Episode Details

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In this episode of The Intentional Agribusiness Leader, Mark sits down with Todd Churchill—social entrepreneur, consulting CFO, and founder of multiple agriculture and food businesses—for a deep conversation about land, nutrition, human history, and the systems shaping modern agriculture.

Todd defines intentional leadership through one foundational idea:

Understand why we do what we do.

Not just operationally.

Historically.

Todd believes intentionality requires curiosity—digging beneath assumptions to understand how systems, incentives, and human behavior evolved over time. Whether it’s farming, food production, land ownership, or nutrition, the deeper question is always:

Why did humanity build it this way?

That mindset has shaped Todd’s entire career.

Raised on a family farm in Illinois, Todd grew up around cattle, land management, entrepreneurship, and long-term thinking. One of the most powerful lessons passed down through generations was this:

Land is not primarily how you make wealth.

It’s how you preserve it.

Throughout history, land—alongside gold and silver—has remained one of the few assets capable of retaining value across inflationary cycles, economic shifts, and changing currencies.

But Todd also explains the emotional side of land ownership.

People don’t connect to land rationally.

They connect to it emotionally.

And that emotional connection has shaped agriculture for generations.

The conversation also explores the evolution of Todd’s work in the cattle industry.

After years in finance and fractional CFO consulting, Todd became involved in specialty meat processing and eventually launched one of the first national grass-fed beef brands in the United States: Thousand Hills Cattle Company.

What began as a business opportunity quickly became an obsession with one central question:

What creates the best possible eating experience?

Not just selling “grass-fed.”

Not just selling beef.

Creating food that people genuinely wanted to eat—and that their bodies recognized as deeply nourishing.

A major theme throughout the episode is this:

The real problem is often different than the one people think they’re solving.

Todd explains how businesses frequently optimize for the wrong thing:

• Selling more product instead of creating a better experience
• Maximizing industrial efficiency at the expense of long-term health
• Pursuing scale without balance or sustainability

The conversation also dives into one of agriculture’s biggest structural challenges:

The separation of livestock and crop production.

Todd explains how integrating cattle and grain production historically created natural nutrient cycles—where manure restored soil fertility and livestock added value to crops. As modern agriculture became more specialized, those systems became disconnected, increasing dependency on purchased inputs and reducing long-term resilience.

That challenge is part of the work Todd is now involved in through Progena Systems, where the focus is creating more efficient, sustainable, closed-loop systems that improve both productivity and ecological outcomes.

The episode also touches on nutrition, food systems, and the future of beef production.

Todd makes a clear distinction:

The conversation shouldn’t be about making beef more exclusive or expensive.

It should be about making high-quality, nutrient-dense beef:

• More efficient to produce
• More affordable
• More sustainable
• And