John McKeon is the Director of Organic Integrity & Compliance at Taylor Farms. He serves on the CCOF Foundation Board of Trustees.
When John McKeon was growing up on the Coast, he had the opportunity to visit national parks and spend time in his grandfather’s avocado orchard. “Land conservation, and a love of the land, were ingrained in my values,” he says. “I’d get out of school for the summer and go to the orchard to work and play. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was setting lifelong priorities for working outside with nature.”
As a young adult, John moved to Santa Cruz, CA, where he studied at Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz. “Learning about horticulture, ecology, and science brought things into focus for me.” After finishing a four-year degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Agriculture, John had recently gotten married and wanted to find more consistent work. “I walked in the door at CCOF in my last semester at UC Santa Cruz and helped with IFOAM accreditation and then USDA NOP accreditation. During that time CCOF had collected a lot of ‘farm plans’ that needed to be entered into the database. I turned that into my senior thesis project. It was my introduction to sustainable data.”
That internship led to a job with CCOF. John worked first as a file reviewer, then a farm lead, doing farm and livestock inspection, review, and management. “We got USDA accredited and started to grow quickly,” he recalls. “I wanted to get out of the office and into actual inspecting, into the field.” After the 2006 E. coli spinach outbreak, Earthbound Farms asked John to work for them. “That shot me down a path of organic research, food safety, quality, farm management, and international supply chains, all in an organic space.”
“It all comes back to the conversations I used to have with my grandfather,” John says. “As he got older, he would ask my perspective on things more, like controlling mites on the avocados. I started looking for a better way.” As a child growing up in the ‘80s and hearing echoes of messages of the 60s, John was inspired by authors like Rachel Carson, who wrote Silent Spring. “We were doing inherent damage to our ecosystems by understanding chemistry but not understanding its impacts,” John says. “I wanted to do something better, and I was in a position where I could do something about it through farming.”
John recalls, “I would have never imagined the organic journey I have taken. It’s all because CCOF gave me an opportunity. People like Brian McElroy, Janning Kennedy, Zea, Tim Bates, Phil, Brian Leahy…and more broadly Mark Lipson, Bob Scowcroft, Brian Baker, and so many CCOF clients… if they hadn’t laid down the foundation and kept pushing, organic wouldn’t have made it through the 80s. Now it’s a recognized force for change in agriculture.”
“I think it’s amazing that now the USDA has come out with climate-smart techniques you can get reimbursed for, using things like crop rotations, cover crops, IPM, and biological systems, all stemming from organic techniques. I won’t say I told you so,” he chuckles, “but it’s validation that organic is the right path.”
John is glad to see the growth and success of organic over the years. “I’ve been amazed at where CCOF has gone since I was an employee. It thrills me to no end to see more diverse voices leading in this space – it’s more indicative of the change we want to see.” John applauds the organic community for its ability to support a broad range of business types and scales. “I’m so impressed with my experience at CCOF as a client,” he says. “I’m impressed with everyone who’s making this work.”
