The Cornucopia Institute Adds Jérôme Rigot, Ph.D. as Policy Analyst
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The Cornucopia Institute announced that it has added to its staff Dr. Jérôme Rigot, a Maine-based agricultural researcher and organic certification professional, with broad experience in organic farming, specialty crop production, composting and the culinary arts. Dr. Rigot holds a doctorate in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry from the University of California at Davis. The focus of his dissertation was soil bioremediation. He did postdoctoral research at Ohio State University, where he worked on the optimization of the composting process and led a project looking at the microbial diversity in conventional versus organically managed soils. Dr. Rigot’s strong scientific background and his rich and varied experience adds to Cornucopia’s diverse knowledge base in farm and food policy and agricultural economics.
“We are very pleased to have Jérôme join our staff,” said Will Fantle, Cornucopia’s co-director. “His scientific background together with his hands-on experience as an organic farmer and organic farm inspector will greatly strengthen our ability to objectively evaluate and carefully critique synthetic and non-organic materials being proposed by agribusiness for use in organics.”
With this newest addition to its staff, Cornucopia continues its post-publication response to the public interest group’s white paper, The Organic Watergate. The report brought to light a pattern of corruption at the USDA’s organic program that disregarded the Congressional mandate to carefully review synthetics used in organic production and as food ingredients.
The Cornucopia Institute has accused the Bush and Obama administrations at the USDA of stacking the decision-makers on the National Organic Standards Board with agribusiness representatives instead of appointing independent farmers, scientists, consumers, and environmentalists — reflecting the diversity mandated by Congress to protect the public interest.
While pursuing his doctoral and post-doctoral research at UC Davis and Ohio State, both major Land Grant universities, Dr. Rigot witnessed firsthand the detrimental influence money from large agricultural and biotechnological interests can have on the objectivity, soundness and integrity of scientific research, and vowed to pursue work that would not undermine his beliefs in truth and integrity.
Rigot relocated to Maine in 2012 to help manage a small farm on the state’s central coast. He started a thriving business growing micro-greens and specialty crops in an effort to cater to the needs of high-end restaurants, abundant on the coast of Maine. He also started working with MOFGA Certification Services (MCS), the certifying branch of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). “In that role, I visited many organic farms and was often amazed at the ingenuity and resourcefulness displayed by the farmers to deal with many challenges and to create a healthy living for their family and their customers,” Rigot stated.
“We want to thank the more than 10,000 members, predominately certified organic farmers, who financially support Cornucopia’s mission, for underwriting our staff expansion,” added Fantle. “In these challenging financial times, we have been humbled that our individual donors have continued to increase in numbers and level of generosity. We will carefully invest this support to preserve the integrity of the organic label, protecting the livelihoods of ethical farmers and business people, and the trust of consumers who believe in the values this industry was founded upon.”
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Jérôme Rigot now lives on a small homestead farm in Newburgh, Maine, with his partner Renée. In his spare time, Jérôme enjoys cooking, baking French sourdough bread, experimenting with ferments, practicing Tai Chi, beekeeping, vegetable gardening and swimming in the ocean with his black lab Daisy.
