About Us

Anaïs Beddard

Anaïs Beddard is the second generation at the helm of Lady Moon Farms. The farm was founded in 1988 by her parents with a dream to grow healthy, delicious produce for their children and community while respecting mother nature.  What started out as a dream and 10 rented acres has grown to encompass nearly 3000 acres across Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida. Lady Moon Farms has always been 100% organic and focused on building the soil which leads to healthy plants, healthy people and a healthy planet.

Anaïs grew up on the farm. She spent her childhood in the greenhouse and their original “packhouse”, which happened to be a forest clearing in the woods. Her summers were passed working in the fields, packinghouse, and eventually the office where she began to learn about the business side of the operation. She found her own success outside of farming utilizing her finance degree but listened to a call to return in 2015 to continue her parent’s legacy. She is committed to real organic farming and responsible stewardship of their land. She proudly fulfills an obligation her parents instilled in her to leave the land in a better condition for future generations.

She is immersed in all aspects of the business, but to this point has focused on increased efficiency in labor and expense tracking and practices continual process improvement for their multi-state year-round farms. Anaïs also serves on the executive board of the Real Organic Project.

John Bobbe

John Bobbe served as the Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing (OFARM) for almost 20 years.  Now retired, he holds a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia and taught business economics at Silver Lake College, Manitowoc for 25 years.  He currently resides with his wife on their third-generation Wisconsin Family Farm and owns the Bobbe Sawmill and Lumber Company.

Jim Crawford

Jim Crawford and his wife, Moie Kimball, are semi-retired from New Morning Farm, the 95-acre certified-organic vegetable farm in south-central Pennsylvania that they founded over 50 years ago. In 2021, they sold the farm to another family, although they continue to be involved.

From vending veggies out of the back of a pick-up truck to organizing and supervising three thriving weekly markets (and launching a fourth in late 2012), Jim and Moie built a multifaceted, successful direct-marketing system. Through the marketing (wholesale and retail) of various locally produced foods like orchard fruits, cider, and baked goods, New Morning Farm continues to be at the center of the PA-DC foodshed.

In the late 1980s, Jim and neighboring organic farmers founded Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative (TOG) to serve restaurants, groceries and markets in the PA-DC region. TOG, which historically achieved $3 million in sales, dissolved in 2020 after 32 years in business.

Jim is a co-founder of Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and is deeply passionate about local food systems.

Dr. Joan, Dye Gussow

Dr. Joan Dye Gussow has been a powerful influence in food and farm policy, and as a vocal critic of the industrialized U.S. food system is known by many as the matriarch of the organic, locavore, and small-farm movement. She is currently the Mary Swartz Rose Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and the former chair of their Nutrition Education Department. At Columbia, she created the legendary course, Nutritional Ecology.

Along with her late-husband – artist, author, and environmental activist Alan Gussow – she has been a life-long avid organic gardener, which is chronicled in her numerous books including The Feeding Web, This Organic Life and her most recent, Growing Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Growing Vegetables.

Joan is a founding member of Just Food, has been on the board of the Chefs Collaborative, was the Chair of the Board of the National Gardening Association and the Society for Nutrition Education, served on the Diet, Nutrition and Cancer Panel of the National Academy of Sciences, served two terms on the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the FDA’s Food Advisory Committee, the National Organic Standards Board and the Advisory Board of the Center for Food Safety. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Real Organic Project and in 2017 received a James Beard Leadership Award.

Dr. John Ikerd

Dr. John Ikerd was raised on a small dairy farm in southwest Missouri and received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri. He worked in private industry for a time and spent thirty years in various professorial positions at North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri before retiring in early 2000.

Since retiring, he spends most of his time writing and speaking on issues related to sustainability with an emphasis on economics and agriculture. He is author of six books which are available via http://johnikerd.com/books.In 2014, John was commissioned by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations to write the regional report, “Family Farms of North America,” in recognition for the International Year of the Family Farming. He currently resides with his wife, Ellen, in Fairfield, IA. More complete background information and a wide selection of writings are available at http://faculty.missouri.edu/ikerdj/ or http://johnikerd.com.

Michael James

Michael James was born in New York City in 1942. He was raised in Connecticut on an old onion farm, and while growing up he helped old man Burtche around the farm down the road, feeding livestock and helping with harvesting. He was a member of the 4H club and raised rabbits, muscovy ducks, King pigeons, African Tumbler pigeons, and Bantam chickens.

James was active in sports, playing football at Lake Forest College where he took an interest in politics and social justice issues. In the summer of 1962 he drove a Triumph motorcycle to Mexico City, where he studied at Mexico City College and took photos. An exhibit of these photos, Mexico 1962 has been shown in a number of galleries, and will appear in book form in 2012. James graduated in 1964 and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, going to the University of California, Berkeley where he studied sociology. There James was involved in the Free Speech Movement, and joined Students for a Democratic Society, of which he became a national officer.

James left school in 1966, heading to Chicago’s Uptown to organize poor Southern whites in an attempt to build an interracial movement of the poor with an organization known as JOIN Community Union (Jobs or Income Now).

After the Democratic Convention in 1968, James founded Rising Up Angry, a newspaper and organization of poor and working white people, that allied with the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Organization, the Young Patriots, and the American Indian Movement, collectively known as the Rainbow Coalition.

In 1976 James founded the now legendary Heartland Cafe, a wholesome foods eatery and community center. The Heartland Cafe is about serving up Wholesome Food for Mind and Body. In addition to the Heartland Cafe, the enterprise now includes the Buffalo Bar, Heartland General Store, the Redline Tap, the No Exit Cafe, and Heartland Cafe on the Lake—altogether adding to the ambience the unique urban enclave of the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Through his work at the cafe, he won an Illinois Stewardship Alliance “Golden Beet” award for bringing local food to Illinois communities.

James is a host of Live from the Heartland Radio (Saturdays at 9 am on WLUW 88.7), is the publisher of The Heartland Journal, a member of the board of Athletes United for Peace, President of Chicago’s 49th Ward Democratic Party Organization, and an actor, appearing in a number of films, including The Package, The Fugitive, Stony Island, Above the Law, Code of Silence, Under Siege, Chain Reaction, and The Guardian.

He is married to Paige James, a “hellova cook,” and is the father of seven wonderful kids!

Kendra Kimbirauskas

Kendra Kimbirauskas grew up on a Michigan dairy farm and she and her husband currently live and farm in Scio, Oregon where they raise beef cattle, hogs, goats, chickens and turkeys on pasture using managed grazing practices.

She has nearly two decades of experience in agricultural policy and rural organizing, working alongside citizen groups environmental advocates, and sustainable agriculture organizations to shape ecologically responsible farm and food policies at the state level.

Kendra co-founded what is now Oregon’s most influential small farm advocacy organization, Friends of Family Farmers, and has spent time working as a rural organizer in Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oregon. In her day job, Kendra directs the Agriculture Program at the State Innovation Exchange (SiX). When not working or farming, Kendra can usually be found in the garden, riding her horse or playing with her dogs.

Dr. Frederick Kirschenmann

Dr. Frederick Kirschenmann has been a champion of sustainable agriculture, soil health, and resilient farming systems for over four decades. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, where he previously served as director, and is a professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy.

A pioneer in organic farming systems, Frederick manages a diverse crop rotation on his 3,500-acre family farm in North Dakota which has been certified organic since 1976. His farm has been featured in numerous publications including National Geographic, Business Week, Audubon, the LA Times and Gourmet magazine. In 1995 it was profiled in an award-winning video, My Father’s Garden, by Miranda Smith Productions, and is still widely used as a teaching tool.

A prolific writer on ethics and agriculture, his collection of essays Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher traces the evolution of his ecological and farming philosophy.

Frederick served on the National Organic Standards Board from 1995-2000, including a year as the Chair. In 2014, he received a One World Award for Lifetime Achievement from the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and was one of the first 10 recipients of the James F. Beard Leadership Awards. He is the current Board President of the Stone Barns Center for Sustainable Agriculture and a member of the Advisory Board for the Real Organic Project.

“We are now in a time when it is more important than ever to anticipate the changes that will likely take place, and prepare for them in advance, and that will be especially important with respect to our food and agriculture future.”

Jim Munsch

Jim Munsch raises organic beef on his farm in western Wisconsin. He is a volunteer for The Cornucopia Institute and led the organization’s challenge to the USDA’s approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa. Cornucopia was a party along with several other organizations in a lawsuit contesting the USDA action. Jim farms with his family near Coon Valley, WI.

Dr. Vimal Ramjee

Vimal is a Senior Staff Cardiologist at the Chattanooga Heart Institute in Tennessee. He is a lover of authentic organic food and offers a medical perspective on the importance of diet in personal health. He will help us in our continuing work on carrageenan, advise on human health and the constantly evolving science thereof, and help share our messages with new audiences.

Danny Simpson

Danny is the Hulings Rice Food Center Assistant Manager at Northland College, where he oversees a dizzying array of local food efforts on campus. As the nephew of Cornucopia Board Vice President Helen Kees, he was born into organic farming and has a deep commitment to local food systems. He is a thoughtful, passionate, articulate food advocate, and his addition to the advisory panel formalizes his relationship with Cornucopia.

Steve Sprinkel

Steve Sprinkel has been an adherent of organic farming since the 1960s. Using his 12-acre (CCOF certified) farm in Ojai, CA, Steve trains farmers and educates consumers. Steve is the former president of the Cornucopia Board of Directors and is currently the president of the Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture. After attending Harvard for one year, he earned a degree in literature from The University of California at Santa Barbara.

Steve has been active in organic certification and public interest policy in Carpinteria at CCOF, as a Santa Barbara farmers market officer, board member at the Texas Department of Agriculture, founder of the Organic Farmers Marketing Association, Associate Editor at ACRES, USA (1998-2007), organic administrator and inspector for many private organizations in the Midwest, and even an FDA delegate to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization! Favorites: Vegetable – Cucumber; Book – All Quiet on the Western Front; Film – “Dr. Strangelove”

Tom Willey

Tom Willey, with his wife Denesse, operated T&D Willey Farms from 1981 through 2016, a 75-acre Certified Organic farm in Madera, California, growing a wide array of Mediterranean vegetables the year round. T&D Willey Farms produce was appreciated in specialty markets and fine restaurants up and down the US West Coast as well as on the tables of over 800 weekly Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription members in their own community. Tom was, for nearly a decade, Slow Food USA’s governor for California’s Central Valley and he passionately advocates for local food prominence through his writing, speaking, radio, and event organizing activities. His monthly “Down on the Farm” radio interview program features the work of progressive farmers and others prominent in San Joaquin Valley’s agriculture and food communities. Tom has served over the years on the boards of directors of the Ecological Farming Association (EFA) and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and presently is a member of CCOF Certification Services’ LLC five-person Management Committee. He currently serves as a Policy Advisor to The Cornucopia Institute which monitors integrity of the US organic industry.