Becoming Stand Six, the Company

Brad McNish, President

I decided to start Stand Six not so much from an independent idea, but from a need I saw through my own experience working years of shifts as a police officer in Calgary, Alberta.

After attending the University of Alberta and receiving an Honors Degree in Science, I joined the Calgary Police Service at the young age of 20. I was passionate about policing and worked in several different areas including general patrol, drug unit and the tactical unit. The tactical unit offered the best fit for me as it demanded an intense physical challenge and strong mental focus. I was a member of the TAC unit for over six years until I was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. I then took over command of a rougher area of the City, leading 23 officers in their day to day duties. I formed strong relationships with my co-workers along the way, many of which I maintain to this day.

During my police career, I started to develop stomach problems and was diagnosed with Crohns disease after approximately eight years on the job. This insidious disease was my constant, unwanted companion and it resulted in me undergoing two surgical resections before I was 35 years old. This disease did more to fuel my interest in health and nutrition than anything else but it also showed me how difficult it is to thrive when shift work is your life.

Developing Crohns disease requires you to listen intently to "where your stomach is at." Diet becomes both the cause and the cure. I knew that following a diet of the highest quality could assist my recovery so I began to seek a means of producing some of my own food. This, and a quest for greater balance in my life eventually led me to begin farming. Although I was born and raised in the city I quickly realized that being outside, working with nature, was good for both my body and my soul. It also offered an effective offset to the day to day stressors of policing in a large city.

I am not sure what it was that compelled me – but, instinctively I wanted to practice organic farming. Producing my own food is what ultimately led me to discover the healing property of greens; barley grass harvested when it is young in the leaf stage. I saw the positive affect that greens had on my own health and decided that I would like to offer these "healing greens" to others. From humble beginnings of growing a few acres of green barley and wheat grass then harvesting and processing it by hand to becoming one of the largest producers of organic greens in North America has been an eventful and fun journey.

Learning has always been my keystone and I have combined my "learn by doing" approach with taking many courses. These include a certificate in Nutraceutical Processing from Texas A & M, a compressed MBA course in Agri-Business from Harvard and an intensive Functional Medicine course through the Institute for Functional Medicine.

Developing knowledge and experience has led me back to where it all began. I realize that I had so little understanding to help me navigate the realities of shift work back in my days as a police officer. Now, because of the infrastructure that I have built over the past several years, I am able to create a company that will give back through education and health solutions. With our large, state of the art manufacturing facility, my own farms and a team of bright people working with me, Stand Six was born.

We have begun to uncover the science behind the effects of shift work on the body. What we discovered is that the science is very clear – shift work has distinct negative effects on the health of the worker. There are, however specific actions one can do to mitigate these effects so that obtaining optimal health is very achievable when working shift work.

For the past few years I have lived symptom free from Crohns. I have learned much along the way and I now take a very purposeful approach to my own health. Simply stated, I want Stand Six to be the company that I wish had existed when I was working shifts.

I recall may times standing in the street in the middle of the night just listening to the sounds of a city. Although most people are sleeping, what you hear is the hum of an entire community of people from emergency personnel to bakers, from truck drivers to nurses, from manufacturing workers to 24 hour store clerks that work through the night to keep a city alive and moving. If Stand Six can help one of these people to improve their health then my entire journey has been worth it.

   
Brad McNish, President