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About Us
Our Team
Jim Slama is the founder and president of FamilyFarmed.org, which encourages the production, marketing and distribution of locally grown and responsibly produced food and goods. FamilyFarmed.org expands the market for local farmers and food producers, by advancing the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, supporting farmers markets, and playing an integral role in public policy in the state and region. Jim works with many of the leading trade buyers for local food in the Midwest including Whole Foods Market, Goodness Greeness, Chartwells Thompson Hospitality (Chicago Public Schools), Chipotle, Compass Group, Lettuce Entertain You, SYSCO, Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks, Natural Direct, Locavore Distributors, and more.
FamilyFarmed.org hosts the annual FamilyFarmed EXPO, a food festival, trade show, financing conference, and celebration of local food and goods. The purpose is to link some of the Midwest’s best local farmers and family-owned producers of food and farm products with the public, trade buyers and leaders in the field to foster relationships that facilitate the growth of local food systems. Each year the FamilyFarmed EXPO draws thousands of consumers and trade buyers.
Jim is the editor of Wholesale Success: A Farmers Guide to Selling, Post Harvest Handling, and Packing Produce. The manual gives small to mid-size growers technical assistance to help them develop the skills to sell produce into wholesale markets. As a result of this work, FamilyFarmed.org created the On-Farm Food Safety Project which is working with the FDA, USDA, food buyers, and advocates for small to mid-size growers to create an online tool giving farmers the ability to create a On-Farm food safety plan.
Jim played a key role in developing and helping to pass the Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Act, which has been hailed as model legislation to build a local food system. The law created the Illinois Local, Food, Farms and Jobs Council which is charged with developing local food systems in the state. Jim is a member of this Council.
Jim launched Sustain in 1996, following a successful multimedia campaign, which shut down an incinerator that generated 150,000 pounds of lead each year. Sustain went on to become one of the country’s leading environmental communication groups and had many regional and national victories. These included the Keep Organic Organic Campaign, which was accomplished in partnership with the Organic Trade Association. The effort helped generated 275,000 comments to the USDA opposing standards that would have allowed food that was genetically engineered irradiated and grown in sewage sludge to be called organic. Other victories included stopping the state of Michigan from drilling for oil on the shores of Lake Michigan and forcing Congress to adopt a real recycling program when it was exposed that they were only pretending.
Jim and his companies have received a great deal of recognition. In 2007, FamilyFarmed.org’s work earned the Yahoo! for Good Green Award. Jim was named by Crain’s Chicago Business to its “Forty Under Forty” annual list of leading young business and civic leaders. Jim also received the Chicago Tribune Good Eating Award for his contributions to the Chicago food and beverage world. Jim was the founding publisher and editor of Conscious Choice magazine and during his 14 years tenure, it was named nine times by The Utne Reader as a member of the Best of the Alternative Press. His work has been featured in Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, The New York Times, Ode Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle among others.
Holly Haddad serves as Program Director for FamilyFarmed.org. Holly has a shared background in non-profit program management as well as in natural foods. She has worked for the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at the University of Wisconsin, managed new program development at a Community Action Program in Washington, and conducted community development corporation research in Washington, D.C. She has also served on the Board for a new, international media project that was nominated in its inaugural year for two awards by the Independent Press Awards. Holly has designed and incubated several new community-based programs such as Family Development, Mobile Food Van, Community Voice Mail and Transitional Housing. She has performed research for publication on national models of community owned corporations and contributed to several surveys regarding family farming in Wisconsin. Holly also has a background in natural and specialty foods retail management, sales and distribution, along with direct work experience on organic family farms and with family owned wineries.
Lloyd Yanis is the Show Director of the FamilyFarmed EXPO and brings more than twenty years of exposition management experience to the annual event, including responsibility for managing over 400 similar events — ranging in attendance from 50 people to 150,000 — in consumer and trade-show arenas. Lloyd’s career highlights include eight years as manager of the Miami Boat Show, the third largest trade show in the United States. As General Manager of the boating industry’s trade association, he was significantly involved in the development of a nationwide tour of twenty-five annual boat shows with 500,000 annual attendees.
John Beske is a designer and art director who creates the graphic identity for FamilyFarmed.org. He was the co-founder and long-time creative director of Sustain, and designed most of its successful campaigns. As creative director at Sustain, John oversaw the design of the Keep Organic Organic Campaign, which helped generate 275,000 comments opposing USDA standards, which would have allowed food that was genetically engineered, irradiated and grown in sewage sludge to be labeled as organic. John’s work with Sustain helped prevent oil drilling on the shores of Lake Michigan, encouraged the creation of tough federal clean air standards that save 15,000 lives per year and helped to force Congress to develop a real recycling campaign. He is the president of John Beske Communications, which provides marketing and design solutions for a range of small businesses and nonprofit groups.
Kathy Nyquist is a strategy consultant providing business development services for local food system entrepreneurs and investors. With FamilyFarmed.org, she is leading multiple feasibility studies which investigate the commercial viability of local food system infrastructure projects. Kathy has ten years of food industry experience at Kraft Foods, where she most recently led integrated marketing planning for a $5 billion product portfolio. She previously managed accounts at the nation's top two advertising agencies where she developed national campaigns for Coca-Cola, Keebler, Frito-Lay and Miller Brewing. Today, Kathy is Principal at New Venture Advisors LLC, and co-chair of the Financing Farm to Fork conference. Kathy recently graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the world's top-ranked business school, where she earned an MBA with honors in Strategic Management, Finance and Entrepreneurship. She is the recipient of the 2009 Dean's Award for Strategy for achieving the highest academic record in Strategic Management.
Delia Hollbach has spent many years working with quality assurance systems and certification in the corporate sector. She has spent the last few years working on organic certification systems and recently helped a local farmers market in Perth, Western Australia become the first fully certified organic market in the state. More recently, she has been volunteering at organic farms and farmer markets to gain a better understanding of the practical issues facing small to mid size farms in the US. Delia is the Food Safety Specialist assisting FamilyFarmed.org with the On-Farm Food Safety Project
Board of Directors
Charlotte Flinn, President, Flinn Consultants
Dr. Wes Jarrell, Professor, University of Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources
and Environmental Sciences
Warren King, President, Wellspring Management
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