Tom Redfern is the Director of Sustainable Agriculture. He has been with Rural Action since 2004, working with both the Sustainable Agriculture and Sustainable Forestry programs during that time. He is a founding member of the Chesterhill Produce Auction (CPA) Advisory Board and has been closely affiliated with the CPA since its inception in 2004. Tom helped originate RA’s concepts of peer to peer, producer compensated education. He has lead the development of several “tool-kits”- printed materials based on producer knowledge and needs, designed to increase production and sales of local foods.
Prior to 2004, he spent 20 years working in commercial and public horticulture, including managing a $1 million nursery and working as a Horticulturist for Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Tom is a graduate of Hocking College and Ohio University where he studied Natural Resources Management, Botany, and Environmental Geography.
Tom spent 2 years in the U.S. Peace Corps where he helped to develop an agroforestry curriculum for the Kenya Ministry of Energy.
Tom currently serves on the Advisory Board for Morgan County OSU Extension, and also serves on the Farm to Ohio Working Group; a multi-stakeholder committee working to increase local food purchasing at Ohio University.
