Darryl Birkenfeld

Nazareth | Educator

Darryl Birkenfeld is a part-time farmer, educator, writer and former priest based in the small Panhandle community of Nazareth, Texas. As a farmer, he helps manage the Paidom Meats grass-fed beef, lamb and poultry operation. As a priest, he ministered for over a decade to congregations in Cactus and Stratford, struggling agricultural towns in the Panhandle, and grew to understand the need for a sustainable agriculture that would support human communities and natural ecosystems over the long-term. Towards that goal, he helped found and operate the Promised Land Network in the late 1980s, and sponsored the Southern Plains Conference, as efforts to educate Panhandle residents about Staked Plain land uses and resources. In recent years, he has returned to school, received his Ph.D. in agricultural ethics, and is currently working on a book considering Americans’ changing relationship with the land.