Full Name
Mr. Patrick Brown
Business or Org Name
The Connect Group NC LLC
Title
CEO
Speaker Bio
Patrick Brown Founder, The Connect Group NC, LLC
Fayetteville State University
Bachelor of Science, Business Administration
Patrick Brown, an American Entrepreneur, Born in 1982 in Henderson, NC. During Patrick’s adolescent years he grew up on his family farm as the 4th generation heir learning to cultivate Tobacco, Soybean and Wheat alongside his father the late Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Brown. Currently farming on land that his family has owned for generations in a small community called Hecks Grove in southeastern Warren County, North Carolina. “The farm was established by my great grandfather, Byron C. Brown in the late1800’s.” Byron was born at the Oakley Grove Plantation in Northeast Warren County, NC in the community called Littleton. Byron and his mother Lucinda Fain were both born into slavery and owned by his father Jacob Falcon-Browne and Jacobs mother Mary Ann Falcon-Browne. Jacob and Bryon’s Mother Lucinda had a total of 7 children. Whom all left the plantation at the end of the civil war in 1865. Patrick recounts. “While sharecropping my great grandfather became a first-generation farmer who later owned a business, grew commodity crops, timber and raised livestock until he died in 1931. My grandfather, Grover Brown, was a second-generation farmer who inherited his father’s businesses and farmed. He established a peach orchard in 1935, while cultivating grain and raising livestock up until his death in the 1978. My father, Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Brown, was the third-generation farmer “who taught me everything that I know about farming;” especially in food sovereignty and learning to live off the land he continued raising livestock, and grew vegetables, grain, and tobacco up until his retirement in 2003.
Patrick was next in line. After graduating from Fayetteville State University in 2005 and armed with a degree in Business Administration in Management, he travelled all over the world as a federal contractor and federal employee, working alongside the USDA and other government intelligence agencies as an Agriculture Advisor in Afghanistan until 2011, while also managing and operating Brown Family Farms. In 2014, after industrial hemp was legalized in North Carolina, Patrick did extensive research on the specialty crop with his mother the late Celeste C. Brown over the next few years before planning his first crop of germinated hemp seed in 2018. “We stopped farming tobacco in 2017 and now we are focused on Soil Conservation, Regenerative climate smart practices and carbon sequestration while growing specialty crops that can actually help with food sovereignty, climate impact and holistic health aid.
“Our mission now at Brown Family Farms is to help provide an alternative, holistic solution to customers, naturally, by processing and manufacturing carbon neutral plants like industrial hemp, natural herbs, and organic vegetables,” Patrick continues. “I have been successful in alleviating aliments with specialty crops such as anxiety, depression, OCD, ADD, ADHD, pain, arteritis, autism, mood swings, PTSD, inflammation, soreness, fatigue, acne, eczema, migraines, and psoriasis. Our Hempfinity cannabinoid products can also help the cue-induced craving and anxiety for people who suffer from opioid addiction.” When harvested, Patrick’s crops are processed at a local distillery and decorticated to make products such as textile fiber, manufactured building material, topicals, creams, salves, and oils. “Not only am I an operator and cultivator, but I also have a license to process all my products,” he notes. “So, on my farm, we have a vertically integrated operation; we create, we process, and distribute our products from here and online.”
In addition to providing product for the medicinal sector, Patrick notes that industrial hemp is also an excellent, cost-effective substitute for existing products such as textiles, cellulose polymers, biofuels, and now, hempwood, hempwool and hempcrete, which is a relatively new composite material made from the plant’s Hurd, or bast core. Hempcrete provides a natural, vapor-permeable, airtight insulation material which also has great thermal mass, giving it a uniquely effective thermal performance. Hemp composites are light and strong, and, ideally, can even replace fiberglass and some carbon fiber.
“You have a Medicinal plant variety, and then you have your Fiber textile woven and non-woven varieties,” Patrick says. In 2021 I grew over 170 acres and in 2022 over 350 acres of fiber hemp for Biophil Natural Fibers out of Lumberton, NC that created Hurd & textile fibers products and 60 acres of fiber hemp Bear Fibers Inc. that supplied VF Corporation in Durham, NC and Trace Feminine Care in Nashville, Tennessee. “We drill it, sickle it, rett it and bale it up like hay and sell it to large textile corporations. That’s the future for the industrial hemp industry; it’s the same way we’ve done with our hay over the years for animal feed, and it’s the way we will be able to farm industrial hemp at a commodity level regeneratively to help introduce farm practices that will improve the soil, promote clean energy, and help with carbon sequestration to offset global warming during crop rotations like we do with our organic vegetables.”
Patrick is also intent on helping other farmers, especially Black Indigenous People of Color, by teaching the future farmers of America how to start farming operations and to learn how to utilize their land for the good of the soil and atmosphere; planting and harvesting products that are regenerative, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and healthy for human consumption though his consultant company The Connect Group LLC. In October 2019, he was featured as the keynote speaker for a panel called “Land of Opportunity in Black Agribusiness” at the annual Black Wall Street conference for entrepreneurs focused on the intersection of content, connections, and culture in Durham, NC. In January 2020, Patrick was featured on The Black Equity Network podcast panel “Dear Black Farmers” Episode 266. In 2020 Patrick and Brown Family Farms were featured in the September issue of Business View Magazine. In May 2021 Patrick was one of the keynote speakers at the 9th annual Vance Granville small business summit for agriculture alternatives and legacy farms seminar. In November of 2021 Patrick was the keynote speaker at the 31st Annual National Black Farmers Association Conference in Boydton, VA. On March 1st, 2022, Patrick was the first BIPOC farmer to speak at the 5th Annual Industrial Hemp Summit at The North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. On August 20th, 2022, Patrick was the keynote speaker at the Southern Hemp Expo in Nashville Tennessee. On October 1st, 2022, Patrick was the Keynote speaker for the 1st annual W.A.S.H conference sponsored by Patagonia and VF Corporation in Liberty, NC. On November 1st, 2022, Patagonia clothing company released a short film in Patrick’s farm operation as a business owner in agriculture. In January 2023, Patrick, and his company The Connect Group NC LLC. was hired as a partner by the Rodale Institute to consult with farmers by providing technical assistance on regenerative agriculture practices for the USDA Climate-Smart Commodities initiative throughout the Southern Piedmont Region of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Patrick is also a Director of Farmer Inclusion for Non-Profit Company Nature for Justice. On March 6th, 2023, Patrick was the Keynote Speaker at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Organic Commodities & Livestock Conference at North Carolina State University. In April 2023 Patrick became Board Chair of The Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute to administer on how we innovate the ecosystem and ensure the delivery of healthy food in our rural communities throughout North Carolina from farmer to processing, to education, to the actual consumer.
In August 2023 Patrick became the Board Director of Kiss the Ground Inc. KTG is an audience-supported nonprofit promoting regeneration and healthy soil as a viable solution for our wellness, water, and climate crisis. Since 2013 KTG has inspired millions to participate in the Regenerative Movement through storytelling, education, and partnerships. To awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration – a solution for the climate, water, and health crisis. In order to encourage young people to become entrepreneurs in agriculture, Brown Family Farms serves as a learning environment for organizations such as the Golden LEAF Foundation and the NC Corporative Extension offices.,. To date, college interns from Winston-Salem State have volunteered over 200 hours which had helped them earn college course credits. “We’re losing a lot of younger farmers, because either they don’t have the proper educational processes to continue their farms, or they don’t have the motivation to want to continue to farm anymore. So, we allow students from various colleges and agriculture programs to come out to our farm and obtain course credits, so we can provide education and give back to the community.” In February 2023 Patrick founded the Rev. Dr. A. A. Brown Foundation after his late Father who passed away on February 12, 2023, at the age of 95. The foundation’s mission is to focus on creating future farmers within the southeast region by allowing boys and girls to volunteer on the farm each 2nd and 3rd weekend of each month at Brown Family Farms learning agriculture techniques and practices under the direction of Farm Owner Patrick Brown. In February 2024 Patrick was nominated as a Policy Committee Member for The National Young Farmers Coalition. Most recently Patrick was invited to be one of the Key Note speakers at The Climate Underground Conference in Carthage, Tennessee hosted by Vice President Al Gore.
Outside of operating his family business Patrick has an extensive Intelligence background working in federal service for 16 years in Washington, D.C including 13 years in various management roles. On June 12, 2023, Patrick retired from The Defense Intelligence Agency and become the first Director of Farmer Inclusion for Nature for Justice in North Carolina where he is leading the USDA funded Soil Inventory Project. On March 27, 2024, Patrick was awarded the 2024 N.C. Small Farmer of the Year at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University by NC Cooperative Extension. Patrick is a highly motivated leader that possess self-awareness, empowers others, constant and consistent who exhibits humility and focuses on building working relationships.
Fayetteville State University
Bachelor of Science, Business Administration
Patrick Brown, an American Entrepreneur, Born in 1982 in Henderson, NC. During Patrick’s adolescent years he grew up on his family farm as the 4th generation heir learning to cultivate Tobacco, Soybean and Wheat alongside his father the late Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Brown. Currently farming on land that his family has owned for generations in a small community called Hecks Grove in southeastern Warren County, North Carolina. “The farm was established by my great grandfather, Byron C. Brown in the late1800’s.” Byron was born at the Oakley Grove Plantation in Northeast Warren County, NC in the community called Littleton. Byron and his mother Lucinda Fain were both born into slavery and owned by his father Jacob Falcon-Browne and Jacobs mother Mary Ann Falcon-Browne. Jacob and Bryon’s Mother Lucinda had a total of 7 children. Whom all left the plantation at the end of the civil war in 1865. Patrick recounts. “While sharecropping my great grandfather became a first-generation farmer who later owned a business, grew commodity crops, timber and raised livestock until he died in 1931. My grandfather, Grover Brown, was a second-generation farmer who inherited his father’s businesses and farmed. He established a peach orchard in 1935, while cultivating grain and raising livestock up until his death in the 1978. My father, Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Brown, was the third-generation farmer “who taught me everything that I know about farming;” especially in food sovereignty and learning to live off the land he continued raising livestock, and grew vegetables, grain, and tobacco up until his retirement in 2003.
Patrick was next in line. After graduating from Fayetteville State University in 2005 and armed with a degree in Business Administration in Management, he travelled all over the world as a federal contractor and federal employee, working alongside the USDA and other government intelligence agencies as an Agriculture Advisor in Afghanistan until 2011, while also managing and operating Brown Family Farms. In 2014, after industrial hemp was legalized in North Carolina, Patrick did extensive research on the specialty crop with his mother the late Celeste C. Brown over the next few years before planning his first crop of germinated hemp seed in 2018. “We stopped farming tobacco in 2017 and now we are focused on Soil Conservation, Regenerative climate smart practices and carbon sequestration while growing specialty crops that can actually help with food sovereignty, climate impact and holistic health aid.
“Our mission now at Brown Family Farms is to help provide an alternative, holistic solution to customers, naturally, by processing and manufacturing carbon neutral plants like industrial hemp, natural herbs, and organic vegetables,” Patrick continues. “I have been successful in alleviating aliments with specialty crops such as anxiety, depression, OCD, ADD, ADHD, pain, arteritis, autism, mood swings, PTSD, inflammation, soreness, fatigue, acne, eczema, migraines, and psoriasis. Our Hempfinity cannabinoid products can also help the cue-induced craving and anxiety for people who suffer from opioid addiction.” When harvested, Patrick’s crops are processed at a local distillery and decorticated to make products such as textile fiber, manufactured building material, topicals, creams, salves, and oils. “Not only am I an operator and cultivator, but I also have a license to process all my products,” he notes. “So, on my farm, we have a vertically integrated operation; we create, we process, and distribute our products from here and online.”
In addition to providing product for the medicinal sector, Patrick notes that industrial hemp is also an excellent, cost-effective substitute for existing products such as textiles, cellulose polymers, biofuels, and now, hempwood, hempwool and hempcrete, which is a relatively new composite material made from the plant’s Hurd, or bast core. Hempcrete provides a natural, vapor-permeable, airtight insulation material which also has great thermal mass, giving it a uniquely effective thermal performance. Hemp composites are light and strong, and, ideally, can even replace fiberglass and some carbon fiber.
“You have a Medicinal plant variety, and then you have your Fiber textile woven and non-woven varieties,” Patrick says. In 2021 I grew over 170 acres and in 2022 over 350 acres of fiber hemp for Biophil Natural Fibers out of Lumberton, NC that created Hurd & textile fibers products and 60 acres of fiber hemp Bear Fibers Inc. that supplied VF Corporation in Durham, NC and Trace Feminine Care in Nashville, Tennessee. “We drill it, sickle it, rett it and bale it up like hay and sell it to large textile corporations. That’s the future for the industrial hemp industry; it’s the same way we’ve done with our hay over the years for animal feed, and it’s the way we will be able to farm industrial hemp at a commodity level regeneratively to help introduce farm practices that will improve the soil, promote clean energy, and help with carbon sequestration to offset global warming during crop rotations like we do with our organic vegetables.”
Patrick is also intent on helping other farmers, especially Black Indigenous People of Color, by teaching the future farmers of America how to start farming operations and to learn how to utilize their land for the good of the soil and atmosphere; planting and harvesting products that are regenerative, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and healthy for human consumption though his consultant company The Connect Group LLC. In October 2019, he was featured as the keynote speaker for a panel called “Land of Opportunity in Black Agribusiness” at the annual Black Wall Street conference for entrepreneurs focused on the intersection of content, connections, and culture in Durham, NC. In January 2020, Patrick was featured on The Black Equity Network podcast panel “Dear Black Farmers” Episode 266. In 2020 Patrick and Brown Family Farms were featured in the September issue of Business View Magazine. In May 2021 Patrick was one of the keynote speakers at the 9th annual Vance Granville small business summit for agriculture alternatives and legacy farms seminar. In November of 2021 Patrick was the keynote speaker at the 31st Annual National Black Farmers Association Conference in Boydton, VA. On March 1st, 2022, Patrick was the first BIPOC farmer to speak at the 5th Annual Industrial Hemp Summit at The North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. On August 20th, 2022, Patrick was the keynote speaker at the Southern Hemp Expo in Nashville Tennessee. On October 1st, 2022, Patrick was the Keynote speaker for the 1st annual W.A.S.H conference sponsored by Patagonia and VF Corporation in Liberty, NC. On November 1st, 2022, Patagonia clothing company released a short film in Patrick’s farm operation as a business owner in agriculture. In January 2023, Patrick, and his company The Connect Group NC LLC. was hired as a partner by the Rodale Institute to consult with farmers by providing technical assistance on regenerative agriculture practices for the USDA Climate-Smart Commodities initiative throughout the Southern Piedmont Region of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Patrick is also a Director of Farmer Inclusion for Non-Profit Company Nature for Justice. On March 6th, 2023, Patrick was the Keynote Speaker at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Organic Commodities & Livestock Conference at North Carolina State University. In April 2023 Patrick became Board Chair of The Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute to administer on how we innovate the ecosystem and ensure the delivery of healthy food in our rural communities throughout North Carolina from farmer to processing, to education, to the actual consumer.
In August 2023 Patrick became the Board Director of Kiss the Ground Inc. KTG is an audience-supported nonprofit promoting regeneration and healthy soil as a viable solution for our wellness, water, and climate crisis. Since 2013 KTG has inspired millions to participate in the Regenerative Movement through storytelling, education, and partnerships. To awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration – a solution for the climate, water, and health crisis. In order to encourage young people to become entrepreneurs in agriculture, Brown Family Farms serves as a learning environment for organizations such as the Golden LEAF Foundation and the NC Corporative Extension offices.,. To date, college interns from Winston-Salem State have volunteered over 200 hours which had helped them earn college course credits. “We’re losing a lot of younger farmers, because either they don’t have the proper educational processes to continue their farms, or they don’t have the motivation to want to continue to farm anymore. So, we allow students from various colleges and agriculture programs to come out to our farm and obtain course credits, so we can provide education and give back to the community.” In February 2023 Patrick founded the Rev. Dr. A. A. Brown Foundation after his late Father who passed away on February 12, 2023, at the age of 95. The foundation’s mission is to focus on creating future farmers within the southeast region by allowing boys and girls to volunteer on the farm each 2nd and 3rd weekend of each month at Brown Family Farms learning agriculture techniques and practices under the direction of Farm Owner Patrick Brown. In February 2024 Patrick was nominated as a Policy Committee Member for The National Young Farmers Coalition. Most recently Patrick was invited to be one of the Key Note speakers at The Climate Underground Conference in Carthage, Tennessee hosted by Vice President Al Gore.
Outside of operating his family business Patrick has an extensive Intelligence background working in federal service for 16 years in Washington, D.C including 13 years in various management roles. On June 12, 2023, Patrick retired from The Defense Intelligence Agency and become the first Director of Farmer Inclusion for Nature for Justice in North Carolina where he is leading the USDA funded Soil Inventory Project. On March 27, 2024, Patrick was awarded the 2024 N.C. Small Farmer of the Year at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University by NC Cooperative Extension. Patrick is a highly motivated leader that possess self-awareness, empowers others, constant and consistent who exhibits humility and focuses on building working relationships.
Speaking At
