North Texas Farm to Table Symposium | Ben Hartman

September 14, 2021

After rescheduling several times over the last eighteen months, we finally welcomed farmer and author Ben Hartman to McKinney!

Ben is the author of The Lean Farm, published by Chelsea Green in 2016, for which he was the winner of the prestigious Shingo Institute Research and Professional Publication Award. In 2017, Ben was named one of fifty emerging green leaders in the United States by Grist, and published a companion guide to The Lean Farm titled The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables. Ben and his wife, Rachel Hershberger, own and operate Clay Bottom Farm in Goshen, Indiana, where they make their living growing specialty crops on less than one acre. Ben has developed an online course in lean farming, which can be found at claybottomfarm.com, and is a senior consultant for USAID on agricultural projects.

After cocktails in the Grand Ballroom above Rick’s Chophouse, attendees walked across the street into the McKinney Performing Arts Center where Ben delivered a fascinating keynote about the power of applying the principles of lean to a small farming operation. It was truly wonderful to see our friends in the farming and ranching community after so long!

You can purchase Ben’s books and learn more about his operation here.  Our next Symposium will be in February of 2022 and we are planning to bring in another great speaker! Join our email list here to be sure you’re on the list.