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Geoffrey Van (he/him), is the Changing Hands Program Director at Rogue Farm Corps. Based in Oregon, this work bridges the gap between land-seeking beginning farmers and ranchers and retiring farmers interested in transferring their land and business. The Changing Hands Program, originally called the Farm Preservation Program, was established in 2015 to address the threats facing Oregon’s farmland and the many interrelated barriers that beginning farmers and ranchers face in accessing land and capital.

Geoffrey was born and raised in Hong Kong, far from farming and surrounded by concrete. As a toddler, soil was actually so foreign to Geoffrey that touching it would make him cry. Fast forward to the conclusion of 8 years of high-school and college on the East Coast (still bound by cement): Geoffrey decided to take a chance and finally touch that ever-avoided soil. Everything clicked. First in New Mexico at Taos Goji Farm and then at Deck Family Farm in the Willamette Valley, Geoffrey began working on farms in earnest, all while building a team and a plan to start a collaborative farm. An interlude at Fleishers Craft Butchery in Brooklyn, New York was doubly educational: learning the art of whole animal butchery and confirming that concrete was out and soil was in. In 2017, Geoffrey and four friends started Spoon Full Farm in Thorp, Washington.

Geoffrey’s original curiosity for farming came from a simple love for food and cooking–the realization that good food is made from good ingredients, which in turn come from good farms. Before long, he was discovering the intricacies of our delicate food systems and the threads that farms hold throughout society and the planet’s natural resources. Where once was curiosity, Geoffrey found deep passion for agriculture and the true, urgent potential it has to transform every aspect of Earthly existence.