Meet Our Founder
Meet Our Founder and CEO
Daniel A. Baldwin
Daniel A. Baldwin, MPH, BCE, REHS/RS, FRSPH, grew up in the farming community of Watsonville on California’s Central Coast. Agriculture shaped everyday life, influencing how families lived and reminding communities how much they depended on the land. Those early experiences shaped his perspective on food, health, and community, following him throughout a career spanning public health, food safety, environmental health, and pest-prevention science.
A Career Rooted in Protecting Communities
Daniel’s professional life spans more than three decades, but the through-line has always been the same: helping people protect the systems that protect them.
Over the years, he has worked as a pest control operator, salesperson, sales leader, technical advisor, researcher, author and educator, product distribution specialist, manufacturer’s representative, and vice president of technical, training, and regulatory services.
Each role added another piece to his understanding of how food systems succeed and how they fail.
Where Science Meets Real-World Impact
Daniel’s work has often placed him at the intersection of science and real-world urgency. He has developed national protocols, supported food networks, guided sanitary design standards, and worked directly with regulators and public health teams.
His experience working with federal, state, and local authorities, public health professionals, operators, and employees during both routine operations and crises has shaped his understanding of the systems that protect food and public health.
These experiences reinforced his belief that food security is not just an agricultural issue. It is also a public health issue, a community issue, and a matter of human dignity.
Where Science Meets Real-World Impact
General Pest Prevention Operations: 31 Years
Operations Technical Management: 11 Years
Manufacturer Sales & Technical Representation: 4 Years
Distribution Sales & Technical Representation: 4 Years
Wood Destroying Organisms: 10 Years
Senior Food Safety/QA Scientist: 3.5 Years
Global Marketing Team: 3.5 Years
Consultant to Manufacturing: 14 Years
Why Guarded Harvest Exists
Guarded Harvest grew out of Daniel’s belief that food security is fundamental to public health, community resilience, and human dignity.
He didn’t set out to create a charity. He wanted to build a self-sustaining program that strengthens food security, improves public health, and supports communities in ways that last.
The organization provides practical interventions for smallholder farmers, has established a community-based organization in Nakuru County, and operates as an ongoing mixed-methods research project that adapts to real-world conditions.
Beginning with maize farmers in Nakuru, the model is designed to scale across Kenya and eventually to other countries facing similar challenges.
A Return to the Values That Started It All
For Daniel, Guarded Harvest is a return to the values he grew up with: that food matters, that community matters, and that the people who grow the world’s food deserve systems that work for them.
It is a practical, regenerative, community-driven effort, built not to give charity, but to build strength.