A message from the interim executive director
The Cornucopia Institute has a 15-year history of boldly standing up for the integrity of ecologically based organic farmers and food. We have fought many battles to improve or elevate the good food movement and authentic organic farmers. Last year we arrived at a crossroads and parted with our founders. Since then, we have set out to preserve the best of Cornucopia, transforming what no longer served our stakeholders and building new leadership and collaboration.
Welcome to the first stage of the reimagined Cornucopia. We are exploring ways to support the emergence of a people’s food system—one built on the health of soil, plants, and animals and farmers, families, and communities. We are also part of a nation waking up to the suffering of Black and brown people and others not served by our fragile industrial food system and economy.
It’s a dizzying time to reorient. Considering the intense change surrounding our movement and our lives, Cornucopia’s Board of Directors is pausing the hiring of new leadership so the entire organization can focus on creating a new way forward. To pursue this, Cornucopia’s board has approved staff-led strategic planning. The process will be challenging, energizing, and dependent on our ability to listen deeply and think boldly about our value in the good food movement. In the end, we will be well positioned to recruit an executive director poised for success.
The first steps of the strategic planning journey are happening now, as we reach out to and gather input from nearly 100 stakeholders across movements and sectors. These touchpoints will inform us as we evolve Cornucopia into a more collaborative and powerful force.
We will continue our watchdog role, calling out the forces that work to weaken or water down organic policy and practice. And we will elevate the best of community-scale organic farmers and foods while providing clear consumer information to keep people informed and engaged. We look forward to reporting back later this year with a powerful vision and road map for maximizing our impact in this historic moment and beyond.
We are humbled by the injustice powerfully revealed in 2020 and simultaneously emboldened by the collective call for uplifting visions of a better future. As we endeavor toward a more just food system that centers the earth and all living creatures, we invite you to stand up with us.
When we stand up we have already won.
— Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou
