EcoFarm Awards

Each year, EcoFarm recognizes the work of exceptional farmers. Join us at the Friday Awards Banquet to celebrate the next generation of leaders working to cultivate just and resilient food systems.

EcoFarm offers the Steward of Sustainable Agriculture Awards (Susties), the Advocates for Social Justice in Sustainable Agriculture Awards (Justies), the beginning and young farmers (Fresh Roots), and the Golden Pliers Award.

EcoFarm 2024 Award Winners

  • Manuel & Olga Jimenez

    JUSTIE WINNER

    Manual and Olga each grew up in migrant farm worker families in the little town of Woodlake, east of Visalia. They fell in love, married young, and started a family. Manual earned himself a Plant Science degree from Fresno State University while supporting his family picking fruit. He became the Small Farm Advisor for UC Extension in Tulare County where he excelled for over 33 years, inventing SJV blueberry culture to benefit family-scale cultivators. During this time, Olga and Manual remained dedicated to their Woodlake farm worker community, developing a youth leadership program around beautification, funded by a large sweetcorn patch. Four decades strong, with hundreds of young hands and community support, their 14 acre Woodlake Botanical Garden is the pride of Woodlake and Tulare County. The garden showcases near-every crop grown in our Valley, and the farmers and farmworkers who developed them.

  • Food Chain Workers Alliance

    JUSTIE WINNER

    The Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA) is a bi-national coalition of 33 worker-based organizations whose members plant, harvest, process, pack, transport, prepare, serve, and sell food, organizing to improve wages and conditions for all workers along the food chain. FCWA is committed to ending the exploitation of food workers and building a sustainable food system grounded in economic and racial justice. By organizing in our workplaces and communities, we can revolutionize our food system to be one in which work is valued and respected, workers share the wealth of their labor, and workers have the power to shape their working conditions.

  • Brian Baker

    SUSTIE WINNER

    Brian grew up on a small family farm in Western New York and went to Cornell where he was a member of the Ecological Agriculture Research Collective. After receiving his Ph.D., he was a post-doctorate at Cal-Berkeley. In 1988 Brian went to work for CCOF and was a founder of OMRI in 1996. Brian served as the Director of Sustainability at a SUNY campus and returned briefly to the family farm. He also worked at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Switzerland and served as IFOAM North America’s first President.

  • Bob Cannard

    SUSTIE WINNER

    Bob Cannard has been farming sustainably for more than 30 years, providing produce to Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley. Growing up in the commercial nursery business, he has since developed the natural process approach to agriculture that he utilized at Green String Farm in Petaluma. He has long been an important member and teacher of the sustainable food and beyond organic movement in Northern California.

  • Ujamaa Farmer Collective

    FRESH ROOTS WINNER

    Ujamaa Farmer Collective exists to create space for historically marginalized black farmers. They plan to center and serve other existing farmers of color who struggle with land security for their businesses. Each farm business that leases land and participates in their land access program will independently manage their plots, labor, sales, markets, etc. while Ujamaa Farmers Collective functions as a container to enhance their profitability and business viability. This will be achieved through coordinated labor and skills sharing, collective purchasing, shared equipment and infrastructure, as well as food hub aggregation and distribution. Ujamaa Farmers Collective is also a part of the Yolo County Land Access Program.

  • To Be Announced...

    GOLDEN PLIERS AWARD

    The awardee will be announced at the EcoFarm Award Banquet dinner.

    As the golden plier changes hands, it signifies not just an honor bestowed upon a single individual but a collective celebration of the resilience, ingenuity, and passion that define the very soul of EcoFarm.

The Sustie: Steward of Sustainable Agriculture

EcoFarm developed the Sustie Award to honor those who have been actively and critically involved in ecologically sustainable agriculture. These Stewards of Sustainable Agriculture have demonstrated their long term, significant contributions to the well-being of agriculture and the planet.

The Justie: Advocate for Social Justice in Sustainable Agriculture

The Justie Award honors those who have been active advocates for social justice as a critical aspect of ecologically-sustainable agriculture and food systems.

Fresh Roots: Beginning and Young Farmers

The Freshie Award recognizes the work of beginning and young farmers, as the next generation of leaders working to cultivate just and resilient food systems.

The Golden Pliers

The Golden Pliers Award is kept secret until our awards ceremony in honor of a very special volunteer who doesn't mind getting their hands dirty.