Biography

Dr. Hesterman is president and CEO of Fair Food Network, a non-profit organization working at the intersection of food systems, sustainability and equity to guarantee access to healthy, fresh and sustainably grown food, especially in underserved communities. A national leader in sustainable agriculture and food systems, he has published more than 400 reports and articles and played an essential role in the establishment of the Michigan Food Policy Council. He has also made significant contributions to the funding of healthy food and farming via his leadership of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders group. He is also the author of "Fair Food: Growing a Healthy Sustainable Food System for All", a critically acclaimed book, and required reading in more than 20 University and College classes. For fifteen years, Dr. Hesterman co-led the Integrated Farming Systems and Food and Society Programs for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, during which time the Foundation seeded the local food systems movement with over $200 million. Before going to the Kellogg Foundation in 1996, he researched and taught forage and cropping systems management, sustainable agriculture, and leadership development in the Crop and Soil Sciences department at Michigan State University in East Lansing. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of California-Davis in plant science/vegetable crops and agronomy, respectively, and received his doctorate in agronomy and business administration from the University of Minnesota, in St. Paul.