Thursday Sep 24, 2026
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
About the Book.
Hugh explores what happens when smallholder farming, regenerative agriculture and spiritual principles converge. A book filled with hope and a practical approach to transforming agriculture.
This book introduces the one quarter of humanity hidden in plain sight: 475 million smallholder farming families who have quietly fed the world for generations while remaining almost entirely invisible. Hugh makes the audacious claim that these same smallholders could soon be leading an agricultural revolution with the power to alter the course of life on our planet.
This unusual story line runs from the Tonight Show and fractals to Buckingham Palace and rubber farms in Thailand, from ancient traditional wisdom to artificial intelligence. Drawing on decades of work at the nexus of global affairs and grassroots agriculture — from chairing meetings of heads of state at the United Nations to sitting with farmers in the fields of Haiti — Hugh weaves together Indigenous wisdom, contemporary ecological science, and spiritual principles for agriculture drawn from the Bahá’í Faith. The result is a vision of regenerative farming that, if adopted by just half of the world’s smallholders, could produce all the additional food the world needs by 2050 while simultaneously reducing the net impact of climate change.
Included is a unique collection of 21 stories from 18 countries of farmers sharing their regenerative journeys. The book is written for anyone interested in food, farming, climate, justice, or the future of life on this planet, Whole Earth Farming is both a compelling manifesto for urgently needed transformation and a practical roadmap for making it real.
About the Author.
Hugh Locke has spent his career working at the nexus of environmental conservation, international development, humanitarian service and interfaith collaboration. Throughout, he has been drawn by the interplay between spiritual principles and the movements striving to improve the human condition. Central to his worldview is the understanding of our planet as a unified, interconnected system, a perspective given further dimension by membership in the Bahá’í Faith. Since co-founding the Smallholder Farmers Alliance in Haiti in 2010, he has directed this range of experience toward smallholder agriculture, becoming a recognized advocate for regenerative farming and smallholder farmer empowerment.
About the Moderator.
Roy Steiner is Senior Vice President for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. He leads efforts to expand access to nutritious food and foster scientific advances in dietary quality and regenerative food systems.