Who We Are: Bios of the Bakewell Center Principals

Ridge Shinn, Gearld Fry, and Chuck Lacy are the founders and proprietors of the Bakewell Reproductive Center and have committed to search the world for livestock that will thrive on grass.

Described in The Stockman Grassfarmer as a "pioneer" in the field of grass-farming, Ridge Shinn has extensive experience and achieved success in organizing and guiding innovative agricultural and business ventures.

Upon graduating from Earlham College, Ridge became a field representative for an environmental agency in Washington D.C., organizing conferences on environmental issues nationwide. From there his interest in farming led him to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, where he became a herdsman on a modern dairy farm in nearby West Brookfield and also developed agricultural demonstrations for a living history museum.

His work in historical agriculture included a survey of Devon cattle in New England, and in 1978 he organized the American Milking Devon Association. He was a founding director of the American Minor Breeds Conservancy (now the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy at www.albc.org) in the same year. In 1983 he became its executive director, and secured funding for the first survey of rare breeds of livestock in the United States.

Ridge and his wife, Lynne Pledger, purchased land in Hardwick, Massachusetts, and started their own farm and timber frame construction business in 1984, Hardwick Post and Beam Corp www.hardwickpostandbeam.com, which is still operating, now under the direction of a general manager. Ridge raises Devon cattle, Soay sheep, and heritage breeds of swine.

In the winter of 2001, Ridge founded the New England Livestock Alliance (NELA), with the mission of revitalizing farming in the Northeast by linking farmers to markets for healthy meat. As Director of NELA, he created the Pasture Perfect brand of grass-finished beef, which Wine Spectator magazine rated the best among samples from five other purveyors of high-end grain-finished meat, including Omaha Steaks and Niman Ranch. He was also vice president of Stafford Enterprises, a slaughter-house in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and was actively involved in the renovation and reorganization of that facility.

In June 2003, he resigned from NELA to focus on grass-finished meat exclusively, recognizing its health benefits and marketability as superior to natural or organic. In this connection he co-founded two related organizations of which he is executive director: the Bakewell Reproductive Center, LLC, finding and promoting bovine genetics for grass-based systems, and Hardwick Beef, Inc., organized to link farmers to the profitable markets for grass-finished meat.

Ridge Shinn's success has gained attention in the fields of food and nutrition as well as agriculture. In the past year articles about his work have appeared in House and Garden (March 2003) and Atlantic Monthly (May 2003).

A specialist in reproductive biology of cattle, Gearld Fry has more than forty years' experience in artificial insemination (AI), embryo transfer (ET), linear measuring of livestock, carcass ultrasound techniques, breeding soundness examinations of bulls (BSE), and collecting semen. For the past twenty-five years, he has run his own reproductive center in Rose Bud, Arkansas, and has developed a reputation of being able to solve reproductive problems in cattle. Visit his website at www.bovineengineering.com.

Gearld has been a consultant with most of the larger grass-finished meat companies and has extensive experience evaluating live cattle for meat qualities using ultrasound and linear measurement. Several times each year he runs Bull Schools with Allan Nation, publisher of The Stockman Grassfarmer www.stockmangrassfarmer.com.

This year Gearld judged the Royal Livestock Show in England and will be returning in the summer of 2004. Gearld will be consulting in Canada and the Falkland Islands this winter.

Chuck Lacy dedicates his professional life to using entrepreneurship to solve social and community problems. He is currently President of The Barred Rock Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in companies likely to create jobs and economic opportunity in low-income communities. Started in 2000, the fund has investments in eight companies in five states creating inner city manufacturing jobs, reliable markets for family farms, and communications for the developing world. Barred Rock is a 501c3 non-profit located in Jericho, Vermont.

Chuck is former President of Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. He joined Ben & Jerry's in 1987 and was General Manager for three years and President for five years. During this time the company grew from a regional brand with $17 million in sales into an enduring national brand with sales of $150 million. By 1995, Ben & Jerry's was the leading gourmet ice cream company in the country, its factory tour was the most visited tourist attraction in the State of Vermont, and the company was widely recognized for its leadership in using business as a positive force in the community.

After leaving Ben & Jerry's, Chuck served as General Manager for Living Technologies, Inc., a firm that designs and builds ecological wastewater treatment plants. Working primarily in the food industry, the company built waste treatment plants for clients such as M&M Mars in the United States, Brazil, UK and Australia.

Chuck graduated from Amherst College in 1980 and earned an MBA from Cornell University in 1984. He then ran a chain of psychiatric and drug and alcohol treatment facilities for United Health Services in New York before joining Ben & Jerry's. He is currently a Graduate Student in American History at Dartmouth College studying the ethnic and racial history of northern New England.

Chuck serves as board member and advisor to several companies. He is Chairman of Sun & Earth, Inc. (an inner city manufacturer of natural laundry detergent), Chairman of Green Village, Inc. (an inner city manufacturer of high strength environmentally preferred industrial cleaners), Treasurer and Director of Gonofone, Inc. (founder of Grameen Phone, the largest wireless communications company in Bangladesh), and Director of the Bakewell Reproduction Center, LLC (promoter of beef-genetics for revitalizing New England agriculture), Guayaki Yerbe Mate (fair-traded yerbe mate from Paraguay), and The Farmer's Diner, LLC (a start-up chain of diners that buys direct from local farmers).

Serving communities, Chuck is on the Board of Oakland-based Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO), the largest multi-faith community organizing network in the country. Locally he is a Director of the Vermont Venture Fund, the Jericho Center Association and the Jericho School Board. He also coaches youth basketball and baseball in season.

Chuck lives in Jericho, Vermont, with his wife, Gaye Symington (Democratic Leader of the Vermont State House of Representatives), and their three children, Sam (14), Mary (12), and Tom (9). As a family they run a small farm producing eggs, bacon, sausage and vegetables for their roadside farm stand.

Chuck is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in the food industry particularly in the natural and gourmet foods sector. His expertise spans food processing, quality control, distribution, marketing, sales, and finance.