Farewell To A Friend, Amigo Bob Cantisano

By David Lively, OGC Co-Founder and pioneer emeritus

The organic produce community lost many beloved pioneers and rebels in 2020. People who we’ll remember for their passion, risk-taking leadership, and dedication to showing the way to farm for the health of people and the planet. The year ended with the loss of Bob Cantisano, aka “Amigo” Bob. I remember first meeting Amigo in the ‘80s when he joined Harry MacCormack, co-founder of Oregon Tilth, in presenting a two-day mini-conference at Oregon State University titled “Soil Trek.”  In the early ’80s, the small community of organic farmers was mostly working from self-education. Soil Trek was the first organized educational seminar on organics any of us had attended. Over two days, we learned and, in some cases, relearned about the importance of enriching the soil with organic matter and, basically, more about organics than we had over several years.

Amigo Bob and Larry Jacobs (Cabo Farms)

 Amigo Bob would return to our area to enjoy the Oregon Country Fair and made himself widely available within the organic community, especially in his home base of California.  At the annual EcoFarm conference, he led tours of regional farms, sporting a tall walking stick with a speaker mounted at the top while speaking through a microphone as he made his way across fields with several dozen trade participants following him like ducklings behind their mother. He also was the emcee for many years of EcoFarm’s Eco Awards banquet, where he announced the winners of “Sustie” Awards, of which three are awarded each year.  In 2009, my brother Tom and I were honored to stand on the stage with Amigo and receive our Sustie, our trade’s equivalent to an Oscar, for OGC’s performance as an organic produce distributor and work in advancing sustainability in the organic trade. 

The last time I sat down with Bob, at the Fair, of course, he told me that he had recently tallied the number of organic farms he had walked onto in his role as ag advisor. The count was over 800. 

He also responded to my concerns about the future of the trade by detailing what he saw as the conventional grocery chains moved their purchases from the first generation of organic farms to larger, conventionally operated farms just entering organics. He made it clear what was to be lost if we did not find new ways forward in our support of the small and medium scale operations we helped create and support over four decades.

 There are several articles about Bob that are good reads, portraying a brave, intelligent, outspoken, and caring individual who knew what he thought and shared it broadly (links below). The loss to our trade is tremendous, but his decision to have his carcass turned into compost means that he will continue to enrich the earth he cared so much for. RIP, Amigo.   

LA Times, Amigo Bob Cantisano, A Towering Figure in West Coast Organic Farming, dies at 69

The Union, Organic Farming Pioneer Amigo Bob Cantisano Dies

Ecofarm Cofounder and Organic Farming Pioneer Dies