People
Eric George
Eric's career in agriculture began at University of California-Berkeley, where he earned a dual BSc degree in agroecology, and developed an interdisciplinary skillset in agriculture, business, and communications. Following university he spent eight months in Nicaragua researching campesino a campesino and “formal system” corn breeding networks and history. From 2013, he served two years of apprenticeship on organic farms in Southern Oregon, helped found and shape the Southern Oregon Seed Growers Association, and served as Principle
Investigator and manager on a four-year SARE grant for SOSGA and its growers.
In 2015 during a year working as an organic produce clerk, Eric began retail merchandising experiments with open source vegetable varieties, and from 2016-2018, as an organic grower, sold the CRS product set to California produce retailers. Coast Range Seed's value proposition emerged during that period from an updated understanding of breeders' marketing, monetization, and quality control needs, and how those needs intersect with produce markets and farming. Since taking a break from farming he has piloted multiple business models for Coast Range Seed, eventually deciding what he noticed at the start: that the highest integrity path is to start anew in farming the product range from a CRS home base.
Eric lives in Eugene, OR, at the southern extent of the Willamette Valley, and is currently seeking this farm home base. Eric's travel program has bridged California and the Pacific Northwest since 2013, and he has been gratified to become friends with breeders, growers, and produce professionals across the West Coast territory, nationally, and abroad. He is committed to team work and a human workplace, and believes deeply in the potential for agriculture to contribute to the greater good.