Dr. Kent “Kip” Curtis is Associate Professor of Environmental History at Ohio State’s Mansfield Campus. Kip’s research focus on mining, environmental ideas, and food systems. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in modern United States history and environmental history and offers independent studies in environmental history and environmental studies. He is the author of Gambling on Ore: The Nature of Metal Mining in the United States (Colorado, 2013) and co-author with John Brooke of A Human History of Planet Earth (Cambridge, forthcoming). Since 2017, Kip has led an community engaged research project in Mansfield, Ohio leveraging university knowledge to help facilitate the creation of a sustainable local food system (http://richlandgro-op.com and https://www.necic-ohio.org/programs/local-food-initiatives). His article, “First You Need the Farmers: The Microfarm System as a Critical Intervention in the Alternative Food Movement,” will be published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development in March 2024.