Welcome Michael Costello to the Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative!
Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative is thrilled to welcome Michael Costello as our new Regional Director. Michael jumped in to work in November and has already made a number of positive changes for our members.
We asked Michael a few questions to help us all get to know him a little bit better.
Your background is varied from owning your own brewery to working in a variety of roles for Amazon. Tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to the Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative.
I guess my aggie roots go back to gardening, with intent to produce my own alfalfa for rabbits I was raising as a 9 year old in Walnut Creek CA. That’s typical, no? As an adult I’ve been ag-adjacent many times and for many jobs and my businesses. Recently, I’ve been on a multi-year journey into learning about regenerative agriculture, eco-agriculture, conservation and the myriad concepts each of those words convey. I’ve come to believe that soil, water, ecosystem, climate, and human health are incredibly interconnected… and choosing to solve for any one of them at a holistic level will inevitably improve the others. Because of that, food producers can focus on improving soil health and water sustainability on the land they steward, and they might just inadvertently “save the world”.
What appeals to you about agriculture?
There’s something a little magical about agriculture, especially when we let an ecosystem really thrive. Sun, water, air, soil, microbes and plants or trees come together to literally create something out of nothing. The fact that after 100s of years of study and innovation, we’re still learning - and in some cases unlearning - how food production, ecosystem health, and human health intersect is pretty wild, and inspiring!
What do you think about perennial cover?
I think that for all agronomy systems and practices one of the most important considerations is context. And in the right context or situation, perennial cover, aka conservation cover, offers an ag producer a number of benefits. When the right perennial plants are established, I think the greatest benefit is that they WANT to be there, and they WANT to grow, they WANT to push nutrients into the soil every year, and their roots remain alive even when the vegetation has died back. So, a farmer isn’t forced to prep soil, buy and put down seed every year.
Michael Costello, Regional Director of the Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative, points out that the Co-op is giving away a million pounds of cover crop seeds.
What are you looking forward to in your first three months on the job?
I think the most exciting thing about a Cooperative is that it brings together people as a community, with common interests and challenges, to build and share resources and opportunities. That might be oversimplified, but I’m excited about drilling down to the core opportunity we have right now and finding the growers who want to tap into them: free perennial cover seed and no risk enrollment to California’s most advanced carbon farming platform.
What’s your vision for the Cooperative over the next year? Five years? Ten years?
As a cooperative, we need to deliver resources, service, support and opportunities which would otherwise be difficult for our members to source on their own. In 2026, I look forward to really focusing on the value proposition for members to join and participate in building the Oakville Bluegrass community. While grant funding and opening doors to carbon markets are compelling member benefits, I plan on listening to the community a lot this year, to really understand what’s desired and what other layers of value we can start building. Five years from now…looking that far out could make for some wildly optimistic goals! I envision an active community of producers who are benefitting from perennial cover, improving nutrient and moisture management and reaping the rewards of improved soil health across a wide range of crops, from Okanogan County Washington to San Diego, CA.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I’m typically drawn to the mountains. I try to do a few weeks of backcountry hiking, scouting and hunting each year. But, you can’t hunt without an affinity for wildlife and habitat … so after the Dixie Fire I bought 120 acres of burned wildland in Plumas County and have been working on rebooting the ecosystem there. Nudging nature in the right direction with dozens of species of native forage plants and shrubs, and using nature based systems is really eye opening!
What do you want OBC members and partners to know as you integrate more into this role?
I’ll come back to the ideas and importance of context, and community. The Cooperative’s power and value for every member will depend on the community we build, cultivate and nurture. And to develop resources and opportunities that make regenerative agriculture profitable and enjoyable, we’ll need to be aware of the different context that every member is operating with.
Interested in learning more about membership in the Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative? Contact us today at info@obc.ag