A leader grounded in our roots, focused on the future.
“A leader is someone who sets an example for others to emulate.”
MEET DESHAWN
DeShawn L. Blanding is a food and agriculture policy advocate, cooperative business leader, and an emerging 6th-generation farmer. Across academic, government, public policy, and movement spaces, he bridges social and political theory with common-sense policy solutions to advance justice-centered approaches to agricultural production, environmental management, food and economic security, and human and community flourishing. His work is committed to building a future where care for the land and care for people are inseparable, and where stewardship and service replace extraction and exploitation.
As the descendant of enslaved people and the grandson of farmworkers and a fourth-generation farmer from the rural Silver Community of Clarendon County, South Carolina, DeShawn brings lived experience to his work
DeShawn started his career early through the FFA, formerly known as Future Farmers of America. As a high school student, he served as the Manning FFA chapter’s youngest president for two years and was elected the South Carolina FFA state vice president. In 2016, DeShawn was elected as the first National FFA Officer from the state of South Carolina in more than 50 years, leading over 650,000 FFA students. His FFA advisor and agriculture teacher, Coach Micheal Haynes, taught him true servant leadership, that “leadership is about setting an example others can emulate.” And that lesson continues to guide his life.
DeShawn is the President and Founding Partner of AgQuity Solutions, a cooperatively-owned business that helps communities and organizations develop the tools to advocate for themselves. At AgQuity, he leads the organization’s overall strategy and provides strategic support for policy and advocacy projects, partnerships, and campaigns. He is also the senior Washington representative for the Food and Environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). In this role, he works in partnership with coalitions and alliances that serve farmers by educating and advocating to administration officials, Congress, their staff, and the public about how to build a food and farming system that is healthy, sustainable, and just, bridging the gap between ecological sciences and agricultural production.
Before joining UCS, DeShawn was a senior policy analyst for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, leading on issues related to agricultural credit, civil rights, local/regional food systems, organic agriculture, innovation and urban agriculture, specialty crops, 1890 Land-Grant Institutions, and rural health and economic development. Previously, he led policy advocacy for the Rural Coalition and worked for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. He also worked as a soil conservationist aide for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services agency.
He obtained a bachelor’s in agricultural and environmental systems from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and a Master of Arts in public policy (philosophy and social policy) from The George Washington University.
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