An “All In” conversation with the hosts of Discover Ag inspired by disco balls and cowboy hats
Food may be the universal language, but Agriculture is the foundation of great produce. Natalie Kovarik and Tara Vander Dussen, the women behind Discover Ag, have spent the better part of a decade translating both.
They are not your typical on-air personalities. One comes from cattle country and pharmacy, while the other comes from environmental science and dairy cows. Together, they’ve built a world where Agriculture (aka “Ag”) feels less like a distant industry and more like culture: emotional, communal, complicated, and funny.
Their chemistry is immediate; they sound like sisters who met later in life and business partners who skipped straight to family.
We sat down to talk about Ag: livestock roots, chance meetings, contagious curiosity, media misinformation, and what happens when you decide to go all in on something most people overlook every day: food.
What is the worst situation livestock has ever put you in?
Natalie laughs immediately. “Honestly? Cattle have been a part of my entire life,” she says. “And at the moment I can’t recall a time I have been in danger or harmed. I guess you develop instincts around animal welfare when your parents train you early.”
She grew up with deep ranch roots stretching back generations in Montana’s Gallatin Valley before building a first-generation ranching operation with her husband and three sons in the Sandhills of Nebraska. “Summer pasture is still my favorite,” she says.
Tara, a mom of two girls, answers more cautiously. “My worst encounter was definitely a pig and her piglets.” Apparently, a mom’s curiosity is not limited to humans. “As for cows… recently my photographer and I were in the pen and the dairy cow, because they’re super curious by nature, would not stop trying to inspect the camera. Had we kept going, we probably would have been licked to death.”
According to Tara, every herd has a star. “One cow is always the personality.” That trait is universal between livestock and humans alike.
You two make Agriculture feel… cool. Was that intentional?
“Absolutely not,” Tara says. Which somehow makes it more believable.
They met online in a group chat made up of women in Agriculture who were willing to share their lives publicly… a rarity at the time.
“Natalie DM’d me,” Tara says. By 2021, Natalie hosted a retreat in a rural setting, and both women went home telling their husbands the same thing: “I think I met my person.”
Their partnership operates on what they call “iron sharpens iron” energy.
“For some people, we can be a lot,” Natalie says, laughing. “But we saw Agriculture the same way.”
Together they have built Discover Ag into something more layered than advocacy and more textured than content. “We’re making Ag sexy again.”
Not polished. Not performative. Just visible.
Why go all-in on Agriculture when most people barely think about where food comes from?
Because people are curious.
And because misinformation moves faster than understanding.
Natalie, a former pharmacist, explains that she originally entered social media when she started a direct-to-consumer beef business. She quickly realized most audiences knew shockingly little about Agriculture.
“Big conversations were happening online,” she says. “And equally big misinformation.”
Over time, their mission evolved from pure education toward what they now call edutainment (entertainment and education all rolled into one). It does not seek to preach or fear-monger about internet tribalism, but it’s about opening the door for others.
“We create content that provides truths,” Natalie says. “Then you decide what to do with it.”
Tara’s background in environmental science similarly shaped her approach.
“I started by blogging research-backed information. No selling. My husband used to joke, ‘We don’t really do things that are cool with our cows.’”
Now she spends her life traveling through the food system documenting the people behind it.
“The more you understand about your food,” she says, “the more you understand about your food.” It sounds redundant until you realize it lands differently.
Food is the fabric of culture. In your dream outcome, what changes?
“At its core, food is connection,” Tara says quickly. It shouldn’t be divisive.
She talks about trying unfamiliar foods while traveling.
“You don’t have to love it. You can hate it. But at least you learned something about the people who made it.”
For Natalie, the larger issue is how modern conversations flatten nuance.
“Sound bites are the enemy of conversation.” Mike Rowe
Because it applies to food, politics, the internet, and probably all of us.
Natalie lights up discussing growers, ranchers, and makers she’s met over the years. A fisherwoman, Valentine Thomas, once said: “Tell me what you care about, and I’ll tell you how to shop.”
That feels like the thesis statement for any person’s relationship with food.
Not everyone values the same things.
Price. Regeneration. Convenience. Locality. Convention. Health. Taste.
And maybe the point isn’t perfect agreement. Maybe the point is awareness.
What’s surprised you most about advocating publicly for Agriculture?
“How layered it all is,” Natalie says. Agriculture isn’t one thing. Neither is food.
Social media desperately wants heroes, villains, clean answers, and labels.
But food systems are emotional ecosystems. Human ecosystems.
And the deeper Discover Ag goes, the less interested they seem in certainty.
More interested in curiosity.
If every person could do one thing to support Agriculture and Discover Ag, what would it be?
“Go discover something,” Tara says. Simple as that.
Visit a local farm. Talk to a local rancher. Learn where your food comes from. Ask questions. Stay curious.
Start as small or as big as you want, but connect with someone.
Because food was never meant to be consumed in a simple way. It was meant to gather us.
Off camera, Natalie and Tara are still hosts.
The kind of people who think about how someone feels walking into a room, whether guests are actually comfortable, and creating spaces people remember.
Their friendship itself feels like hosting, too. Warm. High energy. Generous. Unscripted, in the best possible way.
They talk daily and send voice notes constantly, with Natalie handling creative while Tara handles taxes. This symbiotic relationship is reflected in their dynamic, with their families vacationing together and watching each other’s kids and it comes easily to them on every level.
And that may be the most honest description of a successful partnership there is.
For more on Discover Ag follow them on Instagram @discoveragpodcast and their streaming platforms on Spotify and Apple Music.
Photo Credits: All Images Courtesy of Discover Ag Podcast / Natalie Kovarik and Tara Vander Dussen
