Bob’s service to the organic industry includes numerous committees and advisory boards including the Montana Grain Growers and the Montana Farm Bureau. He helped form Montana’s first Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) chapter in 1987 and served as its first president. He has served as secretary of OCIA’s International board of directors and on the first USDA National Organic Standards Board and on a USDA ag research advisory committee. Bob has been a member of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) since 1987 and is a member of their farm advisory committee. He has served on the board of The Organic Center including as chair of the science committee. He is a member of IFOAM-Organics International and helped to form the IFOAM North American Regional group and was elected to their first Broad of Directors.
He is also the recipient of several awards including being named as one of Montana State University’s 100 outstanding alumni from their first hundred years, a lifetime service award from the Montana Organic Association in 2007, the National Organic Leadership Award from the Organic Trade Association in 2010, 2013 Rodale Institute Organic Pioneer, and in 2016 he received New Hope’s Hall of Legends award.
In 2018 he rented out his farm to two of his employees. He still promotes organic and sustainable agriculture, locally produced food and fuel as well as promoting the idea that food should be our medicine and medicine should be our food. He also promotes food production systems based on producing high nutrition and quality rather than high yields and works hard warning of the dangers of GMO based food. He has written a book “Grain by Grain” (Island Press, 2019) with co-author, Liz Carlisle summarizing his philosophy of the tie between agriculture, food and health. His most recent focus is the creation of a 700 acre regenerative organic research, education and health institute in the middle of his farm. The Quinn Institute’s vision and mission is “healing the earth by growing food as medicine.”
