Talking with Elaine Culotti, the lipstick farmer. She was on the TV show Undercover Billionaire. She grows everything from palm trees to fruits and vegetables, who has a great idea about moving commodities, produce, fruit, nuts, on rail.
She says the U.S. is the most wasteful country on the planet. Farmers lose over 50% of their crops to waste due to supply chains. And because freight is so expensive nowadays, Elaine’s come up with the idea of using rail cars.
Elaine, how did you come up with this idea, especially in the Central Valley? And Elaine calls it 559 Farm Train.
559, the area code of Fresno, baby. 559 Farm Train, that’s right.
Farming really for just personal health reasons and just having some, you know, control over my food intake. And I have this huge farm. And then when I was chosen to do Undercover Billionaire by Glenn Stearns, you know, who’s a great guy, and it was Discovery Network, a really big opportunity for me.
It happened to be during COVID. So, there was nothing going on in my world, like a lot of people, and I just took the time. I said, I’m going to do three months of hard time in Fresno, and I’m going to make it happen.
And I loved Fresno. America’s food basket, the fruit, the stone fruit, the almonds, everything, the pluots, my God. I fell in love with the food in Fresno and the hardworking people. And the thing I fell in love with was rail because I could see the mass of supply chain moving on rail. Let rail move goods. It’s the only way to do it.
Create better supply chain in California by supporting the rail industry. And we’ll do twice as much in short runs and local, you know, last mile delivery, and get those giant trucks out of long haul so that they can really make some money. And the wear and tear, and the wear and tear on the vehicles, and what we’re doing to small farming.
That was Elaine Culotti, the lipstick farmer talking 559 Rail.
Listen to the full interview here.
Nick Papagni, “The Ag Meter”, reporting for AgNet West.