Gary Paul Nabhan is a nature writer, food and farming activist, and proponent of conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity. He has been honored as a pioneer in the local food movement and seed saving community by Utne Reader, Mother Earth News, New York Times, Bioneers and Time magazine. As the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Arizona Southwest Center, he works with students, faculty and non-profits to build a more just, nutritious, sustainable and climate-resilient foodshed spanning the U.S./Mexico border.
Nabhan is also personally engaged as an orchard-keeper, wild foods forager and pollinator habitat restorationist working from his small farm in Patagonia, Arizona near the Mexican border. He has helped forge what he calls “the radical center” for collaborative conservation among farmers, ranchers, indigenous peoples and environmentalists in the West. He is author or editor of twenty-four books including, “Food, Genes, and Culture - Eating Right for Your Origins,” “Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land - Lessons from Desert Farmers on Adapting to Climate Uncertainty,” and “Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods.” Nabhan is the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Southwest Book Award, the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, the Vavilov Medal, and several honorary degrees and lifetime achievement awards
