Our Roots

John Casazza

John grew up in a small community in California and had Italian grandparents whose lifestyle was from the old country. He attributes his early passion for food and agriculture to these two, loving people.

After receiving a B.S. in Soils and Plant Nutrition from UC Berkeley, John entered the Peace Corps in Honduras where he conducted soil surveys and taught courses in soil science and agriculture research design. His continuing career in agriculture production and management took him to many countries, including the Philippines, Mexico, Peru, and China growing pineapple, bananas, papaya, mango, asparagus, oranges, asparagus and salad vegetables. After receiving an M.S. in Sustainable Food Systems from Green Mountain College, he started working with small farms and farmer cooperatives in Asia, Africa, North and South America, and Eastern Europe. His focus is to improve farming techniques and product quality and diversify a producer’s crop base to achieve greater cash flow and a higher return on investment.

He is fortunate to have experienced how food is grown, sold, prepared, and eaten around the world. He is also a member of the board of directors of Catracha Community; a non-profit supporting Catracha Coffee Company, a social enterprise in Santa Elena, Honduras. He is also a member of the Circle of Advisors to Pie Ranch, a teaching and incubator farm located near to Pescadero, CA.  He also on the Board of Experts of the Slow Food Coffee Coalition.

He and his wife and son currently live in San Francisco, and support food justice, and celebrate and share their heritage through food with family, friends, and other students of good food.