Rick Hartmann

Field Crops Viability Coordinator

rick.hartmann(at)practicalfarmers(dot)org

Rick Hartmann joined the Practical Farmers staff as a field crops viability coordinator in the summer of 2024, after several years assisting PFI as a contract employee. Currently, he helps farmers involved in PFI’s cost-share programs and collects data from those programs for their evaluation.

Rick grew up on a small farm in eastern Iowa, just above the Wapsipinicon River floodplain, raising hogs farrow-to-finish as his own on-farm enterprise. Much of his free time was spent tramping through the timbers and river bottoms on and around the farm.

After leaving the farm, Rick received a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and a master’s degree in plant breeding at Iowa State University. After some years working and travelling, some law school and education training, Rick returned to Ames and worked both at Iowa State’s Plant Pathology Department and Practical Farmers of Iowa helping develop local systems.

Between Rick’s first job at PFI (nearly 25 years ago) and his current work, he and his wife Stacy ran a small direct-market, certified organic vegetable farm in Dallas County for over 15 years. For several years, he also inspected other certified organic operations for different certifying agencies.

Outside of work, Rick enjoys repairing and restoring wood sash windows, preparing and using traditional non-hydraulic lime mortar and plaster, gardening, pie baking, reading (particularly short-story fiction), volunteer work and cinema.