PASA Sustainable Agriculture Honors 2024 Pasabilities Award Recipients

Each year, PASA Sustainable Agriculture honors farmer, community, and business leaders who serve as examples for advancing sustainable agriculture through innovation and collaboration. 

The honorees in 2024 are--

-- Business Leadership Award - Masa Cooperativa: Masa Cooperativa is a worker-owned and majority immigrant-operated cooperative based in Philadelphia that mills corn grown in partnership with local organic farms to produce masa. Their goal is to raise the standards of commercially available masa by providing wholesome, organic masa grown and made locally.

-- Community Leadership Award - Truelove Seeds: Truelove Seeds is a farm-based seed company in Philadelphia offering culturally important and open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower seeds. They launched their first seed catalog in 2017 and have since expanded to include mentorships, apprenticeships, and a wide array of community programs, including seed-saving workshops, seed exchanges, and local farm partnerships.

-- Leadership Award - Sue Miller, Birchrun Hills Farm: Sue Miller co-manages Birchrun Hills Farm, a first-generation dairy farm with an on-site creamery in Chester County, about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Since 2006, the Millers have been committed to dairy farming using conservation-minded methods and have a steadfast dedication to supporting industry peers.

-- Lifetime Service Award - Chef Mike Ditchfield: Chef Mike Ditchfield from Lycoming County has dedicated his career to educating the next generation of chefs. He upholds that the farmers he works closely with are the primary sources connecting him to high-quality food and relays the same philosophy to his students—teaching them how to source ingredients sustainably and how to prepare cuisines that honor those ingredients.

-- Lifetime Service Award - John & Sukey Jamison: John and Sukey Jamison from Westmoreland County have dedicated their lives to improving the health of their land and community by conservation grazing and supplying their local market with high-quality lamb cuts from The Jamison Farm. They built their own USDA processing plant to serve their own needs, as well as those of their neighbors in Western Pennsylvania.

-- Lifetime Service Awards - Ira Wallace: Ira Wallace is a gardener, teacher, and author who manages Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, a cooperatively owned seed company based in Louisa County, Virginia. She is known for her unrelenting support of new seed companies, highlighting them and giving them a platform to share their stories. She is unwavering in her commitment to reducing competition, encouraging young farmers, and fighting for land access.

             Click Here to read much more about the award winners.

For more information on programs, initiatives, research, educational opportunities and how you can get involved, visit the PASA Sustainable Agriculture website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates.  Click Here to become a member.

PASA works to build a more economically-just, environmentally-regenerative, and community-focused food system through education and research that directly supports farmers.

-- In Celebration Of The Many Contributions Of John Dawes To Protecting And Restoring PA’s Environment, Foundations Create The R. John Dawes Clean Water Fund  [PaEN]

-- PASA Sustainable Agriculture Honors 2024 Pasabilities Award Recipients  [PaEN]

-- State Conservation Commission Awards $3 Million In Conservation Excellence Grants To 4 Organizations  [PaEN] 

-- National Fish & Wildlife Foundation Now Accepting Proposals For Chesapeake Bay Small Watershed Grants Program  [PaEN]

-- DEP Chesapeake Bay Update Newsletter: Request For Engineering Services; PennVEST Funding Outreach Sessions; Much More!  [PaEN] 

-- Still Time To Register! Keystone Coldwater Conference Feb. 23-24 In State College  [PaEN] 

-- Penn State Center For Ag Conservation Assistance Hires Engineering Firm To Help Develop Certification Program For Conservation Professionals; Spring Conference; Seeking New Faculty  [PaEN]  

-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Awards $150,000+ Grants To Support 34 Local Watershed Projects  [PaEN]  ​

-- The Nature Conservancy Receives $250,000 Investment In Freshwater Connectivity From Richard King Mellon Foundation  [PaEN] 

-- Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition: 16th Annual Student Symposium On The Environment Draws Over 130  [PaEN] 

-- PA Society Of Professional Engineers Host Feb. 22 Virtual DEP Update On MS4 Stormwater Program, NPDES Water Quality Permitting  [PaEN]  

-- Penn State Extension Hosts Feb. 28 Webinar On Green Stormwater Infrastructure [PaEN] 

-- March 4 Penn State Extension Webinar On Monitoring Soil Moisture: A Climate Smart Ag Practice  [PaEN] 

-- March 11 Streambank Stabilization And Stream Crossings On Farms Webinar  [PaEN]

-- Allegheny County Conservation District Unveils Insights Into County Development And Stormwater Infrastructure  [PaEN]

-- DEP Assesses $73,153 Penalty On 2 Contractors Building A Rutter's Store In Blair County For Water Quality Violations; Exactly The Kind Of Violations A Citizen Group Was Afraid Of   [PaEN]

-- DEP Issues Contractor Permit To Construct Rutter’s Store In Huntingdon County; The Same Contractor Penalized $73,153 By DEP For Failing To Comply With Permit In Blair County  [PaEN] 

-- Water At Risk: The History And Mystery Of Lawns, Try A Lower Maintenance, Natural Landscaping Instead - By Carol Hillestad for the Brodhead Watershed Association  [PaEN] 

-- Protecting Clean Water Together: Explore The Brodhead Watershed In Monroe County - By Carol Hillestad for the Brodhead Watershed Association  [PaEN]

[Posted: February 2, 2024]  PA Environment Digest