Raymond Epp

A native of Nebraska, Raymond has lived in three countries, witnessing to the reconciling work of God. For the past 32 years, Raymond has resided in Japan promoting agroecological approaches to farming and fostering local economies. As a teenager in the late 1970’s, Raymond felt in his bones that something was wrong with American agriculture. Encountering Wes Jackson’s New Roots for Agriculture book led Raymond to explore the writings of Wendell Berry and Masanobu Fukuoka, which in turn led him to attend his first Prairie Festival in the early 1980’s. Raymond is a practitioner/educator, curious about what farming with Nature as Measure would look like in real life. Raymond has organically spread these ideas through writing, advocacy, and the promotion of grassroots farmer-to-farmer networks in Japan.

My most perennial trait is my Unshakable Belief: it is possible to reconcile the world between human beings and the land, and to have an unquenchable curiosity about working with people to make that belief a reality.

Learn about Raymond’s work on regenerative agriculture education and cover crops in Japan.

1989 Intern at The Land Institute