Board of Directors

Spencer Aitel - Member at Large Two Loons Farm 407 Vassalboro Road, South China, ME 04358 Phone: 207-441-9511 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 - Executive Committee Member at Large 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 Administrator of College of the Atlantic’s new Sustainable Food Systems Program, which includes a transatlantic partnership with University of Kassel in Germany and the Organic Research Centre-Elm Farm in the UK. She has also helped launch and coordinate “Farm to School” efforts in eastern Maine through the Healthy Acadia Coalition, bringing more local foods into school cafeterias and classes. Heather lives and gardens in Penobscot with her husband Erich Reed, a high school librarian. Contact Heather.
Amanda Beal - Executive Committee Member At Large 3 Graymalkin Place, Freeport, ME 04032 Amanda has served on the MOFGA Board since 2000. She is currently a full-time student, enrolled in the Agriculture, Food & Environtment M.S. program at Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy. She also serves as the Board President of Cultivating Community, who she has worked in partnership with to establish school garden programs in 3 school districts. Amanda is a co-creator of the annual Maine Harvest Lunch event, which began in Gorham Schools in 2003 and expanded to a statewide effort in 2007, providing students with an all local foods menu through their school lunch program. Amanda also studied medicinal herbalism for over a decade, and operated a private herbal consultation practice in Freeport for 4 years. She has taught classes on many herb and nutrition related topics throughout the state. Prior to working at PROP, Amanda spent 9 years working at and then managing Royal River Natural Foods in her hometown of Freeport, and before that she lived, worked and played amidst the mountains in Yosemite National Park for 2 and a half years. Contact Amanda.
John Belding - Liaison to Fair Steering Committee Little Falls Farm 250 Walker Mills Road, Harrison, ME 04040 Phone: 207-583-6047 John and partner Mary Belding live and farm in Harrison, Maine at Little Falls Farm on the Crooked River where they are MOFGA Certified, raising and processing most of their own food including meat, goat milk, eggs, cheese, herbs, vegetables and fruit. John has been a professional land surveyor and small farmer for 32 years, not necessarily in that order! Prior to living in Harrison, he was a partner at Old Stage Farm in Lovell where he participated in setup of the MOFGA exhibit at the Portland Flower Show for 5 years, was a vendor at the Common Ground Country Fair Farmers’ Market for 4 years, and was a certified organic grower for 7 years. He is co-coordinator (with partner Mary) of the Farmers’ Market at the Fair and an active member of the Fair Steering Committee. John and Mary are proud to be part of the great volunteer effort that makes MOFGA the premier organic organization in the country, and the Common Ground Country Fair a one-of-a-kind celebration of Maine’s best. Contact John.
John Bunker - Liaison to the Fundraising Committee Super Chilly Farm 167 Turner Mill Pond Road, Palermo, ME 04354 Phone: 207-993-2837 John Bunker has lived in Palermo on Super Chilly Farm since 1972. He tends about 2 acres of vegetable gardens and orchards. He is particularly fond of growing carrots, cabbages, hot peppers, plums and apples. He dabbles in vegetable breeding and has a collection of dozens of rare fruit varieties. His 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, searching for rare and endangered varieties of fruit trees and ornamentals. He has established the Maine Apple Orchard at MOFGA's Common Ground Education Center, comprised of varieties originating in Maine. He conducts apple tastings, workshops and gives talks all over the state. He does historic orchard work with organizations and individuals throughout New England. His daughter, Phoebe, is a student at Colby College. 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.
Dave Colson - Liaison to MOFGA Certification Services, LLC New Leaf Farm 496 Davis Road, Durham, ME 04222 Phone: 207-353-5263 Dave Colson and his wife, Chris, operate New Leaf Farm in Durham. The farm has been certified since 1985 and Dave has played a role on various committees over the years. Chris has graciously consented for him to return to the Board after a hiatus of some years. Contact Dave.
Barbara Damrosch - Member at Large 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.
Mark Davis - Liaison to MOFGA Certification Services, LLC 499 Pleasant View Ridge Road, China, ME 04358 Phone: 207-968-2029 Mark is a recent transplant to Maine, having moved from Maryland in 2007. For 17 years, Mark farmed grain and processing vegetable crops in Delaware, pioneering sustainable cropping practices. For 9 years, Mark worked for USDA Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland. There he conducted research on organic grain systems and high tunnel tomato production. He also helped establish the non-profit organization Future Harvest—Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture and served as its president for many years. Mark served on the Maryland Organic Certification Advisory Committee, which oversaw the certification of Maryland organic farms. Mark has a grown son and daughter, and he is currently a stay at home dad to twin girls. He lives in China with his wife, Caragh Fitzgerald, who is an Extension Educator for agriculture with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. They are currently developing vegetable gardens and fruit plantings for home production. Mark is also a member of the Kansas City Barbeque Society and a certified barbeque judge.
Beth Haines - Liaison to the Agricultural Services Committee Fisher Farm 177 Coles Corner Rd, Winterport, ME 04496 Phone: 207-478-4803 Beth is honored to serve as a member of the MOFGA Board. She is a graduate of the University of Maine Sustainable Agriculture Program. Through this and various on-farm apprenticeships, she gained valuable skills and knowledge necessary to run a commercial vegetable farm. She now farms with her partner, Dennis Fisher, and his family at Fisher Farm in Winterport. They grow a wide variety of organic vegetables and cut flowers which they market at farmers' markets and through a 50-member CSA. In her spare time, she enjoys raising animals on pasture and walking in the woods. Beth is very grateful for the opportunity to farm for a living and she hopes that through MOFGA she will be able to help other aspiring farmers to fulfill their dreams. Contact Beth.
Betsy Hart - Member at Large 96 Weston Road, Mount Vernon, ME 04352-9731 Phone: 207-293-2489 Prior to joining the MOFGA Board, Betsy 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, live and garden organically in Mount Vernon. Betsy is a family physician and geriatrician, whose practice involves caring for the elderly and providing hospice and palliative care for those with life-limiting illness. She has a particular interest in reducing power imbalances in healthcare, 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 Betsy.
Sam Hayward - Vice President 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.
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.
Craig Lapine - President Cultivating Community PO Box 3792, Portland, ME 04104 Phone: 207-761-4769 Craig is founder and director of Cultivating Community, a community food and youth empowerment project in Portland -- and an organization that began under the fiscal umbrella of MOFGA. Cultivating Community's work is rooted in two premises: food is an environmental issue and youth are part of the solution. The group currently grows at two urban gardens in Portland (the Boyd Street Urban Farm and the Oxford Street Shelter Garden) and at Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth. The organization work with hundreds of youth and volunteers each year to make locally grown organic produce available to low income families and elders, and to give youth a chance to give back and make a difference. Cultivating Community grew out of Craig's work with youth as a coach, mentor, community gardener, and high school English teacher. Craig lives in Portland with his wife Nicole Chaison, a writer and women's health counselor. They have two children: George and Isadora. Contact Craig.
CR Lawn - Secretary 52 Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville, ME 04901 Phone: 207-872-9093 CR founded Fedco Seeds in 1978, and over the years received on-the-job training in running a small business. That and his law school background enable him to offer useful perspectives to MOFGA. The Fair has always been his principal interest because it plays such a significant role in the economic life of Maine's alternative growers and value-adders and is such an inspirational and joyful event. He helps coordinate ticket operations and over the years has also exhibited and judged at the Exhibition Hall, has conducted several surveys of fair-goers, and twice organized educational workshops sponsored by Fedco. He has served as Treasurer, Secretary, and Chair of MOFGA’s Fair Steering Committee. He has farmed organically for three decades, and did small-scale marketing from 1976-1990. He is currently active through Fedco in the movement to preserve genetic diversity, and is very concerned about the consolidation of the seed trade into fewer and fewer companies and the parallel spread of transgenic cultivars. He believes genetic engineering is perhaps the most serious challenge facing the organic movement in the years ahead. Contact CR.
Adam Lee - Member at Large Lee Auto Malls 107 Main Street, Topsham, ME 04086 Phone: 207-729-3358 Adam is President of Lee Auto Malls which was founded in 1936 by his grandfather. He has worked in the car business since 1987. Prior to that Adam lived in NYC and worked as a professional fund raiser for the United Way and then the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. He currently lives in Cumberland with his wife, his 10 year old twins, 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 horses, and flock of chickens. His kids are both very involved with the animals and gardening and enjoy being outside. Adam spends a lot of time gardening (mostly flowers) during the warmer months, and a lot of time being an amateur astronomer in his back yard.
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.
Isabel (Izzy) McKay - Member at Large Stantial Brook Farm 146 Underpass Road, Brooks, ME 04921 Home Phone: 207-722-3430 Work Phone: 207-568-3738 Izzy and her husband, Rick Thompson, live in Brooks at Stantial Brook Farm, which they named for the stream that makes the western border of their property. Izzy and Rick started building the farm from the ground up in 2001, with an emphasis on being self-sustaining. The farm is off-the-grid and powered by wind, sun and wood, with a diesel generator as back up. Izzy and Rick board horses, both pleasure and draft. They also raise dairy goats, chickens, turkeys, mulch and feed hay, and a variety of vegetables for their own use and sale. Izzy is a recovering attorney and a licensed consulting forester. Rick is a recovering Thompson Oil executive and discovering that being a "farmer" still doesn't give him any more time to hunt or brew beer. Both Izzy and Rick own Half Moon Gardens, Inc., formerly Connelly's Greenhouses located in Thorndike. Half Moon raises veggie and flower annuals, perennials and nursery stock, and is starting to convert one greenhouse to organic, year-round vegetable production. Izzy is also currently a member of the Small Woodlands Owners Association of Maine, a Tree Farm Inspector, and a member of the Forest Guild. Contact Izzy.
Kim Michel - Liaison to the El Salvador Sistering Committee PO Box 311, Damariscotta, ME 04543 Kim currently works as a cashier and in the produce department at the Rising Tide Food Co-op in Damariscotta. Before beginning her time at the co-op, she worked on farms in Southern Maryland, upstate New York, and during the 2006 season, on King Hill Farm in Penobscot, ME. During her time at these three farms, most of her work was growing vegetables for market, but has also included seed saving, sheep dairying, and management of pastured livestock. Her interests are in creating a diverse homestead garden and eventually, to grow enough good food to sell to other people. She has been a member of the MOFGA/El Salvador Sistering Committee since April 2006 and went with the Committee on a delegation in January 2007. Kim moved to Damariscotta in Fall 2007 and is planning gardens for the few acres surrounding her new home.
Jo Ann Myers - 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.
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 two acres of mixed vegetables, retails raw milk in glass bottles, and attends four farmers' markets year round while also raising her three year old and new baby arriving in April 2009. The farm also raises organic beef, pastured broiler chickens, and offers seasonal CSA shares. In her spare time, Sarah is the market manager of the Skowhegan Farmers' Market and is active in such planning committees as The Kneading Conference and Somerset Cooperative Extension. Sarah has been farming for seven 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.