Loren Nancarrow

 It’s difficult to remember a time when Loren Nancarrow wasn’t on San Diego television.

For almost 30 years, Loren has educated and enlightened viewers with his vast knowledge of Earth and its climate on ABC 10 News, CBS 8 News and now here, on Fox 5 News.

Loren Nancarrow is an outspoken conservationist and environmentalist who’s not afraid to air his (sometimes controversial) opinions about our planet and what he thinks everyone needs to do to save it.

Loren is a founding trustee of the EcoLife Foundation, which is involved in conservation efforts in Africa, Mexico, the Caribbean and locally. He is a committee member of several San Diego nature organizations, including the San Diego Foundation and volunteers his time on environmental education with the San Diego Natural History Museum. On top of that, Random House has published 3 Nancarrow – penned organic gardening books!

He not only grows a lot of his food, he also loves to putter around in the kitchen, specializing in chili.

Apparently, he never sleeps!

Loren lives in North County with his wife, Susie, and their three kids.

I’m known around the newsroom for… my homemade peanut butter, beef jerky and vanilla extract.

What keeps me going? All I have yet to experience. If I ever run out of curiosity about food, adventure, science, nature, growing things, building things and exploring, then I’ll stop going. Not gonna happen.

If I wasn’t on TV, I’d miss it. I tried it once and did.  Whatever I did instead would have to be adventurous, outdoors, and all about discovery, and  writing.

What is something no one knows about me? I get weepy when I think about how much my family means to me. I was raised in one kind of family and came of age in a very different group. I never realized how close a home could be until Susie and I started raising a family. The kids are grown and I love them more every day.

On my days off, I can be found… You see the thing is that on my days off, I CAN’T be found. Days off are all about getting lost. Lost at the beach, lost in a project, lost literally. No matter how lost i get, the dogs are nearby and Susie usually isn’t far off, although we’ve been known to differ on which side of the fork in the road to follow.

My most memorable TV moment- I’ve been working on TV for a very long time and have had the opportunity to experience incredible things. Among the gnarliest: trying to show what 60  ft seas look like while traveling aboard an ice reinforced ship, south of cape horn, on the way to Antarctica, trusting a titantium shark suit while letting a 7′ blue shark gnaw on my arm, 20 miles from land. Spending an entire day at the White house with a President and his V.P., interviewing a brutal dictator, with the seat of my pants split from belt, to zipper. Being stuck between the KKK and an angry mob with rocks, baseball bats and gunfire, all being used violently. Perhaps my most memorable experience though would be the 48 hours of nearly continous coverage following the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco. We went on the air in SF the moment the shaking stopped .

I give back to my community by…  Susie and I are very grateful for the life we have in SD County and believe it’s essential we show our gratitude whenever possible. The environment has always been my keen interest and when we find groups that share our vision get involved. I am a founding trustee with the Ecolife Foundation. I also serve on the board of trustees at the San Dieguito Boys and Girls Club. We support the San Diego Botanic Gardens, the Magdelena Ecke YMCA, and the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy.

Dinner for 5? First choice would be family and friends, but that’s not what you mean I bet. Anyone who’s read my Facebook posts knows my interest in politics, nature, photography, music and creative thinking, so I’d want a raucous group of smart trouble makers, some living some reconstituted for purpose of conversation. For starters, John Muir (oh boy will he be pissed about what we’ve done), John Stuart to keep the conversation light but on point, John Steinbeck, as a note taker. I’d love to read his account of the dinner. John Kennedy, because he was a perfect combination of guts, glory, bad boy, and idealist. And my last John is Lennon. No explanation needed.

If I had free time, I would… fill it.  Maybe a long hike to see a Buddhist monk friend in Bhutan. It’s supposed to be incredibly beautiful, and Lama Phuntsho is a guy who makes me feel better than I am. If I had some serious time, I’d finish the label design on my Norman Ranchero Brand organic peanut butter and sell it at Farmer’s markets. Something I’m itching to try.

My guilty pleasure is fried chicken. Nothing better…but soooo wrong.