Based in Northern California, Nathan Duncan serves as a general manager with Patagonia, Inc. Consumer focused, Nathan Duncan guides marketing efforts related to the company's Provisions brand of foods that embrace a sustainability and regenerative agriculture ethos. As described by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, the brand has roots in his seminal experiences traveling and surfing in Mexico as a young man.
Not held back by a lack of “safe” foods produced to US hygiene standards, Chouinard ignored typical US warnings not to eat local Mexican fruits and vegetables or drink the water. This led to gastric distress that was traumatic at the time, but which he survived.
Ultimately, Chouinard discovered that the root cause of this was not something “inherently wrong” with the local food, but the fact that his gut, used to chlorinated water and commercially produced food, didn’t have resistance to many naturally occurring microbes. Today, there is a much stronger body of research that points to the negative effects of industrial agriculture, not only in accelerating global warming, but in taking the essential nutrients (and flavor) out of food.
On the farm level, mono crops that result in very little biodiversity predominate, while the use of chemical pesticides impair the naturally resilient gut microbiome. When all these profoundly damaging elements of industrial agriculture are taken together, the fact emerges that consumers need far better mainstream food choices. It is this essential niche that is filled by a Provisions line that ranges from natural wine to regenerative certified-organic grains, fruits, vegetables, and meat.
