THE PO'D FARMER.
THIRTY YEARS OF HARD TRUTHS AND HARDER WORK.
David Kolsrud is not a motivational speaker. He is not a consultant who parachutes in, bills enormous hours, and leaves. He is a farmer. He is pissed off. And after thirty years of boots-on-the-ground experience in value-added agriculture and rural economic development, he is here to prove that the answers to rural America's biggest challenges have been in your backyard all along.
MEET DAVID KOLSRUD,
THE PISSED OFF FARMER
David Kolsrud grew up understanding what it means to work land that matters. Over three decades, he built a career that sits at the crossroads of farming, community organizing, and economic strategy, helping coordinate more than $2 billion worth of agricultural and community development projects across the country.
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He has counseled peanut growers in Georgia, worked with energy farmers in the Midwest, and spoken at governor's economic conferences more than 2,500 times. He has seen the co-op model work. He has watched it get abandoned. He has spent a career trying to get farmers to stop competing against their neighbors and start building something together.
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David still farms. That is not a footnote, it is the whole point. Every column he writes, every stage he steps onto, every student he mentors is grounded in the reality of a person who never left the land. He is not telling you what he read. He is telling you what he lived.
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The PO'd Farmer is known for a rare combination: the ability to make an audience laugh until they shift uncomfortably in their seat, and then hand them a mirror and a playbook. His work has helped build nationally recognized models for cooperative ownership, rural economic investment, and agricultural community development. His integrity is the foundation. His humor is the door. His track record is the reason you should walk through it.
"If the farmers own the land and grow the products, and if they group together by processing and selling those products, they could make more money. Our neighbor is not our competitor if we work together."
— David Kolsrud
THE PISSED OFF FARMER — WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
Anger Is the Hook. Wisdom Is the Message.
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The name is not an accident. The Pissed Off Farmer exists because David keeps watching people choose the harder, lonelier road when a better one is right in front of them.
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He is pissed off because universities are teaching twenty-year-old curriculum to students who are ready to change the world, and slowly extinguishing that fire. He is pissed off because rural communities are watching their schools close, their grocery stores disappear, and their young people leave, when the tools to fight back are already there. He is pissed off because farmers who built this country keep being told they are not qualified, not big enough, not organized enough to own their outcomes.
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But here is what you need to know about David: underneath the edge is thirty years of hard-won wisdom, an unshakeable commitment to integrity, and a genuine love for the people and communities he serves.​
​The PO'd Farmer plants seeds.
Sometimes they grow into ideas. Sometimes they grow into businesses. Sometimes they grow into entire movements.
He keeps planting, because that is what farmers do.
WHAT THE PO'D FARMER OFFERS
Agriculture Consulting
Strategic, no-nonsense guidance for farmers, cooperatives, and rural economic development organizations
Agriculture Speaking
High-energy, disruptive keynotes and presentations for conferences, universities, and community events
Agriculture Mentoring
Direct, honest mentorship for college students and early-career agricultural professionals
The Pissed Off Farmer Chronicles
A no-holds-barred column on the state of rural America and the ideas worth fighting for