Making Ag Fun Again with Discover Ag

ONLINE — Too often, food/farming headlines and conversations are dominated by voices and opinions from outside of the ag space. Natalie Kovarik and Tara Vander Dussen aim to change that with their podcast Discover Ag, which offers a fresh and relatable take on the ag and food space. These two knowledgeable ladies bring years of experience and a fun attitude as they delve into the hottest ag topics each week.

The agricultural community makes up only 2% of the population with 28% of that being female and 8% under the age of 35. The average consumer is three generations removed from agriculture and, now more than ever, questioning the environmental/health effects of how their food is grown and produced. Read on to learn how Discover Ag addresses these problems and about the incredible ladies who brought it to life.

Disconnect From Agriculture

Did you know that Gen Z and Millennials are almost two times more likely than baby boomers to want to know where their food comes from? However, there is a disconnect in understanding what happens from farm to table. In fact, only 24% of U.S. adults trust information about where food is grown and how it is produced.

Despite the food industry making efforts to be more transparent, there is still a lot that needs to be done to help people all across the nation understand where their food comes from. There is a spike in interest about the topic but a lack of trust in the information provided. People want to trust that they know for sure how their agricultural products are grown/produced. That is where Discover Ag comes in.

Agriculture You Can Relate To

Discover Ag brings a needed – unique, young, female – perspective to the ag & food space and offers an engaging listening experience about something so central yet foreign to our everyday lives: food.

Through captivating conversations centered around three headline articles that week, Natalie and Tara delve into the intricacies of the food system and provide valuable insights into the ag and food space. Sometimes their topics are intense, like the Netherlands protests, dairy fires, and China buying farmland. Other times they are lighthearted like Pete Davis yelling at PETA and talking about 4-H goat thefts.

Either way, Discover Ag brings a unique perspective to the ag & food space as it is led by two millennial females – one a rancher and pharmacist from Nebraska and the other a dairy farmer and environmental scientist from New Mexico. And while they may live on farms and help run them, they are very relatable and trustworthy to urban and rural listeners.

How Discover Ag Got Started

One thing both Natalie and Tara have always had in common is their passion for sharing agriculture. They had both been individually sharing on different social media platforms for quite some time before they decided to come together through a series of rather serendipitous events in 2021.

In the short two years since then, they have created and launched an online course and community called Elevate Ag and started a podcast and docuseries called Discover Ag. While their respective journeys online have been filled with various twists and turns, it is no surprise that they have found their way back to their roots – helping people “discover ag.”

Meet Natalie Kovarik

From the heart of the Nebraska Sandhills, Natalie shares her ranching and family story online to showcase the beauty behind the Western lifestyle and foster a community that supports and trusts in agriculture as much as she does.

She and her husband (and their three boys) own and operate Kovarik Cattle Co., a cow-calf operation with a growing registered herd where she spends the majority of her days collecting meaningful moments on the ranch bouncing around in a dusty old tractor or out in the pasture on horseback.

She has created an online community of over 140K, created an apparel line that gave back to ag foundations, spoken on ag stages, hosted business retreats for the ag community, and co-founded Elevate Ag, an online course for producers to learn to effectively use social media to share their story.

Meet Tara Vander Dussen

Tara is a New Mexico native, a 5th generation dairy farmer, an environmental scientist, and a mom of two girls. Daniel, her husband, manages all day-to-day on his family dairy farm, while Tara has her own career as an environmental consultant, speaker, online agriculture advocate, and podcaster.

Tara has had the opportunity to speak at national and global conferences about dairy sustainability including at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Committee on World Food Security and the Forbes AgTech Summit. As well as being the co-host of Discover Ag, Tara is also the co-founder of Elevate Ag, an online course to provide farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to successfully share their ag story and grow their businesses.

Making Ag Fun Again

Collectively, Natalie and Tara have been advocating for agriculture online on various social media platforms for over 10 years. Together they have fostered a community of over 240k, spoken on stages across the nation and globe, and empowered a community to reconnect to the agriculture industry and the hands that feed us.

They describe themselves as where the Morning Toast meets Mike Rowe, providing a wildly entertaining podcast every Thursday to a vast audience. Their first-hand experience in the industry makes them a trustworthy source for many individuals both within and outside the agricultural community.

See Their Passion Firsthand

You can find Tara and Natalie on their respective social media platforms, where they showcase their passion for agriculture firsthand with a vast array of followers. You can also find Discover Ag, their joint account, on Instagram to get a glimpse of what their episodes look like and a taste of the topics they are most interested in.

If you are interested in what they offer, you can become a “Disco,” a term they have created for their devoted listeners, and interact with them through comments and DMs. Also, do not be afraid while you are on their Instagram to check out their reviews and see what others are saying about this up-and-coming podcast that hit #1 on the U.S. Food Charts.

It’s easy to see from all of their posts how involved in the agricultural world these two hard-working women have been and continue to be. If you need any convincing about their passion, their socials are a good place to see it for yourself. When they get their docuseries up and running in the future, it will just add to the credibility these women already have as agricultural industry experts.

Knowledge Is Power

Discover Ag aims to provide everyone with the facts about agriculture so that they can know exactly where their food and products originate. They hope to see a day when the majority of the population knows the facts about where their food comes from and feels better connected to the process despite where they live.

Check out the Discover Ag podcast today to be delightfully surprised by Tara and Natalie’s humor and knowledge on an array of agricultural topics.