Sunday, October 23, 2011

Maine Farmer Changing World

Jim Gerritsen, a Maine organic potato farmer with a decades-long record of community involvement and activism, has been named by the editors of Utne Reader to the magazine's 2011 list of "25 People Who Are Changing the World."

Gerritsen was selected for his ongoing work leading efforts by independent family farmers to protect themselves from the threat of Monsanto litigation related to the corporation's patents on genetically modified seeds, an effort he sees as critical to the preservation of organic farming itself and organic foods as a choice for consumers and their families.

Each year, Utne Reader selects 25 people "who possess an inspiring combination of imagination, determination and energy," said Utne Reader's editor-in-chief, David Schimke in a statement about the 25 visionaries. "These are people who don't just think out loud, but who walk their talk on a daily basis."

Gerritsen, who grows organic seed potatoes on his family's Wood Prairie Farm in northern Maine, is president

of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (www.osgata.org), the national membership trade organization of the organic seed community, lead plaintiff in the OSGATA et al v. Monsanto lawsuit, which is currently in pre-trial procedural motions.

OSGATA is joined in the lawsuit by 82 other family farmers, seed businesses and agricultural organizations. The lawsuit asserts that Monsanto's patents on transgenic (gene-spliced) seed fail to meet the "social utility" requirement of patent law and are therefore invalid.

The suit also seeks court protection for innocent family farmers from Monsanto patent infringement lawsuits in the perverse situation where their farms are contaminated by Monsanto genes through unwanted genetic trespass, such as when wind-borne transgenic pollen is blown from one farm to another.

For 35 years, Gerritsen and his family have owned and operated the organic Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater, Maine. Located in Aroostook County, which is the top potato-producing county in the country, Wood Prairie Farm is a small certified organic family farm producing various types of seed and specialty potatoes, including the award-winning Prairie Blush variety discovered by the Gerritsens, plus vegetable and grain seed.

The farm's modest scale allows Gerritsen and his family to focus on growing high-quality seed potatoes for catalog customers in all 50 states.

Gerritsen is a tireless advocate for organic farming and family farms, regularly speaking at conferences and events, including the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Common Ground Country Fair and Farmer-to-Farmer Conference, The Organic Seed Growers Conference, the Slow Food Terra Madre Conference in Italy, and others across the United States and Canada.

In addition to Gerritsen, others on the Utne Reader Visionary List for 2011 include David Simon, creator of HBO's "The Wire" and "Treme"; Azzam Alwash, Nature Iraq founder and marshland rehabilitator; Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a congressman working to foster dialogue between Muslim and Christian interests; Gary Paul Nabhan, an author called "the father of the local food movement"; Peter Beilenson, founder of the Evergreen Project in Baltimore and that city's former health commissioner; Debbie Sease, national campaign director of the Sierra Club; and Humira Saqeb, founder of a women's magazine in Afghanistan.

The full list and profiles of the 25 can be read at www.utne.com/Politics/25-visionaries-changing-your-world-2011.aspx.

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