In addition to being a biodiesel advocate, Charris Ford is also well known for his talents as an Environmental Rapper who uses the Rap medium as a way of communicating important ecological messages that effect us all today. Charris uses humor, wit and a fluid but firm grasp of the English language to weave entertaining and often intricate rhymes that remind us of our connections to the earth.

Whether driving his veggie mobile, working on the ranch, gardening or hunting wild mushrooms, Charris is always writing "Granola Raps" to an inner drumbeat.

Charris has performed his raps for thousands and travels all over the country bringing these fiercely fun, informative raps to all those wanting to hear them. Charris' performances aren’t limited to concerts; he has rapped for many schools, festivals, environmental conferences, Earth Day celebrations and the like. He teaches Rap Workshops for teens and his performances have been featured in films and on television.

Charris first caught the bug to be a rapper back in the Eighties when in high school. He says he was inspired by "the Brothas" beating on their lockers and doing Rap competitions.

However he was called, not to the city but rather back to the land where he would spend the next 10 years organic farming in the hills of Tennessee and the hip-hop scene would have to wait... or would it? Charris just could not shake that funky beat he heard in the halls of high school and while he was out splitting firewood or turning ground, the rhythm of the axe and hoe would inspire in him rhythmic riffs of rhyme.

"I'd hear this doon doon whack, da doon doon whack," Ford explains, "so I started writing these farm boy raps". At the Southeastern Rap Competition, where Ford was the only white man in the room, he received a leaping ovation complete with deafening hoots after performing a rap that ended "My Betty, she's ready, you know she rocks me steady, and you know she digs them taters." Another song begins, "So back to the woods I go, like Ralph Waldo and Henry David I Tha-row down the axe when it comes to choppin' wood... You know I dig it when it comes to growin' food..." As Ford says, "It's got the bravado of rap mixed with earthy values."

It was his love of mushrooms that first brought Ford to Telluride Colorado almost six years ago. While marching beside renowned alternative health doctor, Andrew Weil, at Telluride's Mushroom Festival Parade, Ford had the opportunity to "kick down" a few eco-raps for the Good Doctor. They kept in touch via mail, and Weil invited Ford back to Telluride as the official Mushroom Rapper, where he can be found each year bustin' his fresh rhymes.