Vets In Ag Podcast

AGD Consulting

We explore the stories and insights from the military veteran and supporter communities who are leading the way for vets in agribusiness, agtech, and agri-preneurship. We swap stories, talk ag, and show how grass-roots nature of the ag community can be a natural fit for the military veteran.

Episodes

  1. #85 – Arizona State University & Carbon Cowboys – Peter Byck

    JAN 31

    #85 – Arizona State University & Carbon Cowboys – Peter Byck

    “Agriculture is an act of peace. Well-fed people really don’t feel like fighting, but unfed people will do anything to feed their family.” Peter Byck is a Professor of Practice at the Schools of Sustainability and Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, President of Carbon Cowboys, and documentary filmmaker. Peter’s work sits at the intersection of military readiness, national security, and regenerative agriculture. His journey involving the military and agriculture started with a simple question: why are we putting our military in harm’s way to protect resources we could be producing differently at home? That led him from documenting renewable energy at forward operating bases to his latest work: a four-part docu series called Roots So Deep You Can See the Devil Down There, which documents a multi-million-dollar research project comparing conventional and regenerative grazing. But Peter’s story doesn’t stop at the farm gate. In his newest film,  camp AMP, he follows US Army Major Eric Czaja and wife Angela, as they show how regenerative grazing inside a military installation can improve mission readiness while simultaneously creating pathways for veterans transitioning back to civilian life. In this conversation, we talk about how regenerative agriculture connects to military preparedness, why well-fed populations create more stable societies, and how scaling these practices across the military isn’t just good for farming – it’s good national security strategy. Enjoy!

    1h 18m
  2. #82 – Nate Hankes (US Army) – Apogee Instruments

    12/16/2025

    #82 – Nate Hankes (US Army) – Apogee Instruments

    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!

    1h 14m
  3. #80 – Angela Czaja (US Army Reserves) – Regenerative Grazing Open-Air Lab (R-GOAL)

    11/24/2025

    #80 – Angela Czaja (US Army Reserves) – Regenerative Grazing Open-Air Lab (R-GOAL)

    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!

    1h 8m
4.4
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

We explore the stories and insights from the military veteran and supporter communities who are leading the way for vets in agribusiness, agtech, and agri-preneurship. We swap stories, talk ag, and show how grass-roots nature of the ag community can be a natural fit for the military veteran.