Taylor Collins: From Raw Vegan Athletes to EPIC Bars and Bison at Roam Ranch

Taylor Collins, co-founder of EPIC Provisions and Force of Nature, on how he and Katie left a raw vegan diet, built the first meat bar, and brought bison back to bare land at Roam Ranch.

By Harry Gray · Nov 4, 2026 · 5 min read

By The Meat Mafia (Harry Gray and Brett Ender)

We recorded this one at Taylor's house on Roam Ranch. When we started the podcast we wrote a list of about ten dream guests, and Taylor and Katie were right near the top. Our first trip to the ranch was a bison harvest, and we still talk about it. But Taylor's story doesn't start on a ranch. It starts with kale smoothies.

Taylor and Katie grew up in the city, as he puts it, first generation, with no farm in the family. In college, roughly 2004 to 2008, they were endurance athletes: Ironmans and long days on the bike. Taylor studied exercise and sports science, and the advice they heard then was that plant-based eating was best for athletes. Low fat, pea protein isolates, the works.

About three years in, Katie was getting injury after injury. They decided they weren't eating clean enough, so they went from vegetarian to vegan. Then raw vegan. The pendulum, he says, kept swinging the wrong way.

"Chronic inflammation got worse. Mysterious joint pain got worse. GI distress got worse." (24:58)

Katie, around 19 or 20 at the time, had an exploratory surgery and was told she would need a knee replacement. They saw everyone they could think of, from MDs to chiropractors to Reiki. Then one practitioner asked a question no one else had: what are you eating? Taylor admits they wanted a high five for the kale smoothies. Instead the answer was simple: change your diet.

With nothing left to lose, they started eating meat again. By Taylor's account, Katie's symptoms went away within days. They went back to racing, this time fueled differently.

"we're packing like rib eyes in our pockets and eating bacon on hundred mile bike rides and like loving life again." (28:16)

That's where EPIC came from: how do you make bacon convenient enough for the back of a cycling jersey? People told them it sounded disgusting, like dog food. Their Whole Foods bar buyer, who was vegan, told them to beat it and don't come back. Then they took the bars to the first Paleo FX in Austin and sold out. When they turned the web store on, Taylor says the order alerts went off every two seconds. At Expo West they were the only meat vendor, and people told them to leave. Finding Allan Savory and regenerative agriculture, he says, changed that conversation.

After selling EPIC, the first thing they did was look for land. What they found had been farmed conventionally for over a hundred years. Taylor says the topsoil was gone and it looked like the surface of the moon. They brought in bison, first thinking of them as tools and now as co-creators. He says bison conception rates rose about 20% a year, until nearly every bison got pregnant last year.

That's the Taylor Collins we sat down with: a former raw vegan athlete who ended up building a meat company and a bison ranch. Below is the rest of the conversation, from the EPIC launch to what he learned about death on the land. This is Taylor and Katie's story, not medical advice. Talk to your own clinician before you make big diet changes. (Timestamps are approximate.)

Listen to the full episode · Watch on YouTube

TL;DR: Taylor and Katie Collins were endurance athletes who went vegetarian, then vegan, then raw vegan, and by his account kept getting worse. After one practitioner finally asked Katie what she was eating, they added meat back. That turned into EPIC, a meat bar that sold out at its first Paleo FX, and later Roam Ranch, where Taylor says bison helped bring degraded fields back to life.

Who is Taylor Collins? Co-founder, with his wife Katie, of EPIC Provisions (later sold to General Mills) and Force of Nature, and land steward at Roam Ranch in Texas, where they raise bison.

Key takeaways

Taylor and Katie went vegetarian, then vegan, then raw vegan as competitive endurance athletes, and he says their symptoms got worse at each step (24:47).
A practitioner who asked Katie what she was eating set off their switch back to meat (25:50).
By Taylor's account, Katie's symptoms went away within days of adding meat back (27:11).
EPIC sold out at its first Paleo FX in Austin, (41:35).
At Roam Ranch, he says, bison helped restore fields that had lost their topsoil, and herd fertility improved year after year (13:35, 16:25).

Building EPIC, the first meat bar

Taylor says the anatomically correct animal illustrations on the packaging helped people get it once they held a bar (41:14). Early quality problems were real too: they tried running meat bars on equipment built for plant bars, and oxygen exposure caused "leakers" (47:44).

Why they bought a ranch

Visiting the ranchers who supplied EPIC is what made them want land of their own (16:25). He jokes that "farmer or rancher" wasn't even an option on his elementary school career test (17:26). He also says they've never written a business plan (20:15).

Bison as co-creators

The first job at Roam Ranch was just covering bare soil (13:35). Taylor says the bison graze, aerate the soil, cycle fertility and bring diversity, and without them the land would look "pretty damn near the exact same way it did five years ago" (14:37).

Life, death and a healthy ecosystem

On the land, he says, you live close to death, and in a healthy ecosystem "things don't stay dead for long" (8:09). Bison manure, he says, is gone in two or three days, cycled back into the soil (9:10).

FAQ

Who is Taylor Collins? Co-founder of EPIC Provisions and Force of Nature, and land steward at Roam Ranch in Texas.

Why did Taylor and Katie Collins stop being vegan? Katie kept getting injured and sicker on a vegan, then raw vegan diet. A practitioner asked what she was eating, and they added meat back (25:50).

Where did EPIC Provisions launch? At the first Paleo FX in Austin, where Taylor says they sold out (41:35).

What does Taylor Collins say bison did for Roam Ranch? He calls them co-creators that grazed, aerated the soil and cycled fertility on degraded fields (14:37).

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Not medical advice. This post summarizes a podcast conversation for education. The views are the guest's own. Talk to a qualified clinician before you change your diet, supplements or any medication.