Don Bustos

Don Bustos is a family farmer from northern New Mexico, farming land that has been in his family since the Spanish Land Grant of 1598. He was one of the first farmers in New Mexico to receive organic certification and has been certified for over 20 years. In addition to farming his family land, Bustos is co-director of the American Friends Service Committee’s New Mexico program, where he focuses on training beginner farmers and developing farmer networks throughout the state.

Bustos is also on the board of New Mexico Acequia Association, a New Mexico-based organization that addresses water and land issues in order to preserve the environment for future generations. He has served on the USDA’s Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) board since 2008, which gives grants to farmers in the western region of the United States. He was chair of the Western SARE board from 2011 to 2013. He has also served on the board of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and was a founding member of National Immigrant Farmers Initiative (NIFI)  

Bustos has received numerous awards including the New Mexico Farmer of the Year in 2006, the New Mexico Organic Farmer of the Year in 2012, and New Mexico State University’s Leyendecker Agriculturalist of Distinction. He has helped establish several food networks across the state of New Mexico. Bustos played a lead role in developing the vision and raising the funds for the Santa Fe Farmers’s Market complex, considered one of the top farmers’s markets in the country.