Agriculturalist

Olson cultivated his first crop at the age of six with what he
imagined, at the time, was the world’s biggest tractor. He has since
participated in the commercial production of beans, beets, blueberries,
cattle, garlic, hay, oats, shallots, strawberries, turf grass, wheat
and wine grapes in the states of California, Montana and Oregon.
Olson also consults on farm projects throughout the world, with
projects ranging from the City of Watts to the island nation of
Cyprus, to the jungles of the Amazon.

Journalist

Michael Olson produced, wrote and/or photographed feature-length news for a variety of media, including the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner newspapers, Skiing and Small Space Gardening magazines,NBC, ABC, Australian Broadcast Commission, and KQED Public Television networks. His production and photography helped win a National Emmy nomination for NBC Magazine with David Brinkley. Olson is the authorof MetroFarm, the Ben Franklin Bookof the Year Finalist and Executive Producer and Host of the syndicated Saturday Food Chain radiotalk show, which received the Ag/News Show of the Year Award from the California Legislature.  He recently authored Tales from a Tin Can, which is the oral-history of a World War II US Navy destroyer that earned a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly.

Business Person

Olson designed, blended and packaged a fertilizer for container-grown house and garden plants; certified and registered the product as a “specialty fertilizer” with the State of California; and sold the product to the national lawn and garden market.  Olson has over two decades of broadcast media management and, as General Manager of newstalk radio stations KSCO & KOMY in Santa Cruz, California, has helped hundreds of locally-owned businesses compete against national chains. Olson is currently a partner in the MO MultiMedia Group of Santa Cruz, California.