Higher Profile: Doug Fine, hemp farmer and goatherd

Doug Fine wants to save the planet by teaching people to live a regenerative and sustainable lifestyle. A lofty goal for a hemp farmer and solar-powered goatherd, but Fine remains. That’s the thing about saving the planet, it takes persistence. It takes evangelization in the biblical sense, from our mouths to their ears. They may or may not want to have a say, but they will hear you.

Author of six books to date, Fine’s first work, Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man, appeared in 2004 and reflects his introduction to nature as a man growing up in the New York suburbs. Another title, published in 2008, Farewell My Subaru describes his life “off the grid” and shows how to drastically reduce the consumption of fossil fuels in order to live sustainably. In 2012, Too High To Fail followed, with a focus on the regenerative side of the then burgeoning cannabis industry and the green economic revolution – which is now in full swing ten years later.

In 2013, he appeared on TEDx Talks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his farm, Funky Butte Ranch, is in a remote area hours from the nearest town. The talk, titled “Why we need goat herding in the digital age,” is a call to arms with the intent to lure people back into the garden to save their souls – and their health.

Fine introduced himself: “I stand before you today, a neo-rugged, individualistic, solar-powered goatherd.” Thus begins his humorous yet informative talk about how and why he supports his family by herding off-grid goats.

In 2014 he published Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution, in which he shares his life on his farm and explains the many uses of hemp – and how it can help save the planet.

His most recent work was published in 2020, American Hemp Farmer, Adventures and Misadventures of the Cannabis Trade, in which David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, aired, “A fantastic piece of Americana that shows the way to a sustainable future.”

American Hemp Farmer has been developed into a TV series, with a pilot and episodes in the can and more in production vying for distribution.

The series includes visits to the tribal lands of the Rosebud Sioux, with Fine advising on organic hemp cultivation. Other visits as part of the show include George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, where Fine harvests by hand, of course in a full outfit of colonial-style hemp clothing.

Doug Fine: Evangelizing Sustainable Living

As detailed in his TEDx talk, he first moved with nature to rural Alaska in 2003, where he learned about fishing and catching salmon in the wild.

He liked the idea of ​​sourcing groceries from the backyard, so to speak. This, he said, put him in touch with what he calls the indigenous gene, or I gene, which calls people back to our Paleolithic roots after living off the land as hunter-gatherers.

“For all our digital age endowments, as humans we are still the same hunter-gatherers that we have been for tens of thousands of years,” he said. “I feel at my best and more relaxed when I’m milking a goat at dawn and the native owls are returning from date night. For me, it’s that feeling of living the way you’re supposed to live.”

The Alaskan experience reawakened an important part of him that he has cultivated since moving to New Mexico two years later and founding his Funky Butte Ranch to feed his soul, with the end result bringing a sense of contentment to him give. Balance, he said, between the digital age and our indigenous selves.

And then there’s climate change, for those who understand the effects.

“We’re at the end of the ninth round with two outs on tackling climate change and we have a game plan,” he advised. “Teaching everyone that is my job.”

And he teaches, with courses available on his website and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world.

The most famous presentation to date was an appeal to the United Nations in cooperation with the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies (ENCOD), an organization working for better drug policies worldwide. In this almost five-minute lecture, he urged changes in the failed War on Drugs.

On February 27th, he will be the keynote speaker at SXSW’s 50th Anniversary Eco-Ag conference in Montana, with the event being broadcast on C-SPAN.

His “Johnny Hempseed” journey of teaching Earth’s citizens how they can help heal the planet is seemingly endless as he presents himself dressed head-to-toe in hemp – including hemp boxer shorts worn by his longtime companions were made.

Doug Fine at his Funky Butte Ranch, New Mexico. Courtesy of Doug Fine.

Hemp can heal the planet

The stats on how sustainable industrial hemp is are remarkable given all the trees that have been felled over the years – not to mention the amount of plastic now littering the earth that could have been made from hemp and other plants can be produced.

“The ban on cannabis, and later industrial hemp, was a terrible mistake made by a big country,” he said from the ranch. “I bring a small plastic goat made of hemp with me to my lectures, which was created with the 3D printer. We don’t have to use petroleum by-products – we never have.”

The benefits of industrial hemp are many and can be used for everything from fuel to building materials to removing toxins from the soil after contamination – demonstrated in modern-day Ukraine, at the site of the Chernobyl meltdown, where thousands of hemp plants were planted .

Fine’s own hemp seeds from his farm are used in an experiment to clean up contaminated soil in a New Mexico University study, with early reports of great success growing uranium.

“I can write with confidence that hemp cleans up radioactive soil,” he wrote in a blog at Vote Hemp. “No, I heard it does, or I wish it did, or even someone told me it was used in Chernobyl. According to this study, it actually does.”

As explained in an article published by the Global Hemp Associations, the process is called phytotech, where plants can actually decontaminate the soil by pulling toxins – hemp being exceptionally good at this process, decontaminating at a very high rate, chromium, lead, copper, nickel and more.

Cleaning air quality and soil is nothing new for plants, but our understanding of how it works is.

“When you look at how many trees it takes to make anything and how many years it took for those trees to grow big enough to be used, it’s amazingly ignorant of us to ignore those facts,” he explained. “Before we started synthesizing petroleum by-products, everything we made and used came from the earth — and it was all regenerative and sustainable. There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t turn this around.”

To cite an example, as determined by the European Industrial Hemp Association, hemp contains over 65 to 70 percent cellulose, while wood is about 40 percent. The Hemp Ministry informs that one hectare of hemp can produce as much paper as 4 to 10 hectares of trees over a 20-year cycle. Hemp stalks grow in four months, while trees take 20 to 80 years, depending on the species.

You can see why the Plant for the Planet movement was born, encouraging people to plant as many trees as possible – with the goal of planting a trillion trees worldwide by 2030.

“It’s such a no-brainer,” Fine lamented. “Hemp paper is more durable than paper made from trees because it doesn’t break down over time. Building materials made from hemp are also mold and fire resistant. Not to mention the devastating effects of deforestation on the climate and the health of the planet.”

climate change at the door

A few years ago, Funky Butte Ranch was hit by a massive 130,000-acre wildfire that devastated years of hard work on the farm.

“This isn’t a dress rehearsal, it’s really happening now, and it’s just around the corner,” Fine said of climate change and the perennial fires, super storms and floods around the world that were predicted years ago.

Fine said he watched a bear flee wildfire and then attacked all but one of his goats as he tells the story to show the collateral damage from the devastation.

“The destruction affects everything,” he continued. “Fires, floods and rising water levels due to melting glaciers. All of this compels me to keep talking, keep teaching, and keep growing regenerative hemp. The good news is we now have two new baby goats on the farm, blessings abound!”

The always-hopeful Fine explained that we don’t all have to become farmers, but we can understand the process by growing a small piece of something — even if it’s a bunch of basil in a pot on a city balcony.

He believes farmers can lead the way while being supported by the masses through small changes in our daily way of life.

“Supporting small, local farmers by buying locally sourced produce, purchasing produce from community-supported cooperatives or farmers markets, or even working in community gardens are valuable contributions,” he surmised. “Who knows, you might find, like me, that farming or gardening and growing your own food is the most fun you’ll have outside of the bedroom!”

For more information about Doug Fine, visit dougfine.com.