"Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of." -Geri Weitzman

(More photos here)

Roger Doiron is an advocate for local and regional food systems. He is founder and director of Kitchen Gardeners International (KGI), a Maine-based nonprofit network of over 15,000 individuals from 100 countries who are taking a (dirty) hands-on approach to relocalizing the food supply.

Doiron also works to promote vibrant local, state, and regional food systems through his work with the Eat Local Foods Coalition (ELFC) and the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG). In 2007, he was chosen as a Food and Society Policy Fellow.

In addition to his advocacy and organizing work, Doiron is a free-lance writer and public speaker specializing in gardening and sustainable food systems. His articles on food, agriculture and gardening have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Organic Gardening magazine, Mother Earth News, and Saveur. His work and ideas have been featured in the Chicago Tribune, International Herald Tribune, New York Times and the Washington Post. His successful proposal and petition campaign to replant a kitchen garden at the White House gathered over 100,000 signatures and international media coverage and was voted the grand prize winner of the "On Day One" contest sponsored by the United Nations Foundation. Doiron's work on the White House campaign also earned him the "Heart of Green" award.

Although grounded in his own local food system, Doiron remains interested in and connected to international food issues. Doiron first became involved in food issues in Europe as head of Friends of the Earth’s European office in Brussels during the 1990s at the height of the Europe’s mad cow furor. He was also part of the American NGO delegation to the last UN World Food Summit. Doiron is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Holy Cross College and holds a Master of International Relations degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

He enjoys cooking, gardening and eating with his three Belgo-American boys Francois, Maxim, and Sebastian and his wife Jacqueline. .