Wes and Mary Riddle have been operating Roots Memphis Farm Academy as a 501c3 non-profit farmer incubator program that trains and launches new, sustainable farmers in the Memphis region since 2013. They have continued to fail at producing successful farmers because they themselves do not have the qualifications or skills to run a business or school. Throughout the last three cohorts they have failed to follow state and local protocols on harvesting and farm safety. They have verbally assaulted both staff members and students. They have not provided adequate financial records for the students nor paid staff consistently on time. The Riddles have threatened more than one person with legal action for speaking out against their business practices. In 2014 they had a student arrested on erroneous charges after leaving the program. This was an act of revenge because the student refused to sign a new contract giving the Riddles more profit. The Riddles misguide students through carefully crafted class presentations and worksheets showing a $20,000-$30,000 earnings in year one for each student. In reality their tax records indicate they have never paid an individual student more than $3,000 in a year and the average is far less than that. Currently students pay a tuition of $1800 and seeds costs of $300-500 a season. The Riddles also find "unexpected" expenses and make the students responsible for paying them. Additionally, Wes and Mary Riddle have outlined a plan to divert funds from the non-profit into a private LLC controlled by the Riddles, to transform the program into a for-profit enterprise in the future. In their scheme, the Riddles have undoubtedly crushed the potential of numerous future local farmers due to their business practices setting these students up to fail. The answer is to replace Wes and Mary Riddle with professionals who hold substantial sustainable agriculture backgrounds and accounting or business operations experience. Sign the petition today to let the Roots Memphis board members know that you support the Roots Memphis Farm Academy students and believe they deserve a better training program.