Is it possible that the most viable and sustainable approaches to farming, to business, to life can be found in the patterns of a plant’s lifecycle?

In Seeding Hope, Jack Algiere, Chief Agroecology Officer (CAO) at Stone Barns, shares the wisdom he’s gained in a lifetime of farming and expanding the agricultural practices of one of the leading sustainable-minded farms and agricultural centers in the country. 

This book is directed not just to farmers, but also towards those who desire a more connected and meaningful life—in their home life and in their business careers. By following and examining the stages of a plant’s development, readers gain a greater understanding of how we can engage with nature, how reflecting nature’s patterns benefits our societal health and how this biological progression is key to sustainability in our land, our lives and our ventures.

"[Algiere] is a brilliant farmer because he's a brilliant observer; he's spent a lifetime letting plants teach him how to see. In prose as attentive, searching, and grounded as his farming, Jack gathers those lessons into something rare and resonant: a portrait of the natural world as teacher, and an ethic for how to live, drawn from the ground up.
—Dan Barber, Chef, Blue Hill and author of The Third Plate

Story Locale:Stone Barns, Westchester County, New York
Contributor Bio(s)
 
Jack Algiere is Advisor & Chief Agroecology Officer at the Stone Barns Center. As the organization’s first official employee back in 2003, he brought a critical skill set in diversified, regenerative farm practice to the Stone Barns landscape. Since then, he has built an integrated farming operation rooted in land stewardship, innovation, and community, which also serves as a training campus for young farmers, chefs, changemakers, and the public. 

Jack has been actively farming for more than two decades and has trained a generation of young farmers in organic and biodynamic farming practices. He oversees the extensive farming operations at Stone Barns, integrating a holistic farm team that works together on multi-species grass-fed livestock, grains, field crops, greenhouse, fruit, flowers, wild landscapes, and compost in a four-season regenerative system. Jack leads programming in innovative tool design, breeding and monitoring work that supports the efforts of small- and mid-size farmers, and was part of the core team that developed the Conservation Action Plan that led to the management of 350 acres of public lands in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve. He is a frequent public speaker and has appeared at food and farming conferences and summits across the country. He holds a B.S. in horticulture from the University of Rhode Island.

Author Residence: Tarrytown, NY

Author Hometown: Southern Rhode Island