Growing Green Awards
NRDC honors farmers, business leaders, and promoters of sustainable food
The food we eat every day is intimately connected to our health and the health of the environment. NRDC’s fifth annual Growing Green Awards celebrates the food producers, businesses, activists and bold thinkers who are making America’s food system healthier and more sustainable.
This year’s winners were selected from over 200 nominees in the categories of food producer, business leader, food justice leader, and young food leader by a panel of sustainable food and agriculture thought-leaders, including Michael Anthony, executive chef and partner at New York’s long-established and celebrated Gramercy Tavern; Gabe Brown, internationally-recognized soil health champion and 2012 Growing Green Award Food Producer winner; Marion Nestle, award-winning food policy author, professor and one of the nation’s most influential food thought-leaders; and Nell Newman, co-founder and president of Newman's Own Organics.
Below you'll find blog posts from this year’s winners, followed by posts from past winners, judges, and finalists. Learn more at NRDC's website.
Nature is Our Teacher: A Social Experiment Disguised as a Business
May 16, 2012:
Receiving the Growing Green Award from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for my leadership role in Organic Valley is especially rewarding since I have spent my life connecting food with the protection of our... read more >
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Regenerating Landscapes For a Sustainable Future
May 16, 2012:
Welcome to Brown’s Ranch! We are a diversified family operation spanning over 5,400 acres located on the northern Great Plains near Bismarck, North Dakota. For over 15 years, we have said NO to unsustainable ranching and... read more >
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Connecting the Dots: The Journey from Farm to Cafeteria Tray
May 16, 2012:
I am truly honored and humbled to be this year’s Young Food Leader for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Growing Green Awards. Truthfully, I’m accepting this award on behalf of the many wonderful stakeholders I work... read more >
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Field Notes on Food Justice: Why Your Local Grocery Store Makes Farmworkers Poor
May 16, 2012:
“Fresh and Fair from Florida”… Five words that would look so beautiful stamped on your next tomato purchase. Five words that would signify a revolution in agricultural working conditions. Five words that today remain... read more >
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A Lunch Lady Serves up Healthy Schools, Starting in the Cafeteria
April 25, 2011:
I never imagined myself cooking for kids. I spent most of my first three decades as a chef, not knowing or caring what kids ate, and not really wanting to feed them. In fact, as a restaurant chef, my worst nightmare was the... read more >
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Natural Pesticides? Large-scale Farmers Turn to Safer Products to Keep their Plants Healthy
April 25, 2011:
It usually surprises people when I say that it’s a great time to be in agriculture. While the number of farmers has declined significantly since our parents’ generation, there’s no denying that food prices are up, as are the... read more >
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Old Roots Spring Anew in Young Farmers
April 25, 2011:
With young people revolutionizing the good food movement, it’s slightly ironic that at 29, I’m farming on one of the oldest agricultural landmarks in Missouri. I first visited the Mueller Farm as a teenager, when my dad took... read more >
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When it Comes to Food, One Size Doesn’t Fit All
April 25, 2011:
Editor's note: Read OnEarth's feature story about Jim Cochran, "Kicking the Chemical Habit."With strawberries lining grocery shelves from Boston to Tokyo, some say that global food supply chains are becoming ever more... read more >
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Why Is Our Food Making Us Fat?
April 12, 2011:
As a rancher and environmental lawyer, when I write or speak about America's food system, usually it's related to impacts on natural resources -- air, water, and soils. But these last few years I've also become increasingly... read more >
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Spreading Fresh Thoughts about Food and Farming in New York
April 27, 2010:
Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year's four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can be... read more >
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Water: The Lifeblood in the Body of a Biodynamic Winery
April 27, 2010:
Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year's four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can be... read more >
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Shepherd’s Grain: Reconnecting Producers and Consumers through a New Food System
April 20, 2010:
Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year's four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can... read more >
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From Conventional Walnut Farming to Growing (and Processing) Green
April 20, 2010:
Each year, NRDC recognizes sustainable food pioneers across the United States through the Growing Green Awards. OnEarth is publishing blog posts from this year's four winners and two of the judges. All of the posts can be... read more >
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Growing Green: We're Moving in the Right Direction
April 6, 2010:
It is no secret that our bones, heart, brain and every part of our bodies are made up of the matter that passes between our lips. But how many of us stop to think about this while rushing through dinner or supermarket... read more >
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Delicious, Nutritious, Local Food
April 1, 2010:
Our communities desperately need a transformation of our food system. All over the country, people are calling for locally produced, healthy, fresh, affordable food.We know that the support for change is growing - people... read more >
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Climate Change and Restaurants: Introducing the Low Carbon Diet
April 22, 2009:
When we at Bon Appétit Management Company first considered taking on the challenge of lowering the carbon emissions of our business, I admit, I was hesitant. I wasn't sure what fighting climate change had to do with serving... read more >
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The National School Lunch Program: Time for a Makeover!
April 28, 2009:
I believe that the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is in need of a complete overhaul. The inception of the program was predicated on the fact that there were malnourished children all across the country that couldn’t... read more >
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Does Regulating Industrial Agriculture Help Or Hurt the Clean Food Cause?
April 29, 2009:
To regulate or not to regulate, that is the question. As HB-875 wends its way through Capital Hill, farmers like me are watching its progress with shock and fear. This so-called Food Modernization Act is really the... read more >
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Hospitals Helping to Build a Healthy Food System and Global Health
May 4, 2009:
Over the last century, we have radically altered the way we produce and distribute food through the creation of a highly consolidated and industrialized food system. This transformation is fundamentally affecting the health... read more >
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Foodsheds - A New Ruralism Bridging Smart Growth and Sustainable Agriculture
May 5, 2009:
The urban-rural dichotomy doesn't work anymore. There's a connotation in the words ‘urban' and ‘rural' that suggests a neat line between the geographies of city and countryside. As a largely urban culture, we seem to need to... read more >
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Talking Shop: More and more, consumers really care about locally-grown food
May 6, 2009:
Produce Business magazine (March 2008) sent a team of 'mystery shoppers' into stores across the country to see whether retailers are complying with COOL (Country of Origin Legislation) and to see how shoppers feel about it (... read more >
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