US organic non-profit names new board president
Organic farmer Jeremy Plotkin has been voted in as the president of the non-profit US Organic Farming Research Foundation board.
He earned a masters degree in plant and soil science from the University of Maine and founded Simple Gifts Farm at the New England Small Farm Institute in Belchertown in 1999. The expanded farm now includes cattle, swine and laying hens.
Plotkin also has been awarded several USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grants for on-farm research projects. He manages the farm as an ecological system.
The board also saw turnover in its chair position with previous chairwoman Mary Fund of Amerugi Farm in Nemaha County, Kansas, stepping down and Katrina Heinz being named the income chairwoman.