“Convenience replaced skill, and we stopped noticing what we lost.”
This episode of Farming on Purpose features a conversation with Kody Hanner, founder of The Homestead Education and a lifelong advocate for reconnecting families with food, health, and practical life skills.
Kody’s story didn’t begin with a business plan or a content strategy. It began with a crisis.
“Policies built for emergencies rarely stay temporary.”
This solo episode of Farming on Purpose continues the conversation about resource allocation in agriculture, but shifts the lens toward something deeper. Instead of only asking how farmers allocate resources today, this episode asks a more foundational question: who shaped the choices we have available in the first place?
American agriculture didn’t arrive at its current structure by accident. Over the last century, it has been shaped by crises, policy decisions, infrastructure investments, and attempts to protect producers from catastrophic risk. Many of those decisions were made during moments of genuine emergency — moments when the stability of the entire food system felt uncertain.
This episode explores how policies designed to stabilize agriculture during the Great Depression gradually became the framework that guides modern agricultural production. It also examines how those policies influenced which crops dominate the landscape, how infrastructure developed across rural America, and why certain production decisions now feel almost inevitable.
Understanding that history helps reveal an important tension in agriculture today: the balance between stability and flexibility.
“People really want the agricultural life. They want to learn how to do it right—they just need someone willing to show them.”
This episode of Farming on Purpose features a conversation with Frank Baggiolini, asset manager and content creator for Outlaw Ranch Care, a company dedicated to helping new rural landowners learn how to manage their property, livestock, and equipment.
“Farmers markets are great — but they’re a narrow pipe between farmers and consumers.”
This episode of Farming on Purpose features a conversation with Dan Brunner, founder of Market Wagon, a platform designed to reconnect consumers with local food by solving one of agriculture’s most overlooked problems: distribution.
For decades, Dan had been fascinated by the way groceries move through the American food system. As someone with a background in software and logistics, he understood that the system wasn’t broken because farmers didn’t want to sell locally or because consumers didn’t want to buy local food. The challenge was the gap between them.
“Every generation of farmers has asked the same question: What do we do with what we have?”
This solo episode of Farming on Purpose steps back from interviews and into history — not for nostalgia, but for perspective. Agriculture has never stood still. It has been shaped by expansion, collapse, innovation, and transition. And yet through every era, the core challenge has remained the same: how do we allocate our resources wisely enough to survive — and hopefully, to build something that lasts?
This episode explores the major eras that shaped American agriculture and what they reveal about the decisions we’re facing today — especially as the largest generational land transfer in U.S. history unfolds.
“You don’t know what you don’t know — and that’s what keeps people up at night.”
This episode of Farming on Purpose features a candid, direct conversation with Jace Young, founder and CEO of Legacy Farmer. What began as a childhood inside a multi-million-dollar Kansas family farm ultimately became a front-row seat to financial collapse — and later, a mission to help producers avoid the same outcome.
Jace’s story is rooted in generational agriculture, hard lessons in pride and leadership, and a conviction that understanding your numbers isn’t optional — it’s foundational. This conversation moves beyond accounting and into something deeper: responsibility, structure, transition, and the kind of leadership that allows a farm to outlast the person running it.
“You’re going to make mistakes — and then you’re going to learn from those mistakes.”
This episode of Farming on Purpose features a thoughtful, real-world conversation with Hayley Darnielle, the owner of Crooked Creek Farms in Montana. What began as a small, informal way to share farm life online has grown into a diversified, direct-to-consumer operation providing raw milk, pork, poultry, eggs, and more to local families.
Hayley’s story is rooted in first-generation farming, food freedom, and intentional growth — building a business that supports her family while staying grounded in responsibility, transparency, and hard-earned experience.
“You don’t have to have a perfect farm — you just have to open the gate.”
This episode of Farming on Purpose features a candid, energizing conversation with Megan Daluge, a fifth-generation Wisconsin dairy farmer, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Milk’n Mamas.
Alongside her sister Erin, Megan is proving that diversification doesn’t have to mean abandoning tradition. From launching farm camps and agritourism to running a women’s boutique and coaching other farmers on social media storytelling, Megan shares what it really looks like to build multiple income streams while keeping the dairy — and the family — at the center.
This episode pulls back the curtain on resilience, risk-taking, and what happens when farmers give themselves permission to evolve.
