OTA’s Organic Leadership Award

The Organic Trade Association has named the recipients of its prestigious Organic Leadership Awards: This year, OTA is presenting the Organic Leadership Award in two categories: "Achievement in Growing the Organic Industry" to Paddy Doherty for helping to develop the organic standards and system in Canada; and "Achievement in Growing Organic Agriculture" to the Lundberg brothers for pioneering organic rice farming and increasing the number of organic acres and farmers.The 2009 Organic Leadership Award recipients will be honored at the OTA Annual Dinner and Dance on June 17, during the All Things Organic Conference and Trade Show in Chicago. The award trophy has been presented since 1997.
 

For nearly two decades, Paddy Doherty has focused on developing the organic sector in Canada, while continuing to farm organically on his family farm in Quesnel, British Columbia. Known for his resourcefulness in bringing diverse communities together, Doherty has managed the pan-Canadian effort to develop an organic regulation for Canada for nearly a decade. Mr Doherty wrote the Interpretive Guide for the Canada Organic Standard, was the first chair of the government-advisory Organic Value Chain Roundtable, and is a member of the Canadian General Standards Board Technical Committee on Organic Agriculture. Doherty also helped to found the Organic Federation of Canada. He has also held key posts with IFOAM, Accreditation Criteria Committee, and the ISO Committee on conformity assessment. 
 

The Lundberg brothers are organic farming pioneers who developed farming practices that for the first time enabled rice to be grown organically in the USA. They encouraged many farmers to go organic, thus increasing the amount of land under organic management. They also helped build many of the organic farm and trade organizations that have become a solid part of the organic business community. Lundberg Family Farms has become the top grower and marketer of rice and rice products in the natural foods arena. They offer a wide range of organic and eco-farmed rice and rice products under the Lundberg Family Farms brand name.

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