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Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. Oh, this thing ain't like our pre- But you can get up to the bottom. From full global headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money.
Welcome to Motley Fool Money. Thanks for being here. I'm your host Chris Ellen. I'm joined by Motley Fool senior analyst Seth Jason, James Early and Tim Hanson.
Guys, happy new year. Happy new year Chris. On today's show we'll gaze into our crystal ball and give you some predictions for 2011. We'll hear from Ford CEO Alan Malali.
We'll get a glimpse of the future of farming. Plus as always, we'll talk about the stocks that are on our radar for 2011. But guys, investing is all about the future. We'll get to some specific companies in a moment.
But first Tim Hanson, let me start with you. When you think about 2011, when you're looking out over the next 12 months, what is a big question that you have in your mind? What's the big question on your mind for investing? Well, I'm intrigued in 2011 to see if we actually start to see any evidence of decoupling.
For people who don't know what decoupling is, it was this theory that's been advanced. The United States economy can be slowed down for a long period of time, but other parts of the world can grow in spite of that. We haven't quite seen that happen quite as aggressively as some economists have predicted over the past few years with slowdown in the United States having dragged on Latin America, Europe and Asia. But people are again predicting a fairly tepid year for the United States and Europe.
And I've seen some very aggressive growth expectations for Asian and Latin America. And it'll be interesting to see how those things materialize and if we do see some decoupling this. I'm totally letting facts get in the right part of the series. It's not a good theory unless it spits in the face of facts.
So Jason, what about you? Oh boy, the same thing everyone in the US is looking for probably is our consumers going to spend, continue to spend, maybe spend a little more. And if so, where the heck do they get the money? It's the old, does our economy start rolling or not?
A lot of whether or not an economy grows is just entirely, it's in our collective mentality. Do we think good things, are we out spending money, are we out starting businesses, investing, etc. So seriously, we could all just get together and just decide. We all held hands and sang a little more kumbaya, everything would be fine.
So I'm interested to see whether or not that will happen. Starting right now. James, early, what about you? Chris, my own personal question is tend to revolve around hair loss.
Otherwise, I'm asking myself, should I start those Mandarin lessons now or later? It seems like only a matter of time that China's going to dominate more so than now. But I do see the next year as an inflection point for that country. I think it's going to go one way or another, a big crash or continue dominance.
I'm going to say James is still my New Year's resolution, which was to re-continue my Mandarin lessons, which I've slacked off on over the past six months because A, the baby, which I've mentioned a few times now. But B, we have Nennels now in house. This is Sloot in Chinese. It makes my life that much easier.
But I think, you know, for a lot of reasons I should have. So you're just leaning on Sean's side? You know, I've gotten lazy when it comes to interpreting Chinese documents. Before we completely let go of 2010, let's just go around the table real quick.
What one thing you learned as an investor in 2010 that you want to put to use in 2011 and the years beyond? And Tim, I'll just stick with you. I don't know how well we'll be able to put this to use next year, but I learned the lesson this year that it's hard to be sort of a bottoms up fundamentals guy. Like we all try to be in our investing life.
I mean, with the latest nail on the coffin being these massive insider trading probes and market manipulation schemes that have been going on, you know, it's hard to be the small guy. Well, and we've certainly seen, you know, as you said at the Motley Fool, we really espoused the whole bottom up, you know, look at the fundamentals. But in 2010, maybe more so than ever, it just seemed like the federal government was so deep and twined in Wall Street. There was, I'm not, this is an excuse for my own poor performance.
It wasn't a terrible year, but still it's a tricky time to be a small individual fundamentals focused investor. I think that probably has to change over time. But it was a disappointing year in that regard. Change?
Of course I've still jazzed that I can find investing information over the internet. I mean, I don't think I'm going to go to the library. That's huge. Actually, I'll get philosophical for a second.
Buddha said that all his illusion, all his vanity and emptiness and watching the ALD TV. My lesson is that nothing lasts forever. There's no business advantage. There's no competitive edge that is permanent.
And I think as we move more into the future, that's going to be true. In other words, blue chip companies won't always be blue chips. You know, these solid steady companies, companies like J&J, for instance, with this massive round of recalls, you just can't trust them like you used to. So that's predicting stuff is really hard.
There are so many companies that are soaring right now. When I look at them, they just look so vulnerable to small chefs in their business model. And then there are other companies that I thought over the last year or maybe two that had a great chance of actually not existing going completely bankrupt. And none of that happened either.
And it was a one reason was a surprising amount of consumer spending as little as it was. It was more than nothing. And the other was government stimulus. And so I would say that the lesson there is really just don't be too sure of yourself.
Don't be too sure of yourself. And the best kind of bets I think to make on the stock market are the ones that everybody thinks are completely idiotic because those are the ones that are most likely to be mispriced. And that's where you can do the best. Let me go back to something that James just touched on which is this whole notion of competitive advantage.
We talk to them oddly full about companies that have a moat around them, that they have some sort of sustainable advantage. Jim, when you look at companies that have advantages, is that something, I mean, if we're to believe James, that no company has a permanent competitive advantage? I always say siege engine for that moat. So how often should you be checking a company's competitive advantage?
Well, competitive advantage is one of those things that's great to say you have it, but it's really hard to prove it or to measure it. There are a variety of metrics you can look at things like profit margins and return on a vested capital where when they start declining, it means the company is trying to compensate for declining companies. To compensate for declining competitive advantage either by cutting prices or things of that nature. So, you know, I say we probably look glance at recorder and but really check in maybe once a year.
And then, you know, but it's tricky because you've got a lot of that. You have to look at it relative to other competitors. You have to look at it relative to the past relative to the macroeconomic situation. So it's tough, but I agree with James, especially in this era of rapidly changing technology, you know, no moat is not available these days.
And sometimes you don't know that it's gone until it's way too late. You're listening to Molly Fullman, Chris Hill here in the studio with James Early, Seth Jason and Tim Hanson. Alright guys, time to look into the crystal ball. Tim, I'll start with you.
Give me a bold prediction for 2011. Go on and I'll let him hear. So, my bold prediction I was thinking about this was $100 oil, but I've now seen people predicting that. So, I'll go out, I might let him say $120 oil.
This one goes to $11. What is oil now? The oil is in the mid 80s right now. Okay, $101.00.
Come on down. No, I'm going to say $120.00 oil, I think. $120 a barrel. You know, there's a fascinating of all the things Wiki leaks has exposed recently and one of the most fascinating.
I think this is one thing everybody already knew this and maybe that's what we've been so fascinating about Wiki leaks is just exposing things people already knew. Now it's in writing, but Venezuela has just been rambently lying about how much oil they're producing. What? Who would have dumped it?
Come on, come on. As well as well. Hugo Chavez and underinvesting in their oil infrastructure. So, they're probably going to be producing even less oil for the next few years.
So, declining production in some key markets rapidly rising demand and as far as I can see no real consensus on what to do in terms of alternative energy, I think it's going to drive oil prices a lot higher next year. James Early, bold prediction. I would say besides Motleyful Money tripling its subscriber base, I will say there's a 20% chance of a big bubble bursting in China. What kind of a...
How's it's a stock market, something like that? I mean, the government will try all the cantus to stop that or maybe obfuscated if it thinks that would help. But I think, again, to Wiki leaks, there's apparently some fudging going on with some numbers out there. Anyone would be surprised by that.
But yeah, I think we could see some sort of bursting. So, Jason? I have trouble predicting stuff. I don't think it'll really come true.
Google will produce a few new products that everyone will talk about and then they will be complete flops. And we're seeing that kind of already with Google TV. Maybe I'll stick with that. It already seems like kind of a flop, but I'll go ahead and predict complete flop.
All right. And people won't be talking about it anymore because, well, it's not nice to talk about things Hugo fails at. Oh, yeah. We never like to do it.
Well, so why don't you tap? Yeah. So, I mean, they're not really bad. Yeah, they know.
Google maps. Google Earth. They know where we are right now. Making Smirky based on your browsing.
Oh, yeah. Your wife looks on. I also didn't get an ad for this. Or you are.
That's Google. Quickly, we did bold predictions. Give me a not so bold prediction. Give me a safe bet for 2011 Tim Hansen.
I will say that the United States, you know, will make any progress in 2011, reducing their debt or deficit loads. None whatsoever? Come on. Come on, we got a new con.
None? All right. Change early. A safe bet for 2011.
I was going to make a time-guiding or joke. Maybe we have continued unresolved information or matters on inflation deflation. We'll still be having discussions in here. Really?
I was kind of hoping we would be done with the inflation deflation conversation in the year. Me too. Seth? You're oh.
Not doing so great. You're oh, not good. You're oh, not good. Maybe you're just down.
I think still here. But I think that every time there is a quote unquote shock, people start buying US Treasuries, which is funny for a couple of reasons. One because to listen to people in this country talk about the dollar or US Treasuries, they're the worst thing you could possibly have. There's a shrill crowd that we should all be buying ammo and beans and gold.
But the world is working. The world is worried they buy things like oil and US-denominated Treasuries. They worry about the Euro. And finally, before we go to break, give me one stock that's on your radar for 2011.
It could be on your radar for good reasons or bad. Tim? I'm going to go with not one stock but a group of stocks. I think it's going to be a real tipping point for China and for small Chinese companies in particular.
I've sent a massive evaluation discrepancy today between Chinese companies that recently came public and small Chinese companies that have been public for a long time. People have a hard time trusting their numbers and corporate governance. Some of the companies are willing to just sort of write it off and go into the annals of stock market history as failures. Others are actually trying to improve and get better.
But this is going to be a real make or break year for all those companies, that entire sector. If you think they're going to do some good this year, it's a good time to just buy a group of them and check back in 12 months. If you think they're going to go away, then steer clear. But something's going to change by 2012, I think.
James? I also have a group of stocks. If you want to say something like Unisource, this is a Phoenix-based electric utility. It's already too, too wrong with electric utilities.
This one's a little bit more growth-oriented. But if you look at Clorox, Kellogg's, Procter & Gamble, these are consumer products companies that have significantly underperformed over the past year or so. I'm looking for mean reversion. In other words, I think they're going to start to do better over the next year.
Seth? Group of stocks. I cover mostly small caps for hidden gems. I look at these sectors, these small caps sectors.
One of the ones that has not done as well for a while is small cap healthcare stocks. There are good reasons for that, which is that the moats can be easily breached sometimes in small cap healthcare stocks. But we have a few that I like and I think a basket of them would work out well for investors. One of them would be Bio-reference Laboratories, BRLI, and that is a testing company.
Another would be Almost Family, AFAM, which is a home healthcare provider. And then finally we have a small clinical research organization called CRO, Kendall International, which is also one that the market is pricing as if it's not going to be around. And I think that's all. Coming up, a buy seller hold free for all.
Stay tuned. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. For investing commentary and analysis, 24-7 go to MotleyFools website fool.com.
Chris Hill here in the studio with Seth Jason, James Early, and Tim Hanson. Alright guys, we do this every week with our guests and now we're going to put you guys through the ringer. Of course the ringer I refer to is buy seller hold. Tim Hanson, anyone can jump in here, but Tim, I'll pick on you first.
Apple is introducing the iPad 2 in 2011. Estimates are that Apple will sell 8.5 million iPads in 2010, so buy seller hold the likelihood that Apple sells 20 million iPads in 2011. That's a big number. It's a big number, but I think we've gotten burned in the past underestimating Apple and the number of people in this country will do light money on fire.
So in that context, 20 million is not that big, so I will say hold, but like Apple stock is probably not an attractively priced option. You got to go buy. The iPad is amazing because there's nothing really productive to do. We have colleagues who have them, and what do they do?
They're always on Twitter. They put them on their counter. This is huge wordless thing, and everyone's got to have one anyway. James Early, buy seller hold the likelihood that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will still be Yahoo CEO one year from now.
I'd say sell. I can't even define Yahoo's business succinctly right now if you ask me to. That's a bad sign, but I do believe Chris should always have your shoulder to cry. I'm a big fan of hers.
If only for the profanity that she uses on conference calls. Please God, when they fire her, someone be there with a mic. I will come with a contrarian opinion here and say bye. The reason I'm going to say that is because, A, I think nobody suspects that this is going to happen.
And B, in this short expectations world we live in, CEO success is often measured by stock price, more than a clear business strategy or money making ideas or anything like that. In order for the next year, I've said this in the past on the show. Yahoo has a lot of assets that Carol Bartz can't touch and screw up that they can monetize, and they are Yahoo Japan. What a ringing and dropping optimistic thing.
Who are betting on whether she's going to be around in a year? My expectation is that she can move stones over the next year to get that stock price up. The liquor cabinet is locked. Good job.
Whether that's a sell out of their stake in Alibaba Group or a spin off of Yahoo Japan farther, she's got some levers to pull for job security. I think the cynical buy there. All right. Seth Jason, this guy's been CEO of his company for a full 10 years.
Bicellar hold the likelihood that Microsoft CEO Steve Palmer steps down in 2011. Wow. No, you have to sell that. I think Palmer likes running Microsoft.
He doesn't really need to do it for the money anymore. He likes to be kind of the outspoken guy who's surprised. If he ever likes to be the guy that people make fun of him, he wouldn't say the stuff he says if he doesn't enjoy seeing himself getting ripped on to a degree. So I think he's still there.
Like James. Tim Hanson, Bicellar hold a Facebook IPO in the next 12 months. I will, that's a good question. I'll say buy and I'm going to say that because as Seth has pointed out a number of times, Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire, actually doesn't have any money.
He just says fake sock or real sock in a not listed yet company. And you know, the IPO environment has been hot recently and some of the numbers that can be thrown out there that he could raise money and be stupid not to. There are tons of rubes who will buy this stock. Just as many people who are going to buy iPad 2s.
If not more. All right. Finally, James, you're the big apple guy in the room. Bicellar hold, Apple overtaking ExxonMobil is the most valuable company in the world by market cap.
How close are they now? I mean, that's, you know, they're maybe like 30 billion off 40 50. I don't know. But maybe that's a five year or 10 year possibility.
So you think eventually they do? I wouldn't be surprised. I think smartphones are more of a commodity nowadays than oil is in a lot of ways. You know, if I'm going to stand behind my $120 oil prediction, there's no way Apple would get X on this year.
But Seth, you have to sell that and then eventually Apple is doing some great things. But Apple is one of those companies that has one of those modes that everyone, they say, oh, the competitive people are scuttling. As soon as Steve Jobs is dead, it's done. All right.
In the 30 seconds we have left New Year's resolutions, Tim. I mentioned earlier, it's the renew my Mandarin Chinese lessons for a variety of reasons. I think the country's got an optimistic business future ahead of it. And having been there a few times, I'd love to be able to take my family over there and show them around some of the insider stuff that I've gotten to see as a result of being with Mandarin speakers.
So, Kyle, the great. I'm actually learning to go out with the Filipino language. So if you know any good resources, email us at Radio at full.com. Seth?
Oh, all this learning. I just want to run a half a dozen marathons or so without falling apart. You know, learning Mandarin sounds a lot less painful. You'd be surprised.
Some of the sounds you have to make are not comfortable. Steve, New Year's resolution? I need to get better shape. I think I'll agree on that.
Steve, why don't you come out to some of these marathons with me? I don't need to get in shape that bad. Miami next month, baby. All right.
Taking your talents to South Beach? I was actually looking at hotels in South Beach. If you know anything about hotels in South Beach, again, email us Radio at full.com. All right.
Seth, Jason, James, early Tim, hands on guys. Thanks for being here. Thank you, Chris. I'm Peter, Chris.
Coming up, Ford is racking up big profits and big returns for shareholders. And it was the only major US automaker not to take bailout money. The man credited with Ford's turnaround is CEO, Alan Malali. We had an opportunity to talk with him recently about the future of Ford.
Stay tuned. This is Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Full Money. I'm Chris Hill.
Last year, Time Magazine named Alan Malali as one of the most influential people in the world. For the last four years, he's been the president and CEO of Ford Motor Company. And he joins me now. Alan, thanks for being here.
Well, glad to be with you. Ford just posted record third quarter earnings and you've said the key driver's going into 2011 will be increasing quality and improving competitive position and a gradually improving economy. Now, you have control over the first two, but not the third one. So my question is, how does Ford string together a few more quarters like this last one if the economy basically stays where it is?
Well, Chris, it's a part of our plan because as you well know four years ago, we made some pretty big strategic decisions which would allow us to profitably grow Ford, not only through the worst recession that we've all seen, but clearly to improve that performance as the economy started to strengthen. So everybody had a chance to see with our third quarter results that even at this lowest industry that we've had in nearly 40 years that we were able to operate profitably based on the strength of the fabulous new Ford product line and as you point out our increasing quality and productivity. So right now, our best estimate is that the U.S. economy will expand maybe a little bit less than 3% for the year 2010 and we anticipate that I think we're pretty much aligned with most of the economy.
It'll be somewhere around a 3% expansion in 2011. So, you know, for its well positioned, we took the tough structural actions operate properly at the slower demand. We invested in the new products and now products that they really do want value available for it as we recover. I want to redo a headline from Wednesday's Wall Street Journal and the headline is GM could be free of taxes for years.
And the article goes on to talk about how GM won't have to pay as much as $45 billion in taxes because of special tax rules made to specifically benefit government bailout recipients. Now, unlike GM, Ford didn't accept government money. Ford is profitable, just posted record earnings. So how do you compete with a company that's backed by Uncle Sam?
Well, we knew we were going to a different strategy. Remember, Chris, we actually during the time of GM shared with everybody that they were completely bankrupt and they were going to go into bankruptcy that we actually testified at GM and Chrysler for the good of the industry and also to help prevent a collapse of the industry which could have made people believe that the U.S. from a recession into a depression. So we supported that temporary help from the government.
Clearly, we have been on a completely different plan for the last four years and we did not want or need to take that push. And also, we were also investing during the worst time in our new products. Now clearly, we were disadvantaged in the near term on the debt because we wiped out as we went to bankruptcy. But our plan always was to give back to profitability, generate free cash, and accelerate the improvement of our balance sheet.
And one thing, Chris, about the third quarter was that we progress were making on that with our commitment to pay the $3.6 billion in the VBA on the retiree health care, remove that and our commitment. We have now for the year repaid $10.8 billion of our debt. And we also gave guidance, Chris, that we're going to be cash net positive by the end of the year, which means that we'll have improved that net cash position by nearly $8 to $9 billion for the year. So the most important thing we do is just continue to make the cars and trucks that people want, improve our quality and our productivity like we're doing and accelerate the improvement of our balance sheet.
And we'll be just fine. You're listening to Molly Fullman. We're talking with Alan Mulally, the president and CEO of Ford Motor Company. Ford's making a big push into the electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid market.
Is there a point where you think that will make up a majority of your product line? And if so, when do you think that is? Well, I think Chris is going to be a while before the product line because clearly, Ford has a very, very robust technology roadmap going forward to not only improve the quality and the fuel efficiency and safety, but also provide that across all of our vehicles. And the technology roadmap that we see is a lot of room to improve the internal combustion engine.
And you see that with EcoBoost with turbo charging and direct fuel injection, nearly 25% improvement fuel efficiency and 15% reduction CO2, new lightweight materials, integrated electronics, aerodynamics. Then we see gradual electrification of the vehicles. And the first push will be the hybrids where you have internal combustion engine and electric motor. And you'll see more plug-ins and then you'll see gradually more all electric vehicles.
Now, the rate of that expansion will be really dependent on the improvements that we make in the battery technology and the electrical components because we need to get the weight down, the scale up, the cost down, the charge and warm and hot temperatures into it quickly. And of course, Chris, the Enabler will be the infrastructure throughout the United States, and a smart electrical grid so that we can actually charge the vehicles completely. So I think that partnership is going to be a very big piece, but the most important thing is that we keep developing the development technology to make them technically and economically viable. So if I'm reading between the lines, it sounds like you're saying five years.
At least, Chris, because at least the last link today is tremendous, which makes it all work for all of us to be economically for our lives. And the infrastructure is just not there now to be able to support the vehicles plus. The vehicle's got to be economic, so that we're going to make an economic decision and we care about quality, and what we almost support things we do is to keep improving. You're listening to Motley Fonwini, we're talking with Alan Mulally, the president and CEO of Ford Motor Company.
Alan, what was the first car you ever owned? Maybe for I moved to Ford. Is there anything in particular that you remember about it? And it can be anything, it can be the color, it could be...
I think a body, and I just remember how neat it was when I got my driver's license and the highways were open. And you just took off, I'm guessing. Like all of us, you know, all the freedom that Domobiel brings, and also have great safe and efficient plus in the world. So, you know, it's an honor to be accelerating the vision.
You're listening to Motley Fonwini, we're talking with Alan Mulally, the CEO and president of Ford Motor Company. Alan, before we let you go, we have to wrap up with a round of buy, sell or hold. So let's start with something that certainly has its fans, as well as its detractors. Buy, sell or hold the future of ethanol.
As a start, I think we're going to see more biomass fuels. I'm going forward and that'll be part of the solution. Google has developed one that has logged over 140,000 miles on the road. Buy, sell or hold the driverless car.
I think I would probably hold on that because I think that people enjoy that driving experience and there is nothing that can replace the human being to simulate all the different situations we're going to be in and be able to react. See, I thought you were going to say you were going to hold on it because it's just kind of creepy. As you know, with airplanes and automatic landing systems and autopilots and autothrottles, and when it comes to a car and with an airplane, the most important thing is the charge because they need to simulate all the stuff they need. We don't hear quite as much talk about it these days.
Buy, sell or hold a manned trip to Mars in the next 20 years. Sell on that. And finally, you're a top executive at an aerospace company. You're the CEO of an automotive company.
So I think more so than probably anyone else in the public markets, you are the most qualified to weigh in on this topic. Buy, sell or hold. By the end of this century, flying cars. Widespread and economically viable and the economics of being able to do a large number of people around the world and do that in a small sense economically.
Not even with 90 years lead time? Well, I haven't worked on the future but maybe that's a little too far out. He is the president and CEO of Ford Motor Company. Alamo Lali, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you. Thanks for watching. Coming up, could New York City become a farming juggernaut? Stay tuned.
This is Motley Full Money. Oh, baby, what I couldn't do with plenty of money and you... As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about. Don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear.
Welcome back, Motley Full Money. I'm Chris Hill. Dixon de Pamea is a professor of Public Health at Columbia University and the author of Vertical Farm Feeding the World in the 21st Century. I recently spoke with him about the idea that could change the way we think about farming.
Let's start with just the basic question of what is vertical farming and how does it work? Well, vertical farming so far is a concept and it began about 11 years ago in a classroom. Believe it or not, to start to think back to your own college days is how many things actually made it out in the real world. And you'll get the...
I hint that the house surprise that everybody is, the fact that this is almost about to happen. So it began as a rooftop burning project that the students picked themselves and it didn't actually turn up so great because there's not a lot of rooftops to feed two points. But I didn't challenge them. I said, you know, well maybe you can take this idea and move it inside of abandoned buildings and make use of all those floors for your five-story building.
You could improve greatly the amount of crops that you could produce if there were some way of doing that. Of course there is some way of doing that because that's what the greenhouse industry is all about. So that's how the idea started. So it has evolved to the point now of enticing designers and architects and engineers to the table to sit down and decide actually how to do this.
Now, you know, I've been to farms. There's a lot of dirt there. I mean, are vertical farms? I mean, there's no soil?
None. I have food. It's all done hydroponically and there's a newer technology called aeroponics which takes hydroponics to the next level and actually sprays a mist of nutrient-laden water onto the roots of the plants. They're perfectly happy as long as you feed them properly and they don't require soil or food.
They just require it as a solid matrix. So if you can supply that in some other way and certainly the hydroponics industry has found lots of clever ways of doing that. You don't have any soil at all. So you don't have a weight problem if you're going to put this into a room, say for instance.
It's not designed for soil-based agriculture. So are we just talking about, when it comes to vertical farms, are we just talking about fruits and vegetables? Or are we talking about animals too? Because if you tell me that these vertical farms are going to smell a whole lot better than the average farm?
I can promise you that they'll smell better because we're going to keep out the four-legged varieties and let in chickens, for instance, and ducks and geese. And agriculture, you can raise fish and of course like tilapia and saltwater species of fish can be raised this way as well. Crustations like shrimp, freshwater and saltwater shrimp. There's a whole industry out there that's actually doing all of this already.
So nothing's impossible. I think the four-legged life's like problems and then farms unfortunately. You're listening to Motleyful Money. We're talking with Dr.
Dixon de Pameh. His book is The Vertical Farm. One of your biggest supporters is not from the world of science. He's from the world of music and that's Sting, who has secured the rights to the Vertical Farm movie.
Is this going to be a documentary? Yes. It certainly will be. The first customer, so to speak, who agrees to actually sit down and work out the plans for a prototype, which we imagine would be the first iteration of this concept, would be the beneficiary of a documentary film as to how all of that came about.
And I think it's very passionate about the rainforest. You see this as a way of saving the rainforest because you can supply food to people in another way. They don't have to encroach into these beautiful diverse hardwood forests of the tropics. What do you think the timing is looking like?
And do you have a couple of finalists for lack of a better word in terms of a location for this pilot project? We actually do. I'm glad you did because we've been in discussions now. I say there are some obvious associates of mine as well who have gotten together and said this would make an interesting company.
If we could correlate this into a consulting firm that would teach people how to proceed in terms of making indoor food production a livelihood for them. We've been fortunate to be invited to the table in Jordan in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Qatar. In those situations where those countries have virtually no soil to feed their people and still great need for food security and food safety issues, those would be at the top of mind list for those that they're going to start to do this first. But touch with the cities of Chicago and Seattle and Portland and San Francisco and New York City.
I haven't received any plaque from those people at all. They've all been enthusiastic about the concept. It's just that generating funding for this would be new work. I should have been new work also.
New work has expressed deep interest in the morning. Alright, Dr. Parnam, before we let you go away, we have to wrap up with a round of bicellar hold. This is going to be fun.
You'll love this. It's the biggest scientific challenge confronting New York City today. Bicellar hold bed bugs. I'm actually a trained parasitologist.
I would buy bed bug control. I would put themselves by the server by controls that actually worked. And we're still looking for those because it's an intractable problem of dense populations. I was going to say you can buy the controls, but from what I've read about the problem, right now I'm buying bed bugs because they look like they're not going anywhere.
I see your point. I buy you this from no problem. Alright, this is really big on Facebook. Bicellar hold farm fill.
Oh, I'm going to buy that. I'll buy that in a second and I'll incorporate the vertical farm concept into it right off into the sun. If you throw in Lego, I'll do that one too. Perfect.
And finally, this is a licensed plate motto that has a lot of people scratching their heads. Bicellar hold New Jersey as the Garden State. When we gave our presentation to Newark, we actually used the motto bring the garden back to the garden state. But of course, we'd bring it back in another form.
I would leave the garden state as a natural wonderland and incorporate the performing. So I'd buy the state, but I would convert it back to what it used to be before we got there. I think that's the first time anyone's used the words New Jersey and natural wonderland in the same. The book is The Vertical Farm Feeding the World in the 21st Century.
It is an absolutely fascinating idea. Good luck with the book, Doctor. It's available everywhere. Dr.
Dixon de Pamea. Thanks so much for being here. My pleasure. That's it for this edition of Motley Fool Money.
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