The Mightiest Warriors

Soil, Service, and Sovereignty

• Mark Pettus

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Juan Whiting's vision bridges worlds that rarely intersect: military service and regenerative agriculture. As president and co-founder of the Hinterland Institute, he's created a powerful model that places veterans as stewards of America's federal and private lands. This conversation reveals how former service members, particularly those from special operations backgrounds, bring unique skills to landscape regeneration—their understanding of ecosystems, adaptability, and mission-focused approach perfectly aligns with the demands of healing degraded soil.

The stakes couldn't be higher. With global topsoil degradation threatening food security for billions and the Department of Defense controlling a staggering 26 million acres across America, Whiting's approach offers a solution to multiple crises simultaneously. What makes his work particularly inspiring is the recognition that both land and people possess remarkable resilience. As he explains, even severely damaged ecosystems can return to productivity and abundance when proper conditions are restored—often more quickly than most would expect.

Perhaps most valuable is Whiting's insight into effective change management. Rather than confrontation, his success stems from coalition-building, emotional intelligence, and meeting stakeholders where they are. From wildfire mitigation through targeted grazing to creating food security corridors, the Hinterland Institute demonstrates how veterans can lead in regenerating America's landscapes while finding purpose in civilian life. For anyone concerned about food security, environmental restoration, or supporting veterans, this conversation offers a masterclass in creating solutions that heal both land and communities. Want to support this vital work? Visit hinterlandinstitute.org to learn how you can contribute to their mission of regeneration and resilience.

For amazing Essential provisions nutritional products and meals ready to eat (MREs) go to: www.essentialprovisions.com

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Mightiest Warriors podcast, where we talk with people like you and I who have gone through the forge. Through humbling and amazingly heroic stories, we break down what's vital and essential so we can, dedicated to nourishing the warrior in each of us, dr Juan Whiting. And just a brief snapshot of his amazing bio. Juan is the president and co-founder at the Hinderland Institute, where he leads a movement empowering veterans to steward federal and private land across America, promoting national sovereignty and providing a new mission for those who have served. The Institute equips veterans with the skills and tools to regenerate landscapes, strengthen domestic food and food security such a huge issue that Juan and I will dive into. He's also the founder of Stray Acres, a grant consulting company that develops tailored funding strategies and helps individuals who are really committed to regenerative agriculture to acquire grant proposals and acquire assets that can help them manage high-impact agricultural projects globally. He is a fourth-generation farmer, which is extraordinary and I suspect becoming a bit of a rare intergenerational breed in 21st century life 21st century life and he's also a US Army civil affairs officer and has served as an agricultural specialist in the Army civil affairs and is a subject matter expert that is connecting people from various backgrounds, and all in the service of community, this beautiful planet we live in. And, juan, what an extraordinary mission that you find yourself on All right, yeah, yeah, I love this. And I had a conversation with Juan and got-tech acute care working with people in complete freefall, essentially and have migrated substantially in the direction of prevention, and so much of which revolves around nutritional science and the power right, this novel concept of the power of whole foods. And one of the things that has struck me, ron, just to kind of set the stage for the amazing vision that you and others have, is the importance of topsoil right, the importance of quality soil that allows us to grow, and I think it's fair to say that we've seen a bit of a crisis worldwide in the degradation of agricultural topsoil around the world for many reasons that you can certainly help us understand better, but the bottom line is, as stewards of land, we've really seen a huge loss of this precious asset and, with a population of eight plus billion, there are more mouths to feed and more people we know are food insecure and, as a clinician, that's a very strong driver of diminished lifespan and quality of life, and so this is such a huge issue from an eco health perspective, from a public health, no-transcript, mm. Hmm, thank you. So so, thank you, yeah, thank you, mm-hmm. Thank you, yeah, wow, yeah, wow, yeah, yeah, yes, wow, I love it, juan, and it's such a brilliant integration, you know, for the light to go off around bringing veterans, veterans, particularly special op forces many of them just inherently understand and respect the ecosystems they're in.

Speaker 1:

They understand that it's part of who they are and what they do and how they do it, and it's such a beautiful and brilliant integration. I mean, you said a few things that really just jumped out at me that I just want to come back to reemphasize, because it's so profound. I think many people, me included, would be surprised to realize just how much land can return to its ancestral properties, lands that you would never predict could come back, and only to see that, when the conditions that billions of years have allowed this intelligence to continue to evolve, when those conditions are recreated, amazing things happen, much more, I think, significant than what people might appreciate and more quickly than what people might appreciate. And I see that with humans as well. Right, we're all part of this integrated ecosystem and I can tell you, juan, in my work, that a lot of physicians totally fail to appreciate the capacity of the human being to regenerate itself, to heal itself. It's the natural state of our species, and any species, to heal itself when the conditions are right to do so. When the conditions are right to do so, and as we all know, in 21st century modern industrial life, those conditions have taken us further away, I think, from those ancestral roots. So I just so appreciate what you said about the resiliency and the ability to return in such a functional and abundant way and then to take.

Speaker 1:

You know, I was surprised when I first heard you mention this Recently. I was listening to an interview you were doing and you know 26 million acres under the Department of Defense. You know, I'm aware of these huge bases right out in Nevada, new Mexico, these large land masses, but, wow, 26 million acres. I think people would be somewhat stunned to know that our Department of Defense holds that much of a land mass and a lot of it probably is in desperate need of regenerative restoration. So, uh, so so Add the Thank you yeah, wow, wow, thank you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no-transcript. It creates capacity through coalition building where once you start to connect the dots, as you describe, just for example, fire risk mitigation you know that might not be intuitive to many municipalities, to you know.

Speaker 1:

And I think you look at food insecurity right, and I think there is a bit of a ripeness now with the Maha movement around the power of whole foods and, just as you said, with some of the more modern farming, you've got to kind of wean from that sort of chemical model and in caring for people that's much the same. I spent the first part of my career writing prescriptions for meds. I spent the last half of my career finding ways to take them away and almost always it's doable. But I'm mindful that on some levels you're coming up against a bit of these agricultural trends heavy pesticide use and glyphosate use and all of the what were probably touted as major advantages to farmers years ago, from productivity right yield per acre, have just not come to fruition. And so now there's been this sort of dependence. Much in the same way, people are dependent on fast foods and hyperpalatable foods, and you know, there's this process of education, of deconstructing these belief systems, many of which are not serving anyone as well as they could be served.

Speaker 1:

And so how challenging has it been for you, juan, in your work as you partner with producers in an attempt to gently re-engineer how they do things without them feeling like they're relinquishing control over what they're doing. You're integrating with the culture of the Department of Defense and I could imagine on some level you know, not everyone would see the value of that on their property. What's that experience been like for you and what have you found helpful? No-transcript powerful awareness around emotional and social intelligence and conflict management, and so I love that. That is sort of you know, those are the sort of the underpinnings of building relationship, capital that allows people to then realize what's possible without feeling pressured or forced or angry or resentful. It's a beautiful playbook, as you you know. Move others and build capacity. I mean, where do you think that comes from? One, I mean, you you seem very savvy in, in your awareness of of that as a, as a driver of of the vision that you are, you know.

Speaker 1:

No-transcript. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you, yes, yes, thank you, yeah, um, okay, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow, yeah, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's yeah, I've seen it. Yeah, yeah, thank you, juan've done a lot to be building these bridges and it takes a certain persona, a certain spirit, a certain vibe that brings people together and opens people up. And yeah, just a brief segue for essential provisions is we are a Whole Foods company.

Speaker 1:

We are a group of culinary artists and scientists and researchers who understand the power of food and, while our MREs are, you know, heat and eat, there isn't a molecule that's new to nature in any of our products and these are available now and we have other products that we're bringing in but it's. It's. It's not only bringing whole, nutrient dense food to people from small regenerative farmers in America and and inspiring, you know, the, the quality of the work that we're doing and making it available to people, um, but it's, you know, giving people food that will love them back. I tell people all the time, you know there's a lot of foods that we can love that just aren't going to love us back. They'll leave us at the altar, and you know it can be unforgiving. So there is this. You know, I love this sort of this spirit, this compassion and love for the people, for the food, for the ecosystems, and that's really, I think, where the rubber meets the road at this time in our evolution.

Speaker 1:

But before we adjourn, juan, you've touched on this a little bit, but give us a few examples of the projects currently that Hinterland is involved with. And then, for people who might be interested in learning more about the Hinterland Institute donating, offering resources, how can they go about doing that? All right, thank you, wow, so, um, thank you, thank you. Hmm, thank you, yeah, all right, okay, um, yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic stewardship at its very finest one, and and it certainly feels to me and many of us in this sort of space of food, nutrition, public health, um, that this is the right time. You are the right person in the right time in this moment, and we look forward. We had essential provisions and certainly I personally would greatly value anything that I can do to support your mission, and we look forward to collaborating and taking our partnership deeper in the weeks, months, years ahead, and so I really thank you for your inspiration and for your generosity and your willingness to share with us and others and changing the world right and it's beautiful. Thank you, and I will just close to remind others that if they have any interest in our meals, ready to eat our, we have some protein supplements. There you go.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, juan. Check us out at EssentialProvisionscom. We're always adding new MREs and products to our product line, which will be evolving over the next several months toward a vision where healing the world, healing this planet I'm reminded through your life for us, juan, that that is alive and well and it gives me hope and I thank you. You have an awesome day and be well and stay well, my friend.