Arnott Duncan calls himself a “dirt nerd.” He loves being out in the field; he says it’s his strength. He’s been farming for more than 20 years now, first with his father and brothers (he’s part of the fourth generation of his family to work the land), then on his own. Even after all these years, he still loves every moment he’s out in the field.

His wife Kathleen was a city girl from San Francisco, but she planted firm, healthy roots in the Arizona soil after she met Arnott at the University of Arizona, where they both played volleyball. Their partnership has built a thriving farm and a thriving family.

Sharing a love of farming

The Duncans farm near Phoenix, Arizona. For a time, they ran very successful public programs that helped them share the farm experience with the community in an educational and entertaining way. It seemed like a natural way to combine Arnott’s farming expertise and Kathleen’s degrees in counseling psychology and special education into a family business.

“When we first opened to the public,” Kathleen explains, “the image of farming in Arizona had hit an all-time low. People thought farmers exploited the land pretty shamelessly, just spraying chemicals all over everything with crop dusters.”

Arnott recalls the surprise he’d hear in the voices of local agriculture officials who’d call to arrange inspection visits. Just come out, he’d tell them, you don’t need to have an appointment. “I’m the first one who wants to know if we’re doing something wrong,” he says. “Just tell us and we’ll change it. That’s it.”

Unfortunately, the Duncans had to close their public programs due to security concerns from the nearby Air Force base after 9/11.

One ending, another beginning

The Duncans had already been growing organically on some of their land, and they’d been planning to transition more acreage to organic when they met Todd Kodet, Earthbound Farm’s senior vice president of farming.

“You learn in farming that when one door closes, another opens,” Arnott says. “The opportunity to start growing for Earthbound Farm came along at just the right time.” 

“Our public programs were such a huge investment in time and energy that maybe we wouldn’t have been able to do both,” observes Kathleen. “Today we reach many more people with our produce, and we want people to have a wonderful experience eating it.” The Duncans are currently growing many of the baby lettuces and other varieties of baby greens that go into Earthbound Farm’s organic spring mix, as well as herbs and spinach; past seasons have seen them growing organic red cabbage, romaine, and broccoli as well.