Do you know, or are you, a forward-thinking, innovative organic farmer/ grower who is passionate about implementing organic principles, has proven strong leadership skills and deserves recognition for their work?
To encourage the emergence of a new generation of organic farmers and growers the Organic Research Centre (ORC) launched a new award last year ‘The Young Organic Farmer/ Grower of the Year’ (YOFY). The award is back for its second year and entries are now open for nominations – could you be our winner for 2022?
The ORC, the UK’s leading independent research organisation for organic and agroecological farming approaches, are offering the 2022 YOFY award winner a £1,500 donated cash prize and are excited to be working with Chelsea Green Publishing, the leading publisher of books about organic farming, gardening, smallholding and more, who are donating ‘A Complete Grower’s Library’ of books on organic and agroecological farming to the 2022 winner – worth over £500.
Commenting on the award, 2021’s YOFY winner, Ashley Wheeler of Trill Farm Garden, Musbury, Devon, said:
“It was fantastic to get the recognition through the Organic Research Centre’s Young Organic Farmer/ Grower of the Year Award.
The £1,500 cash prize enabled us to show our appreciation to everyone who works with us in the market garden (and makes the business what it is!) by taking the team out for a meal. It also paid for a holiday at the end of the season, which although sounds unrelated to farming, was actually a great way to re-energise after a long year. Growing is a full-on career, and we all need a little rest from time to time, but it’s not always easy to allow yourself that.
If you or know someone who is a young organic farmer or grower who is passionate about implementing organic principles, I would urge you to enter this year’s award – you might be the winner for 2022!”
Lucy MacLennan, ORC’s CEO, adds:
“We are thrilled to be running the YOFY award for its second year and are also delighted to be working with Chelsea Green Publishing to offer this year’s winner an excellent prize of £1,500 and ‘A Complete Grower’s Library’ of books – both of which we hope will be hugely beneficial in helping to continue to inspire the next generation of organic farmers and growers to continue to transition to more naturally healthy and resilient farming systems”.
You can apply or nominate someone by completing a simple form which can be downloaded from the ORC’s website (https://www.organicresearchcentre.com/news-events/award-2022/). Nominations are open for people: who are less than 40 years old on 30th September 2022, whose work centres around the adoption of organic principles (even though the nominee may not yet be organically certified) and who are working in and for the organic community; they may be employed by farmers or organisations within the sector even if they do not class themselves as farmers.
The deadline for entries is the 30th September 2022 – good luck!
Posted in News and events
