Over 600 people attended the recent New Mexico Organic Farming Conference in Albuquerque. Attendees learned about soils, pollinators, worker safety, meat/specialty processing, water harvesting, carbon farming, organic importing, pastured poultry, greenhouse construction, compost, farm diversification, microscopes and much more.
Along with conference facilitator Sage Faulkner, organizers included the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau, New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service and Walking Trout Farm.
Steve Ela of Ela Family Farms and Silver Spruce Orchards was the keynote speaker. Ela manages a 100-acre organic family fruit farm in Hotchkiss, Colorado.
Following is a list of award recipients:
Good Earth Award
This award is presented to an organic farmer who exemplifies caring stewardship of the land, has a deep understanding of the principles of organic agriculture and serves as an inspiration. Charlie Mallery and Rebecca Allina operate the Certified Organic Range-Fed Beef El Morro Valley Ranch, located in the Zuni Mountains of Western New Mexico. The ranch encompasses over 20,000 acres of grazing land and runs about 150 black Angus cows. They operate their ranch as soil builders first and grass farmers second, using cattle as a tool to improve grasslands and support an ecosystem that invests carbon into soil, rather than depleting it. Mallery and Allina strive to support regional food systems and to provide quality, grass-fed beef to the region.
Educator of the Year Award
Ron Boyd grew up around farming along the Arkansas River east of Pueblo Colorado and moved to Taos in 1986. By the early 1990s, he was supplying greens to local restaurants and helped initiate the “Taos Growers Association” that then became the Taos Farmers Market. By the early turn of the century, he and his wife Debora began the work creating the Mer-Girl Gardens farm, which has become about six acres of biodynamic practices and is certified organic.
Billy Kniffen is a water resource associate in the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. He has served as a water resource specialist and county agent for Extension for 30 years. His efforts have been directed toward rainwater harvesting and watershed stewardship. Kniffen has conducted programs, workshops and has installed numerous demonstration rainwater collection systems in New Mexico. Through his involvement with the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association, he has conducted educational workshops, trainings and the installment of demonstration rainwater collection systems across 30 different states in the United States. He co-authored the “Rainwater Harvesting: System Planning” manual used in training for rainwater professionals and in technical trainings provided by ARCSA.
Young Organic Farmer of the Year Award
This award was initiated four years ago by the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau and Farm Bureau Financial Services–Fred Porter. Sean Ludden cultivates the intensive and biodiverse Nepantla Farms in the Alamedan Valley, where regionally-adapted edible and medicinal crops are cultivated for acupuncturists, herbalists, nurses and value-added producers. He has experimented with techniques, cultivars and timing over seven seasons in the pursuit of a climate-resilient, arid-land adapted production system to supply local food and medicine to the Middle Rio Grande Valley. Ludden created Las Huertas Farmer Training Program in 2016, which teamed up with Bernalillo County’s Grow the Grower program this year to train aspiring farmers.
Friend of Organic Agriculture Award
This award is presented to a person or persons who, over many years, provided leadership, inspiration and assistance to organic producers in New Mexico. Tooley’s Trees is a family-run, 10-acre tree nursery located in Truchas, New Mexico. Gordon Tooley and Margaret Yancey grow drought tolerant trees and shrubs in fabric root bags on drip irrigation. They currently have about 6,000 plants and they plant 2,000 to 3,000 more every year. Their trees are grown in native soil following holistic growing practices. Tooley’s methods result in healthier plants and soils, higher water quality and beneficial insect populations. They have built their own Keyline Plow and hire out with tractors and plows to other farms and ranches. They have offered an apprenticeship through the Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program since 2015.
Organic Farmer of the Year Award
Owner of Mr. G’s Organic Produce, Gary Gundersen received a certificate in biological horticulture from the University of California Santa Cruz Farm Project. He spent six years landscaping, specializing in herbaceous borders and drought tolerant design schemes in the Santa Cruz area. He met his future wife, Natasya, while planting a downtown community garden. He moved with Natasya to Hawaii in 1989, where they began farming on leased land on the island of Kauai. His farm was one of the first certified organic farms on Kauai. He eventually purchased 13 acres and specialized in mixed vegetables for local markets and ginger root, which they shipped wholesale all over the United States. He moved to the Santa Fe area in 2001, where he downsized to two acres for intensive vegetable production. Including Hawaii and Santa Fe, his farms have been certified organic for 29 years.
For more information about the conference, visit www.nmofc.org or contact Faulkner at 505-490-2822 or [email protected].
