Green Wine Industry Nominees Sought
Natural Resources Defense Council adds Water Steward to its Growing Green Awards
Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power National Training and Community Food Center in Milwaukee, Wis., was named the 2009 winner in the food producers category.
San Francisco, Calif. -- The Natural Resources Defense Council is soliciting nominations from the U.S. grape and wine industry for its second annual Growing Green Awards. In addition to awards for food producers, business leaders and thought leaders, the NRDC this year added a fourth category: water steward. The winner in the food producer category will receive a $10,000 cash prize.
Founded in 1970 by law students and attorneys involved in the environmental movement, the NDRC now is supported by 1.3 million members and works with a staff of 300 lawyers, scientists and policy experts seeking solutions to environmental issues including global warming, elimination of toxic chemicals, moving beyond oil, reviving the oceans, saving wildlife and wild places and helping China go green.
Last year, 138 nominations were received for the three available categories, including several for winegrape growers and winemakers. NRDC spokesperson Valerie Jaffee told Wines & Vines, “One nomination from the wine industry definitely made it to the final round of the selection process.”
The competition was very tough, however. Will Allen, founder and CEO of Growing Power National Training and Community Food Center in Milwaukee, Wis., was named winner in the food producers category. His work operating an urban farm that integrates sustainable aquaculture and organic vegetable production, providing fresh fish, produce and jobs to inner-city youth, also earned him a MacArthur Foundation grant in 2008: The $500,000, five-year grants are perhaps better known as the MacArthur “Genius” awards.
Judges for the 2009 competition include chair Susan Clark, executive director of the Columbia Foundation; A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture; Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, and The Ominivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals; and Nora Pouillon, restaurateur and founder of Washington, D.C.’s Fresh Farm Markets.
When selecting honorees, judges will consider the following criteria:
• Innovation in promoting ecologically integrated food systems: minimizing energy, water and chemical inputs; reducing pollution and global warming gas emissions; use of on-farm polyculture; increasing natural resilience; and stewardship of biodiversity, pollinators, open space and land resources.
• Potential to achieve wide-scale adoption, implementation or behavioral change.
• Advancement of health, safety and economic viability for farms, farmworkers and rural communities.
Anyone may nominate the candidate(s) of their choice -- including themselves -- in any category before the Dec. 4 deadline. For more background and nomination forms, visit nrdc.org/health/growinggreen.asp.