Jean Pierre Sagouspe is the third generation of a French Basque immigrant family. Originally, the family was in the sheep business but gradually moved into farming, primarily growing almonds and pistachios in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Jean is married with 2 children and four grandchildren. All family members are involved in today’s family farming business. Jean started his own farming business after high school, got married and finished college with an AA degree in Ag business, all the while making a living in the farming business.
Jean enjoys big game hunting and flyfishing with his friends and family at the fabulous Ghost Ranch located near Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Today, Jean and his family have a vertically integrated almond farm in California that includes growing, hulling and shelling, marketing and processing almonds for sale and delivery to consumers around the world. The Sagouspe family also has successful ranching and real estate ventures in the Steamboat Springs-Yampa Valley area of Northwest Colorado.
Jean has been and continues to be at the leading edge of developing economical water treatment facilities and hardware for the desalinization of brackish water for agricultural uses on farm. He is also a pioneer for on-farm solar generation to power all of the on-farm electricity needed to develop a self-contained, vertically integrated family farming operation.
Jean is a leader in promoting equitable and universal application of environmental laws. Under his leadership, the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy & Reliability (CESAR) was formed. CESAR is a conservation group for the 21st century, with a focus on gathering the BEST SCIENCE to effectively protect the environment and the economy. CESAR works to ensure the fair, equitable and universal application of environmental laws, with the belief that no one – not even the government – should be exempt from the rules and regulations created by these laws.