Each year, PASA Sustainable Agriculture honors farmer, community, and business leaders who serve as examples for advancing sustainable agriculture through innovation and collaboration.

The honorees in 2024 are--

-- Business Leadership Award - Masa Cooperativa: Masa Cooperativa is a worker-owned and majority immigrant-operated cooperative based in Philadelphia that mills corn grown in partnership with local organic farms to produce masa. Their goal is to raise the standards of commercially available masa by providing wholesome, organic masa grown and made locally.

-- Community Leadership Award - Truelove Seeds: Truelove Seeds is a farm-based seed company in Philadelphia offering culturally important and open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds. They launched their first seed catalog in 2017 and have since expanded to include mentorships, apprenticeships, and a wide array of community programs, including seed-saving workshops, seed exchanges, and local farm partnerships.

-- Leadership Award - Sue Miller, Birchrun Hills Farm: Sue Miller co-manages Birchrun Hills Farm, a first-generation dairy farm with an on-site creamery in Chester County, about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Since 2006, the Millers have been committed to dairy farming using conservation-minded methods and have a steadfast dedication to supporting industry peers.

-- Lifetime Service Award - Chef Mike Ditchfield: Chef Mike Ditchfield from Lycoming County has dedicated his career to educating the next generation of chefs. He upholds that the farmers he works closely with are the primary sources connecting him to high-quality food and relays the same philosophy to his students—teaching them how to source ingredients sustainably and how to prepare cuisines that honor those ingredients.

-- Lifetime Service Award - John & Sukey Jamison: John and Sukey Jamison from Westmoreland County have dedicated their lives to improving the health of their land and community by conservation grazing and supplying their local market with high-quality lamb cuts from The Jamison Farm. They built their own USDA processing plant to serve their own needs, as well as those of their neighbors in Western Pennsylvania.

-- Lifetime Service Awards - Ira Wallace: Ira Wallace is a gardener, teacher, and author who manages Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a cooperatively owned seed company based in Louisa County, Virginia. She is known for her unrelenting support of new seed companies, highlighting them and giving them a platform to share their stories. She is unwavering in her commitment to reducing competition, encouraging young farmers, and fighting for land access.

Click Here to read much more about the award winners.

For more information on programs, initiatives, research, educational opportunities and how you can get involved, visit the PASA Sustainable Agriculture website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates.  Click Here to become a member.

PASA works to build a more economically-just, environmentally-regenerative, and community-focused food system through education and research that directly supports farmers.

[Posted: February 2, 2024]

2/5/2024