DEL.ICIO.USOrganic guru extols virtues of sustainable gardening
Daron “Farmer D” Joffe adds to organic’s growing chic
kleslie@ajc.com
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Savannah — If you ask Daron “Farmer D” Joffe, he’s more than a farmer, he’s an agricultural consultant. Or, as his friends joke, an “entre-manure.”
Maybe that explains the calls he endlessly fields on his iPhone while shoveling his own line of compost, plucking his sought-after organic produce or doing interviews with visiting reporters.
Stephen Morton / AJC Special
You can almost taste the wonderful dishes that will be made from these colorful, enticing vegetables from Joffe’s Harvest Barn on Hampton Island.
Stephen Morton/Stephen Morton / AJC Special
Organic, sustainble gardening guru Daron Joffe laughs in the barn at Hampton Island, Georgia. Joffe has reached cult status in the organic farming world and is tackling sustainable farming projects at Serenbe, Hampton Island and the Trustee’s garden in Savannah.
His Farmer D Organics brand, based in Savannah, is on the lips and in the gardens of the elite. Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson wants him to develop an organic farm at his exclusive New Jersey spa. Actress Jennifer Garner thinks his turnips “rock.” Rolling Stones’ keyboardist Chuck Leavell and Atlanta adman Joel Babbit just signed him to a deal on their environmental Web site, Mother Nature Network.
Whole Foods markets sell Farmer D’s compost through a partnership in which Joffe (and colleague Mike Smith of Longwood Plantations) recycles the chain’s scraps into rich organic matter. Oh, and he’s inspired thousands of people across the country to grow organic food through his work with nonprofits and community gardens.
Just 32, Joffe could be considered the Ty Pennington of organic gardening. It’s the kind of success few farmers sow their seeds for, but Joffe, born in South Africa and raised in Sandy Springs, says it’s not all about the potential money and fame.
“This isn’t just another thing for corporate America to cash into,” Joffe says of organic’s growing chic. “It’s not just a trend. It’s a true paradigm shift. It’s about sustainability and social justice, not just about the rich having access.”
Modest roots
This organic biodynamic guru works to inspire people to garden in a sustainable, eco-friendly way, he said, a mission he began developing a dozen years ago as a dreadlocked, overall-wearing “Deadhead” farmer in Wisconsin.
Then in his early 20s, Joffe was intrigued by remnants of the 1960s back-to-the-land movement. So with a catchy nickname given by his mother and a couple of organic farming apprenticeships under his belt, he bought a 175-acre farm and ran a pizza and falafel joint in Madison for extra cash.
He later managed a farm in San Francisco, teaching horticulture to incarcerated youth. By age 25, he’d moved back to Georgia to start a nonprofit, Gan Chaim (Hebrew for Garden of Life), and develop educational organic gardens for universities and residential communities alike, such as Serenbe in Palmetto.
Joffe is vice-president of Georgia Organics, a nonprofit promoting locally grown organic food. And Farmer D Organics, the product and consulting company he founded in 2003, is on track to break six figures in revenue this year.
“He brings a pretty amazing entrepreneurial spirit to our movement,” said Alice Rolls, executive director of Georgia Organics. “Farmer D seizes the opportunities before him, the things before all of our eyes that we’re not able to see, but he puts two and two together.”
Riding the mainstream
But just how does a small-time farmer become a rock star? Here’s a lesson from Joffe’s tale:
• You pay your dues in a decade of tilling soil and planting for everyone from the homeless to prison systems, nonprofits and world-class gardens.
• You maintain your 20-something, change-the-world optimism, but learn how to make a living at it.
• You convert a lifeless field into a million-dollar farm at the exclusive private community Hampton Island Preserve off coastal Georgia, guaranteeing exposure to the wealthy.
• You travel effortlessly from the vegetable patch to the board room, even while wearing flip-flops and your stingy brim straw hat.
• You throw in a dash of exoticism with biodynamic agriculture, conversing about the spirituality of farming and the earth as a living organism.
• It doesn’t hurt to be a hottie.
• Most importantly, you go organic long before organic becomes cool.
“For 10 years of doing this … you had to prove what you do is valid,” Joffe said. “But for the past five years, it’s been different. People buy into it and I don’t have to sell it. To see it come on mainstream is refreshing.”
But where the mainstream goes, corporate America follows. Joffe has been approached by real estate developers seeking to cash in on his cachet with brand partnerships, a tempting offer for a guy who says he used to beg bank officers for farm loans. He’s heard pitches for projects ranging from branded farmers markets to cosmetics to pet foods.
In every case, Joffe says, he follows his gut. He says he partners only with those who share his values, and wants any project he’s part of to have a “social, environmental and sustainable” component, such as making use of waste materials or helping provide jobs.
“I definitely don’t want to put my name on things I don’t believe in,” he said. “That’s all I have, my integrity and my name.”
From soil to stardom?
And that’s a name soon to be splashed across Mother Nature Network, the Atlanta-based environmental Web site launching this fall. Joffe is one of a handful of “green” personalities who’ll do weekly video features on earth-friendly topics.
Babbit, who with Leavell heads Mother Nature Network, said Joffe’s knowledge and looks will appeal to viewers. And between his South African roots and signature hat, “he’s got all the makings of a Hollywood star.”
While Joffe doesn’t discount making a buck, he insists stardom isn’t on his to-do list. Rather, when facing criticism of his work for exclusive private communities such as Hampton Island, vacation site of Garner and Ben Affleck, the farmer says it’s about getting face time with folks who can make social change faster — not to leverage the green trend for cash.
“I’m not selling out. … Money was never the motivating factor, and it’s not now,” he said. “This is what I do, this is what I believe in.”
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