On an early morning in late January, New South Wales farmer Jacob Wolki grinned patiently while Today Show host Karl Stefanovic lost himself to laughter.
Mr Wolki's video about his staff-less butchery in Albury had gone viral — with more than a million views across TikTok and Twitter.
The breakfast TV host was struggling to control himself over the regenerative farmer's claim that he had suffered zero shrinkage at his business (product loss, or theft) where customers served themselves.
Several weeks later, Mr Wolki's expression was far more serious, as he watched an American pace across a stage in his farm shed, delivering something of a farming sermon.
The speaker, who refused to give any name other than "Texas Slim", said he was here to "save the lives" of Australian children.
Printed in all-caps on one sleeve of his shirt was the word "BEEF". On the other, "BITCOIN".
Seated in the crowd of more than 100 people was an unusual coalition of farmers, health-conscious locals, business owners, and Bitcoin enthusiasts.
The day was advertised as a farm tour followed by sessions on "beef intelligence", Bitcoin, metabolic medicine, and "sovereignty".
Some had travelled to the farm from just down the road in Albury. Others from as far away as Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth.
If there was a common thread that tied them all together, it might loosely be defined as a general dissatisfaction for systems — be they farming or financial — and a desire for greater self-governance.
At 32 years old, Mr Wolki was responsible for bringing the room together.
"There's a community conversation about, you know, how much are we actually in control of our own lives," he said.
"I think that that conversation should start at food."
Texan flown out by podcast fans
A request for Texas Slim's full name is met with an almost instant decline.
He insists, via a deep Texan drawl, that even his mother calls him that, and "if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for everyone else".
The baseball- cap-wearing Texan is the founder of The Beef Initiative, a self-described US trade group "focused on decentralising and making our food supply more localised … and improving the quality of our food through pure animal protein and sound money".
In one respect, The Beef Initiative is simply an online portal for US customers to buy beef directly from farmers (or "ranchers").
But the emphasis on trading in Bitcoin — which extends to running education sessions for farmers — and the tenor of messaging both online and through the "Texas Slim podcast" suggests something more.
Bitcoin is often favoured by those who not only believe in its future as a borderless digital currency but in the idea that conventional monetary systems (fiat) are corrupt and destined to fail.
Texas Slim's speech is peppered with terms like "the industrial food complex", "fake commodities", "the war on beef", and the need to "decentralise" from all of it.
An interview about regenerative farming practices, direct relationships between farmers and consumers, and the virtues of eating a protein-based diet often morphs into a withering retelling of the history of US agriculture and supermarkets.
An anti-government, anti-medical, and anti-pharmaceutical industry sentiment runs throughout.
The group's voice is growing. In the past month, The Beef Initiative was mentioned on the wildly popular The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Texas Slim said he was flown out by two coastal Victorian listeners of his own podcast, who wanted him to bring his message to Australia.
His appearance at Jacob Wolki's farm day in Albury was his first in Australia but will be followed by a multi-state run of talks up and down the east coast.
He is joined on the trip by Liz Parrish, a North Carolinian Bitcoin enthusiast who tweets under the username "Babes Who Bitcoin".
She said she fell down the Bitcoin "rabbit hole" when the pandemic started.
"When you bring Bitcoiners and farmers together, it's two groups of people who are searching for the truth," Ms Parrish said.
"You want the truth of where you're getting your food and the truth of where you're getting your money. Just seek truth and grow a community. We are all building together and becoming sovereign individuals."
'We're not isolationists. We're not preppers'
The word sovereign is used at different points throughout the farm day.
It's in the title of the final speaker's presentation — Sovereignty in the Here Now — delivered by a former actor turned Bitcoin evangelist, Izeqiel "Izzy" McCoy.
"We do not need permission! Bitcoin reminds you that you are already sovereign!" he beamed.
Mr Wolki, who only began farming four years ago as a way to feed his family, uses it in another context.
"Food sovereignty is having the information and the ability to access what you want for your body," he said.
"We do not have food sovereignty in Australia."
It carries echoes of the sort of language used in the so-called sovereign citizen movement.
At times, there's talk among attendees of "the Plandemic" and "Plan Andrews" — a riff on the name of Victorian Premier Dan Andrews who attracts blame in some communities for pandemic lockdowns and vaccination policies.
Mr Wolki, for his part, puts a high value on personal responsibility and self-sufficiency, but he distances himself from any sovereign citizen ideology.
Instead, his emphasis is placed on the health of his soils, the welfare of his cows, pigs, and chooks, and feeding his family.
The day at his farm started with around 100 guests taking an in-depth tour of his paddocks — accompanied by a detailed explanation of what goes into caring for his livestock and pastures.
"We're not isolationists. We're not preppers," he said.
"We want friends and community and family and people to go to church with, people to go on picnics with, and people to swap food with."
Building a 'food movement'
The Wolki Butchery represents a unique proposition in Albury, and perhaps anywhere in Australia.
To become a member, you have to take a tour of the farm (Mr Wolki calls it "church").
From there on, gleaming fridge shelves of beef, pork, and chicken cuts are available at the shop 24/7, accessed via a personal pin code.
Customers are trusted to scan and pay for their products on their phone, beneath video and audio surveillance.
When Mr Wolki's self-guided video tour of his business went viral, it attracted thousands of accolades, alongside a handful of accusations that he was killing local jobs.
But there was also a stream of requests asking if he accepted Bitcoin.
He said a few customers in Albury and more further afield paid for meat using Bitcoin.
It represents a fraction of what he takes in — "only a few thousand dollars" — but Mr Wolki said he was curious about its potential.
"The thing I like the most about Bitcoin is the people that it attracts," he said.
At the farm day, an array of hats, shirts, eggs, jam, and jars of lard were set up on a table, available to be purchased via Bitcoin (cash and eftpos were also accepted).
One farmer in his 60s talked cheerily about the time he was "orange-pilled" (an online term for the process of becoming a Bitcoin convert).
A local businesswoman asked a panellist how her shop could accept the digital currency.
Another woman in her 60s said she had lost all of her Bitcoin online via a dodgy exchange.
The volatility of Bitcoin (it's worth almost half as much today as it was last year) did not seemingly present as a concern.
Nor did criticisms about the amount of energy used in Bitcoin mining, which a study last year found to be equivalent to the beef industry in its intensity of emissions.
One speaker, Melbourne high school teacher John Tiernan, offered to give everyone in the farm shed $1 worth of Bitcoin if they opened a digital wallet.
He was part of a group calling themselves the Australian Beef Initiative.
They are working to introduce a similar model to that of Texas Slim's US platform, where customers can form relationships with Australian farmers and buy direct from them.
Earlier in the afternoon, the event's Texan headliner had called the farm day a "call to action" moment. He stressed that those present were part of a movement.
Mr Wolki uses similar language.
"Something I've learned in business is: your friends don't become your customers, but your customers become your friends," he said.
"That's been very true for us on our journey in the last four years of this food movement."
