As the founder and Executive Director of Farm Commons, Rachel Armstrong has led dozens of webinars and workshops for thousands of farmers nationwide and created the organization’s innovative approach to farm law risk reduction. Her vision for changing the way consumers experience business law has been awarded two fellowships: a 2012 Echoing Green Global Fellowship and a 2018 Ashoka Fellowship. As a leading authority on direct-to-consumer farm law, she has authored dozens of publications on farm law matters for farmers, alongside several academic and trade publications for attorneys. Ms. Armstrong instructs continuing legal education classes for the American Bar Association, teaches farm law for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is a co-author of “Farmers’ Guide to Business Structures,” published by Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. A graduate of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and the University of Wisconsin Madison, she lives in Northern Minnesota. She is licensed to practice law in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

 

Walker Holmes, the Makerspace Manager at White Oak Pastures, was born and raised in Adairsville, Georgia. He discovered White Oak Pastures while in high school and took every opportunity to visit and work when his school schedule allowed. During this time, he created tallow product recipes, developed leathercraft designs, and helped train new employees within the tallow and leather departments. In December 2020, he graduated from Reinhardt University with a Bachelor’s in Music Education. He hopes to continue to develop and explore his love for creating during his time with us.

 

I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, many generations removed from any type of agrarian lifestyle. Eventhough I was raised a complete city boy, my father had a need to escape to the countryside whenever he could and would take his family with him. As a child, I spent those days riding in the countryside, looking to see what troubles I could get into. Those days are where the first sparks of longing to be connected to nature began. I would fantasize about being part of the big cattle drives you would see in movies, but never felt that I would be able to experience anything like that.

After graduating from high school, I moved to Florida to attend college and allowed the momentum of life to control where my life was headed. I graduated with a business degree and not long after found myself working in a cubicle sun up to sun down. I quickly realized that a corporate life was not going to be for me no matter how much success I attained.

Looking for a way to escape, I decided to do some research on homesteading. In doing so, I stumbled upon the subject of regenerative agriculture and quickly became obsessed. I spent the next two years consuming all the information I could find on the topic while saving money to make a big change in my life.

I bought a small property in Tennessee, quit my job, and moved. For the next four years, I spent my time putting everything I learned into practice and experimenting with anything that interested me. I sold pasture raised chickens and grass fed lamb at the local farmers market, while also experimenting with pigs, rabbits, bees, trees, gardens, etc. Most of my learning came from making all kinds mistakes.

During this time I realized I had grown a passion for managing grasslands and ruminants. I felt a deep need to focus on learning planned grazing and finding a way to practice at a large scale. I realized I would need a mentor to make it possible. I found out about the Quivira Coalition and their New Agrarian Program, and quickly reached out to one of their mentor ranches which I felt was doing exactly what I wanted to be able to do.

I sold everything and made the move to Colorado to become an apprentice for Louis Martin who runs Round River Resource Management, a custom grazing operation that manages 75,000 acres with a focus on creating future agrarians. I am completing my fourth season with this company. During my time working and learning here, I was given the opportunity to start my own cattle enterprise, and I am currently serving as Director of Production for the operation.

 

Eva is a dryland microbial ecologist with interests in how plant-microbe interactions in soil affect biogeochemical cycling such as carbon and nitrogen. She has a background in curriculum development for learners of all ages and backgrounds, for example through a science communication fellowship with the Explora Museum and a teaching assistantship that built ecology and evolution labs for the University of New Mexico Department of Biology. She has also trained in active listening and mediation as a way of better engaging with collaborators across all backgrounds. Eva was born and raised in New Mexico (weekends spent on a horse on her dad’s property in La Puebla), explored the coasts for college and her masters, and came back to New Mexico for her PhD working with the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research Station. At Quivira Coalition, she enjoys conducting field work around organic amendment research, developing curriculum, organizing, facilitating, and presenting outreach events such as in-field workshops and academic conferences, and overseeing and conducting technical support such as grant-writing and assisting others with grant-writing. In her free time, she enjoys vintage fashion, dance, and music, and watching F1 car racing.

 

Bridger Rardin grew up on his family’s small sheep ranch West of Laramie, WY, where a large part of the operation was based on leased land. His connection to working landscapes was developed throughout his childhood, and he attended the University of Wyoming where he received his degree in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management. He currently owns and operates a small grass-finished beef business with his dad on leased land. They work with over thirty landowners on small tracts of leased land, and have taken a very unconventional approach to acquire land access for their business, working with home owners associations and in semi-urban areas on the outskirts of Laramie. He was able to step away from his family business this year and is furthering his education and refining his skill set as a first-year apprentice through Quivira, in the San Luis Valley of Colorado with George Whitten and Julie Sullivan on the San Juan Ranch.

George was born into ranching in Saguache, Colorado, on the operation his grandfather established in 1893. Knowledgeable in all phases of sheep and cattle production, he specializes in grass-finishing techniques, genetics, soil health, certified organic production, and restorative ranching practices. He has been a Holistic Management practitioner for 35 years, and he served on the Board of Directors of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District for more than 25 years. He and his wife, Julie Sullivan, co-founded Sweet Grass Cooperative, a marketing coop of small family ranches raising grass-finished beef. He and Julie are also founding mentors in the Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program. More and more as he gets older, George believes in finding whole solutions to whole problems.