West Virginia’s Mountain Harvest Farm has been awarded the 2022 Hispanic Farmer of the Year Conservation Award by the National Organization of Professional Hispanic Natural Resources Conservation Service Employees (NOPHNRCSE). The award recognizes farmers or ranchers making exceptional efforts and exhibiting the highest commitment to conserving, enhancing, maintaining and/or protecting our natural resources.
“It is a big honor to receive this award,” said Mountain Harvest Farm owners and operators Mary Oldham and Chico Ramirez. “The NRCS has been huge supporters and helped us grow over the years. Conservation and sustainability are some of our goals and NRCS has really helped us work towards that.”
Mary Oldham and Francisco “Chico” Ramirez have come full circle to live in and serve the Morgantown, West Virginia area. They moved back to Morgantown-Mary's hometown- in 2012. Prior to that they were living in Chico's home country of Honduras where Mary was a Peace Corps volunteer working with a women's agricultural cooperative and Chico was running his family farm and selling vegetables to supermarket chains.
The Ramirez family feel blessed with the help and support of friends, family, community, and Owl Creek Farm owners Del and Linda Yoder. “It has taken a lot of support from a lot of people to get here,” said Oldham. “It really does take a village to make a farm grow.”
Mountain Harvest Farm, LLC is committed to providing opportunities to share and learn with their community about food, farming, and sustainable agriculture. By collaborating with educators at West Virginia University and the NRCS, they provide farm-based learning opportunities to students, local citizens, and NRCS employees. They provide access to healthy food for various demographics by participating in the Morgantown Farmer’s market, which features a community of producers that offer a range of products - everything from fruits and veggies to meats, breads and baked goods, eggs, honey, and fiber products. Morgantown Farmers Market website.
“We are grateful for this award and are proud of our crew,” said Ramirez. “This does not happen by yourself; it happens because you have a good team. This is a big win for us. It feels good to know you are doing something right.”
This award is open to all small farmers. To be eligible for this award, the nominee must meet the NRCS definition for Small Farmer. A small farm is a farm (ranch) having less than $250,000 gross receipts annually.
The awards committee uses a judging criterion with a predetermined points allocation for each category totaling 100 points.
- Conservation on the Farm: 40 points
- Impact on the Community: 20 points
- Conservation Involving Agriculture Leadership: 20 points
- Economic Viability: 20 points
To learn more about NRCS-WV’s Community Scale Agriculture programs visit your local USDA Service Center or visit their website: www.nrcs.usda.gov/wv
Original source can be found here.
