Richard is a community development specialist, writer and speaker who sees food as a fundamental organising tool. In 1995, he founded New Orleans’ Umbrella Market and its Crescent City Farmers Market, where he played a key role in rebuilding the regional food system after the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005. A former president and co-founder of the US Farmers Market Coalition, he played a key role in piloting and expanding the use of nutrition incentive programmes at farmers markets. For six years he headed Slow Food USA from New York. In 2022, his first book, Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection (co-written with Tsuyoshi Sekihara). He currently serves on the board of Slow Food International. From 2021 he will serve as president of the World Farmers Markets Coalition. Born in Europe, raised in New Orleans, educated in the UK and at the London School of Economics, Richard lives with his family in New York.
