WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY for a discussion ranging from the rodeo at New York Fashion Week to Paris Hilton working at a Sonic Drive-In to the burnout crisis among beginning farmers, Tara Vander Dussen and her Discover Ag podcast partner, Natalie Kovarik, have something for you. Starting in 2022, the duo has reached millions of listeners who want to learn more about where their food comes from. In Vander Dussen’s case, the food she and her husband, Daniel, produce comes from their 10,000 cows near Clovis, just down the road from the dairy where she grew up. “I did not see myself coming back to farm life,” says Vander Dussen, who studied environmental science at the University of Arizona. Today, Vander Dussen still milks cows on the farm while serving as an ambassador for her way of life and the New Mexico dairy sector, including at South by Southwest in Austin and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome.
When I was away at college, people would find out my parents were dairy farmers. The rest of the conversation was about how you milk cows. I always left thinking, I think that guy’s dad is a doctor. That girl’s mom is a judge. Why aren’t we talking about that?
It made me realize that so many people have no idea where their food comes from.
I first came back to Clovis as an environmental consultant. I joke that my work was on the back end of the dairy: manure management, soil health, and water conservation.
After my first daughter was born, I joined some mom Facebook groups. There was a lot of conversation around milk, and it opened my eyes to see people's massive misconceptions about dairy and farm practices.
I saw this need to communicate, to pull back the curtain and let people who have never set foot on a farm see what things are like.
The more people know about their food, the less likely they are to be scared of it. And that takes farmers and ranchers stepping up and opening up their farms.
My cohost, Natalie, runs a cattle ranch in Nebraska. We agreed on the goal of opening up our operations, and that started us on the path to Discover Ag.
The podcast is about food and farming, but we’re not covering commodity prices.
We talk about trending stories that, at first glance, don’t seem to be about farming. This week, we’re going to be covering how Kraft Heinz is pulling Lunchables from the National School Lunch Program.
My family is extremely supportive of what I do. It really does take the people around you being fully invested in your dreams.
New Mexican dairy is facing challenges—from declining water tables to industry consolidation.
The farm I grew up on has left the industry completely; my parents are no longer milking cows.
I’m looking at the solar panels that we’ve added on our farm. During the daytime, our barns run completely by solar. New Mexico is investing a lot in green technologies, and that’s exciting.
It’s incredible to be a part of this way of life, getting to raise my girls in it, knowing how rare it is and that it’s continuing to get more rare.
I’m a fifth-generation dairy farmer, and so the fact that they’ll be the sixth, whether they decide to pursue agriculture or not, they’re a piece of this farm.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
Listen to Discover Ag at discoverag.com, and follow Tara Vander Dussen’s work directly at @taravanderdussen on Instagram and taravanderdussen.com.