Monte Sier has a passion for connecting urban children to nature. He discovered this love of the earth in high school when he learned to plow fields back home in Indiana. In college Monte was quite the renaissance man when he double majored in Wildlife Science and Russian Language and Literature. After graduation he had to make a choice: begin a Master’s Program in the field of Wildlife Science and relocating to the Florida Panhandle or to work with underprivileged kids from the New York Public Schools at the Manice Education Center in Massachusetts. He chose the education center. It was at this time when he discovered his love for working with young people and introducing them to the natural world. These inner city kids from New York were invited into an environment very unfamiliar to them, the wilderness. Here they had the opportunity to sleep in tents, navigate quietly through the woods using compasses, go on night hikes to listen to the owls and look for other nocturnal signs of life. They also started a garden. Monte began to learn how to integrate the tonic of wildness with a child’s inner-self. In 1991 he joined the Peace Corps. In Africa he discovered how people are closely bound to the earth. Uganda’s farmers taught him the important lesson that the simplicity of life comes from working with the soil. His official title was Education Secretary for the Wild Life Clubs of Uganda. His duties included traveling to schools around the country and giving lectures on the importance of Uganda’s natural resources. Later he was stationed at Queen Elizabeth National Park. Here he worked at the Mweya Wildlife Education Center. Monte took students on game drives to point out the beauty, diversity and importance of Uganda’s plants and animals. In 1994 Monte Sier returned to the United States with a clear idea of where his life was leading. He received his Masters in Education and began to teach on Chicago’s far south side for the Chicago Public Schools. It was at this time he married and started a family. He has taught science for the past fourteen years at the same school. During this time he has taken the school’s campus and changed it into a working small farm. He was able to bring together the local Salvation Army, community members, teachers and most importantly the students to create a farm of raised vegetable beds. He and his community of farmers are growing food and have been able to host farmer’s markets in the city in the midst of concrete, industry and traffic. Monte’s original passion lead him to believe we must try to balance the tension between urban and rural knowing that all people can have healthy and productive lives.

Ed has an agricultural degree from the University of Illinois. He loves to farm! All his food is organic, no chemicals whatsoever. About 25 years ago, Ed lived in a condo in Glenview which was adjacent to a huge tract of land which was being farmed. The first week he moved in, he went to meet the farmer. They formed a fast friendship. The farmer allowed Ed to plant several rows, traded growing secrets, bug prevention etc. From that time forward, Ed has always had a substantial garden filled with wonderful fresh vegetables and fruit.

Dr. Bill (The Crop Doctor) has the experience and the knowledge to grow good tasting food. People in Springfield rave about his tomatoes. His expertise in plant and soil health and his skills to communicate both in writing and verbally will make him a good ambassador for organic vegetable production. He is a take-charge guy and a very good problem solver. He is a firm believer in sustainability and stewardship.

Keith Bolin would make a great White House farmer for three reasons: (1) Keith embodies the best qualities we imagine in a family farmer — land stewardship, love of farming, practicality, caring for community, honesty, straight-talking. (2) Keith cherishes the ideals of American democracy and actively seeks to experience and engage in our political heritage. He is moved by simply sitting in the public gallery of the U.S. Congress, but in a very humble way he also knows how to engage legislators. Because legislators trust him, he is an effective policy-maker. (3) The White House Farmer needs to understand the economics of farm and food policies. As a student of both history and economics, Keith will invite public discussion and interaction. I can see Keith working on the White House grounds, stopping to speak to any passerby about the weather and about farm policy. It would not be long before we had an American populace — including the President — much more knowledgeable about both.

Tim Wilson is a young farmer who has worked in Chicago Urban Agriculture for six years. Prior to that he earned a techincal degree in Resource Management and his bachelor’s in Agroecology. His experience at a variety of farms in Vermont, Scandinavia, Belize and Wisconsin has been the background for tripling sales and production at one of the nation’s most recognized urban farms, the Resource Center’s City Farm, over his time there. He also has over these three years connected an abandoned lot farming system to the harshly dichotomous Gold Coast and Public Housing communities, teaching over 65 low income adults and youth to farm and started three public high school curriculum s surrounding Urban Agriculture. With his staff he has done this simultaneously while first producing 11,000 pounds of vegetables ($60,000) off of just under one acre for Rick Bayless and Frontera Grill/ Topolobambo and many other Chicago consumers. The City Farm has since grown over his three years to three lots, one close at Kendall College, and another at Chicago’s south side Grand Crossing community. This work has been done with Ken Dunn, his mentor, and the Resource Center out of 100% recycled Chicago organic material at low cost, solidifying his model as a progrssive business plan for Urban Agriculture throughout the Country.

Tim, as a teacher, ecologist, and grower, is not afraid of public education. Apart from the urban farm’s hundreds of annual visitors, as it is posted at Chicago’s Dept of Public Affairs and special events, he also is a occasional speaker at Depaul University and the University of Chicago, as well as seen on national and local television and publications. The City Farm has also been recognized as a partnership with the city of Chicago, and in numerous books published nationally and internationally.

Tim has a unique agricultural background in growing livestock, grain, specialty vegetables and staples in many ecoclimates and for world-renown chefs. He represents the young face of where organic agriculture is going and has the technical experience to succeed.

Mr. O’Toole is the Farm Manager at Growing Home, an organization that provides job training for homeless and low-income individuals through a social enterprise business based on organic agriculture.  Larry has been working in organic farming since 1990. His experience includes apple orchards, CSA Farms, rural farms, and urban farms.  In 2001- 2002 he ran the urban garden at the Su Casa Catholic Worker House in Chicago. In 2001 the garden won the first place for City Wide Vegetable Garden in the Mayor’s Landscape Award Program. Mr. O’Toole has a B.A. in Liberal Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Vicki transitioned her family’s chemically-based flower and vegetable farm near St. Anne, Illinois in order to heal the earth and heal herself.  Her inspiring story can be read in full in the summer issue of Edible Chicago and on her website, www.genesis-growers.com.   She supplies delicious vegetables to customers at the Chicago Green City Market as well as through CSA drop-offs at churches and synagogues throughout the city.  She is a dedicated farmer and an inspiration.

Henry has been raising hundreds of varieties of vegetables for over 17 years, and is dedicated to organic, locally grown food. Henry has a passion for every aspect of this back-breaking undertaking. He inspires me to eat well.

It is hard to think of a person better qualified than Jeanne to be the first White House Farmer. She has had decades of experience working on organic farms all across the country, and she currently runs her own suburban organic gardening business, The Organic Gardener, Ltd. In addition, she is in charge of the Edible Gardens at Lincoln Park Zoo in downtown Chicago, where she accomplishes small miracles every day: making children excited about eating healthy food at home and in their schools.

Jeanne has a strong positive impact on everyone she (or her vegetables) come in contact with. These people range from school children to Green City Market customers, to chefs, university professors, community members, and funders. Jeanne is also a powerful and charismatic communicator, conveying the importance of organic farming and local foods–from ameliorating climate change to promoting personal health level to enhancing national security.

John Peterson was born and raised on a family farm in Northern, Illinois.  The trails and tribulations of his family farm, and of agriculture in the Midwest, are documented in his film, The Real Dirt on Farmer John. John runs Angelic Organics, arguably the largest CSA in the country, which also includes the educational nonprofit Learning Center at Angelic Organics.