Jim Gerritsen, along with his wife Megan, has owned and operated Wood Prairie Farm in northern Maine for over thirty-five years. Wood Prairie Farm has been a MOFGA-certified organic farm since 1982. The Gerritsens are focused on the production of organic early generation Maine Certified Seed Potatoes, seed crops, vegetables and grain. Their seed potatoes are sold retail through their mail order catalog and web business. Additionally, they sell wholesale to several national mail order seed houses. They are active in the organic community. Jim is President of Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association based in Montrose CO. Jim has served as President of Organic Seed Alliance in WA, and was on the Certification Committee of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association for over 20 years. He is now on the MOFGA Ag Services Committee and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Direct Gardening Association. He has served for many years on the Steering Committee of the local St John Aroostook Resource Conservation & Development Council. He is co-founder of Slow Food Aroostook and co-founded an Organic Crop Improvement Association chapter. He has cooperated in several on-farm research trials with scientists from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Maine, and he is an advisor to the UMO Northern New England Organic Bread Wheat Project. The Gerritsens farm and reside in the Aroostook County town of Bridgewater with their four children.
Bryce Stephens, Vice President:
Bryce Stephens is a farmer/rancher in NW Kansas. He has a degree in Anthropology with studies in business and education at Wichita State University and law at Washburn University. He carries on the family’s tradition on 1000 acres where he primarily raises wheat and livestock. He has been certified organic for over 15 years and is active with a major certifier as a Chapter Administrator for Kansas Organic Producers LLC. He is chairman of OCIA’s Accreditation/Government relations committee. He grows and maintains a landrace wheat called ‘Turkey Red” that was introduced to the Plains by the Mennonites. Bryce is a seed saver and maintains his own stock of wheat, alfalfa and clover from his farm. Bryce also serves on the Board of the Kansas Organic Producers marketing coop. He is active with to two local consumer food buying coops.
Isaura Andaluz, Treasurer
Isaura Andaluz is passionate about food, bees and seeds. Through her consulting work in community economic development, she has worked on diverse agricultural projects with farmers, ranchers and seed savers. Isaura was a co-founder of Cuatro Puertas, which is guardian to the largest collection of native and drought tolerant seeds in New Mexico. She works on developing new recipes and conducting food tastings at farmers markets for “forgotten” foods. Her most recent project involves protecting New Mexico’s native chiles, which face extinction from genetically engineered chile being developed by New Mexico State University. Isaura was a co-founder of Slow Food Rio Grande, served on the board of the NM Farmers’ Marketing Association, and helped to organize the Save NM Seeds Coalition.
Nancy Redfeather
Nancy Redfeather has been a teacher and organic gardener for 38 years. She is founder of Hawai’i SEED, the Hawai’i Island Seed Exchange, Hawai’i GEAN, and co-founder of Biodynamics Hawai’i and the Know Your Farmer Alliance. She and her husband Gerry Herbert have created an experimental/educational mini-farm at Kawanui, Honalo where they have given community classes yearly since 2002 in home vegetable production, coffee and orchard production using sustainable/ecological practices. She dances with Na Wai Iwi Ola Halau under the direction of Kumu Hula Keala Ching. She was the Coordinator of the Hawai’i Island Food Summit October 2007 and currently is Coordinating The Kohala Center’s newest food self-reliance project, the Hawai’i Island School Garden Network, which includes all island schools. She is an avid seed saver and is always experimenting with new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs that might do well in tropical climatic zones.
Ira Wallace
Ira Wallace serves on the board of the Organic Seed Alliance and is a worker/owner of the cooperatively managed Southern Exposure Seed Exchange where she coordinates variety selection and seed grower contracts. Southern Exposure offers over 700 varieties of open-pollinated heirloom and organic seeds selected for flavor and regional adaptability. Southern Exposure helps people keep control of their food supply by supporting sustainable home and market gardening, seed saving, and preserving heirloom varieties. In addition, Ira is a member of Acorn Community which farms over 60 acres of certified organic land in Central Virginia, growing seeds, alliums, hay, and conducting variety trials for Southern Exposure. She is also an organizer of the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, a fun, family-friendly event featuring an old-time seed swap, local food, hands-on workshops and demos, and more. The Festival is quickly growing to become an important regional gathering with over 2,700 attendees in 2009. Ira was cooperator with the SARE-sponsored Saving Our Seeds Project. She presents at events sponsored by the Virginia Association of Biological Farmers (VABF), Virginia Master Gardeners, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA), Mother Earth News and Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG).
Michael Glos
Michael has operated Kingbird farm in central New York State with his wife (Karma) and daughter (Rosemary) since 1996. Kingbird Farm is a diverse certified organic farm integrating the production of poultry, pork, beef, vegetables, draft horses, and plants. All products are marketed within 30 miles of the farm with most sales occurring from an on-farm store, the Ithaca Farmers Market, and a food coop. Past involvement in the organic community has included serving as an organic certification review committee member, many conference presentations, and as part of competitive organic grant review panels. Michael currently serves as a member of the Tioga County Cooperative Extension board,committee member for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), founding farm member of Fingerlakes CRAFT, and advisory board member of the Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming. In addition to his farm work, he has worked with organic seed and breeding starting with NOFA-NY as part of the Public Seed Initiative in 2001. He has worked in the Cornell University Department of Plant breeding since 2004 concentrating on breeding and trialing of vegetable varieties for organic systems. This work includes work on regional organic farms as well as Cornell’s organic research farm.
Joel Reiten
Joel was raised on a large diversified farming operation in North Dakota with a long history of seed production. From his first organic seed production was part of 4-H project in 1975 to US production manager for one of the world’s most prestigious vegetable seed companies; Joel has had a lifelong love of the seed industry.
Along with his work in the seed industry Joel was a founding board member of the North Dakota State Trading Company and has spent several years working with overseas companies on projects with seed production and animal genetics as well as studying at North Dakota State University. Joel has in-depth experience in the seed industry both here in the US and overseas working to develop organic seed production practices working for Territorial Seed Company and Bejo Seeds. He has done extensive work with developing seed production specific bio- fertility practices as well as well as working on organic practices to prevent seed borne diseases.Currently seed production manager for Seeds of Change, a division of Mars, one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of 100% organic seed.
Laura Parker, Executive Director
Acting as OSGATA’s Executive Director, Laura Parker is responsible for capacity building, organizational development, communications, and working with the board of directors. Laura Parker has a diverse background in agriculture and grass roots organizing. She has skills in organizing, fund raising, grant writing, and marketing garnered from founding and organizing a multi- disciplinary series examining food issues while attending Colorado College. The 2 year, twenty presentation Food Chained series included speakers such as Michael Pollan, Joel Salatin, and Jack Kloppenburg. Raised on a holistically managed cattle ranch in western Colorado, she has also worked on organic seed and vegetable farms. Interested in local food systems, she managed farmers markets in Colorado Springs and coordinated a regional food forum through the non-profit, New Farms. She studied seed saving and international trade policies in India. She recently helped manage a raw milk dairy and started Parker’s Poultry, a soy-free pastured poultry enterprise.
