Doug Fine
About Doug Fine
Speech topics
Grow Soil Or Die: How All Earth’s Farming Can Go Regenerative
Fresh from a standing room only talk at SXSW, Doug Fine (Author of Farewell, My Subaru, Hemp Bound and Too High to Fail), brings frorth this call to action about what anyone can do to ensure our great grandchildren have a habitable planet. And yet this keynote is fun the whole way through with wild tales of Fine’s remote regenerative life in New Mexico.
For Earth to remain habitable, an area the size of North America must be converted to regenerative modes immediately. That means we’re all soil farmers now - sequestering carbon in soil and supporting farmers who do so in the field, is the best way to ensure breathable air for the coming century. This talk offers three ways every human can actively become part of this overtime victory for the species. The best part is, getting outside to farmer's markets, reading labels on all your food & getting dive-bombed by pollinators planting a garden, is about the most fun life you can live.
Even in our busy Digital Age lives, it benefits everyone to be a soil farmer. Your own food will be healthier and tastier from the underground network. You’ll come away from the terrific, energizing and funny talk with a practical action plan for your own carbon sequestering home superfood garden. Doug Fine-bestselling author, regenerative hemp farmer, goat herder and food security advocate, lives and write on his Funky Butte Ranch in New Mexico--42 acres of paradise, except for occasional wildfire and mountain lions. The great Willie Nelson calls his book Hemp Bound, “a blueprint for the America of the future.” Building on Conan and Tonight Show appearances and dozens of keynotes, Doug's talk is as timely (and funny) as it gets.
Speaking videos
Media coverage
Doug Fine on PBS 2024
New Mexico in Focus: Filmmaker Doug Fine discusses his award-winning new film, AMERICAN HEMP FARMER
Doug Fine at SXSW 2024 — Grow Soil or Die: How All Earth’s Farming Can Go Regenerative
For Earth to remain habitable, an area the size of North America must be converted to regenerative modes immediately. That means we’re all soil farmers now - sequestering carbon in soil & supporting farmers who do so in the field, is the best way to ensure breathable air for the coming century. This presentation offers 3 ways every human can actively become part of this overtime victory for the species. The best part is, getting outside to farmer's markets, reading labels on all your food & getting dive-bombed by pollinators planting a garden, is about the most fun life you can live.
Books by Doug Fine
“American Hemp Farmer: Adventures and Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade” (2020)
The inside story of the world’s most fascinating and lucrative crop from gonzo journalist–turned–hemp farmer Doug Fine. Hemp, the non-psychoactive variant of cannabis (or marijuana) and one of humanity’s oldest plant allies, has quietly become the fastest industry ever to generate a billion dollars of annual revenue in North America. From hemp seed to hemp fiber to the currently ubiquitous cannabinoid CBD, this resilient crop is leading the way toward a new, regenerative economy that contributes to soil and climate restoration―but only if we do it right. In American Hemp Farmer, maverick journalist and solar-powered goat herder Doug Fine gets his hands dirty with healthy soil and sticky with terpenes growing his own crop and creating his own hemp products. Fine shares his adventures and misadventures as an independent, regenerative farmer and entrepreneur, all while laying out a vision for how hemp can help right the wrongs of twentieth-century agriculture, and how you can be a part of it.
“Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution” (2014)
The stat sheet on hemp sounds almost too good to be true: its fibers are among the planet’s strongest, its seed oil the most nutritious, and its potential as an energy source vast and untapped. Its one downside? For nearly a century, it’s been illegal to grow industrial cannabis in the United States–even though Betsy Ross wove the nation’s first flag out of hemp fabric, Thomas Jefferson composed the Declaration of Independence on it, and colonists could pay their taxes with it. But as the prohibition on hemp’s psychoactive cousin winds down, one of humanity’s longest-utilized plants is about to be reincorporated into the American economy. Get ready for the newest billion-dollar industry. In Hemp Bound:Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution, bestselling author Doug Fine embarks on a humorous yet rigorous journey to meet the men and women who are testing, researching, and pioneering hemp’s applications for the twenty-first century. From Denver, where Fine hitches a ride in a hemp-powered limo; to Asheville, North Carolina, where carbon-negative hempcrete-insulated houses are sparking a mini housing boom; to Manitoba where he raps his knuckles on the hood of a hemp tractor; and finally to the fields of east Colorado, where practical farmers are looking toward hemp to restore their agricultural economy―Fine learns how eminently possible it is for this misunderstood plant to help us end dependence on fossil fuels, heal farm soils damaged after a century of growing monocultures, and bring even more taxable revenue into the economy than its smokable relative. Fine’s journey will not only leave you wondering why we ever stopped cultivating this miracle crop, it will fire you up to sow a field of it for yourself, for the nation’s economy, and for the planet.
“Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution” (2013)
The nation's economy is in trouble, but one cash crop has the potential to turn it around: cannabis. ABC News reports that underground cannabis industry produces $35.8 billion in annual revenues. But, thanks to Nixon and the War on Drugs, marijuana is still synonymous with heroin on the federal level even though it has won mainstream acceptance. Too High to Fail is an objectively (if humorously) reported account of how one plant can change the shape of our country, culturally, politically, and economically. It covers everything from a brief history of hemp to an insider's perspective on a growing season in Mendocino County, where cannabis drives 80 percent of the economy. Doug Fine follows one plant from seed to patient in the first American county to fully legalize and regulate cannabis farming. He profiles a critical issue to lawmakers, media pundits, an ordinary Americans. It is a wild ride that includes college tuitions paid with cash, cannabis-friendly sheriffs, and access to the world of the emerging legitimate, taxpaying "ganjaprenneur."
“Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living” (2009)
Advance praise for Farewell, My Subaru“Fine is Bryson Funny.” ——Santa Cruz Sentinel “Fine is an amiable and self-deprecating storyteller in the mold of Douglas Adams. If you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-style humor -- and also looking to find out how to raise your own livestock to feed your ice-cream fetish -- Farewell may prove a vital tool.” —— The Washington Post “Fine is an eco-hero for our time..” —— Miami Herald“An afterward offers solid advice and sources for learning more.” —— On Earth Magazine, Natural Resources Defense Fund “This is Green Acres for the smart set—: a witty and educational look at sustainable living. Buy it, read it, compost it.” –A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically “The details of Doug Fine’s experiment in green living are great fun——but more important is the spirit, the dawning understanding that living in connection to something more tangible than a computer mouse is what we were built for. It’ll make you want to move!”–Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable FutureLike many Americans, Doug Fine enjoys his creature comforts, but he also knows full well they keep him addicted to oil. So he wonders: Is it possible to keep his Netflix and his car, his Wi-Fi and his subwoofers, and still reduce his carbon footprint? In an attempt to find out, Fine up and moves to a remote ranch in New Mexico, where he brazenly vows to grow his own food, use sunlight to power his world, and drive on restaurant grease. Never mind that he’s never raised so much as a chicken or a bean. Or that he has no mechanical or electrical skills. Whether installing Japanese solar panels, defending the goats he found on Craigslist against coyotes, or co-opting waste oil from the local Chinese restaurant to try and fill the new “veggie oil” tank in his ROAT (short for Ridiculously Oversized American Truck), Fine’s extraordinary undertaking makes one thing clear: It ain’t easy being green. In fact, his journey uncovers a slew of surprising facts about alternative energy, organic and locally grown food, and climate change. Both a hilarious romp and an inspiring call to action, Farewell, My Subaru makes a profound statement about trading today’s instant gratifications for a deeper, more enduring kind of satisfaction.
“Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man” (2004)
Now here's a formula for near disaster: East Coast big-city guy, world-traveler, jounalist, and otherwise politically savvy fellow settles down in rural Alaska, where men are many and manly, and women with survival skills are good to count among your friends. He wants to fit in. But how does one learn to be a Mountain Man? By observing, imitating, and making near-fatal mistakes, that's how. The choices a boy has to make. Eat processed food or on-the-hoof food, learn to operate a chainsaw or freeze to death, figure out what a bunny boot is or lose a few toes, and by the way, which end of he barrel points up? This is the story of Doug's first difficult winter in a one-room cabin, trying to stay alive and come out of it with some semblance of Alaska cool. With side-splitting, self-depreciating humor, Doug shares his attempts to elevate himself past his perpetual state of greenhorn-ness by aligning himself with tough sourdoughs to someday claim the title of manly Mountain Man.
At a glanceDoug Fine
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