OFRF’s Board of Administrators brings collectively farmers, researchers, and trade leaders who share a standard perception: natural agriculture is a confirmed resolution and deserves funding to match. On this dialog, we sat down with board member Carrie-Anne Palmeri, Natural Program Supervisor at Nature’s Path Natural Meals, to speak about her path into natural farming and coverage, what attracts her to OFRF’s work, and the place she sees the largest alternative for natural analysis to make a distinction.
Meet Carrie-Anne
Inform us about your self and the way you turned concerned with Nature’s Path.
My identify is Carrie-Anne Palmeri, and I function the Natural Program Supervisor at Nature’s Path Natural Meals, North America’s largest unbiased natural breakfast and snack meals firm. In my function, I oversee the strategic growth of Nature’s Path’s Natural Program and assist lead the corporate’s work in natural advocacy, regulatory affairs, and public schooling to guard natural integrity and increase entry to natural meals. I additionally sit on OFRF’s Board of Administrators as Secretary and as President of the Board of Administrators on the Canada Natural Commerce Affiliation.
My journey into organics started as a diversified natural vegetable and berry farmer in Vermont. From there, I spent greater than a decade dwelling and dealing all through Mexico and Latin America as a farmer, technical extension agent, neighborhood organizer, and regulator, serving to advance natural agriculture, meals safety, and sustainable farming methods. That work gave me a deep appreciation for the interconnectedness of farming, coverage, markets, and environmental stewardship. Right this moment, I carry that systems-level perspective to Nature’s Path, the place I’m proud to assist strengthen and develop the natural motion alongside farmers, researchers, trade companions like OFRF, and natural advocacy teams throughout North America.
And Nature’s Path itself, how does the corporate’s work hook up with natural agriculture and analysis?
At Nature’s Path, we imagine natural agriculture is way more than a method of rising meals. It’s a pathway to more healthy ecosystems, extra resilient communities, and a meals system that leaves the Earth higher than we discovered it. As a family-founded and independently owned natural meals firm, we now have spent over 40 years championing natural farming, investing in provide chains that assist growers, and serving to make natural meals extra accessible to households throughout North America.
Carrie-Anne visiting a farm in Kenya with Nature’s Path.
Our work intersects with each natural agriculture and analysis as a result of we perceive that the way forward for natural will depend on steady studying and innovation. By initiatives like our Regenerative Natural Oats (ROO) Program, we collaborate with farmers, researchers, nonprofits, and trade companions to check and scale practices that enhance soil well being, strengthen farm resilience, and assist long-term environmental outcomes. We additionally actively have interaction in natural requirements growth, coverage discussions, and trade management to make sure natural agriculture continues to evolve whereas sustaining the integrity that buyers belief.
For us, analysis isn’t confined to laboratories or tutorial establishments. It occurs in farmers’ fields, throughout provide chains, and thru partnerships that join scientific data with real-world agricultural follow. By serving to bridge these worlds, our crew works to make sure that natural agriculture stays a strong resolution and more and more chosen choice for advancing biodiversity, local weather resilience, wholesome meals methods, and thriving rural communities for generations to come back.
What attracts you to natural on a private stage?
For me, the way in which we develop our meals and the meals we select to eat is a deeply private and communal endeavor—a way of life, a life’s function, and a socio-environmental motion that I deeply imagine in.
Carrie-Anne bought her begin working at an natural farm in Vermont.
I got here to natural via farming. As a small-scale natural farmer—first in Vermont after which in Mexico for a few years—I skilled firsthand the intimate and deeply therapeutic follow of tending a chunk of land and, in return, being tended by it. Farming has taught me persistence, humility, and reciprocity. It has proven me that wholesome meals begins lengthy earlier than harvest, basically with wholesome relationships between folks and the dwelling agroecology that we steward and turn out to be part of on our farms.
That have opened the door to a now two-decade profession working alongside farmers around the globe. I used to be lucky to spend years working hands-on with small- and medium-scale farming communities all through Mexico and Central America, studying not solely from their agricultural practices however from their knowledge, resilience, and dedication to caring for the land. These experiences gave me a profound appreciation for the central function farmers play in shaping each our current and our future. Farmers are among the many authentic stewards of our landscapes, and day by day they make selections that affect the well being of ecosystems, communities, and generations to come back.
What conjures up me most about natural is that it acknowledges these connections.
“Natural is rooted within the understanding that the well being of our planet and the well being of the folks we love and communities we serve can’t be separated.”
Carrie-Anne visiting a farm in Honduras.
It asks us to view meals as greater than a commodity to be consumed and as a substitute as a relationship and a deeply nuanced dialog between folks and the locations they inhabit.
For me, natural can also be basically about justice and fairness. Justice in our meals system will depend on the deeply entwined selections farmers make within the area and shoppers make within the market. These decisions create ripples that stretch far past the farm, shaping and figuring out the livelihoods of farming communities, the resilience of native economies, the safety of biodiversity, and the way forward for our meals system. Natural offers me a chance to align the seemingly easy choice within the market with values that deeply resonate with me: stewardship, equity, and long-term care.
Natural within the U.S. and Canada: Shared Roots, Totally different Paths
What are the similarities and variations within the successes and challenges of natural agriculture in america and Canada?
The natural motion in each america and Canada actually comes from the identical place. In each international locations, it began as a grassroots effort led by farmers, environmental advocates, and shoppers who believed agriculture could possibly be about greater than merely producing as a lot meals as attainable. It was rooted in a set of values: caring for the soil, defending ecosystems, strengthening communities, and recognizing {that a} wholesome meals system is on the coronary heart of a wholesome society.
Carrie Anne excursions an natural farm with the Canada Natural Commerce Affiliation.
Once you step again and have a look at how far natural has come, it’s really fairly outstanding. What began as a set of native and regional actions has grown right into a federally regulated system with enforceable requirements, accredited certification our bodies, and worldwide recognition. In each Canada and the U.S., natural has advanced from a distinct segment motion into one of the crucial acknowledged and trusted certifications within the market. That’s no small accomplishment.
On the similar time, I believe each international locations are grappling with lots of the similar challenges. Natural has confirmed itself. Farmers, researchers, companies, and shoppers have demonstrated its worth time and again. But public coverage, analysis investments, and agricultural assist packages haven’t all the time stored tempo. Natural delivers advantages that stretch nicely past the farm gate, from more healthy soils and higher biodiversity to cleaner water, local weather resilience, and stronger rural economies. However lots of the methods that form agricultural funding and coverage had been designed round standard manufacturing fashions, and natural farmers nonetheless typically discover themselves attempting to suit a sq. peg right into a spherical gap.
There are undoubtedly variations between the 2 international locations, particularly relating to scale. The U.S. has a a lot bigger home natural market, higher analysis capability, and bigger establishments supporting the sector. Canada’s natural neighborhood is smaller, however in lots of ways in which’s led to an unbelievable tradition of collaboration. With extra restricted sources, there’s typically a higher emphasis on working collectively throughout organizations and sectors to maneuver shared priorities ahead.
Carrie-Anne is the President of the Board of Administrators on the Canada Natural Commerce Affiliation.
An important instance of that’s what we’re seeing proper now via the Canadian Natural Alliance. Our colleagues on the Canada Natural Commerce Affiliation, Natural Federation of Canada, and Canadian Natural Growers have come collectively to construct a stronger, extra unified voice for natural on Parliament Hill. Their latest launch of the primary Nationwide Natural Motion Plan for Canada is an incredible milestone. It lays out a roadmap for strengthening all the things from analysis and extension to market growth, transition assist, knowledge assortment, and authorities funding.
Actually, I believe it’s one thing the U.S. natural neighborhood can study from. We now have an extremely vibrant and dedicated natural sector, however we even have a really numerous and generally fragmented ecosystem of organizations and stakeholders. It’s been greater than a decade because the U.S. had a complete Nationwide Natural Motion Plan, and Canada’s latest effort exhibits what can occur when farmers, researchers, companies, certifiers, nonprofits, and policymakers come collectively round a shared imaginative and prescient and coordinated set of priorities.
What offers me hope is that natural continues to punch above its weight in each international locations. Regardless of restricted sources, the motion has stayed remarkably true to its roots whereas rising into a complicated regulatory and market system. That’s not a straightforward steadiness to strike. Natural right this moment is each a requirements system and a broader imaginative and prescient for a way agriculture can contribute to more healthy ecosystems, stronger communities, and a extra simply and resilient meals system. And I believe that mixture of values and practicality is precisely what has allowed the motion to endure and proceed rising.
Why OFRF?
What attracts you to OFRF’s work particularly?
We all know natural methods are basically completely different from standard methods, and natural farmers want science that’s designed particularly for the realities they face. What I respect about OFRF is that it begins with farmers and is a strong platform for natural farmers’ must be heard and met. For many years, I’ve admired OFRF as a central convener—they work with farmers to assist determine the issues that want fixing, they work with researchers crucial to serving to develop options that meet farmers the place they’re at, they usually tirelessly convene actors and sources throughout the system to get these instruments again to farmers within the area in essentially the most impactful method attainable.
OFRF’s 2022 Nationwide Natural Analysis Agenda. The 2026 Report will launch early subsequent 12 months.
A perennial useful resource for me, and I believe for a lot of others throughout the natural neighborhood, is OFRF’s Nationwide Natural Farmer Survey and the ensuing Nationwide Natural Analysis Agenda (NORA). These two initiatives are completely important as a result of they be certain that the nationwide natural analysis agenda is knowledgeable straight by the folks stewarding the land day by day. Quite than researchers, funders, or policymakers deciding in isolation what natural farmers want, OFRF begins by (and returns to) listening to farmers and systematically figuring out their most urgent manufacturing challenges, innovation wants, and data gaps.
The Nationwide Natural Farmer Survey is a crucial pulse examine on the state of natural agriculture and NORA does a terrific job of translating the findings into actionable analysis priorities. What do they do actually on the finish of the day? They assist direct scarce analysis {dollars} towards the problems that matter most. Additionally they present researchers with a farmer-validated roadmap for growing initiatives that may ship real-world impression and for these of us advocating on Capitol Hill, we’re capable of level to a nationally consultant physique of farmer enter that clearly articulates the place limitations exist, the place alternatives lie, and the place further public funding can have the best return. It lends credibility, depth, rigor and integrity to no matter ask we carry ahead in regards to the want for higher structural assist for natural agriculture, so we’re not simply counting on anecdotes.
Natural farmers are a number of the most inventive problem-solvers I’ve met, they usually shouldn’t have to do this work alone. The analysis & advocacy assist that OFRF has provided for many years has been important to making sure that natural turns into an accessible, viable and resilient alternative for the farming neighborhood.
The Subsequent Chapter: Investing in Natural Like It Issues
In your opinion, what’s the most urgent problem in agriculture that natural analysis can handle?
To me, the following chapter of natural isn’t about proving whether or not natural works. Farmers, researchers, and shoppers have already demonstrated that. The problem for us all now could be making certain that public coverage, analysis funding, and agricultural assist methods totally acknowledge natural agriculture as a confirmed public good and spend money on it accordingly.
“The query now could be much less ‘Does natural work?’ and extra ‘Are we prepared to spend money on it prefer it issues?’”
That’s one of many causes I’m so drawn to OFRF’s work. It sits proper in that area between the natural motion’s grassroots roots and the analysis, schooling, and coverage infrastructure wanted to assist the motion develop and thrive over the long run.
The Nature’s Path crew advocating for natural in Washington D.C.
As I shared earlier, there are persistent structural gaps in public funding and federal agricultural programming wanted to assist natural. Regardless of representing a major and rising phase of the meals economic system, natural analysis funding has traditionally lagged far behind the sector’s contribution and capability for impression. Natural merchandise account for roughly 6% of U.S. meals gross sales, but natural analysis receives nicely beneath 2% of USDA analysis funding.
I additionally hear persistently from farmers that many federal agricultural packages weren’t actually designed with natural methods in thoughts. Whether or not we’re speaking about conservation packages, crop insurance coverage, or threat administration instruments, natural producers typically should work more durable to entry assist for practices they’re already implementing on their farms. In lots of instances, natural farmers are delivering outcomes that policymakers say they need extra of, issues like improved soil well being, biodiversity, water high quality, and local weather resilience, however the packages themselves haven’t all the time advanced to completely acknowledge that.
There are additionally some actually sensible gaps that don’t get talked about sufficient. Packages that assist certification cost-share, natural knowledge assortment, transition help, market growth, and natural integrity typically discover themselves again on the desk throughout each Farm Invoice or appropriations debate. For farmers, that uncertainty may be irritating. For the sector, it makes long-term planning tough.
After which there’s the transition to natural itself. A whole lot of farmers are interested by natural manufacturing, however these transition years may be financially and operationally difficult. You’re altering your practices, taking over new dangers, and sometimes not but receiving the market premium that comes with certification. If we would like extra farmers to make that leap, we now have to make the trail extra navigable. That’s why continued funding in transition assist, technical help, farmer mentoring, and analysis is so vital.
Natural is sitting at a crossroads. It’s not an rising motion, but it nonetheless doesn’t obtain the extent of coverage assist it deserves given the general public advantages it delivers.
Supporting Farmer-Led Analysis
Conversations like this one are a reminder of why farmer-informed analysis issues. If you wish to see what’s driving OFRF’s analysis priorities, discover our NORA Natural Producer Wants Evaluation (2026 version to be obtainable in January). And if Carrie-Anne’s perspective resonated with you, take into account supporting the work that makes farmer-led analysis attainable.
Carrie-Anne serves as Secretary on OFRF’s Board of Administrators. Her work at Nature’s Path Natural Meals and throughout the natural advocacy panorama displays the identical conviction driving OFRF’s analysis: natural farmers deserve science, coverage, and funding constructed for the methods they really farm.
