Hal Hamilton Email & Phone Number

My calling is to support people and organizations to be as effective as possible, all on a shared path toward healthier and more resilient agriculture. I’ve had a lot of different roles, including farmer, farm organizer, executive director of a few different organizations, writer, and personal support to many outstanding people. The Sustainable Food Lab has been my home team for more than twenty years, and we’ve had the privilege of helping our many partners to improve the lives of millions of people and farming systems on millions of acres. Our contributions are three-fold: consulting and project management for individual organizations, enabling partnerships among organizations in places or commodity systems, and growing the personal leadership capabilities of individuals. Our style is personal and built from organizational learning and systems thinking tools. We are both visionary and pragmatic, gently pushing the limits of what seems “doable,” but driven by measurable outcomes.And having been a farmer myself, I’m particularly proud of our many projects in which farmer needs and perspectives are central. Our own niche is primarily to nudge and support the work of farmers, their business customers, and partner organizations who “operate” the food system.Along the way I've accumulted many circles of relationships and some recognitions. When I was a farmer I was named "Master Conservationist." Wendell Berry handed me a "John M. Berry Leadership Award," named after his father who had been an important mentor for me. • At the invitation of the U.S. State Department gave the annual George McGovern Lecture to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006, titled "Partnerships with the Private Sector to Alleviate Poverty in the Developing World." I was a German Marshall Fellow, a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow, a James Beard Foundation Leadership awardee, and have been a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloane School of Management, the Harvard Business School, the Kennedy School of Government, the MIT Presencing Institute, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. I've authored or co-authored chapters in three books and dozens of publications.

Listed skills include Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainability, Ngos, Research, and 29 others.