Erin is VP of Brand Strategy + Innovation with HB Specialty Foods and Among Friends. She serves on the board of AGROWINGCULTURE and is the Founder/CEO of Modus Operandi LTD.
With over 20 years of experience in the farming and natural products industry, Erin has been privileged to wear a spectrum of hats. At a young age, she began studying horticulture/soil science, operated an organic farm/nursery and co- founded a local farmer’s market. It was through this lens of needing to develop her own markets and educating the masses, as a farmer, that positioned her for a deeper dive into the food industry, the farmers that grow it and the ecosystems that sustain it all.
Her experiences led to a position with Brad’s Raw Foods, as a Project Manager for the Biodynamic Kale Chip Initiative for WFM in which she co-authored grants with NC State University, created strategic media content, as well as organized collaborative live events to support the relationships between farmers, food processors and the marketplace.
That initiative led her to a position as the Director of Business Development for Demeter USA, where she invested 6 solid years creating programs for farmer education, raw materials matchmaking and the supportive crisscrossing strategies for building national and global supply webs. She became a member of Demeter International’s Marketing Committee to bring awareness to Biodynamic certification through various platforms of marketing and messaging. She also ran three distinct U.S. trade committees, which were focused on consumer education and industry awareness as it pertained to the Demeter seal. Historically, the Demeter/Biodynamic standards represent the “oldest ecological certification system” in the world. These efforts offered her the opportunity to work with farmers all over the globe, hundreds of brands in the natural products arena, and a plethora of values aligned organizations in the newly minted regenerative movement.
At the end of 2019, she signed on with HB Specialty Foods in Idaho, Wisconsin, and Tennessee where she is focused on grower groups, relationship building, cutting-edge manufacturing, brand support, story-telling through the “healthier, better” ethos, as well as forging pathways with novel and new ingredients. HB has made a pledge with the Climate Collaborative under the Agricultural Commitment. In addition, they are active members with Green America’s Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI) and on the first regenerative working group within the American Sustainable Business Council. HB supports clients in successfully launching SKUs within the regenerative category with identity preserved and third party certifications as requested. Erin is helping HB step up their game, internally and externally, by defining and expressing their company culture and continued pathway to support the future of food and farming.
Additionally, Erin and her team at Modus Operandi are working with aligned distributors, INFRA, and early adopter retailers to launch a nationwide certified Biodynamic, regenerative fresh banana program. The goal is to spearhead education 365 days a year and also offer in-store “Regenerative + Biodynamic Days” to tell the story of fourth generational, polyculture success and point shoppers to other signature brands that embody the culture of the regenerative food movement.