Imhoff, Daniel (Dan Imhoff)

PERSONAL:

Married; children: two. Education: Allegheny College, B.A.; Syracuse University Maxwell School of Public Affairs, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Healdsburg, CA; Anderson Valley, CA. Office—Watershed Media, 451 Hudson St., Healdsburg, CA 95448. E-mail—danimhoff@pacific.net.

CAREER:

Watershed Media, Healdsburg, CA, president and cofounder; also cofounder of Wild Farm Alliance national sustainable agricultural promotion organization; Farm and Garden radio show, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, Mendocino, CA, co-host; Esprit International, communications director, 1990-95; public speaker and presenter, appearing on various television and radio programs and lecturing at numerous universities and conferences.

WRITINGS:

Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood, Watershed Media (Healdsburg, CA), 2001.

(With Roberto Carra) Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches, foreword by Fred Kirschenmann, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

(Editor, with Jo Ann Baumgartner) Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature: Essays in Conservation-based Agriculture, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2006.

Foodfight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill, Watershed Media (Healdsburg, CA), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Saveur, Sierra, Whole Earth, and Orion Afield.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daniel Imhoff is a writer and activist whose primary interests focus on various ways in which people can make better use of the planet's natural resources, including improvements in agricultural techniques, sustainable farming, recycling, and alternative sources of fuel. Imhoff graduated from Allegheny College with a bachelor's degree in international relations, then went on to earn his master's degree in international affairs from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Affairs. For several years, he worked for Esprit International, where he served as the communications director of a team involved with producing designs that were environmentally friendly. However, the majority of his efforts revolve around the media. He is the president and cofounder of Watershed Media in Healdsburg, California, an independent publishing company with a focus on issues pertaining to the improvement of farming, design, and other industries that have an impact on both the environment and on people's health and well-being. In addition, Imhoff is the president and cofounder of Wild Farm Alliance. This organization works at a national level to help promote conscious farming and agricultural systems that operate in harmony with nature, sustaining the wilderness and promoting its continued safety. Imhoff is involved with an assortment of other media outlets as well. For more than a decade, he has served as the cohost for Mendocino County Public Broadcasting's monthly radio program on farming and gardening, along with longtime friend Tim Bates, an apple farmer in the region. He has written articles and essays for various publications and is the author of several books pertaining to environmental responsibility.

In Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood, Imhoff addresses the issue of how to build homes with an eye toward the future and the maintenance of the forests of the world. As he points out, while wood is a natural material and biodegradable—normally considered good characteristics by those who make the effort to be environmentally conscious—it takes far more time to grow a tree than it does to cut one down. In order for trees to be a sustainable material, a new tree must be planted for each one that is used for building, and the speed of nature is not conducive to this type of an exchange. Over the course of the book, Imhoff discusses the various materials that can be used as an alternative, and explains the benefits of each of them. A reviewer for Science News noted the statistic that "for each 2,000-square-foot house, one acre of forest is felled," illustrating the need for embracing Imhoff's suggestions.

Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches reveals the ways in which modern-day farming techniques are systematically destroying the world's wildlife, and how new methods of farming are required in order to restore and to sustain this areas in the future. The wildlife habitats are necessary as they provide refuge for insects that are necessary for pollination, as well as birds and other small creatures that risk endangerment should their homes be eliminated. Scott Vlaun, reviewing for Seeds of Change Web site, remarked that "this book is much more than a collection of insightful essays and well documented examples of sustainable systems: Imhoff and Carra have created a call to action." He noted that the book "covers a broad range of ideas and strategies for healing the land and restoring biodiversity, while establishing economically viable land use options for private lands."

Imhoff's Foodfight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill takes a look at legislative measures having to do with farming practices and agriculture in the United States. While this might seem a topic that is only of interest to people working in related industries, Imhoff illustrates how it in fact affects the lives and eating habits of everyone. The book addresses the ways in which the government subsidizes farmers based upon the crops that they choose to plant—or not plant, as the case may be. In addition, it looks at how the regulation of farming methods affects the quality and availability of certain types of foods, and how calorie intake and nutrition are in many ways determined by the decisions made by government regulators. The book shows the ways in which such legislation is responsible for many of the developing health problems in the United States, but Imhoff also offers solutions to these issues, in part through his comparison of the country's agricultural choices to those of New Zealand, where similar issues have been addressed and the detrimental situation reversed. He notes the government programs that are having positive results, such as those that encourage healthy food choices, and includes information about small, privately organized groups that are working to education the public about the quality of their food and the importance of proper nutrition. David Schneider, reviewing for American Scientist, declared that the book "provides plenty of food for thought."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, September 1, 2007, David Schneider, review of Foodfight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill.

Audubon, March 1, 2004, "Seeds of Hope: Farming with the Wild," p. 99.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, December 1, 2003, L.S. Cline, review of Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches, p. 735; July 1, 2007, L.S. Cline, review of Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature: Essays in Conservation-based Agriculture, p. 1935.

Communication Arts, September 1, 2005, Ruth Hagppian, review of Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World.

E, January 1, 2006, "Hate Wasteful Packaging?"

Futurist, May 1, 2007, review of Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature.

Nature Conservancy, spring, 2004, "Food for Thought," p. 80.

Quarterly Review of Biology, March 1, 2004, Frank Turano, review of Farming with the Wild, p. 101.

Science News, September 21, 2002, review of Building with Vision, p. 191.

SciTech Book News, December 1, 2001, review of Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood, p. 153.

Utne: A Different Read on Life, November 1, 2005, Scott Carlson, review of Paper or Plastic.

Whole Earth, December 22, 2001, review of Building with Vision, p. 25.

ONLINE

Fresh Fiction,http://freshfiction.com/ (July 9, 2008), review of Paper or Plastic.

Seeds of Change,http://www.seedsofchange.com/ (May 1, 2005), Scott Vlaun, "The Cutting Edge," author interview; review of Farming with the Wild.

University of California Press Web site,http://www.ucpress.edu/ (July 9, 2008), author profile.

Watershed Media,http://www.watershedmedia.org/ (July 9, 2008), author profile.

Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism Web site,http://www.wkconline.org/ (July 9, 2008), author profile.