Dorn Cox is a farmer who has long been in the vanguard of regenerative agriculture and open-source technologies — two ideas rarely spoken in the same sentence. He’s also a big champion of participatory science and knowledge commons to help improve agricultural practices.
Cox is the author of The Great Regeneration: Ecological Agriculture, Open Source Technology, and a Radical Vision of Hope, a highly readable book that synthesizes all of these topics.
With a deep background in earth system sciences and a PhD in natural resources, Cox is a man of the soil, the computer and science. He farms with his family on 250 acres in Lee, New Hampshire, and serves as research director for the Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment in Freeport, Maine. Cox is also a founder of the Farm OS software platform and Farm Hack, an open-source hardware project that designs and builds agricultural equipment. He’s helped develop the open technology ecosystem for agricultural management, called Open Team, which is a farmer driven, collaborative community dedicated to improving soil health and addressing climate change.