Ben Shute is the owner and manager of Hearty Roots Community Farm in Clermont, New York. Along with his family and crew, Ben grows certified organic vegetables and manages pasture-raised laying hens, sheep, and pigs to provide food for 1,000 CSA member households around the Hudson Valley and in New York City, and for a retail farm store, as well as providing 60,000 pounds per year of fresh produce for emergency food providers distributed by nonprofit partners.

Hearty Roots is a first-generation farm which has grown from one acre of rented land in 2004 to stewarding a land base of 300 acres today.  Ben is a member of the Hudson Valley CSA Coalition Leadership Committee and was a cofounder of the National Young Farmers Coalition.