December 2021

In 2017, Mericos Hector Rhodes ’10 started Spoon Full Farm with four of his friends. They began raising cattle in the Kittitas Valley, 80 miles east of Seattle, growing no-till produce and practicing farming techniques that store carbon in the earth to build healthy, living soil. Rhodes recalls that his journey into ecological farming was inspired by farmer Joel Salatin, who runs an organic grazing farm in Virginia. Salatin appeared in the documentary “Food, Inc.” A week after watching the movie, Rhodes attended a lecture Salatin gave at his college. He saw Salatin run across the stage, talking about microbiology and cattle. Inspired by Salatin’s unbridled enthusiasm and the idea of doing tangible work on climate change, Rhodes started farming.

I think at a fundamental level there is a beautiful possible relationship between humanity and nature. Working on farms, it’s a difficult but beautiful challenge to keep cultivating that relationship.