Good Meat Project

In 2009, Camas Davis, a ten-year veteran magazine editor and food and travel writer, traveled to Gascony in southwest France to study the art of butchery and charcuterie with a family of pig farmers and butchers. Upon her return she founded the Portland Meat Collective, a one-of-a-kind meat school and culinary resource that has changed the way citizens of Portland, Oregon, think about their food, their community, and their local food economy. In 2014, Davis launched the Good Meat® Project in order to spread Meat Collective-style education across the country. Camas continues to write about her experiences in the world of meat, including stories for the radio show, This American Life and Vogue magazine. Davis and the Portland Meat Collective have also been the subject of media stories from the New York Times Magazine to Martha Stewart Living. She is also the author of Killing It, a memoir about her adventures in the world of meat. Camas lives in Portland, Oregon.

Beth Gratzer is the director of our Butchers & Chefs Opportunity Network. She has an array of professional experience ranging from community-based disaster recovery, to bartending and serving tables, to editing documentary film, to working in nonprofits. Beth received her BA from Bard College and MS in Community and Regional Planning from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She has done grant writing and community development programming for nonprofits, community liaison and participatory budgeting work at the local government level, and community planning with the federal government following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. After a deployment with FEMA, Beth took what was supposed to be a temporary job working behind the counter at a whole animal butcher shop, fell in love with the industry and has been dedicated to working in the Good Meat universe ever since. Beth previously worked for butcher shops in New York City and Portland, Oregon and as an Operational Associate with Happy Valley Meat Company. Beth lives in Portland, Oregon.

Paige Jackson is the Program Manager of Farmers & Ranchers Marketing Innovation Network at the Good Meat Project. With experience in campaign development, project management, and social media marketing, she is currently helping us to develop, plan and coordinate our marketing assistance programming for Good Meat farmers and ranchers, which includes our Real Burger of Earth Day and Local Meat, Local Flavor trade promotions, and our marketing education series. Paige is constantly learning, problem-solving, and teaching about marketing and agriculture. She has been a guest speaker in our Good Meat Camp for Women Kitchen Table Chats and our Lowdown series. She and her partner own Grass Grazed, a pasture-based regenerative farm that focuses on soil health and sustainable farming practices. The farm raises pork, chicken, and cattle. The Jacksons strive to offer transparency, from farm to table, for their customers. As a mother of five, wife, and farm owner, every day is an adventure!  Paige lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina.

Tim Joseph is the Founder of Maple Hill Creamery, the preeminent organic grass-fed dairy brand in the US. In 2004, Tim and his wife Laura started milking 64 cows on their 250-acre dairy farm in Central New York, with no prior farming experience. By 2007 they had transitioned their herd to both certified organic and 100% grass-fed, and in 2009 Tim created the company’s “creamline” yogurt on his kitchen stovetop. Maple Hill has grown to source milk from 160 family farms in Upstate NY. Maple Hill’s products are distributed nationally. Tim acts as Program Advisor to our Farmers & Ranchers Marketing Innovation Network and our Grassfed Alliance programs.  

Clay Scott is the Associate Communications Director for Good Meat Project. Clay has a B.A. in English from James Madison University and a certificate in Fundraising Management from The University of Washington. After working in the nonprofit sector for nearly 10 years Clay made the decision to attend culinary school to pursue his passion for butchery and sustainable food systems. While attending school, he worked at the meat counter for a large grocer where he continued to learn the importance of breaking up with large scale food systems. After butchering full time through the first year of the pandemic, he made the jump to a family owned butcher shop, Beast & Cleaver, where he practiced whole animal butchery as well as whole animal usage by helping to create traditional charcuterie items and value added products. Clay lives in Seattle, Washington.  

Celine Kagan is a livestock farmhand, living in New York's Hudson Valley. Using her previous experience in education and communications, she contributes to the outreach, branding and marketing efforts of the farms where she works, in addition to daily farm activities. Celine has a deep love for animals and is driven to see them thrive in environments that best suit their nature and their needs. Prior to her unexpected discovery that farming best suits her nature and needs, Celine taught high school English literature at the Little Red School House, a trailblazing force for progressive education, founded in 1921. After nearly a decade in the classroom, Celine combined her love for storytelling with her love for food and transitioned to become Executive Director of Wicked Good Media, a boutique PR firm in Manhattan, that works closely with restaurants and chefs across the country. Then, one day, in 2014, Celine milked a sheep in Tuscany and everything changed...

Rosie Kissel leads the ecosystem building and land-based work at Armonia, a group supporting the regeneration of soil, soul, and society. Since joining Armonia in 2017, Rosie has focused on regenerative farm and ranch management, collaborative initiatives, and investment partnerships. Her work has ranged from leading the audit process for one of the first Regenerative Organic Certified farms in the US to coordinating the HERD Fellowship, a sponsorship program that brings young farmers and ranchers to regenerative agriculture conferences. Rosie is also founding Steering Committee member of the Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (FORA), an initiative of funders and investors working together to accelerate the emergence of regenerative agriculture, healthy soils, and working lands. Within FORA, she co-leads the Promoting Economic and Ecological Resilience (PEER) Fund, a pooled fund launched in response to COVID-19 to serve producers and BIPOC groups in the regenerative food and fiber systems. Rosie also serves as a board member for the American Grassfed Association. Rosie received her BA in Environmental Science from Brown University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner, Kate.

Sarah King is a project and process manager for Nike. With experience in architecture, higher education, and international supply chain economics, Sarah is adept at helping teams achieve data continuity and scalability solutions. Sarah has an insatiable appetite for learning, creative thinking, and problem solving, all essential components of running a small Willamette Valley farm with her husband, Bubba. Sarah’s farm, Godspeed Hollow, showcases her family’s passion for sustainable farm management and whole-animal utilization, and specializes in pastured pork, poultry, and raw milk production. The Kings use their farming experience to inspire fellow land stewards and farmers to adopt similar approaches. Sarah lives in Newberg, Oregon.

Adam Danforth is the James Beard and IACP award-winning author of two books, published by Storey Publishing, about slaughtering and butchering livestock. He teaches workshops worldwide on butchery and meat science for venues such as Stone Barns Center for Agriculture, the James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp, Oregon State University, and the National Bison Association. Adam also consults and provides experiential education to restaurants including Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, Bazaar Meats, and Maude. He is the American ambassador for the Butchers Manifesto and a board member of the Chefs Collaborative and the Good Meat Project. Adam lives in Ashland, Oregon.

Erin Wirpsa Eisenberg is an experienced nonprofit and philanthropic professional committed to solving the world’s problems in ways that respect and value the environment and the economic resilience of the communities that steward our natural resources. She is a long-time leader, advocate, and supporter of regenerative agriculture. She co-founded and was the Founding Director of Funders for Regenerative Agriculture. Erin worked with Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor overseeing their charitable giving at the TomKat Foundation and TomKat Ranch. Erin also served as the Executive Director of CitySeed, which is building an equitable, local food system in Connecticut. She earned degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Yale University.

Esther is the CEO of Cienega Capital, a regenerative investment firm utilizing an integrated capital approach to systemic change in the areas of soil health, regenerative agriculture, and local food systems. Cienega Capital is also part of the #NoRegrets Initiative, a regenerative asset strategy focused on the health of agricultural soils and agricultural communities of North America. Esther has 20 years of experience in mission-based financial services ranging from microfinance to risk capital investments, in partnership with financial institutions, family offices, foundations, and investment advisors. She is also a board member at Custom Food Solutions, Carman Ranch Provisions, Eden Ciders, and Civil Eats. Esther has also served as the Vice President for Strategy and Business Development at RSF Social Finance. Prior to joining RSF, Esther was a senior consultant for ShoreBank Advisory Services, where she provided strategic and capital planning advice for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), particularly small business and affordable-housing loan funds. Esther received her MPP from University of Chicago and BA in Social Welfare from the University of California Berkeley. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, Greg, and their two children, Evangeline and Bryce.