Benjamin Banks Dobson

• In 2017 I founded Hudson Hemp which has evolved into Hudson Cannabis, New York State's premier soil and sun grown cannabis company led by Melany Dobson.

In 2015 Abby Rockefeller and I founded Hudson Carbon to research the affects of organic farming practices on soil carbon and gas fluxes between soils and localized atmospheric gases in organic agricultural management systems. Over eight years, we have established Hudson Carbon as a leader in organic agriculture research and policy space in the Northeastern US.

In this position I was responsible for the largest organic transition in New York State. I successfully transitioned 1,900 acres of land owned by Stone House Farm and an additional 1,200 acres of leased land from conventional GMO soy and corn production to an organic grain, hay, hemp, and grazing rotation. This new supply of non-GMO and organic grain resulted in the establishment of Stone House Grain, a full service organic feed mill and supplier of cover crop seed and human grade grains to farms and food businesses in the Hudson Valley, Berkshires, and Litchfield Hills.

In this position I planned the organic transition of Stone House Farm with owners and staff.

In this position I was responsible for advising Richard A. Morse, Haitian President Michel Martelly's special envoy to the US State Department on strategies for reforestation, irrigation, and domestic food production.

Locally Known was the first certified organic salad company to supply Northeast supermarket chains with 100% northeast grown certified organic salads that met all food safety standards. Locally Known provided 76 Whole Foods, 65 Trader Joes, and 23 Hannaford Supermarkets with organic, Maine grown salads, under the Locally Known brand. Locally Known was born out of Atlantic Organics which I founded in 2007 and was the largest certified organic produce farm in Maine. In the spring of 2011 I sold Locally Known and Atlantic Organics to State Garden (Olivia's Organics parent company).

In 2005 I brought small scale Haitian coffee processing equipment to my wife's birth village in Haiti and built Haitian Highlands. I purchased fresh coffee cherries from farmers at twice the market price and processed them into premium green coffee for sale to Barrington Coffee Roasters and direct retail to coffee drinkers. My brother in law took over the business in 2008 and operates it to this day, now from his new home in Burlington, VT.

From fall 2002 through 2006 I managed Equinox Farm, my father's business. Over the course of four years I doubled business revenues and increased profits to over $100,000 per year on a 12 acre organic salad farm.

I founded Earthborn Vegetables in 2001, using our original family farm name from 1983. Earthborn was a 30 member CSA and market garden that I operated while still studying at Simon's Rock College of Bard.