NRDC’s 2010 Growing Green Awards winner in the Food Producer category, Russ Lester is the co-owner of Dixon Ridge Farms, the largest handler of organic walnuts in the United States. Dixon Ridge has dramatically its reduced environmental impacts from its orchards to the final stages of processing, with the goal of becoming 100% self-sufficient by 2012. Dixon Ridge walnuts are grown without harmful chemicals, amid carefully selected cover crops and irrigation systems that minimize the need for tillage and reduce global warming pollution. Lester converts walnut shells into energy, reducing waste and creating electricity to be used in other stages of walnut production.