The Slow Food USA Blog

Remembering Diane Joy Goodman

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This text originally appeared in the CUESA newsletter

Slow Food mourns the November passing of Diane Joy Goodman, a passionate and effective hands on sustainability activist and moving force within the California food world. Diane was a key figure in the sustainable food movement, a committed advocate for organic farmers and a friend to many  chefs.

She ran a consulting business that helped clients (everyone from rice to vegetable growers) understand organic standards and regulatory compliance, navigate the certification process, and communicate organic practices through their marketing. She was also the two-time chair of the California Organic Foods Advisory Board, a member of the National Organic Standards Board (where she helped craft and pass the current standards), and an active member of many committees and task forces for organizations such as the Organic Trade Association (OTA).  

Diane’s daughter Allyson and Son in Law Larry Jossell carry  on her legacy of culinary integrity in San Francisco’s Nopa restaurant, for which Diane hand picked produce from farmer’s trucks as they came to the market. 

“My mom had involvement on so many different levels¯all the way from the field to the table,” says her daughter and NOPA co-owner, Allyson Woodman. “She was so passionate about this movement; it was her life.” Katherine DiMatteo, the former executive director of the OTA, and a dear friend and long-time colleague of Diane’s, echoes this sentiment. “She brought a real passion and commitment to helping convert large and small farms to organic practices. Through her own deep engagement she became well-versed in everything organic. She brought all of that into her work and life and the line between the two was quite blurred.”

It only makes sense then that many of Diane’s friends remember dining with her and discussing the cutting edge of the food landscape. Helge Hellberg, the executive director of Marin Organic, says he found himself engaged in many discussions with Diane over the years that were both heated and heartening. “She never held back her opinion. Diane was really able to challenge people and we would often end up in the kind of long discussion that we would both come out of with much more knowledge and understanding,” says Hellberg. “That’s what we need to do more as a movement, to be successful¯to get better not just at pushing what we believe in but understanding the other side.”

Diane had deep, long-lasting bonds with many of the sellers at the market. John Lagier of Lagier Ranches knew Diane for 13 years, and worked with her on several projects including an early CSA called the Farm Box. “Whatever project she did, she went at it and gave it her 100 percent. She wasn’t afraid to tackle difficult issues,” he says. “I think she did make a difference in our community and we’re a lot better for it. There’s a saying: it’s hard to believe a star so bright can burn out so fast. That was Diane.”

Dexter Carmichael, CUESA‘s director of operations, met Diane while working at GreenLeaf Produce in the early 90s and considers her among a short list of people who opened his eyes to the importance of high-quality local food. Diane was in a lot of different places at the right time over the years, says Dexter. And not by accident¯she put herself there. “She wasn’t a food celebrity like some of her peers,” he adds. “Instead she was really down in the trenches working to make change.”