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OTA
NAMES 2021 LEADERSHIP AWARDS HONOREES
www.ota.com
The Organic Trade Association has chosen five visionaries who have advanced organic—by promoting the industry’s climate change mitigation practices, investing in social responsibility initiatives, leading organic transition programs, and keeping the organic community safe during COVID-19—to receive its 2021 Organic Leadership Awards. Honorees will be recognized at an Organic Dinner Celebration February 1st as part of Organic Week
in Washington D.C. Organic Week, which takes place January 31 - February 2, is an opportunity for leaders across the organic sector to gather, converse, and help shape the future of organic.
Organic Pioneer
Mayra Velazquez de Leon of Organics Unlimited has built a thriving organic fruit company and is committed to social responsibility and giving back to the farming communities that make organic agriculture possible. Fifty years ago, Mayra’s father became the first commercial grower in Mexico to bring organic bananas to the United States. Today, Mayra has helped grow the family legacy through Organics Unlimited into the largest family-owned banana company in America. Organics Unlimited sources tropical organic fruit from Mexico and Ecuador, and offers three organic banana labels: Organics Unlimited, GROW and Fair Trade Certified.
In 2005, she introduced the company’s Grow program as
a social responsibility initiative to help poverty-stricken banana-growing regions in Mexico and Ecuador. Since then, it has provided nearly $3 million to help support education, health initiatives, micro-businesses and environmental programs as well as disaster relief to make positive social change. Organics Unlimited began offering a Fair-Trade Certified label at the beginning of 2021 to go with its GROW label, providing two paths to advocate for sustainable
prices for farmers and support growing communities.
Organic Farmer of the Year
Amy Bruch of Cyclone Farms in York, Nebraska, is a sixth-generation farmer. Since carrying on the legacy of her family farm in Nebraska after the sudden passing of her father, she and her husband, Tyler, evolved the operation into one of the most cutting-edge organic farms in the
country, and converted nearly 2,600 acres of highly productive farm ground to organic row crops, small grains, pulses and oilseeds. Amy is a soil health expert who uses the Kinsey- Albrecht system approach on her operation. She has had experience with various projects to help establish sustainable farming systems on four continents, and is currently serving as a member of the National Organic Standards Board.
She is also the co-founder of AgriSecure, a first-of-its kind full-service organic consulting company that helps farmers transition into organic production. This effort has already help convert over 65,000 acres by more than 68 farmers across 15 states in their organic transition. Her leadership is widely revered as setting the pace for getting growers through transition and fully certified to organic.
Community Service
This first-term award will be given to Cassie Cyphers and Scott Erickson on behalf of Clif Bar & Company.
Senior Community Manager for Philanthropic Partnerships Cassie Cyphers led company efforts to provide its bars
to first responders and the food insecure throughout the pandemic. Clif Bar donated seven million to first responders and frontline medical workers, and an additional seven million bars to people in need. She also spearheaded
the company’s efforts to provide organic farmers with personal protective equipment they needed to stay safe while growing and harvesting food. The company donated over $300,000 to six non-profits serving farmworkers, who distributed 55,000 pieces of PPE directly to farmworkers.
In response to local school closures and to support families depending on school meals, Clif also opened Kali’s, the employee café at company headquarters, as
a community kitchen. Executive Chef Scott Erickson and the Clif culinary team prepared up to 400 meals per week for staff and volunteers who manage the Oakland Unified School District’s 22 local food distribution sites.
Climate Action
Britt Lundgren, Director of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture at Stonyfield Organic, will be the first to receive the Organic Climate Action Award. She leads the company’s efforts to reduce emissions from agriculture, particularly
from dairy, and advocating for federal policies supporting organic farmers in becoming part of the solution to climate change. During the past five years, a major focus of her work has been supporting the development, funding and launch of OpenTEAM, the first open-source technology ecosystem to address soil health and mitigate climate change. It is intended to revolutionize the way farmers access site-specific decision support on how to improve soil health and track the results.
The Organic Trade Association established its first Organic Leadership Award in 1997, and awards have been offered annually since. Awardees are nominated by their peers and chosen unanimously by the association’s Board of Directors (www.ota.com)
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