Speaker

As Applegate’s Senior Director of Mission, Gina is charged with developing and maintaining Applegate’s high standards of animal welfare, production and taste. She is intimately involved at every point of production and oversees product innovations that are designed to create a consciously scaled supply chain. She is, in short, the keeper of the Applegate flame. Gina started her career as a food entrepreneur, operating a bakery and later a café and catering business in Philadelphia. As a cook, she believed that fresh, seasonal food tasted better and she loved working with and supporting farmers. But she saw they were struggling. In 2005, she formed the Bucks County Food Shed Alliance to develop new farmers markets to support small, sustainable producers. When she joined Applegate in 2006, it was with the same mission in mind: to create new markets for farmers and bring better food to all Americans. Over the last decade as Director of Communications, and now Senior Director of Mission at Applegate, Gina has worked closely with NGOs to raise awareness of food-system issues, including antibiotic resistance and GMOs. She also was instrumental in the production and marketing of the documentary Resistance. Gina is on the leadership team of the Non-GMO Working Group, a cross-industry collaborative that supports non-GMO production as a pathway to a more diverse, resilient and sustainable food system, is a member of the advisory board at Sustainable Food Lab, and holds a position on the advisory council for The National Young Farmers Coalition.