My Official Bio

John Pitney is a preacher, musician, community organizer, and sustainable food activist from McMinnville, Oregon. Pitney has been an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church for 40 years, serving congregations in Idaho, Alaska, and Oregon alongside his wife, Debbie. As a singer­‐songwriter, he has produced 3 albums (Keeping the Garden, A Home Like This, and Walk Lightly on the Earth). Pitney has spoken/performed at The Chautauqua Institute, Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society, and many food, faith, and justice conferences across the country. Pitney is a tireless food and justice activist, sitting on a variety of boards, including the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns, Willamette Farm & Food Coalition, the Rural Life Center’s Forum on Church & Land, the Lane County Food Policy Council.

In 2000, Pitney launched “That’s My Farmer” (TMF), an innovative regional food systems venture that brought together over 300 families from 20 different faith communities to support 15 small, sustainable farms from the Eugene area. His TMF work is now its 15th year and has been featured on KEZI (ABC) news, The Register Guard (Eugene), a variety of Christian media, and in two books (Food Not Lawns and 50 Ways to Help Save the Earth). His work has also been recognized with many awards, including the Harvest of Hope Award by the Oregon Faith Roundtable Against Hunger
(2009) and the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon’s Service Award and Outstanding Sermon on Earth Care Award, both in 2007. He was also honored by the Family Garden and Small Farmers Project of Lane County (Huerto de la Familia) in 2009.

In 2015, John and his wife retired from the United Methodist Church and moved to McMinnville, Oregon where they have embarked upon a journey to build a net-zero home. You can follow their adventures here.