Board of Directors

Current Board Members

Spencer Aitel - Member at Large Two Loons Farm 407 Vassalboro Road, South China, ME 04358 Phone: 207-441-4169 Fax: 207-445-3668 Spencer and partner Paige Tyson care for 150 registered Jerseys in China, Maine. The 65+ milkers help supply CROPP Coop with milk for Stoneyfield Farms Organic yogurts, and Organic Valley milk. Two Loons farm works cropland spread out over 400+ acres (not including rented land) which feeds the herd and supplies grain seed to FEDCO. The farm also sells a variety of agricultural products including hay, straw, veal and beef, eggs and turkeys. Long term interests in energy efficient construction, indoor air quality, and historic restoration continue to occupy a portion of their time.
Heather Albert-Knopp - Vice President 146 Southern Bay Road, Penobscot, Maine 04476 Phone: 207-326-4909 Heather grew up in Readfield and became actively involved in farming and food systems while a student at College of the Atlantic. She has worked at several small farms including Four Season Farm in Harborside, Beech Hill Farm in Mount Desert and Cate Farm in East Montpelier, Vermont. Heather now works as Director of Summer Programs at College of the Atlantic. She has also served as the college’s Food Systems Program Coordinator, and launched “Farm to School” efforts in eastern Maine through the Healthy Acadia Coalition. Heather lives and gardens in Penobscot with her husband Erich Reed, a high school librarian. Contact Heather.
Eli Berry - Liaison To The Low Impact Forestry Committee 246 Youngs Hill Rd Washington, ME 04574 Eli Berry was born in 1970 and grew up in his father's hometown of Bowdoinham. He graduated from Bowdoin College with a self designed major in Anthropology, Architecture, and Environmental Studies and a focus on the maps and built landscape of the Merrymeeting Bay watershed from 1605-1990. Work after college for the LF Cattle Company in Augusta, Montana and the Olsen Family Potato Farm in Aladdin, Washington ( State ) sharpened his conviction that in small scale agriculture is the preservation of the world. Returning to Maine in 1995, he began work on his mother's then vacant childhood home in Washington, Maine where he now raises buildings, prunes trees, and picks up after four Dexter cattle. As a woodworker and landmanager he relishes the challenge of making the most out of muscle power, appropriately scaled tools, simple processes, and good timing. Raised on homegrown food and native sugar; with animals, family, and intimately known landscape as teachers throughout, he apprieciates a life locally lived. He considers sharing the skills, local knowledge, and stories that fit us into our natural place essential to individual well being, collective creativity & enterprise, and our very survival. Eli believes in leaving the soil better than you find it, that there's nothing more dangerous than a dull tool, and in cleaning his plate. He supports his local library, loves to travel under his own power, and measures good work by the pleasure in the doing as much as the results.
Sam Brown - Liaison To The Fair Steering Committee 443 Smart Road Parkman, ME 04443 207-277-4221 Sam was raised in Tacoma Washington. He moved to Cambridge, ME in 1974, and has dabbled in most of the Mother Earth News subjects at one time or another since then. Cows, logging with horses, onions, hay, butchering, alternative school, old tractors, country dances, apples, chickens, lumber, firewood. But once he became active in MOFGA, about fifteen years ago, specifically with the Low Impact Forestry Project, he has felt much more a part of Maine's farm and forest evolution. He's a licensed forester, is active on various Town committees (energy, planning, dam restoration), and thinks he's a pretty good crossword puzzler (his sons disagree). He is fascinated by the malleable organization of MOFGA at all levels, and how volunteers cooperate to accomplish goals. Contact Sam.
John Bunker - Liaison to the Fundraising Committee Super Chilly Farm 167 Turner Mill Pond Road, Palermo, ME 04354 Phone: 207-993-2837 John has lived in Palermo on Super Chilly Farm since 1972. He and Cammy Watts and an assortment of apprentices tend about 3 acres of vegetable gardens and orchards. Their collie, Scout, guards the gardens and trees and a flock of hens and roosters. John has worked for Fedco since 1981, currently coordinating nursery sales for Fedco Trees, which he organized in 1984. He has been plant exploring throughout Maine for many years, mostly searching for rare and endangered apple varieties. He conducts apple tastings, workshops and gives talks around New England. His daughter, Phoebe, lives and works in New York City. Contact John.
Vicky Burwell - Executive Committee Liaison To The Fair Steering Committee PO Box 72, Thorndike, ME 04986 Phone: 207-568-3365 Vicky was raised in Unity and, after an absence of 30 years, lives with her husband, John Phelan, in Thorndike. She is a co-coordinator in the Common Ground Country Fair Folk Arts area, preparing bean-hole beans with a great group of volunteers. She is the incoming chair of the Fair Steering Committee for 2009-2010. Her checkered past includes careers as a social worker, cooking school, several positions in State government and returning to school "again", as her brother says. She works as a Speech - Language Pathologist in Waterville. The home garden is a work in progress. Contact Vicky.
Ben Campo - Executive Committee Member at Large Ben Campo is an attorney in Portland. Prior to entering law school, Ben was an advocate at the Disability Rights Center. Throughout this time Ben been organically farming and gardening. Ben co-managed a CSA and local producers market in South Windham named Deliberate Living. Ben has spread his love for organic gardening through teaching people with disabilities how to build and care for organic gardens. Ben lives in North Yarmouth with his wife Andrea, a massage therapist and herbalist, and two daughters who know where to walk in the garden. Contact Ben.
Ned Daly - Liaison to MOFGA Certification Services, LLC 98 Kennebunk Rd Alfred, ME 04002 Ned has been working to develop markets for social, environmental, and sustainable products for the last twenty years. He has worked in forestry, seafood, textiles and agricultural markets. Ned also sits on the MOFGA Certification Services board. He and his wife Heidi live in Alfred, Maine with a small flock of icelandic sheep they raise for milk, meat, and wool and some pigs. When they are not trying to figure out how to spend more time farming, Heidi and Ned are enjoying Maine's hiking, cross-country skiing, fishing, canoeing, and cycling opportunities or, more likely, fixing up their old barn or working on their house. Contact Ned.
Barbara Damrosch - President Four Season Farm 609 Weir Cove Rd. Harborside, ME 04642 Barbara Damrosch, with her husband Eliot Coleman, owns Four Season Farm in Harborside, ME, on Cape Rosier, which produces vegetables year round both outdoors and in unheated high tunnels. Since 2003 she has written a weekly column called “A Cook’s Garden” in The Washington Post. She is also the author of two books, The Garden Primer and Theme Gardens. She was a host on the PBS television show The Victory Garden, and co-hosted, with Eliot, the series Gardening Naturally on The Learning Channel. Before joining Eliot in Maine in 1991 she had a landscape design business in Washington, Connecticut. Her primary interest now is growing and cooking food. She is not a vegetarian. Contact Barbara.
Chris Hamilton - Member at Large Chris Hamilton lives on an organic farm in Whitefield with his wife Patti. They raise organic meat and dairy goats. Chris and Patti first became involved with the Common Ground Country Fair in the early 1990s. Chris has an extensive background in fundraising and public policy. He presently raises money for LifeFlight, Maine’s emergency medical helicopter service. He was also the director of the Bahamas National Trust where he managed the country’s national parks. He also worked for Maine Coast Heritage Trust for nine years on public relations, public policy and fundraising. Chris was the founding treasurer of the Maine Farmland Trust. For more than ten years Patti has been a coordinator of the Common Kitchen during the Common Ground Fair. She also cooks for other MOFGA events.
Elizabeth Hart - Member at Large 96 Weston Road, Mount Vernon, ME 04352-9731 Phone: 207-293-2489 Prior to joining the MOFGA Board, Elizabeth was a longtime member of the Common Ground Country Fair Steering Committee, having served as its Chair, as a member of the Food Area sub-committee, and as a co-coordinator for both the Agricultural Demonstrations Area and the Social and Political Action Area. She enjoys the collaborative spirit and passionate commitment of the MOFGA community. She and her husband, Chris Coulling, feel blessed to live and garden organically in Mount Vernon. Elizabeth is a family physician who currently practices Hospice and Palliative Care with HealthReach Hospice, which serves the Waterville and Skowhegan areas. She is also the Medical Director of The Maine Hospice Council and Center for End-of-Life Care. She is committed to improving communication about each individual's personal goals when facing serious illness, helping people with life-limiting illnesses to live as fully and comfortably as possible, and bringing gentleness and human connectedness to the institutionalized practice of medicine. She has been a teacher of medical humanities, ethics, complementary medicine, and literature. She is the former Medical Director of the Maine Migrant Health Program, which provides care for Maine's sometimes invisible migrant farm workers. She believes deeply that sustainable agriculture is interdependent with sustainable community. Contact Elizabeth.
Sam Hayward - Executive Committee Member at Large PO Box 145, Bowdoinham, ME 04008 Phone: 207-775-2717 Sam is the Chef and a partner of Fore Street Restaurant in Portland. He began his cooking career as chef of the Shoals Marine Laboratory at the Isles of Shoals in the mid-seventies. He was formerly Chef-owner of Twenty-two Lincoln in Brunswick and Executive Chef of the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport. During the course of his cooking career, Sam has based his menus on the products of a growing community of Maine farmers, gardeners, and foragers.
Sam Hazelhurst - Liaison to MOFGA's Agricultural Services Committee
Logan Johnston - Member at Large
John Krueger - Member at Large 49 Nells Hill Road Liberty, Maine 04949 Phone: 207-845-2482 John comes new to the board with a background in management and science. Most recently he directed the State of Maine Public Health Laboratory that performed environmental, chemical, and forensic testing in a wide range of samples. He continues several of his interests as a consultant. Other activities include 19 years as Selectman for Liberty, a term on the SAD #34 School Board, and broad participation in local and state environmental groups and land trusts. He lives on a 150 acre tree farm in South Liberty in a home that he and his wife Wendy built some 35 years ago. Fond hopes as a board member include helping to better understand the effects of chemicals and additives to the food supply and also to help make Maine a more self-sufficient state. MOFGA has an important place in an ever changing world. Contact John.
Adrienne Lee - Liaison to MOFGA's Educational Programs Committee New Beat Farm 55 Morse Rd. Knox, ME 04986 Adrienne has worked her way through MOFGA’s education programs from apprentice, to Journeyperson and now as a farmer participant in MOFGA’s Apprenticeship Program, helping to train the next generation of farmers. She started New Beat Farm with her partner Ken Lamson in 2008. They are a horse-powerd farm, growing MOFGA certified organic produce, flowers and herbs for their 75 member CSA and farmers' markets in Belfast and Orono. Adrienne aspires to build as close as she can to a self-sustaining agroecosystem, which produces not only healthy and nutrient rich crops, but healthy soils and a vibrant farm ecosystem. She hopes that her work on the MOFGA board helps to build local food security, conscientious land stewardship, and promote healthy self-sufficient communities here in her home state of Maine. When Adrienne doesn’t have her hands in the dirt she enjoys dancing, biking, x-country skiing , and hiking through the mountains of New England. Contact Adrienne.
Paul Lorrain - Member at Large Sunset Farm Organics 31 Ledgewood Ln, Lyman, ME 04002 Cell: 207-423-9348 Work: 207-499-7639 Paul owns SunSet Farm Landscaping in Kennebunkport. He has been doing this since 1990. In 2000, he started SunSet Farm Organics, which grows winter greens for local restaurants in the Portland area. He has four greenhouses now and hopes to add two more next year. Contact Paul.
Kim Michel - Liaison to the El Salvador Sistering Committee PO Box 311, Damariscotta, ME 04543 After working on farms in Maryland and New York State, Kim moved to Maine in March 2006 to apprentice on King Hill Farm in Penobscot. Since 2007, she's been working, living, and gardening in Lincoln County. She joined the MOFGA-El Salvador Sistering Committee in 2006 and went with their delegation to El Salvador in January 2007. This year, Kim is super excited to be starting her own business growing and selling fresh-cut flowers in the Damariscotta area.
Jo Ann Myers - Recording Secretary, and Liaison to the Public Policy Committee Beau Chemin Preservation Farm 1749 Finntown Road, Waldoboro, ME 04572 Phone: 207-832-5789; 207-691-8164 (cell) Wayne & Jo Ann Myers’ Beau Chemin Preservation Farm, begun in 1998, is in Waldoboro. The farm itself is very old. All things that grow from the soil for livestock or human consumption are certified organic as are the laying hens. They operate a small visitor farm and we pick/you-pick farmstand with an emphasis on heirloom vegetables and flowers, endangered heritage breeds of livestock and wool from their heritage breeds of sheep. They find that one way to raise awareness about organic practices and biodiversity in vegetables and livestock is by opening the farm to visitors and talking with people. Pre-farm, Jo & Wayne worked on developing & sustaining rural health care. Wayne continues this as a volunteer and consultant with a broader view to general rural policy here and overseas. Jo is on the local planning board, and the Medomak Valley Land Trust Board. They believe that maintaining a sustainable (not there yet) farm operation is one way to contribute to rural community viability. They are excited to get more involved in MOFGA, and believe that Maine is so fortunate to have such a vibrant and responsible organization. Contact JoAnn.
Alice Percy - Member at Large Treble Ridge Farm 528 E River Rd Whitefield, ME 04353 Alice grew up on a dairy goat farm in Whitefield, which she and her husband Rufus have now transformed into a diversified organic farm. They have succumbed to a common disease among organic farmers called "Chronic Enterprise Addiction"; in addition to their original farrow-to-finish hog operation, they also make hay, grow grain, raise over an acre of vegetables, produce an ever-expanding array of fruit, do a little maple sugaring in the spring, and keep a family cow. Alice is a 2005 graduate of Colby College, with a degree in Environmental Science. She is especially interested in an ecosystems approach to agriculture, in expanding the availability of local grains to local livestock farmers, and in integrating fuel and food production through oilseeds. In addition to the livestock, the Percys live with two dogs, a handful of cats, and above all else their beloved sons: Calvin (age four), Lowell (age two), and baby Silas. Contact Alice.
David Shipman - Treasurer 94 Maple Ridge Road, China, ME 04358 Phone: 207-923-3114 David and his wife Susan Kiralis moved to China in 1987. Their garden plot has been in cultivation for about two hundred years. David has coordinated Fedco's Organic Growers Supply division since 1995. Through OGS, he works with Spencer Aitel to provide Maine-grown organic and certified cover-crop and forage seeds. Contact David.
Sarah Smith - Member at Large Grassland Organic Farm 41 Grassland Lane, Skowhegan, ME 04976 Phone: 207-474-6864 Sarah Smith and her husband Garin own and operate a diversified certified organic operation. Primarily, the farm milks a mixed genetics herd of 40 cows and sells to the CROPP Cooperative. Sarah manages three acres of mixed vegetables and attends four farmers' markets year round while also raising her three young children. The farm also raises organic beef, pastured broiler chickens and laying hens, and offers seasonal CSA shares. Sarah also manages a multi-farm CSA in Skowhegan called The Pickup that supports 20 food producers. In her spare time, Sarah is the market manager of the Skowhegan Farmers' Market and is active in many community events throughout the year. Sarah has been farming for eleven years and has owned her farm since 2007. Prior to coming home to Maine she co-managed the garden at Warren Wilson College and worked as student crew boss of the pork operation on the farm at the institution.
Dan Sortwell - Liaison to the Sagadahoc Chapter PO Box 269, Wiscasset, ME 04578 Phone: 207-882-6374 Dan and Claudia Sortwell are restoring an old family farm in Wiscasset. Current projects include upgrading the root cellar, tending heirloom apple trees, converting the front lawn into an organic vegetable garden, and converting the milking room into a coffee roasting shop. Dan is a food scientist and a recent convert to the organic way. He has worked on the Maine Coast as a commercial fisherman and as a cook. He is a board member of the Wiscasset Public Library and serves on the Wiscasset Conservation Commission.