Glynwood, the not-for-profit organization whose mission is to save farming, has announced the 2010 winners of its annual Harvest Awards. The Harvest Awards were created by Glynwood in order to highlight innovative work being done to increase access to fresh, locally-produced food and to recognize leaders from across the country who are supporting regional agricultural systems.

This year's winners will receive their awards at a presentation at Glynwood on Sunday, October 17. On Monday, October 18, the Harvest Award winners will participate in a panel discussion open to the public to take place at the 92YTRIBECA in downtown Manhattan. Moderated by Glynwood President Judith LaBelle, the discussion will explore the trends in positive change in the sustainable food movement as exemplified by the Harvest Award winners' successes across the country.

The panel discussion will be followed by a cocktail reception to meet the winners. Guests will enjoy small plates prepared with regionally-produced food by chefs whose restaurants support local food on their menus - Chef Brent Sims, The Cleaver Co. & The Green Table; Chef Jimmy Carbone, Jimmy's No. 43; Chef Matthew Weingarten, Inside Park at St. Bart's, and Chefs Charles Rodriguez and Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, Print Restaurant - as well as beverages produced in the Hudson Valley.

"Each year we are inspired to see a continued raising of the bar as to what is regarded as special and exemplary from our Harvest Award nominees," enthuses Glynwood President Judith LaBelle. "This year we saw a trend towards efforts designed to encourage the financial viability of farmers by helping to connect them to new and larger markets, access credit and integrate food related initiatives to health - especially children's health."

"We are also inspired by the innovative programs being created by non-farming individuals who work to support their region's food system and provide their communities with greater access to locally-produced food. From farmers who collaborated to find niche markets for their grass-based meat products rather than convert to industrial indoor production, to a woman whose fight against childhood obesity has led to a national model that works to change children's attitude about real food, to a program that supports regional farmers while providing school children of all ages with locally-grown food in their cafeteria, to an organization that provides access to much needed credit for small farmers - each of this year's winners has created a pioneering model that can be replicated in communities across the country."

The 2010 Harvest Award Winners [read about the winners and their work below]

The Glynwood Farmer Harvest Award

• Jeremiah Jones, Beulaville NC

The Glynwood Good Food for Health Harvest Award

• Recipe for Success Foundation, Houston TX

The Glynwood Harvest Award for Connecting Communities, Farmers and Food

• Massachusetts Farm to School Project, Amherst MA

The Glynwood Harvest Award for Wave of the Future

• The Carrot Project, Somerville MA

About Glynwood

Glynwood's mission is to help communities save farming. Located in the Hudson Valley and operating its own sustainably managed farm, Glynwood's unique niche is to empower communities to support farming and conserve farmland through its community programs, public education and leadership in environmentally sustainable agriculture. Major Glynwood programs include Keep Farming™ and the Slaughterhouse Initiative, which launched the first modular, mobile slaughterhouse in the US in April 2010 in Stamford, NY.

To learn more about Glynwood and its initiatives, visit www.glynwood.org. Or connect with us via facebook, twitter and our blog, The Glynwood View.

• On facebook www.facebook.com/glynwoodorg


• On twitter @glynwood


• www.glynwood.org/blog

Details of the Manhattan Event on October 18

The panel discussion is free and open to the public, but space is limited and reservations are required.

Location: 92YTRIBECA, 200 Hudson Street near Canal
Time: Panel Discussion 6pm, followed by a reception from 7:15pm to 8:15pm
Subject: The Next Step: Creating Pioneering Models that Support Regional Food Systems

To reserve a place, email: harvestawards@glynwood.org; guests will receive a confirmation email

To arrange for interviews with the Glynwood Harvest Award winners and Glynwood President Judith LaBelle or to attend the October 18 Harvest Awards Panel Discussion [reservations are required], please contact Geralyn Delaney Graham, geralyn@resourcescommunications.com or tel/ 281. 980. 6643.

About the Harvest Award Winners and their Achievements:

The Glynwood Farmer Harvest Award: Jeremiah Jones

Jeremiah Jones' family farm Grassroots Pork Co. in Beulaville, North Carolina is a pasture-based hog farm that operates a sustainable, humane operation. Over the past two decades industry consolidation and lack of markets eliminated most of the outdoor, pasture-raised production of pork in North Carolina. Unwilling to give up his passion for raising his pigs outdoors, Jeremiah got creative. He, along with the few remaining pasture-based producers in the state, formed the North Carolina Natural Hog Growers Association, a marketing cooperative to develop and enhance direct market sales of their premium pork. As president of the NCNHGA, he has led the organization in developing niche markets and in the creations of best-practice standards, including a requirement that participating farmers are Animal Welfare Approved (AWA). Thanks to the collaborative model of NCNHGA and the hard work of Jeremiah Jones, North Carolina hog farmers have been able to remain profitable while continuing to practice sustainable and humane agriculture. http://www.localharvest.org/grassroots-pork-co-M24216

The Glynwood Good Food for Health Harvest Award: Recipe for Success Foundation
Gracie Cavnar, Founder and CEO

Houston-based Recipe for Success Foundation is the brainchild of Gracie Cavnar, who spent ten years researching the child obesity epidemic before launching her foundation. She realized that the only path to success required making healthy food fun and appealing to kids - way more fun than the "bad stuff." Using her personal finances to translate her research into action, Gracie began to change the way children understand, appreciate, and enjoy their food. Her plan: to introduce children to their food from seed to plate with an extra special ingredient - sending Houston's top chefs into the classroom to ignite excitement about real food. AND IT WORKED! In its fifth year, Recipe for Success is now a public charity, and Gracie is joined in her support by a broad-based group of private citizens, public and private foundations and corporations who are interested in solving the obesity crisis. Schools and districts from coast to coast, impressed with her results, have contacted the foundation to create Recipe for Success programs in their communities. Gracie and her team are now in the process of taking their proven Seed-to-Plate Nutrition Education™ program national; in fact, the Recipe for Success program is so successful and unique that Gracie was asked to serve as an advisor to the First Lady’s task force for "Let's Move," a call to action to eliminate childhood obesity. www.recipe4success.org.

The Glynwood Harvest Award for Connecting Communities, Farmers and Food:
Massachusetts Farm to School Project
Kelly Erwin, Director

Founder Kelly Erwin launched the Massachusetts Farm to School Project in 2004, but it was her previous 18 years as a local foods activist and agricultural economic development advocate that has allowed the program to be so successful. Kelly began her involvement as a passionate supporter of sustainable agriculture when she was elected Chairperson of the then-brand-new Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture [CISA] in western Massachusetts. Ten years later, the "Be a Local Hero, Buy Locally Grown" campaign she launched continues to profitably connect consumers with local farms. While working as a marketing specialist with the state's Department of Agricultural Resources, Kelly became interested in the possibility of connecting farms with schools to provide healthier food for children and to further strengthen the regional food system. When budget cuts eliminated both her position and the pilot program she was developing, Kelly decided to push forward on her own. She launched the Farm to School Project in 2004 utilizing her network of contacts to connect stakeholders from the ag community, the school districts' food programs and government, and most recently the health care community, leading them in a collaborative positive movement for change. The success of the program speaks for itself - a recently completed survey found that during the 2009-2010 school year, at least 100 school districts - from grade school through college - are buying direct from farmers. The program has become a source of ideas and inspiration for schools around the country.
www.mass.gov/agr/markets/Farm_to_school/.

The Glynwood Wave of the Future Award: The Carrot Project
Dorothy Suput, Executive Director

The importance of the small and mid-size farmer to the health of a sustainable agricultural system in the United States is well documented. But it is exactly these farmers who have the most difficulty gaining access to the capital that is integral to their success. The Carrot Project was created to find innovative ways for small and mid-size farms in the Northeast to get the money they need to operate in the short and long-term. It creates, tests and operates financing programs that support profitable, sustainable farm businesses that are otherwise unable to find financing by partnering with community-based lenders, socially responsible lenders, and farm support organizations. It addresses this critical issue with "out of the box" solutions, working on the ground with farmers, then sharing their work and experiences with others. A most notable success of The Carrot Projects is to have made, with their partners, loans totaling $165,000 to 15 small and midsized farmers in just a year and a half. The farms have primarily used the loans for capital expenditures. www.thecarrotproject.org.

Glynwood

Glynwood

Glynwood is one of the nation’s leading sustainable agriculture and food organizations, with a mission to save farming by strengthening farm communities and regional food systems. Founded in 1995 and located in the Hudson Valley, Glynwood operates its own 225-acre farm, which models sustainable farming practices, conducts science-based soil and pasture restoration, and trains young farmers.

To further its mission, Glynwood conceives and implements community-based programs like Keep Farming®, and tackles infrastructure challenges such as the shortage of slaughterhouse facilities so that small to mid-size farmers can thrive and supply local and regional food systems. Through a national and international network of like-minded professionals and organizations, Glynwood gathers, develops, tests and shares innovative ideas and initiatives from around the world that may be effective in local communities in the Northeast and other regions of the country. In addition, the organization sponsors conferences, educational programs and public events to further a sustainable and robust food system. In 2010, Glynwood founded The Glynwood Institute as an incubator for ideas and action, a "creative action-tank" that develops and promotes realistic solutions to critical issues within the food system.

Glynwood's main programs:

• Keep Farming® is Glynwood's unique, step-by-step program for empowering communities to develop and implement plans to support local farming and conserve farmland.
• Glynwood Farm tests, innovates, and teaches techniques that demonstrate the economic viability of environmentally sustainable farming. With 225 acres in the Hudson Valley, it is a real-world model of farming practices that seek to optimize production while operating as an ecological unit.
• The Apple Project: Saving Orchards with Apples, is stimulating ‘apple entrepreneurship’ in the Hudson Valley by encouraging the diversification of apple varieties, promoting the production of high-value hard cider and spirits, giving growers new resources for knowledge and skill, and supporting a growing market for hard cider and apple spirits.
• Modular Harvest System™ is a revolutionary mobile system that is modeling the solution to the severe shortage of humane and high-quality meat processing facilities for pasture raised livestock - a solution that will benefit farmers, consumers, communities and the environment.
• The Harvest Awards honors farmers, organizations, and businesses across the United States for innovation and leadership in sustainable agriculture and regional food systems.
• The Glynwood Institute is a creative action-tank working to shift the U.S. to regional sustainable food and farming through its public programs like TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat.

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