About

Michael Washburn

Michael has spent over 25 years farming: growing vegetables and cut flowers, running culinary gardens, and growing out seed crops with regenerative and organic methods. As Preservation Director at Seed Savers Exchange, he ran the largest nongovernmental seed bank in the U.S., managed its 16-acre heirloom apple orchard, and worked with cultural communities across the country to return seeds to the places and people they came from.

Before that, he spent seven years running the culinary garden at a nationally recognized farm-to-table destination, growing for its chefs and planting a Southern heirloom apple orchard. He later built a student farm program at Nature’s Way Montessori. His background in cultural anthropology and soil science shapes how he works: he treats every seed as both living genetics and a cultural story, and gives both the same care.

Today he brings all of it, from the seed vault to the field to the community, to institutions building programs meant to last for generations.

Experience

• Current work

  Founder, Washburn Agriculture + Seed Consulting

  Advising botanical gardens and universities on seed bank design and seed conservation.

• Seed conservation

  Preservation Director, Seed Savers Exchange

  Ran the largest nongovernmental seed bank in the U.S., with more than 20,000 heirloom varieties, and tripled its community science program to 1,600 growers.

• Farm education

  School Farm Manager, Nature’s Way Montessori

  Built a student farm program and a student-run produce business.

• Culinary agriculture

  Culinary Garden Manager, renowned farm-to-table kitchen

  Ran the organic culinary garden supplying its chefs and seasonal menus, led garden tours for guests and visiting chefs, and planted a Southern heirloom apple orchard.

Education

• BA, Anthropology, Northern Kentucky University, with a focus on traditional ecological knowledge
• Graduate study in agronomy and soil science, Murray State University