Biography

With graduate degrees in botany (B.A), Biology (M.A.) and plant ecology (PhD) from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Steve Gliessman has over 40 years of teaching, research, and production experience in agroecology. After his graduate work, he lived in Latin America for almost 10 years where he farmed coffee and vegetables in Costa Rica, managed an ornamental plant business in Guadalajara, Mexico, and taught tropical agroecology at an agricultural college in Cardenas, Tabasco, Mexico. For 32 years before he retired in 2012, he taught agroecology, natural history, ethnobotany, and natural resource management in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was the founding director of the UC Santa Cruz Agroecology Program and, until his retirement, occupied the Ruth and Alfred Heller Endowed Chair of Agroecology. He authored the first textbook of Agroecology (now in its third edition) now available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Farsi. Steve frequently leads international workshops and training courses in agroecology, and consults broadly on sustainable agriculture. Much of his research focused on issues threatening the sustainability of agriculture, with a particular focus on small, family farms and rural farming communities. He pioneered the development of research approaches that help farmers through the difficult transition from industrial to alternative and more sustainable farming practices. With his wife Robbie, he co-founded the non-profit Community Agroecology Network (CAN) and now serves as the President of the Board of Directors (www.CanUnite.org). He is the Chief Editor for the academic journal Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. He is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (www.ipes-food.org), and consults for FAO on agroecology, food security, and food system sustainability. He also farms organic wine grapes and olives with his wife on their family farm in northern Santa Barbara County, California (www.condorshope.com).