Carman manages M2’s food safety and regulatory compliance activities, ranging from organic product registration to third-party food safety certification. Raised in the heart of the Yakima Valley in Washington State, Carman has invested over 30 years in the Ag industry. The majority of that time dedicated to the hop industry including, managing corporate governance of all third-party food safety and environmental programs, human safety and education, organic producer/processor programs, and sustainability life cycle assessments.
Her career began working in the juice industry in the Lower Yakima Valley, where she developed a strong interest in quality control. With early plans to move out of her small town of Grandview, WA, she decided that there was value in sticking around home to further her experience in Agriculture. In the early 1990s came great pressure from the EPA and DOE to regulate industrial wastewater discharged to the Yakima River. She took a proactive stance and began developing relationships with regulatory agencies, which led to successful partnerships, solutions, and ultimately compliance.
Alongside the Hop Growers of America and the International Hop Convention, she developed and implemented the GlobalGAP Hop Sub-scope – the first GFSI scheme to carry an integrated farm assurance standard for hops. Carman was also instrumental in the development of the Hop Growers of America Best Practice Committee and their “Good Bines” on-farm food safety self-assessment program.
Amy oversees M2’s Intellectual Property (IP) Management Services. Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Amy never imagined that she would work in agriculture or IP law for that matter. While pursuing a Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management, Amy was employed with a boutique IP law firm in Yakima, Washington. The firm specialized in plant variety protection, with clientele across a wide variety of industries. Although Amy fully intended to pursue employment related to her schooling, IP law provided a unique opportunity to integrate her science-based education with employment filled with fascinating inventiveness and entrepreneurs.
For 15 years, Amy has worked in IP management with expertise in the development and launch of new plant varieties. Her most recent employment has been in the hop industry with a hop breeding and development company, in the Yakima Valley. Beyond hops, Amy’s experience with propriety plant variety management includes apples and blueberries. Amy specializes in managing the interdepartmental activities between the marketing, legal, sales, and production departments to maximize efficiencies, with assurance that IP protections are secured.
Amy continues to keep her foot in the natural resource world as a Board Member of Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, a land conservancy dedicated to protecting local shrub-steppe habitat.