Jesse Smith

White Buffalo Land Trust

Jesse is an agricultural producer and visionary leader dedicated to fostering a resilient food community in California’s Central Coastal region. With a decade of experience, Jesse merges his expertise in communication design with a passion for agricultural system planning, management, and evolutionary change.

In his role as Director of Land Stewardship, Jesse manages the Center of Regenerative Agriculture at Jalama Canyon Ranch, a 1,000-acre living laboratory that integrates farming, ranching, conservation, education, training, monitoring, research and enterprise. He actively works to restore ecological balance in food, fiber, and medicine production, emphasizing soil health, water cycles, and biodiversity.

As an individual with a multicultural and multidisciplinary background, Jesse's leadership and dedication to regenerative agriculture are driving transformative changes that connect the threads within social, ecological, and capital systems. He is focused on shifting the industry of agriculture from a paradigm of do-less-harm to one of living system regeneration, and the community that is growing around him is a manifestation of what the world needs most these days. In addition to his role as Director of Land Stewardship at WBLT, Jesse supports multiple local initiatives through volunteering on committees and boards with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Middle School, a Santa Barbara Food Action Network, Green America: Carbon Farming Innovation Network, and Regenerate America.