President of the Board of Directors for Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Fred Kirschenmann was integral in the establishment of this unique nonprofit that advances community-based food production. Stone Barns Center operates as a farm, kitchen, laboratory and teaching campus for nearby New York City residents. A third-generation farmer, Kirschenmann engages chefs, scientists, growers and corporate executives about the need for local food systems that work in harmony with nature and human health.
Kirschenmann runs Kirschenmann Family Farms, a 3,500-acre certified organic farm in Windsor, North Dakota, where he also was president of the certifying agency Farm Verified Organic from 1990-1999.
Among a wide variety of activities to advance sustainable agriculture, Kirschenmann served as chair of the Administrative Council for NCR-SARE, completed a five-year term on the USDA's National Organic Standards Board, completed work for the North Dakota Commission on the Future of Agriculture, was a charter member of the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society, and has been a member of the board of directors for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture since 1994, serving as president in 1997.
Kirschenmann received his degrees from Yankton College in South Dakota, Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago, where he earned a Rockefeller Fellowship, among other awards. He was chair of the Department of Religion at Yankton College, and Dean of the College at Curry College in Boston.
Winners of the Growing Green Awards were selected by a panel of sustainable food experts, which was chaired by Susan Clark, Executive Director of the Columbia Foundation. Winners were recognized on April 29, 2010 at the Growing Green Awards ceremony in San Francisco, CA.