Meet The Center's Board of Directors & Staff
Board of Directors:
Tom Stearns, President
High Mowing Organic Seeds
Founded in 1996, by Tom Stearns, High Mowing is an organic, mail-order seed company focusing on serving vegetable farmers and gardeners. Tom began the company when he was 19 and has a degree in Sustainable Agriculture. The seeds that the company sells are grown both on their farm in Wolcott as well as by a network of seed farmers nationally and overseas. www.highmowingseeds.com
Andy Kehler, VP
Jasper Hill Farm
Andy Kehler and his brother Mateo and their families have milked cows and made award-winning artisan cheese since 2002. They have also built a business model and infrastructure to age and market the cheese from other Vermont producers. Their goals are both focused and broad: to produce cheeses of the highest quality from their own milk; to demonstrate that it is still possible to prosper on a rocky hillside farm; to create a vehicle for the renewal of the local dairy economy in the form of a business model that can be replicated on other dairy farms. www.jasperhillfarm.com
Andrew Meyer, Secretary
Vermont Soy/Vermont Natural Coatings
The Vermont Soy Company had its first incarnation in 1996, when Todd Pinkham began making tempeh. In 2007, Andrew Meyer and Todd began making products again and have now brought VT Soy to a whole new level, with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities and the ability to market more products to more places.
In 2006, Andrew began Vermont Natural Coatings. The company’s patented natural wood finish formula is an important advance over existing water-based finishes in application, quality, and environmental safety. The formulations use whey protein as the bonding agent. Whey is a renewable resource and a natural by-product of the dairy industry. This use of a natural product in the professional finishes translates to low VOCs (volatile organic compounds) – and better in-door air quality. Their market is green builders and LEED contractors as well as individual homeowners. Andrew’s family has an organic dairy farm in Hardwick and after being raised in VT he worked in D.C. as the agricultural advisor to Senator Jeffords for 7 years.
www.vermontsoy.com & www.vermontnaturalcoatings.com
Pete Johnson, Treasurer
Pete’s Greens
Pete stated Pete’s Greens in 1995 growing primarily salad greens. He started gardening at a very early age and had his own thriving pumpkin business at the age of twelve. He now grows specialty vegetables of many types with an emphasis on baby greens, heirloom tomatoes, and root crops. Pete and his team sell to stores and restaurants throughout Vermont, as well as Boston and New York City. Recently he has focused on local sales direct to customers. In addition, Pete buys products from other farmers and producers and markets them through his “Localvore” Community Supported Agriculture shares. www.petesgreens.com
Tom Gilbert
Highfields Institute
Highfields began in 1999 and has been guided by Tom Gilbert since 2000. The organizations’ focus is on working to develop regenerative food systems through preservation and improvement of Vermont’s agricultural soils, watersheds, and agricultural economies through on-farm composting, organic materials recycling and soil health programs. They have offices in downtown Hardwick and a composting research and demonstration site outside of town. Highfields has many projects focused on soil and water health in addition to compost research and training. Highfields is a grant funded organization but also receives income from consulting services and selling compost. www.highfieldsinstitute.org
Neil Urie
Bonnieview Farm
On a 470-acre hilltop farm, Neil Urie makes sheep’s-milk cheese: subtly tangy natural-rind Ben Nevis, named for the highest mountain in Scotland, and Mossend Blue (named after Moss End, his family’s ancestral farm in Scotland), and more. He has won numerous awards for his cheese.
Annie Gaillard
Buffalo Mountain Coop
Annie Gaillard lives in Walden, Vermont in a passive solar, off the grid house that she designed. Partner Louie Pulver and Annie started Surfing Veggie Farm in 1985 where they grow organic vegetables with a focus on root crops for storage, plant starts and a small egg
operation. She also works at the Buffalo Mountain Food Cooperative where she has been actively involved since it started in 1975 and officially on staff since 1985. Annie and Louie are the blessed parents of Heather who was born in 1984. Her interests include permaculture and gardening at home, building community, working with horses, hiking, canoeing, and cross country skiing. www.buffalomountaincoop.org
Linda Ramsdell
Galaxy Bookstore
Claire's Restaurant
Linda Ramsdell began her business life in Hardwick by opening The Galaxy Bookshop in 1988. In 2003, she opened a satellite of Galaxy,Stardust Books in Craftsbury. Stardust employs area youth as booksellers. With three partners, Linda opened Claire's Restaurant & Bar in Hardwick in May 2008, pioneering a community supported restaurant model. Linda is a 1980 graduate of Craftsbury Academy and graduated from Brown University in 1987. She is a past president of the New England Independent Booksellers Association and was a board member of the American Booksellers Association.
NOTE: We reluctantly said good-bye to Linda Ramsdell in March as she resigned her director position on our board to accept the elected position of President on the Preservation Trust of Vermont board. Thankfully, she still stops by often to catch up and say hello.
www.galaxybookshop.com www.clairesvt.com
Johanna Laggis
Laggis Brothers Farm
Johanna Laggis is a dairy farmer in East Hardwick, Vermont. Along with her husband John and his brother Chris, the Laggis Bros. Farm milks 450 Jerseys with a total of about 800 cattle, caring for 500 acres of land. Besides the farm, Johanna regularly conducts tours and calf workshops for organizations and schools, has served on the Hazen Union School Board and the UVM Extension Board. She grows most of the food for her family and has a special love for growing flowers.
Staff
Monty Fischer, Executive Director
Monty was a senior staff member at the National Wildlife Federation where he served as Director of the Northeast Natural Resources Center located in Montpelier, and in a variety of roles including Senior Vice-President for Conservation Programs. Previously, he held the position of Executive Director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council and Legislative Director for Vermont’s member of the U.S. House of Representatives. For many years he owned a commercial eel fishing business on Lake Champlain and co-operated a maple sugaring business in Vermont’s Mad River Valley. He is an active community leader, having served as Vermont chair of the Lake Champlain Committee, as co-founding chair of both the Lake Champlain Islands Trust and the Champlain Maritime Society. He serves on the Vermont Governor’s Council of Environmental Advisors, recently completing more than a decade as chair. For a number of years he was on the faculty of the University of Vermont. He holds a Masters Degree from the Institute of Environmental and Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire. He and his family have a camp in Greensboro.
Elena Gustavson, Program Director and Education/Community Outreach
Elena Gustavson joined the Center for an Agricultural Economy in June 2009. Elena has an extensive background in small business and food that took her from northern California to the rural landscape of Vermont. In December 2004, she began working for Pete Johnson of Pete's Greens, managing the business, outreach and media side of the farm as well as creating, launching and managing the farm's year-round CSA, Good Eats. Elena then moved on to manage the "green" kitchen at Sterling College where she introduced a budget-friendly local foods menu that used both the school's farm as well as producers within 20 miles of Craftsbury, managed a large and energetic student crew and had the honor of helping to spur forward Sterling's Farm-to-Table movement. She continues to be an active member in her community through the local schools and various volunteer committees. Elena lives in Craftsbury, slowly restoring her 1854 farmhouse with her three wonderfully energetic children and a very old dog.
Heidi Krantz, Small Business Ag. Advisor
Heidi Krantz has been an independent business owner and consultant for over 30 years with extensive experience in personnel and organizational development and training, strategic planning and implementation and marketing. Her education and career have led her on a "scenic" path including work with state and federal agencies, non-profits and private businesses. Heidi also formed Team Resources Group, a collaborative group of diverse individuals who plan and implement interactive organizational development training; she was a founding owner of Umiak Outfitters in Stowe, VT. She left her position as the Community Development Coordinator for the Town of Morristown, Vermont to work with CAE as the Vermont Small Business Development Center Area Business Advisor for the Northeast Kingdom. Heidi and her husband are restoring an 1830’ s hillside farm in Craftsbury.
Erica Campbell, Regional Food Systems Project Manager
Erica Campbell is an integrated planner and policy analyst with a focus on sustainable communities. Over the past decade her work has spanned many areas, including food systems, economics, education, health, transportation, and climate change. Prior to joining CAE, Erica was an associate with Resource Systems Group, where she consulted with planning agencies throughout the country to develop long range plans, conduct research on climate change, and assist with strategic planning activities. She played an integral role in the development of the Vermont Long Range Transportation Business Plan. Erica is also a co-founder and active member of the Waterbury-Duxbury Food Council and serves on her local Planning Commission. She holds a Master of Science in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont. Erica grew up in Walden, St. Johnsbury, and Rutland, VT and now lives with her husband and children in North Duxbury.
Heather Davis, Graduate Research Fellow
Heather has been working at the Center for an Agricultural Economy since July 2010, performing food systems research and developing multiple monitoring and evaluation systems. She has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh and an MA in Sustainable Development from the SIT Graduate Institute. Heather has long been involved with issues of agriculture and also has a strong background in local economic development, community development, international development and food security issues. Heather lives with her two children in Hardwick, Vermont.
Louise Calderwood, Vermont Food Venture Center Interim Project Manager
Louise Calderwood, as the VFVC's Interim Project Manager, is providing outreach to prospective users of the VFVC and finalizing lease arrangements with anchor tenants. Additionally she will be responsible for providing leadership on many details necessary to ensure the project stays on track for an anticipated mid March 2011 opening date. Calderwood served as Vermont’s Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from 1998 to 2006 and was a regional dairy specialist with UVM Extension from 1988 to 1998. Currently Calderwood is a private consultant providing government relation, project development and educational services for a variety of agricultural clients. Calderwood operates a maple sugaring business with her husband Randi and their sons Doug and Andrew.
