Pete has worked in the farming and food system sector for over fifteen years, designing and running nonprofit and government projects in both the U.S. and Australia. His work has focused on supporting family farms and other working lands to be financially successful while producing positive environmental impacts and healthy food.  

Prior to joining the Wallace Center, Pete was the Director of Food Systems at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy where he supported a range of activities spanning institutional procurement of regionally produced foods to the implications of international trade agreements on agriculture. He worked to advance urban agriculture and reduce food waste through production, supply-chain, and consumer efficiencies during his time as a city government officer and non-profit staff member in Australia. This included serving as the country’s first Urban Agriculture Facilitator in the City of Yarra and creating the award-winning Food Know How program at Cultivating Community. He co-operated the organic market garden and farm at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California where he co-managed wholesale production and co-designed a successful apprenticeship and public education program on regenerative agriculture. He also formally established residential and public programming at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California. He also earned his Permaculture Design Certificate and Permaculture Teachers Certificate during his time in California, while also developing a passion for keyline design on agriculture and working lands.   

He serves as an officer of his local political party and sits on the board of Farmer to Farmer. He holds degrees in Environmental Management and Environmental History from Indiana University-Bloomington and a Masters of Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He’s based in western Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and tends a respectable vegetable garden.