About Us
Our Story
About Great Basin Green
Great Basin Green is a project created by teenage homeschooler Cole Summers to reimagine how the Great Basin Desert is farmed, changing the priority from depleting the natural resources of groundwater and soil for hay farming, to conserving groundwater and building soil while letting animals live more natural lives.
Starting in one of the most depleted basins within the Great Basin Desert, our goal is to purchase existing hay farms to immediately reduce their groundwater, fuel, and power use. Some fields will be restored to nature. Others will become examples of naturally raised, heritage livestock spending their lives on pasture.
During the conversion to regenerative agriculture practices for preserving the aquifer and the soil, we’ll also be converting the business model currently used by hay farms. The days of one family benefiting from the extraction of natural resources will come to an end, replaced by a model where the typically poor farm hands are trained in value growth business skills and earn shared ownership over the product of their labor. The resulting employee-owned farm will not sit at the bottom of its value chain, but will own the brands and products sold to consumers. The longevity of this project will not depend on a family’s next generation wanting to continue farming.
About Cole Summers
Cole Summers found an unusual hobby for a six year old in spending his time studying business. His parents eventually allowed him to make these studies his homeschool as he worked to learn all he can from modern titans of business and finance.
At age seven he put what he was learning to use, starting his first farm on his parent’s five acres. He continued studying and working, eventually buying his first ranch when he was nine. It was while building his ranch water system that he learned about the problems of water supply in the Great Basin Desert, where he lives, and developed a passion for wanting to find a better solution.
“No solution is sustainable if it can’t sustain itself,” he says. While his friends went to public school and played sports, Cole studied business structures, tax laws, water cycles, and native plant life in the Great Basin Desert. Eventually, he developed the plan here, dubbing it the Great Basin Green Project.
With the plan complete, Cole is determined to make it happen before it’s too late. As Gen-X and Boomer farmers retire, China, billionaires, and mega-corp industrial farms are often the only buyers to be found. Every time one of these buyers acquires a farm, the chance to fix the environmental damage is lost. He’s putting his business skills to use and taking on entirely different industries to raise the money it takes to fight against the big money taking over American farms. Please check out our Support page to help Cole fight against water scarcity and defend American food security.