Agraria_Journal_WINTER_2022

AMY HARPER Bob Quinn with Megan Bachman, Assistant Director r of Agraria, and Jalyn Quinn Roe, after a luncheon at Agraria. The luncheon was part of Agraria’s fall conference, Grain by Grain. AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 49 The Arthur Morgan Award honors those who are passionate about — and committed to — the virtues about which Morgan wrote: community, democracy, entrepreneurship, and individual character. This year’s awardee, Bob Quinn, was honored as part of Agraria’s Grain by Grain Fall Conference, presented in collaboration with Wilmington College. In many ways, regenerative agriculture pioneer Bob Quinn has gone against the grain — the conventionally grown modern wheat grain, that is. As founder of Kamut International, Quinn has been a 35-year champion of Khorasan, an ancient grain trademarked as Kamut and now grown organically by as many as 250 farmers across Montana, Quinn’s home state. Along the way, Quinn has been a visionary and effective spokesperson for regenerative agricultural practices that protect and build the soil, promote human health, and revive rural communities. Quinn grew up on a 2,400-acre family-operated wheat farm and cattle ranch near Big Sandy, Montana. He earned a Ph.D. in plant chemistry from the University of California, Davis, returning home in 1978 to run the family farm and ranch. Quinn planted his first organic crops in the mid-’80s, and by 1989, the entire farm had become organic. Quinn’s interest in Khorasan, a large- kernel, nutty-flavored wheat grain tied to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, was piqued at a young age when he saw a few samples of the then-novelty grain at a county fair. Years later, he began growing the ancient grain on the family farm, while at the same time converting to organic practices. Demand for the grain grew, and Quinn’s experiments turned into a multimillion-dollar ancient grain company. Today, Kamut brand Khorasan wheat can be found throughout the world in products such as breads, pastas, snacks, and more. To Agraria board member Rich Sidwell, Quinn’s story is a potent example of how regenerative agriculture can address and revitalize planetary health, human health, and the health of rural communities. “He not only discovered the value of rebuilding his family’s farmland, he opened up opportunities for rebuilding his local community’s economy and for providing products and services on a global scale that provide healthy benefits,” said Sidwell. “In so doing he is setting an example of entrepreneurship where all involved, including our very planet itself, reap the rewards.” Quinn’s interests have expanded to include renewable energy, “food as medicine,” safflower cooking oil, and the growing of dryland produce. But wheat remains the heart of it all. “To me, there is something almost sacred about growing wheat,” he writes in his 2019 book, Grain by Grain . “Nearly every spring of my life, I have held in my hands a seed passed down over five hundred generations, a seed that has nourished my fellow humans for some ten millennia.” In a deeper sense, then, Quinn’s lifework has followed a very old grain. ~Audrey Hackett 2022 ARTHUR MORGAN AWARDEE Bob Quinn, Champion of Ancient Grain