothing. I made no changes.

It is wild to me how as humans we consistently make choices that feel very personal and justifiable but have catastrophic and devastating effects to our personal bodies, each other, the animals we share this world with, our environment and our planet. I know watching documentaries like and Dominion are hard. So perhaps, if you’re contemplating change, start with Contagion. Rewatching it scared the hell out of me and only reinforced what we are learning as COVID rears its ugly head through another wave and through the delta strain.

Vegan ethics coupled with regenerative agriculture and pilots in rewilding domesticated animals, are, in my humble opinion, the way forward. And we will get there. Follow what we are doing boots on the ground and look for my upcoming nonprofit launch!

And stay safe. Educate yourself and consider at least trying a whole food plant based diet. Follow , , .life and others to get more information on the power of plants and how to literally heal your body through a whole food, plant based diet. Your body, the animals and the planet will thank you for it.

For more information, please see the link to a 2020 The Guardian article and there’s a link to a disappointing study and article by the National Institute of Health.

07/19/2021

Please take a moment today to remember Floyd Cooper, award winning illustrator and author who worked tirelessly to create candid and positive images educating and celebrating Black History. He was a Tulsa, Oklahoma native, a brilliant artist and a passionate educator and writer. He passed this weekend from cancer.

Floyd Cooper, the Coretta Scott King award-winning illustrator of over 100 books for children, has passed away following a battle with cancer. He was 64.

07/09/2021

Cargill CEO Dave MacLennan has said that his company is preparing for a big shake-up in its business over the next few years, as consumer demand for the new generation of plant-based protein products eats into market share for meat from slaughtered animals.

“Our analysis is that in […] three to four years, plant-based will be perhaps 10% of the market,” he said...

Read more: https://agfundernews.com/cargill-ceo-maclennan-says-company-expects-plant-based-to-cannibalize.html

Cargill CEO Dave MacLennan also said that he doesn't expect China's domestic livestock feed industry to become self-sufficient anytime soon.