NRDC’s 2013 Growing Green Awards Call for Nominations deadline is this Friday (12/7)! Apply now or nominate your favorite food hero to be considered for an award in the following categories: Business Leader, Food Producer, Young Food Leader and Food Justice Leader. Please see Call for Nominations attached and below for details.
This email contains images. If you are unable to view this email correctly, please click here.
Call for Nominations
Submit your application here >>
Nominations are due by December 7, 2012
$10,000 cash prize in the Food Producer category
$2,500 cash prize in the Food Justice Leader category
$2,500 cash prize in the Young Food Leader category
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) announces its fifth annual Growing Green Awards to recognize individuals who have demonstrated original leadership in the field of sustainable food. Through this national award, NRDC will recognize extraordinary contributions that advance ecologically-integrated farming practices, climate stewardship, water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility from farm to fork.
A 2013 Growing Green Award will be given to an outstanding individual in each of the following four categories: Food Producer, Business Leader, Food Justice Leader, and Young Food Leader. Cash prizes of $10,000, $2,500 and $2,500 will be awarded in the Food Producer, Food Justice Leader and Young Food Leader categories, respectively, and all winners will be widely celebrated through outreach to media and NRDC’s networks. Winners will also be celebrated in the spring of 2013 at an event to benefit NRDC in San Francisco. Winners will be chosen by an independent panel of nationally renowned sustainable food thought-leaders.
Eligibility
Recipients may represent a variety of fields including food production, food service, retail or restaurants, academia, journalists, policy advocacy, and government. The panel will consider candidates from across the country (candidates outside of the United States will not be considered). Individuals in the following four categories are eligible:
- Food Producer: Farmers or other food producers, including aquaculture, who employ innovative techniques to sustain agriculture, the natural environment, workers and community.
- Business Leader: Entrepreneurs who effectively use the marketplace to promote sustainable food systems, develop infrastructure that enables producers to be more sustainable, or advance sustainable innovations anywhere along the supply chain from farm to fork.
- Food Justice Leader: Advocates and entrepreneurs who are creating equitable food systems, including provision of safe and fair working conditions for food system workers and improving access to nutritious food to families and communities in need.
- Young Food Leader: Sustainable food advocates, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and innovators who are 30 years old or younger.
Growing Green Awards Criteria
In selecting from nominees, the awards selection panel will consider the following criteria:
- Innovation in promoting ecologically-integrated food systems. This may include minimizing inputs of energy, water, antibiotics, pesticides and other chemicals; reducing pollution and global warming gas emissions; use of on-farm polyculture; increasing natural resilience; and stewardship of biodiversity, pollinators, open space and land resources.
- Potential to achieve wide scale adoption, implementation or behavioral change.
- Advancement of health, safety and economic viability for farmers, food system workers and communities.
Selection Panel and Process
The awardees will be selected by an independent panel with staffing assistance from NRDC. NRDC is grateful to the following sustainable food leaders who have volunteered to join the Growing Green Awards selection panel:
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, which she chaired from 1988 to 2003. She is also Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She is the author of three prize-winning books: Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health; Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety; and What to Eat. Her most recent book is Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics (with Dr. Malden Nesheim). She writes the Food Matters column for the San Francisco Chronicle, blogs daily (almost) at www.foodpolitics.com, and twitters @marionnestle. She was named 2011 Public Health Hero by the University of California School of Public Health at Berkeley, and Time Magazine listed her Twitter among its top ten most influential in health and science.
Michael Anthony is the Executive Chef/Partner at Gramercy Tavern, New York. Michael began cooking professionally in Tokyo, Japan where he quickly grew to love the Japanese connection to the changing seasons. Following his time in Japan, Mike moved to France to hone his culinary skills at a number of renowned restaurants. He joined Gramercy Tavern as the Executive Chef in 2006 and under his leadership the restaurant has earned a number of accolades including a three star New York Times review in 2007 and the James Beard Award for “Outstanding Restaurant” in 2008. In 2012, Michael won the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: New York City.” (Photo: Ellen Silverman)
Nell Newman and business partner, Peter Meehan established Newman’s Own® Organics: The Second Generation® in 1993 as a division of Newman’s Own. In 2001, Newman’s Organics became a separate company which today supplies a wide range of products, including organic snack foods, coffee, tea, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, organic dried fruit, and pet food to food retailers across the nation. The sale of Newman’s Own Organics products generates money for the Newman’s Own Foundation to give away. In 2010, Nell founded the Nell Newman Foundation dedicated to humanitarian, scientific and environmental action that fosters a resilient and restorative ecology.
Gabe Brown is one of the pioneers of the current soil health movement which focuses on regenerating our resources. Gabe, along with his wife Shelly, and son Paul, own and operate Brown’s Ranch, a diversified farm and ranch near Bismarck, ND. The Browns holistically integrate their grazing and no-till cropping system, which includes multi-species cover crops, with all natural grass fed beef, poultry and sheep. This diversity and integration has regenerated the natural resources on the ranch without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Gabe was the recipient of the 2012 Growing Green Award in the Food Producer category.
How to Apply
Applications will be accepted until close of business on December 7, 2012. The application must be submitted electronically using the website application process at http://www.nrdc.org/ggnomination. Application materials may include up to 10 pages of text (12 point font please), photographs, articles or other supporting materials. Please combine multiple files into a single attachment.
In the last four Growing Green Award competitions we received many excellent nominations that came close to winning. We encourage previous applicants to resubmit their nominations for consideration for a 2013 Growing Green Award.
Please contact Amrita Batra with questions at gga@nrdc.org or by phone at (415) 875-6107.
Meet Last Year’s Winners
NRDC’s 2012 Growing Green Awards winners were selected from a diverse pool of impressive candidates for their outstanding achievements in sustainable food and farming. You can hear them share their stories here.
- Food Producer 2012: Gabe Brown, Brown’s Ranch
- Business Leader 2012: George Siemon, Organic Valley
- Food Justice Leaders 2012: Lucas Benitez and Greg Asbed, Coalition of Immokalee Workers
- Young Food Leader 2012: Andrea Northup, D.C. Farm to School Network
Growing Green Awards | 2012 Winners | 2011 Winners | 2010 Winners | 2009 Winners