January 27, 2003

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Present "Stewards of the Year" Awards

Five hundred conference attendees enjoyed an exciting and delicious organic awards banquet on the final night of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) annual conference. This year the conference was held at the Broyhill Center in Boone, NC.  Director Tony Klees made the presentations and congratulated the four awardees.

Activist of the Year recipient was Donald Bixby of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC).  As executive director of ALBC since 1988, Dr. Bixby has led the effort to increase the awareness of the importance and need for conserving genetic diversity seen in a range of traditional livestock and poultry breeds.  Many of these breeds offer unrecognized opportunities for integration into sustainable and organic systems, and can often out-perform industrial livestock.

Longtime CFSA member Cathy Jones of Perry-winkle Farm, Chapel Hill became the first woman to receive the Farmer of the Year Award. She was a popular choice of candidates from North and South Carolina. Cathy and husband Michael have been farming organically for 11 years for the local farmers' markets from April through November.  Kathy has been an ardent supporter of sustainable regional agriculture and has been a cheerful agricultural leader, a generous teacher, and friend to the community.

Recognition was also extended to Anson Mills of Columbia, SC as the Agricultural Business of the Year.  Sales director Catherine Horton accepted the award. Anson Mills is a certified organic producer of antebellum-style grain ingredients, stone milled from heirloom, corn, wheat and Carolina Gold Rice. Anson Mills maintains a network of certified organic farms and two field research stations for the preservation and restoration of antebellum grain including Carolina Gourdseed White corn as well as White May wheat.

The Warren Wilson College farm program was honored as the first recipient of the new Institution/Non-Profit of the Year Award.  The college has fostered agricultural education for over 130 years.  The curriculum is heavily focused on sustainability and agro-ecology.  Farm Manger John Pilson accepted the award to the cheers of twenty participants in the program attending the conference.

The CFSA is made up of members in support of organic and sustainable farming in North and South Carolina.  The successful conferences, however, attract people from all over the country. For more information  919-542-2402 www.carolinafarmstewards.org