The Organic Trade Assn. is accepting nominations for its annual Organic Leadership Awards, which include food & beverage processors working in the organic space.
Actually, there are three awards – Growing the Organic Community Award, Organic Farmer of the Year Award and Rising Star Award – that recognize organic visionaries, activists and entrepreneurs who have made a significant difference to organic agriculture, industry and trade.
The Organic Farmer of the Year might be out of reach for our audience, but food processors have won in the Growing the Organic Community and Rising Star categories. Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm and Arran and Ratana Stephens of Nature’s Path Foods both won in the former category and Peggy Sutton (To Your Health Sprouted Flour), Mike Fata (Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods) and Michael Berger (Elevation Burger) have been Rising Stars.
The Growing the Organic Community award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to growing the organic industry via work in such areas as consumer education and marketing, new market development, public relations, standards development, advocacy, and research.
The Rising Star award recognizes an emerging leader who is relatively recent to the organic trade yet has already distinguished themselves professionally by performing with great energy and enthusiasm in pursuing advancements to policy, programs, initiatives, or the development of new products, categories or markets that promote the growth, sustainability, or influence of organic agriculture and trade.
The 2020 nominations are due March 30. Awards will be presented as part of Organic Week on Monday, June 8, at the Wharf Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. Selection criteria and nomination forms are available at www.ota.com.
