Brian Wheat is a lifelong educator and naturalist with a penchant for connecting himself and members of the community to the land through plants, fungi, and food. Wheat has a degree in Botany, has been an educator for 12+ years, and led numerous forays in the Lowcountry and beyond. As a certified wild mushroom forager Brian has supplied chefs in the Charleston area and helps introduce unique or overlooked crops and foraged goods to the culinary scene. Recognizing that nature is the greatest agriculturist of all, making the forest and field his home has been a natural inclination and constantly evolving passion.

Wheat’s other work includes being the Director of Community Engagement at Vertical Roots, a hydroponic lettuce farm revolutionizing the way communities grow, distribute, and consume food, and serving as the former Director of Sustainable Agriculture at non-profit Lowcountry Local First, where he trained new and beginning farmers in production and business development. He also recently established Common Joy, a company that focuses on production of and education around plant-based natural products grown using regenerative agriculture and embodying the common thread of food and nature. Wheat is involved in a broad spectrum of agriculture-related boards and advisory committees, representing the sustainable agriculture and small farm community, and through those efforts has committed to being an advocate for a more diverse and robust local food system that is rooted in place.