#81 – Robin Gentry McGee – Essential Provisions

Today’s guest is Nate Hankes – US Army drone operator turned soil scientist then sales engineer at a cutting-edge agricultural sensor manufacturer. Nate spent 14 months in Baghdad during the 2007 troop surge, watching chaos unfold from a screen thousands of feet above, feeling both omniscient, at times, and impotent. He came home carrying a weight of the war he didn't know he had, spent nine years writing a book to process it, and took five months to hike the Appalachian Trail to figure out who he was after the uniform came off. As Nate says, “I called it the Bagdad hangover. I lost a decade of my life to it.” His path into agriculture wasn't some romantic calling—it was practical advice from his dad during the Great Recession and a college program that didn't require calculus. But somewhere between a Monsanto internship at an Idaho phosphate mine, graduate research on a selenium-accumulating plant that killed livestock, and learning hydroponics in a Bob Marley-playing, barefoot California office, Nate found something he didn't expect: Purpose through Science. Now he's at Apogee Instruments in Utah, working with researchers and growers who are trying to do everything from grow plants in space to monitor the distribution of light in their greenhouses. The company was founded by his former graduate advisor, Dr. Bruce Bugbee, who's been manufacturing high-fidelity environmental sensors for nearly 30 years. In this conversation, we get into: The moral weight of remote warfare Leadership failures that push good people out, and Why the precision of measuring photons matters when you're trying to feed people Nate doesn't sugarcoat the hard parts, and he's not interested in wrapping his military service in nostalgia. He's just trying to do work that matters. Enjoy!

Today’s guest is Robin Gentry McGee, founder of Essential Provisions. Robin’s story is part kitchen, part battlefield – not one of dirt and distant lands, but a battle for her father’s health. Her early years were spent in the family’s garden, followed by a career in food and restaurants, and then a seismic moment when her father’s hospital experience forced her to rethink what we call “hospital food.” That led her from the kitchen to product development and ultimately to building shelf-stable meals designed with service members and high performers in mind. As Robin says: “These guys, especially when they were deployed, they need a taste of home. They need to feel like this just came off their loved one's stove.” This episode isn’t about miracle cures or grand claims. It’s about how a daughter’s experience with her father—about family meals, advocacy, and seeing what people are actually fed when they’re at their most vulnerable—became the engine for a company trying to reconnect service members to real food. We dig into product development, sourcing from regenerative farms, the procurement challenges with the military, and the practical reasons why a “taste of home” matters for health, performance, and morale. Enjoy!

Today’s episode brings you a story that sits right at the intersection of grit, service, and the regenerative future of our military installations. And it starts with a spark—one that Angela Czaja noticed long before the Department of War ever cared about cattle, soil health, or regenerative grazing. As Angela puts it: “I saw, even in North Carolina, just this passion that Eric [her husband] had for livestock… this spark about him whenever he was around the livestock… That was just a really special place for him.” That spark eventually became one of the most unconventional, disruptive, and frankly needed ideas to hit the national security space in decades: using regenerative livestock management as a tool to harden military installations, restore degraded training lands, and create meaningful pathways for transitioning service members. Angela joins us today to give the inside view—not the thesis version, not the policy deck, but the family-level, marriage-level, move-across-the-country-three-times-with-kids-in-tow version—of what it really took to build what is now the Regenerative Grazing Open-Air Lab at Camp San Luis Obispo. In this conversation, you’ll hear how a dairy-farm kid from Wisconsin ends up shaping one of the most interesting ag-meets-national-security projects in the country… why livestock became a lifeline of purpose during her husband's transition from the Army Special Forces… and how their family’s faith, resilience, and service-driven mindset turned a wild idea into a model the Pentagon is now watching closely. You can also watch the short documentary produced by Peter Byck on YouTube here. Enjoy!

Our guest, Karl Palmberg from Sunlight and Rain Grass-fed Beef, is a man whose life has been shaped by service—first in the Air Force, flying F-16s, and now on the family farm, where he’s building a legacy of regenerative agriculture. Karl’s story is a powerful reminder that the transition from military service to farming isn’t just about changing careers; it’s about finding a calling that brings deep satisfaction and a sense of duty to something greater than oneself. As Karl puts it, “Being able to figure out how to feed people nutritious food gives a lot of job satisfaction whereas some of my peers end up doing other jobs that pay a lot more, but don’t give that kind of sense of meaning and purpose. And if I had to choose one, I choose the one that I have right now.” Have a listen as we dive into Karl’s journey, his intentional approach to farming and grazing, and the lessons he’s learned along the way about purpose, service, and the enduring connection between veterans and the land. Let's get into it!

Today’s guest is Juan Whiting— President of the Hinterland Institute, fourth generation farmer and rancher, and Army Reserve Civil Affairs officer. Juan has a masters degree in international development and prior to the Hinterland Institute and Stray Acres, he spent eight years in East Africa working on a regenerative ag movement. Today, Juan is on a mission to transform how we steward 26 million acres of Department of Defense land. Juan isn’t just talking about giving veterans a hobby farm or a soft landing. As he puts it, “we don’t just need to bring young people into agriculture. You need to bring in young people that can actually get the job done.” In this episode, you’ll hear how Juan and his team are building partnerships with base commanders, regenerative producers, and veterans to regenerate rangelands, feed troops from local installations, and develop the next generation of “regenerates” – veterans trained and equipped to manage the land regeneratively. This is a bold vision for national security, rural revival, and veteran opportunity – all rolled into one. Lets get into it!

Today’s guest is James Triplett—Army veteran, youth pastor, former diesel mechanic, and now co-lead of a dynamic regenerative farm in Mississippi. James isn’t here to play it safe. He’s here to talk about what it really means to hit rock bottom—and climb back out with purpose. From surviving suicidal ideation to managing 800 acres of rotationally grazed livestock in Mississippi, his story is proof that healing can happen on the land—but only if you’re willing to do the work. As James says: “I’m not chasing my dreams. I’m walking in my purpose.” In this episode, you’ll hear how James went from rock-bottom to running Etta Hills Farm alongside the son of regenerative ag specialist Dr. Allen Williams. We dig into soil, business, faith, and why teaching ag to kids might be one of the most powerful things we can do for the next generation. Let’s get into it.

Today’s episode is the second and final part of our conversation with Allan Savory, founder of the Savory Institute and one of the most influential voices in holistic management. In Part 1, we covered Allan’s military background, his early ecological work in Africa, and the institutional resistance he faced when challenging deeply held beliefs in both science and policy. Today, we pick up with the practical side of his life’s work—how livestock, when properly managed, can regenerate land, restore biodiversity, and stabilize food systems. As Allan said in our conversation: “If your toolbox is empty, what are you going to do? There is nothing else in the human toolbox to reverse desertification other than properly managed livestock.” We’ll talk about what holistic management really means, why rewilding isn’t enough, and how large-scale land restoration is not only possible—it’s happening. You’ll also hear Allan’s thoughts on how military veterans can play a pivotal role in this movement, and why institutions—military, academic, and environmental—need to be radically restructured to meet today’s ecological challenges. Let’s get back into it—Part 2 with Allan Savory starts now.

Today’s episode is the first in a special two-part series with a guest whose work has shaped the way millions think about land, livestock, and leadership. Allan Savory is a legend in the regenerative agriculture world—founder of the Savory Institute, developer of the holistic management framework, and a lifelong challenger of convention. From growing up in war-torn Rhodesia to commanding combat tracking units, and later reshaping global agricultural theory, Allan’s story is as unconventional as it is urgent. As Allan says in today’s episode: "Without agriculture, you cannot have a choir. You cannot have a church. You cannot have a university. You cannot have an economy. You cannot have a government. You cannot have an army. You cannot have anything. It is the very foundation of civilization." In Part 1, we cover his early military service, his time as a young wildlife ecologist tasked with protecting massive swaths of African rangeland, and the origin of holistic management—how it was born not from theory, but from a lifetime of ecological and military observation under fire. We also dive deep into how institutional ego, flawed beliefs, and academic dogma continue to stand in the way of solving global desertification and food insecurity. This isn’t your typical ag conversation—and it’s not meant to be. It's bold, unfiltered, and driven by a mission that started decades before most of us ever heard the word “regenerative.” Enjoy Part 1 with Allan Savory.

“Holy cow, there's this big gap. There's this big gap of not having that data at the ground level of farms. The big ag companies only can get so far. They don't know exactly what's happening on the ground with soil and crops and pests and disease and so forth.” In this episode, I sat down with Tom Gauthier, a former nuclear, biological and chemical specialist with the US Army and the CEO of AgTechLogic. Tom doesn’t just talk about precision spraying trends or sugar coated aspects of entrepreneurship —he pulls back the curtain on what it's really like to build a mission-driven agtech company from the ground up, while staying grounded in both his military roots and a practical, field-based understanding of farming. In this episode, we break down how Tom and his team are combining chlorophyll fluorescence sensors with real-time data capture and AI-enhanced analytics — not just to spot-spray weeds, but to identify things like standing water, detect disease early, and even feed actionable intel back into the supply chain. We get into questions like: How did Tom’s prior work as a chemical engineer with Proctor and Gamble influence his path into agtech? Why won’t cameras alone be sufficient for addressing a growing host of weed and disease related problems? Can chlorophyll fluorescence sensors do more than just detect green weeds against a brown, dirt background? You’ll hear how AgTechLogic’s precision spraying systems are helping producers save hundreds of gallons of crop protection products per application. This is a candid conversation about earning trust, staying adaptable, and leading with humility. Let’s get into it.

“We understood that when you start looking at food miles—how far your food has traveled and who's producing it—and when you realize that there are four companies that control 85% of the animal protein sold in the United States, that's really concerning to me from a national security standpoint, especially when those companies are not all American-owned” Today’s episode is Part 2 of our conversation with retired Army Sergeant Major Kara Rutter. In Part 1, Kara shared her unexpected journey through military service—from insisting on becoming a cook, to cooking for Secretary Rumsfeld, to representing the U.S. military overseas in some of the most strategically important regions of the world. We left off as Kara and her husband Matt had just found their 20-acre farm in Aiken, South Carolina and were beginning to turn their post-military life into something new. In Part 2, we pick up with a powerful discussion on food systems, national security, and what it could take to localize protein sourcing for military bases. Kara shares her thoughts on decentralizing food supply chains, the vulnerabilities exposed during COVID, and why she sees food as a matter of strategic defense. We also dive into the creation of Project Victory Gardens, their nonprofit focused on helping veterans become farmers, the success of their “farmer boot camp,” and a deeper look at their new agritourism incubator program. If you're interested in how veterans are reshaping agriculture—not just for themselves but for their communities—this episode is for you. Enjoy!