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 - 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 Beech Hill Farm in Mount Desert, Four Season Farm in Harborside and Cate Farm in East Montpelier, Vermont. Heather began working for the Healthy Acadia Coalition in 2003 where she now serves as Hancock County Farm to School Coordinator and enjoys helping to bring locally-grown foods into school cafeterias. She also freelances for several organizations managing projects related to community health, nutrition and local food systems, co-coordinates the Hancock County Food Pantry Network, and co-authored (with her dad) the chapter on the eastern newt in Maine Amphibians and Reptiles. Heather lives and gardens in Penobscot with her partner Erich Reed, a high school librarian. Contact Heather.
Amanda Beal - President 3 Graymalkin Place, Freeport, ME 04032 Phone: 207-553-5838 Amanda has served on the MOFGA Board since 2000. In her professional work, she is a Healthy Maine Partnership director for the Communities Promoting Health Coalition, a program of the non-profit People's Regional Opportunity Program (PROP) in Portland. She also serves on the Board of Directors for 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 - Treasurer 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.
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.
Betsy Hart - Member of Executive Committee 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 Jemison - Member at Large 10 University Place, Orono, ME 04473 Phone: 207-866-3185 John is an Extension Professor for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. In this role, he has worked on water quality and agricultural production issues since 1991. He has worked primarily with nutrient and weed management issues, always with the goal of saving farmers money and protecting our state's environment. What he hopes to bring to the MOFGA Board is broad perspective of agriculture, a perspective as a sitting member of the Board of Pesticides Control, and how to help MOFGA elevate organic agriculture. John had the opportunity to do a sabbatical leave in Perugia Italy in 2003, and that time had a profound effect on his agrarian view of the world. He learned that food is culture, and we are what we eat. John thinks quality food and water are two of the most important human needs. Organic agriculture may be the best way to get people back into the kitchen, bring families around the table, and improve the overall health of Maine citizens. John is excited to serve and help in this cause. Contact John.
Craig Lapine - Member at Large 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 (still an owner) 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 - Member at Large 426 Egypt Road, 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.
JoAnn Myers - Member at Large Beau Chemin Preservation Farm 1749 Finntown Road, Waldoboro, ME 04572 Phone: 207-832-5789; 207-691-8164 (cell) Wayne & JoAnn 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 boards of the Migrant Health program, the local planning board, the Medomak Valley Land Trust and the Knox-Lincoln County Farm Bureau. 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.
Tom Opper - Member of Executive Committee PO Box 5, Liberty, ME 04949 Phone: 207-589-4596 Upon moving to Liberty, Maine to be closer to family, Tom did carpentry and farm work while being a unionized Longshoreman in Searsport. In the early 70's he was involved in the founding and operating of Friends Food Coop. For numerous years, he has been in the business of designing and printing T-shirts. Besides vending at Common Ground since 1978, his environment-oriented shirts are sold across the US, and in Europe and Japan. Over the years, Tom's company, Liberty Graphics, has made a concerted effort to inform its market of the deleterious effects of conventionally grown cotton which uses massive amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As with the organic food movement, he asserts that there continues to be increased awareness and availability of organically grown cotton. Contact Tom.
Eric Rector - President of MOFGA Certification Services, LLC; Waldo County Chapter Liaison Tilth Consulting & Systems Development 554 Dickey Hill Road, Monroe, ME 04951 Phone: 207-525-3104 Eric currently works for himself as an information systems consultant. A past president of the MOFGA Board, he now serves as the President of MOFGA Certification Services, LLC. Eric also has been an active volunteer on many other MOFGA committees and events. He designed and maintained (for several years) an earlier version of MOFGA's website. He is currently working on a technology project to aid three sustainable agriculture groups (MOFGA, Hancock County Local Foods, and Farm Fresh Connection). He is an avid organic gardener, orchardist, and forester in Monroe where he also tends to sheep, cows, and chickens. Contact Eric.
Richard Rudolph - Liaison to Educational Programs Committee Rippling Waters/Backyard Organics 55 River Road, Steep Falls, ME 04085-6300 Phone: 207-642-5161 Richard is an organic farmer, activist, teacher, and chair of MOFGA’s Educational Programs Committee. He has worked with youth and young adults teaching at a youth detention center, a junior high school and at the university level. His academic career includes traditional research in the field of early American history and applied work in the field of environmental studies with specialization in the energy policy field. With a Ph.D. in history and now retired from the academy, he is a consultant on issues as wide ranging as green energy, sustainable development, passenger rail service, and global environmental concerns. Since 1993 when he retired as an academic dean at the University of Massachusetts/Boston, he has farmed full-time at his Rippling Waters/Backyard Organics farm in Standish, Maine. The farm has been recently reincorporated as a nonprofit entity with Richard serving as the first full-time executive director. As a nonprofit farm, Rippling Waters, is committed to serving the greater community through its educational and food security work in collaboration with a variety of organizations such as the Saco Valley Food Connections, Avesta Housing Management Corporation, Bon Appetit, Communities Promoting Health Coalitions at PROP, Maine Time Dollar Network, Training Resource Center, Saint Joseph College, Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Winter Cache Project. Through this endeavor, the farm is able to provide training and hands-on experiences for hundreds of volunteers who help farm staff grow fresh organic produce – 10% of which is donated to low income families and seniors served by the local emergency food system. Contact Richard.
Ann Schneider - Sagadahoc MOFGA Chapter Representative 11 Old Sheepscot Road, Wiscasset, ME 04578 Phone: 207-882-6763 Ann lives in Wiscasset with her husband, and has two children who are grown and working in Maine. She is a member of Sagadahoc MOFGA, and her family has been involved over the years with helping to organize and staff the chapter's Baked Bean booth at the Common Ground Country Fair. Ann came to Maine from Pennsylvania in 1975 to learn how to make maple syrup in Wellington, and has stayed ever since. She and her husband do organic gardening and preserving of their own food. Contact Ann.
David Shipman - Member of the Executive Commmittee 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.
Judd Thompson - Member at Large 36 Sunrise Dr, S China, ME 04358 Phone: 207-445-4549 Judd Thompson lives with Melanie and their three children in the home they built on Three Mile Pond. Judd is a Mechanical Engineer. Starting his career in the Peace Corps, he progressed through Navy Ships and space ships. His career peaked over the last 16 years when he became a full time stay-at-home dad. Four of those years were spent in the Maine House, sitting on the Natural Resources Committee, representing the people of Albion, Benton, China and Unity Township. Although Judd petitioned unsuccessfully to lift the inadvertent seed tax‚ his most accomplished legislation gave birth to the statewide electronics recycling effort we have today. Judd is not a farmer, but is deeply concerned about where his food comes from and who grew it. He aspires to teach high school science. Contact Judd.
Herbert Williams - Member at Large HerbKomp Inc 76 Eight Rod Road, Waterville, ME 04901 Phone: 207-873-7416 Herb is a lifelong resident of Kennebec County, Maine. He graduated from Waterville Senior High School in 1981, and went on to study accounting and work with computers. Herb ran and owned H.B. Williams Polishing (Land-Sea-Air). He also owned and operated Sculptured Lawn Specialist, which got him interested in composting. Herb learned first-hand by apprenticing with Robert Pike (of Pike Agri-Lab) who follows the teaching of Sigfried Luebke – a world renowned scientist promoting the proper methods of fully aerobic Controlled Microbial Compost (CMC) production. Herb has since founded HerbKomp Inc. where Dr. Herbiss Maxamiss, “Protector of our Planet’s Soils” resides. Herb has attended courses at the University of Maine in Orono and at Husson College. He resides in Waterville leading a quiet life – unmarried with no children – and spends the bulk of his time trying to better people’s lives in the great state of Maine.