Biography:
Hal Hamilton founded and co-directs the global Sustainable Food Lab, which works to mainstream sustainability in the global food supply.Hal’s career began as a commercial dairy farmer in Kentucky, and one of his proudest awards was being named Master Conservationist. While in Kentucky he led the development of the first formal alliance among tobacco farmer and public health organizations, an alliance that paved the way for hundreds of millions of dollars of tobacco settlement funds to be invested in rural communities in the upper south. He has founded and directed rural development and leadership organizations, and was the Executive Director of the Sustainability Institute founded by Donella Meadows. Hal is a frequent guest faculty or lecturer at the MIT Sloane School of Management, the Harvard Business School, the Kennedy School, the Society for Organizational Learning, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Hal has been an advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative for two years and recently moderated a panel that included US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. At the invitation of the U.S. State Department in 2006 he gave the annual George McGovern address to the FAO at World Food Day. He has been a German Marshall Fellow and was a member of the 2001-2003 Food and Society Fellows. Hal’s education was at Stanford University and the State University of New York, Buffalo. He has written numerous columns and journal articles and three chapters in books on agricultural policy and change. Hal lives in a community in Vermont located on a farm that produces many products including an award winning cheese and maple syrup. His grandchildren are his three greatest delights.
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