Greg Watson has joined the Schumacher Center as Director of Policy and Systems Design. Watson served as Commissioner of Agriculture with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the Patrick, Dukakis and Weld administrations
His accomplishments as Commissioner included the promulgation of innovative groundwater protection regulations designed to prevent contamination of aquifer recharge areas; an outreach program for farmers to adopt integrated pest management techniques; efforts to make Massachusetts the first state to establish a dairy pricing system; and clarification of acceptable agriculture practices under the Wetlands Protection Act. Recently, he worked to launch a statewide urban agriculture grants program. He also chaired the state’s Public Market Commission, which oversees planning and construction of the Boston Public Market, slated to open this summer.
Prior to serving with the Patrick Administration, Watson was Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Affairs, serving concurrently as Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Centers of Excellence Corporation. As executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, he made urban agriculture a major focus of the community’s revitalization plan.
At the Schumacher Center, Watson will introduce new programs while linking the existing educational and applied community economics programs of the Schumacher Center. He will be a public voice for sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, new monetary systems, equitable land tenure arrangements, neighborhood planning through democratic processes, government policies that support human-scale development, cooperative structure, citizen financing of new enterprises, import-replacement strategies and more.
One of his first initiatives will be to follow up on the connections he made on the Schumacher Center’s October trip to Cuba to explore urban farming, sustainable agricultural, renewable energy, disaster preparedness, and social entrepreneurship.
Watson serves on the boards of Ocean Arks International, Bioneers, and Remineralize The Earth, and currently resides in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
