Nikki Duncan
Basic-Level Certified GROW BIOINTENSIVE Teacher
Nikki has been a nurse for over 30 years, but her real love has been growing food. She has been growing vegetables for 40 years, but only in the last 4 years has embraced the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method. From her 5-acre property, she has sold produce at the local farmer’s market and run a small CSA. After taking the 3- Day Introductory GROW BIOINTENSIVE workshop, she became acutely aware of the importance of growing sustainably and has become a committed learner. A year after taking the 3-day workshop, she participated in the 5-day teacher training and completed the requirements for Basic-Level Certification. Her garden space is utilized for classes and participants get hands on practice learning Biointensive techniques.
She is working on a diet plan that is diverse and will provide a large portion of her food. Grains have become an important part of her diet and she currently makes multigrain breads, granola, breakfast cereals, tortillas and crackers from these crops. An estimated 80% of her diet comes from the garden at this time and with the Sierra foothill weather in California, she is able to produce food year round. A portion of her harvest is donated to the local food closet. Seedlings grown each spring are donated to encourage others to grow their own food.
As a Master Gardener affiliated with the University of California Cooperative Extension, her project is the development of a community vegetable demonstration garden. This garden compares various growing methods and includes a 100-square-foot Biointensive demonstration bed. Classes are given throughout the year in composting and vegetable growing.
A new interest has been partnering with the Sierra Seed Cooperative, a non-profit that utilizes local farmers to grow locally acclimated seed for the Sierra foothill community. She contributes seeds and teaches basic GROW BIOINTENSIVE classes as well as classes on growing grains.
Last year, Nikki started consulting at an organic farm in Maui. The owners have embraced the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and are transitioning to double-dug beds. This is a huge undertaking. Nikki is traveling every few months to support them in this transition and is looking forward to the day the tractor is permanently retired.
Ed and Natasha Fernandez
Basic-Level Certified GROW BIOINTENSIVE Teachers
Ed and Natasha both three-year apprentices with Ecology Action, are now in their second year of GROW BIOINTENSIVE work/study at the Golden Rule Garden. Raised in cities, they had little exposure to farming. Nevertheless, they grew increasingly concerned about the unsustainable trajectory of global development and began investigating methodologies such as permaculture, organic farming, and Biodynamics. After visiting over 26 farms in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Hawaii, they observed that each farmer had a different definition of "sustainability". After their exposure to GROW BIOINTENSIVE and Ecology Action/Golden Rule, they concluded that they had found a truly sustainable method, along with wonderful people, that resonated with their own ideals.
Cindy Conner
Intermediate-Level Certified GROW BIOINTENSIVE Teacher
Cindy grew up in a small town in Ohio, with farms all around her. Her interest in nutrition was sparked by a 7th-grade science class, where she learned that what we eat affects our health. This interest impelled her to garden, can and prepare good food for her husband and four children. Along the way, Cindy discovered Organic Gardening magazine and has been an organic vegetable grower since 1974. In 1992 she began selling produce to two local restaurants, eventually had a CSA and helped establish the Farmers Market in Ashland, Virginia, where she and her family live. Cindy started teaching organic and Biointensive gardening at a parks and recreation program and in 1999 went on to teach at a community college, which she is still doing. Because she wanted to focus on sustainability, she took an EA Three-Day Workshop in 2000. Cindy was able to take a Teachers Workshop a year later because she had started keeping the necessary records in 2000. She has since become an Intermediate level GROW BIOINTENSIVE teacher. Cindy was instrumental in facilitating a workshop and presentation that John Jeavons gave in Virginia in October, 2008. Cindy states that because of using GROW BIOINTENSIVE she’s able to eat more year-round from her garden and has to can very little these days. Many veggies can last with proper storage and root-types can stay in the ground until used.
Check out Cindy's blog at: http://homeplaceearth.wordpress.com/
Marisol Tenorio Lopez
Intermediate-Level Certified GROW BIOINTENSIVE Teacher
Marisol has lived all her life in the city of Aguascalientes. She and her father volunteered in the NGO, Aguascalientes Ecological Conscience for 15 years. They organized recycling campaigns and pressured the state government for better policies on land use and environmental and water pollution. They also investigated a region where many people had kidney problems, which they suspected were due to conventional agricultural practices. This work led her towards a more sustainable agriculture. With a university degree in Biology, Marisol´s job is with the State Environmental Protection Agency. However, her real passion is for her volunteer work.
Jose Agustin Medina Macias
Intermediate-Level Certified GROW BIOINTENSIVE Teacher
Agustin has also lived his whole life in Aguascalientes. However, he used to go into the countryside with his father, who worked as manager of a state natural reserve. He could see that life was simpler there and he also began to understand the people´s problems. He studied Agribusiness at the university, but didn´t agree with the Green Revolution. His emphasis was on Ecology and Rural Development, where he started learning about ecology issues. After university he took a six-month course from a Biointensive teacher and also started teaching 
sustainable development on a volunteer basis. His paying job is for the State, as coordinator of a rural sustainable community project.
Agustin and Marisol met in 2000 and married in January 2006. In April 2006 they both became Ecology Actioninterns at the Golden Rule site. After returning home to Mexico they developed a demonstration/training site, “El Mezquite,” in Aguascalientes state. From February 2008 through January 2009 they trained 101 people during 195 hours of formal teaching and made presentations to 305 people in less formal settings. This included teaching in a 5-day course at the Xochitla Nature Preserve near Mexico City. Data for the year showed that their soil had a 0.1% increase in organic matter. Because of their work, the two received Intermediate certification in 2009.
Karla Arrollo Rizo
Intermediate-Level Certified GROW BIOINTENSIVE Teacher
Karla is a native of Guadalajara and received a degree in Biology at the University of Guadalajara. After graduating she went to work at Las Cañadas in Veracruz state, an ecological retreat in a conservation reserve. She is the garden manager of 140 Biointensive beds, gives tours for school children and helps teach workshops. In 2003 Karla was a six-month intern at the Ecology Action Mini-Farm. Since then she also interned for six months with Jodi Roebuck in New Zealand to learn seed production techniques. She is now growing and selling seeds along with her other activities at Las Cañadas.