The Growing Green Awards 2014 call for nominations is open until January 31st. The awards are presented by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Berkeley Food Institute. The winner will receive US$2500.00 to continue the success of their innovation. Qualified nominees will be committed to developing new ideas for large scale food sustainability that consider farmers, workers, and community health and justice.
There are four award areas: food and farm educator, sustainable livestock producer, pollinator protector, and regional food leader. Last year Russ Kremer of Heritage Farms won for Food Producer. After surviving an illness with antibiotic resistant bacteria he caught from his pigs, he changed the way he ran his farm. Now his pigs roam green pastures and are antibiotic free. Kremer created the Ozark Mountain Pork Cooperative to support other farmers in raising healthy pigs sustainably. He is also one of this year’s awards judges.
Larry Jacobs was the 2013 Business Leader. Jacobs developed the organic 1,000 family farm co-operative named Del Cabo in Baja Mexico, and built Jacobs Farm, the nation’s largest supplier of organic culinary herbs. The 2013 Food Justice Leader was Tezozomoc for his work with the South Central Garden and Farmers Health and Education Fund. The Los Angeles 85-acre farm feeds 350 families and provides the area with culturally relevent produce. The fourth 2013 winner was the Young Food Leader Brianna Almaguer Sandoval for The Food Trust’s Healthy Corner Store Initiative.
Along with Russ Kremer, this year’s judges are: Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farm’s Chairman of the Board, Cofounder and former CE-Yo, Fred Kirschenmann, President of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and the Leopold Center’s Distinguished Fellow at Iowa State University, and Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture 2009-2013. Applications can be submitted online on the Natural Resources Defense Council website.
