Who Is the Organic Guy?
I have always received the question; How did you get the Name ‘The Organic Guy’? What event triggered it or who started to call you by that name? — In this summary, I try to lay out some of the histories up until now!
An organic upbringing!
Omoke Ogaro Brian Famously known as ‘The Organic Guy’ Was born and raised in Kisii County, in western Kenya. Raised by his grandparents, He witnessed firsthand the agricultural practices of her grandmother, who was one of the successful farmers in the village. Being raised in such an agricultural setting, he was actively involved in helping out on the farm and also taking care of the livestock.
It wasn’t until 2013 when he joined Egerton University, Which is One of the premier Agricultural universities in East Africa to study for a bachelor's in Agriculture that he realized his grandparents were organic farmers as a result of their practice of organic principles. His grandmother implemented practices such as caring for the soil through the application of manure, crop rotation, having several varieties of crops on the farm, mixed farming, and most importantly never using any synthetic pesticides and fertilizers among other practices.
Talk about adversity!
Unfortunately 2 years into his bachelor studies, he was discontinued from university and this is where everything hit the wall. With the future looking blink and uninspiring, he turned to the only thing he knew best, Organic Farming. At this point when life lost meaning and even contemplated suicide, organic gave him meaning. And without much to do at this point in his life, he started a blog post that he named ‘Think Organic’ to share the little he knew about the organic movement back in 2016.
With the future looking blink and uninspiring, he turned to the only thing he knew best, Organic Farming.
With his thirst for knowledge, He enrolled at the Kenya Methodist University to continue with his bachelor's studies in agriculture. It's here that the term ‘The Organic Guy’ was born due to his reputation for talking about organic most of the time. Here, he was part of a group of students who came together and formed an agricultural club that helped transfer knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices to the neighboring farmers at the university.
Okay, let’s talk organic entrepreneurship!
In October 2018, The Organic Guy graduated with a bachelor's first class Honours in agriculture from the Kenya Methodist University. The Organic Guy saw his blog post website ‘Think Organic’ get nominated for a reality TV Show Dubbed ‘Blaze Be Your Own Boss TV Show by Safaricom’ an experience that helped him start Think Organic — An organic e-commerce platform on a mission to ensure easy access to local, natural and organic products affordably and conveniently.
The Organic Guy is also the founder of Organic Adventures — Which is on a mission to reconnect humanity with nature. Organic Adventures offers organic farm tours and eco-friendly travel options to a vast collection of organic stays like ecolodges and eco-resorts. He is also the founder of Organic Investor — Who’s aim is to invest in organic farmers and Enterprises.
The Organic Guy & The Organic Movement
The Organic Guy has worked extensively with various organizations within the organic movement including Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT) where he worked as an intern, He works as a Marketing Officer at Organic Consumers Alliance (OCA), He is an Ambassador for Route to Food, and also a Member of the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN).
Over the years, he has gathered several certificates among them being Organic Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NSA) by IFOAM — Organics International, Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) by Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Ecosystem Services Training by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Entrepreneurial Skills training by Centonomy, Sustainable Entrepreneurship by Start Hub Wageningen among others.
Wageningen University & Research
The Organic Guy holds a master's in Organic Agriculture from Wageningen University & Research, a university that ranks as the world’s best in the field of Agriculture & Forestry.
The university also ranks as the best university in the Netherlands and it has done so for the seventeenth time in a row. The Organic Guy graduated from the Business Economics Group (BEC) where he did a thesis on Comparing the Technical Efficiency of Organic and Conventional Dairy Farms in the Netherlands.
The Organic Guy hosts a weekly podcast called ‘The Organic Guy Podcast’, which is the leading agricultural podcast across East and Central Africa dedicated to fostering organic conversations toward sustainable food systems transformation. He sends a Monthly Newsletter, and also hosts a monthly book review called ‘Organic Book Club’.
The Organic Guy’s mission is to live an organic lifestyle while helping farmers create wealth through organic farming!
