George Naylor, President: George Naylor currently serves as NFFC's
President and represents Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement on the
board. He raises 470 acres of corn and soybeans near Churdan, Iowa,
with his wife Peggy and two sons. He has actively participated on
national farm policy issues since the farm crisis in the mid-1980s.
George is also a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Monsanto
and other biotech companies dealing with the negative economic impacts
on family farmers by the introduction of genetically modified crops.
Soon after coming back to the family farm in 1976, George was elected to
the first Iowa Corn Promotion Board. From 1989 through 1991 he served
on the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter. In 1999,
George served as a member of Governor Vilsack's Agriculture Taskforce.
George Naylor, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI):
phone/fax: (515) 544-3464, email: moonbean@wccta.net
Ben Burkett , Vice President: Former Indian Springs manager of 16 years and current director of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, the local arm of The Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Ben is at once farmer and community activist.
The Federation, an umbrella organization now composed of 35 coops representing 12,000 African American farm families from Texas to North Carolina, assists farmers in land retention and the development of economically self-sufficient communities. Member coops purchase supplies and receive marketing, financial and technical assistance through the federation. Ben is involved in several coops, believing that is “the only way you can make it,” in the rural south.
Besides South Africa, the Mississippi farmer has traveled from Kenya to Nicaragua and Lebanon to Zimbabwe with FSC, exchanging knowledge and information with small-scale farmers. He in turn hosted West African honey, rice and vegetable producers who visited the United States to learn irrigation, marketing and packaging techniques from African American farmers.
Ben Burkett, State Director Mississippi Association Of Cooperatives, (601) 354-2750, fax: (601) 354-2777, email: benburkett@earthlink.net or fscmiss@mindspring.com
John Kinsman , Secretary: John Kinsman is President of the Family
Farm Defenders. John is a dairy farmer from Lime Ridge, Wisconsin who raises
36 cows on a 150-acre farm-80 acres devoted to hay and pasture, 70 acres
devoted to woodland management.
Through FFD, John works to forge new consumer-farmer direct marketing strategies for dairy products. His organization is now marketing Cedar Grove cheese, which carries a label that clearly identifies that the cheese is produced by family farmers and is free of genetically engineered products.
John also advocated for efforts to ban use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) and educated farmers and consumers about its negative effects. As a result of his efforts, the Food and Drug Administration forestalled the rBGH approval for seven years and bovine growth hormone is now struggling in the marketplace. He traveled around the world to talk with farmers about the potential dangers of genetic engineering in agriculture and the need to change US dairy policy.
John Kinsman, Family Farm Defenders: (608) 986-3815, fax: (608) 986-2502, email: n/a
Bill Christison, Treasurer: Bill Christison is a fourth-generation
family farmer from Chillicothe, Missouri. Bill and his wife, Dixie,
operate a 2,000-acre farm on which they produce soybeans, corn, wheat,
hay and cattle. He is President of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center
(MRCC-an NFFC member organization), a grassroots farm organization with
over 4,000 member families. Bill also served as NFFC's president
position for five years (1997-2002).
Since the 1980s, Bill worked on the need to change federal farm programs
due to its failure to work for family farmers, including work to change
credit legislation to enable family farmers to refinance their debts.
The ongoing need to change the commodity provisions of the Farm Bill to
enable farmers to earn a fair price for what they produce is also an
aspect of Bill's work.
Through MRCC, Bill actively confronted and stopped the advance of
corporate factory hog farming in his state. MRCC developed the Patchwork
Family Farms Project, an innovative direct marketing program ensuring
some family hog farmers a fair price for their hogs and increasing
access to quality hog products for low-income consumers in Missouri.
Bill works to end the mandatory check-off for both pork and beef by
working to secure farmer referenda on the future of the programs.
Bill Christison, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, (660) 684-6456, fax:
(660) 684-6888, email: n/a
Joel Greeno : Joel Greeno has been a Wisconsin Dairy Farmer for 15 years and is the current President of the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Asssociation,
an organization of dairy farmers dedicated to establishing a raw milk price which returns to dairy producers their cost of production plus a profit. ARMPPA is a milk-marketing agency that holds no allegiance to any existing milk handler, cooperative or corporation. Through ARMPPA, small and moderate-sized dairy producers can survive as independent businesses and avoid vertical integration.
Joel Greeno, President of the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association, (608) 463-7634, fax: (608) 463-7370, email: n/a
Dena Hoff: Dena represents the Northern Plains Resource Council on the NFFC Board and Chairs NFFC's Trade Task Force. She raises sheep, cattle, alfalfa, corn, and edible dry beans, among other crops, on their farm in Glendive, Montana since 1979. She is an active member of her rural community, serving on the Water Commission and the local food cooperative. She is also active with the Western Organization of Resource Councils.
Dena Hoff, Northern Plains Resource Council: phone/fax: (406) 687-3645, email: dena@midrivers.com
Savi Horne: Savi is the Associate Director of Land Loss Prevention
Project (LLPP) and administers its Program for Family Farms and the
Environment. The overarching mission of the organization is to re-enter
African-American farmers into the food system. A chief barrier to this
realization is access to land. LLPP is working collaboratively with
regional and national organizations to establish an African-American
Farmland Trust to aid the next generation of minority farmers.
Savi is an attorney who works on farm credit policy issues. Savi is a
Board member of the Rural Coalition, the National Campaign for
Sustainable Agriculture, and the Southern Sustainable Agriculture
Resource and Education (SARE) Professional Development Program.
Savi Horne, Land Loss Prevention Project: (919) 682-5969, email:
savi@landloss.org
Bryan Wolfe: Currently milking 50 cows, Bryan is a dairy farmer in Ashtabula County in northeast Ohio.
Bryan is the Vice President of the Ohio Farmers Union, Chairman of the Ohio Farmers Union Dairy Committee, the Ohio Director for Family Farm Defenders, a Board member of the American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association, and a member of the NFFC Dairy Subcommittee, Progressive Agriculture, and the Ashtabula, Geauga, and Lake County organization of National Farmers Union.
Bryan Wolfe, Maple Lane Farm: (440) 563-5473, fax: (440) 563-3406, email: n/a
