Judith Winfrey: Love is Love Cooperative Farm (Mansfield, GA)

Judith Winfrey is one of the most respected voices in the Southern foodscape. She's spent a lifetime in food, from working in various positions in restaurants, to running a meal kit delivery business for five years, to being the COO of Linton Hopkins' Atlanta-based restaurant group.  She is the co-founder of both Wholesome Wave Georgia and Community Farmers Markets, has been recognized as one of Atlanta Magazine's 500 Most Powerful Leaders, and by the New York Times as a "Woman Who is Changing the Landscape of Leadership." All of that is evidence that when she's building something new, it has the strong ribs of research and real world expertise at its core. Since 2008, Judith and her husband Joe Reynolds have co-owned Love is Love Farm, a certified organic farm growing a diversity of vegetables and fruit through soil-based agricultural practices. In 2018, Joe and Judith came together with a group of ambitious, experienced, and educated young farmers: Monica Ponce, Russell Honderd, and Demetrius Milling, and they bonded around a shared vision to farm collectively. Beginning in 2021, Love is Love Farm converted to a worker-owned cooperative and began farming on 70 acres in Mansfield, GA on land they will ultimately own through The Working Farms Fund. All that might sound somewhat heady and theoretical, but it is grounded in good Georgia soil and the love of good food.