Advisory Council
JoAnne Berkenkamp joined the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in 2007 as Program Director for Local Foods. For the prior eleven years, JoAnne led an independent consulting practice working with non-profits, food businesses and foundations across the United States. Her consulting work focused on market development for locally and sustainably grown food and the creation of farmer-owned businesses. She has also worked extensively in the program evaluation arena, leading efforts to improve the impact and shared learning of numerous food- and agriculture-related programs.
Previously, she worked for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC and with Catholic Relief Services at various locations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. She started her career in the corporate finance world. JoAnne has a Masters in Public Policy degree from Harvard University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Finance from the University of Illinois.
Don Bustos has more than twenty years’ experience as a New Mexican farmer, and currently serves as the Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee – New Mexico, providing farmer to farmer training and working on farm policy. He operates a certified organic vegan farm in Espanola, New Mexico and was named the New Mexico Farmer of the Year in 2006. Don serves on the boards of several organizations including Western Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, New Mexico Acequica Association, Rio Arribba County Extension Service Advisory Committee, the Santa Cruz de la Canada Land Grant board, and the National Immigrant Farming Initiative. Don also has received the Leyendecker Award form New Mexico State University.
Ron Doetch has served as Executive Director of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute since 2003. Prior to MFAI, Ron worked with the food division of Itochu, a large Japanese trading company, designing origination programs to connect the Japanese consumer to the American farmer. Ron serves on the board of the Town and Country RC&D, the Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Citizens Advisory Council of the UW Center for Integrated Agriculture Systems, the advisory board of the Wisconsin Integrated Faming System Trials and he is a "thinking partner"/co-project director of the Good to Grow Project, centered in Madison.
Ron keeps a sailboat in Milwaukee on Lake Michigan and intersects frequently with initiatives of the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Urban Ag Network. Ron currently heads up MFAI's Teutonia Urban Gardens project, a one-half acre garden, which serves as an outdoor classroom for the Academy of Learning and Leadership of Milwaukee. The project also serves as a model for managing city storm water while fostering social healing and economic development.
Diana Endicott is the founder and director of Good Natured Family Farms’ alliance. Diana farms with her husband Gary on a 400 acre organic and 400 acre transitional farm in southeast Kansas. She is a recipient of the National Agriculture Hall of Fame’s Honor Acre, the SBIR Tibbets Award, and named a “Trailblazer” by the Kansas City Star. She has been featured in publications such as Successful Farming, The Furrow, Rural Cooperatives, Small Farm Today, and The New American Farmer. Diana is published in Women and Sustainable Agriculture – Agents of Change, and The Status of Women in Agriculture in Kansas – Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Diana has a BS and MS in Horticulture/Soil Science from OSU and post-graduate studies at LSU.
Scott Exo is executive director at Food Alliance, a national non-profit creating market incentives for sustainable agriculture. Food Alliance operates a certification program for environmentally friendly and socially responsible agricultural practices, and connects certified farms, ranches, and processors with the growing market for sustainably grown products. Before joining Food Alliance in 1999, he worked on farm and forest land conservation issues for 1000 Friends of Oregon, managed rural development and study abroad programs in Asia and Africa, and was an organizational consultant. Scott serves on the Oregon Sustainable Agriculture Resource Center's administrative council; the ODA/OSU Food Innovation Center advisory board, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch advisory board. He is a past member of the City of Portland/Multnomah Food Policy Council. As an East-West Center graduate fellow, Scott earned dual Masters degrees in Geography and in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1989.
Anthony Flaccavento is a founding member of Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD), and Executive Director since its origination in 1995. Under his leadership the organization has helped create an infrastructure of sustainability in agriculture and forestry in southwest VA and northeast TN. In sustainable agriculture, Anthony has been instrumental in creating an alternative means of income through the promotion of certified organic farming and establishing market opportunities for farmers, particularly tobacco growers. To this end, ASD helped form Appalachian Harvest, a production and marketing network involving approximately 65 farmers. In the area of sustainable forestry, he helped establish a solar dry kiln and wood products primary processing center to promote ecological timber harvesting and “green building” in Virginia and Tennessee.
Anthony holds a BA in Agriculture and Ecology from the University of Kentucky and an MA in Rural Development from the University of Pittsburgh. He and his family raise three acres of certified organic produce on a farm just outside Abingdon.
Hal Hamilton directs the global Sustainable Food Lab, whose members come from more than 70 organizations including farming, manufacturing, food service and retail leaders, as well as social and environmental NGOs and the public sector. The Sustainable Food Lab’s pilot projects involve businesses and civil society partners, and target poverty alleviation, re-regionalizing food supply, and reducing environmental footprints of supply chains.
Hal’s background includes commercial farming, farm organization leadership, creation of rural development and leadership initiatives, and speaker and consultant to foundations and agricultural development organizations. Hal’s education was at Stanford University and the State University of New York, Buffalo. He has written numerous columns and journal articles and three chapters in books on agricultural policy and change. He is a proud father and grandfather, and he lives in an eco-village on a working farm in Vermont.
Denis Jennisch started in the food business at retail grocer Eagle Food Centers in 1974. During 22 years with this company, Denis held many different positions and responsibilities at the store and corporate level, including Produce Manager, Regional Produce Merchandiser, and Produce Category Manager. In 1996, Denis accepted a position with Supervalu as a Regional Produce Merchandiser, responsible for sales and assisting retailers in all areas of produce operations in the mid-West region. Denis moved to Texas in 2002 to serve as Produce Director with Fleming, opening and running the entirety of produce operations which supplied K Mart, Target, and independent retailers throughout the south states. In 2007, Denis came on board at Sysco Food Services of Grand Rapids to serve as Produce Category Manager, using his experience and expertise to facilitate all areas of the produce operations.
Warren King is the owner of WellSpring, a company that promotes the stewardship of natural resources by providing services and products to communities, government, not-for-profits and businesses. Warren’s food-related business experiences include strategic planning, project management, value chain development and sales. Most recently, Warren was the general manager of Goodness Greeness, the Midwest’s largest certified organic produce wholesaler. His passion for protecting our land and water resources is rooted in his northern California upbringing and his work on the farm as a young man.
Warren possesses an MBA from DePaul University and is a graduate of UC-Davis with a degree in International Relations. He is a member of the Illinois Food, Farms and Jobs Taskforce and also serves on the boards of Kidz Express, Seven Generations Ahead, Sustain USA and the Association of Family Farms. In 2000, he was honored with the Illinois Alumni Recognition Award for his volunteer work and fund raising achievements for local 4-H.
Brett Melone is Executive Director of ALBA, Agriculture & Land Based Training Association, based in Salinas, California. ALBA promotes economic viability, social equity, and ecological land management among limited resource and aspiring farmers on California’s Central Coast. Brett grew up in agriculture in South Florida, where his father oversaw production of thousands of acres of avocados, limes and mangos. His bias for sustainable, family-scale agriculture developed when he experienced first-hand the health risks associated with industrial agriculture, and saw the effects of this system on farm workers and their families. Brett received his BA in international relations and Spanish at the University of San Diego, and then obtained a Masters Degree in International Environmental Policy and Spanish at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Before coming to ALBA in May 2002, Brett spent 3 years working on an organic family farm in Chile, and on a number of sustainable agriculture and microenterprise development projects.
Rich Pirog joined the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in 1990. He is the Program Leader for the Center's Marketing and Food Systems Initiative, and became associate director in February 2007. Pirog directs the Value Chain Partnerships (VCP) project, a multi-organizational effort that provides technical assistance to farmer-led food businesses. Through VCP, Pirog leads the Regional Food Systems Working Group, which focuses on making the case for investment in local and regional food businesses and networks.
Pirog's work and collaborations on food miles, food value chains, local and place-based foods, and ecolabels has been publicized in magazines and media outlets across the globe, used by local food practitioners, and is often cited in college courses. In 2003, he received the Iowa Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa, and in 2004, he received the Iowa State University College of Agriculture Award for Outstanding Achievement and Service.
Pamela Roy is Co-Director of Farm to Table, a New Mexico based non-profit working on farm and ranch issues, Farm to School, farmers’ market development, and food and agriculture policy. She has close to 20 years of organizational development, convening and farmers’ market experience and has worked internationally in lesser-developed countries. She is a co-founder and steering committee member of the Southwest Marketing Network and works on many of the Network’s programs including Tribal farmers’ market development and initiated regional food policy councils. She is the director of the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council that works on state and federal policy advocating for food system issues including health, nutrition, hunger, and family size farm and ranch policies and programs. She has served as a Board officer of the Community Food Security Coalition for the past six years and as president of the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association.
Kathy Ruhf has coordinated the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group since 1992. In that capacity, she has managed many projects focused on food and farm policy, food systems development and public education. Kathy is especially interested in promoting regionalism in food systems work – a framework that addresses regional needs and characteristics and fosters regional solutions. Kathy has written, trained and presented about food systems, food-related social movements, policy advocacy, farmland access, tenure and succession, structure of agriculture, and beginning farmers. Kathy is also a principal with Land For Good, a nonprofit organization that specializes in working lands management, land access and farm transfer planning. She has master's degrees in administration (University of Massachusetts) and natural resources management (Antioch/New England). Kathy lives and works in Belchertown, MA.
Vanessa Zajfen is the Farm to Institution Program Coordinator at the Center for Food & Justice, at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College. Vanessa works closely with local farmers, distribution firms and other farm to institution practitioners to develop market based solutions and local food programming opportunities to increase access and flow of good food in low-income communities across Southern California.
Vanessa has a BA from UC Santa Cruz, an MS in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University, and owned and operated Beyond Organic Produce Company which specialized in sourcing and selling locally grown foods.
