Brattleboro Reformer – Brattleboro, VT
By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN
WESTMINSTER — About 40 years ago a group of farmers got together, high in a field in Westminster West, to pool their resources and buy some compost.
The compost was made in Pennsylvania, by an Amish company that produced a chemical-free product known as “organic.”
While the fledgling organic movement was growing on the West Coast, the idea was still relatively new back east and so this group of farmers in Westminster wanted to organize to purchase fertilizer, motor oil for their tractors and seeds.
The group was made up of farmers from southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire and they called themselves, on that spring afternoon in 1971, the Natural Organic Farming Association, or NOFA.
The small group of farmers was made up mostly of back-to-the-landers; idealistic refugees from New York, Connecticut and Boston who moved to Vermont to homestead and grow food without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Over the past four decades, NOFA has matured into the most important and influential advocacy organization for organic legislation and education on the East Coast.
Howard Prussack, co-owner of High Meadows Farm, was one of the first members.
“We didn’t have a clue that this would grow into what is today,” said Prussack. “We were operating in an alternative universe. The last thing we ever thought we would become is legitimate.”
Samuel Kaymen, who would go on to found Stonyfield Farm in Londonderry, N.H., farmed the land in Westminster and called the first meeting. Today, NOFA, which is now known as the Northeast Organic Farming Association, has about 5,000 members in seven states.
About 40 farms were involved in those early meetings, and along with pooling their resources to purchase supplies in bulk, the group met to share information and educate each other.
There were no state or federal organic standards back then, and very few commercial products which were sold as “organic.”
Prussack said the founders met to share what worked and what didn’t, and that group and those meetings would form the basis for what NOFA has become. The early days, Prussack said, were spent experimenting and developing original methods for the movement.
Over the years the group grew slowly.
An office opened in Montpelier and other states started NOFA chapters.
During the 1980s there was a drop in organic demand, and NOFA barely survived. Organic produce had a bad reputation and in some produce markets the organic section would contain a pile of dirty, limp carrots, and soft root crops with worm holes.
A turning point occurred in the early 1990s when Meryl Streep threw her support behind organic products.
A report on the use of Alar, a chemical used in apple production, said consumers were being poisoned, and demand for organic produce skyrocketed.
Enid Wonnacott, who has been Executive Director of NOFA-VT since 1987, said that while the movement grew in the following years, there were some growing pains.
Each state had its own standards, and while some farmers were looking for stricter regulations on what could be called “organic” other farmers did not trust the federal government to develop rules that would protect small operations.
Eventually Congress, led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, passed the Organic Standards Act in 1990, which set up a national standard for organic foods.
“NOFA is a cornerstone of the organic movement,” said Leahy. “The work NOFA has done in forging a community of interests among organic producers, consumers and others, both in Vermont and across the country, has kept organic agriculture sharply focused and true to its mission and its promise. NOFA has been a vital player in organic agriculture from Day 1, and I have no doubt that it will continue in that role for the next 40 years as well.”
Wonnacott said over the years many of the programs that were first talked about during those early meetings in Westminster have been adopted into national agriculture policy.
Farmers markets, community supported agriculture, supporting local economies and farm to school initiatives are now written into national policy and are being embraced in every state in the nation.
Still, she said, organic farmers continue to operate in a national farming climate that favors agri-business, and the discussions that were held on that hillside in Westminster are still reverberating today.
“The whole thing started as a grassroots movement and that has been its strength all along. The original farmers were looking for a different way to live and a different way to raise food,” said Wonnacott. “We’re a very spirited and respected movement now, and no one will say we are done. I think there is still a lot of work to do. An organizer never stops organizing.”
NOFA members have worked with U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop the national organic standards and NOFA still runs the certification programs that ensure that farmers are abiding by those standards.
After 40 years the organization is as strong as ever, and while there is still work ahead, staff say, it is a good time to take stock and celebrate the milestone.
On Saturday, Oct. 1, from 5 to 10 p.m., NOFA is hosting a 40th birthday celebration at High Meadows Farm, in Westminster West.
The party is open to the public, and will feature food and music.
Money raised Saturday night will go toward NOFA-VT’s Farmer Emergency Fund.
