Mark Spitznagel on Market Fragility, Goat Farming After 4,144% Return

• These days, Mark Spitznagel’s favorite place in the world is not the trading floor but his goat farm.
• The founder of Universa Investments gave Insider a tour of his Idyll Farms in Northport, Michigan. 
• He shared why modern agriculture, like modern finance, has been made fragile by government interventionism.

It’s mid-October and prime hunting season in Northport, Michigan, a small village perched on the edge of Lake Michigan, and the childhood home of Mark Spitznagel.

Spitznagel is taking in the view of his house across the Northport Bay and patting about a dozen goats as they rub their heads and necks against him, a sign of affection.  

“It’s cool hanging out with them. It’s kind of like, you’re not alone and yet you are. It’s a nice combination of the two,” Spitznagel told Insider in an interview at his decade-old goat farm.

When Spitznagel bought Idyll Farms, aptly named to evoke the picturesque and peaceful countryside, it consisted solely of a 170-year-old barn with desertified areas and no animals. Today, it encompasses over 600 acres of land. Besides serving as the home to between 300 and 500 Alpine goats at any given time, the farmstead also houses a creamery that produces award-winning goat cheese.