Healing the Earth by Growing Food as Medicine
March 11 @ 6:30pm
Healing the Earth by Growing Food as Medicine with Bob Quinn, Montana organic farmer and businessman
Tuesday, March 11th
Book signing (“Grain by Grain”)at 6:30 pm | Talk at 7 pm
Museum of the Rockies
Register in advance for the live stream:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_juWbXtsgRtuU76_EjCRIoQ
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Presented in partnership with the Bozeman Community Food Coop
Join Bob Quinn, organic farmer, author, and businessman to learn how we can start healing our land, our communities and our people by growing food as medicine. Bob will be taking his personal experiences and observations over the past 70 years to suggest a few solutions that can involve everyone in a very positive way.
Since WWII, our national ag goal has been plentiful, low-cost food. Now we have the most abundant, cheap food in the world. However, this cheap food has come at a very high cost. Let’s start with rural America – what % of the farms from our grandparent’s era still exist? – hardy half – Look down Main Street of most small towns. What % of the businesses are boarded up? – again about 1/2. Look at the pollution due to ag chemicals throughout our country and throughout the world. What % of your family and friends have at least one chronic disease? The national average is now 60%. All these problems can be mediated by growing food as medicine. We start by healing our land, then our communities and finally our people. I will be taking my personal experiences and observations over the past 70 years to suggest a few solutions that can involve everyone in a very positive way.
About Bob Quinn
Bob Quinn is a leading green businessman, with successful ventures in both organic agriculture and renewable energy. Raised on a 2,400 acre wheat and cattle ranch in Montana, Quinn earned a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry at UC Davis before coming home to farm in 1978. In 1986, he planted his first organic crop, and by 1989, he had converted his entire farm. He served on the first National Organic Standards Board, which spurred the creation of the USDA’s National Organic Program, and has been recognized with the Montana Organic Association Lifetime of Service Award, The Organic Trade Association Organic Leadership Award, and Rodale Institute’s Organic Pioneer Award. In 2023 he donated 700 acres of his farm to create a regenerative organic research, education and health institute. The vision and mission of Quinn Institute is “Healing the Earth by Growing Food as Medicine”.
About “Grain by Grain”
Grain by Grain: A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food by Bob Quinn (Author), Liz Carlisle (Author)
When Bob Quinn was a kid, a stranger at a county fair gave him a few kernels of an unusual grain. Little did he know, that grain would change his life. Years later, after finishing a PhD in plant biochemistry and returning to his family’s farm in Montana, Bob started experimenting with organic wheat. In the beginning, his concern wasn’t health or the environment; he just wanted to make a decent living and some chance encounters led him to organics.
But as demand for organics grew, so too did Bob’s experiments. He discovered that through time-tested practices like cover cropping and crop rotation, he could produce successful yields—without pesticides. Regenerative organic farming allowed him to grow fruits and vegetables in cold, dry Montana, providing a source of local produce to families in his hometown. He even started producing his own renewable energy. And he learned that the grain he first tasted at the fair was actually a type of ancient wheat, one that was proven to lower inflammation rather than worsening it, as modern wheat does.
Ultimately, Bob’s forays with organics turned into a multimillion dollar heirloom grain company, Kamut International. In Grain by Grain, Quinn and cowriter Liz Carlisle, author of Lentil Underground, show how his story can become the story of American agriculture. We don’t have to accept stagnating rural communities, degraded soil, or poor health. By following Bob’s example, we can grow a healthy future, grain by grain.
