The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced September 28 the appointment of five new members to five-year terms on the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), including Brian Caldwell (MS ’86 Horticulture).
Caldwell has been a fixture in the School of Integrative Plant Science for decades as a research support specialist until his retirement in 2019. He is also an organic farmer, having founded Hemlock Grove Farm in West Danby, N.Y. in 1978.
The 15-member NOSB advises USDA on a wide range of issues involving the production, handling, and processing of organic products.
“The organic community has been good to me over the years, and I feel like I should give something back that taps into all the great experiences I’ve had,” says Caldwell, who is uniquely qualified for the board.
In addition to raising certified organic vegetables, apples and nut trees at Hemlock Grove, Caldwell was a founding member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) in 1983, and has served on the organization’s staff and contributed as an educator to its annual conferences and field days.
Caldwell was a Cornell Cooperative Extension fruit and vegetable specialist serving five Southern Tier counties from 1995 to 2001. “I got to meet and work with many farmers, both conventional and organic,” he remembers. “It was great to connect with so many talented, kind and generous people.”
After moving on to SIPS, Caldwell supported a variety of sustainable farming research efforts, including the Organic Cropping Systems project. “The faculty I worked with – Chuck Mohler, Anu Rangarajan, Laurie Drinkwater, Matt Ryan, and others – have been on the cutting edge of sustainable farming research. I learned so much from them,” says Caldwell, who received a CALS Core Value Staff Award for Adaptability in 2017.
“His passion for agricultural research and science in general is acknowledged and appreciated among growers, who rely on his balanced perspective and thoughtful approach,” then CALS Dean Kathryn Boor said of Caldwell at the award ceremony. “Brian works to build trust and facilitate open and constructive dialogue between researchers and growers.”
Caldwell hopes to bring the same combination of scientific precision and commonsense balance to his work with the NOSB. “We deal with the big issues – like maintaining the integrity of the organic label, which requires constant vigilance,” he says. “But the devils – and the angels – are in the details of the recommendations we make. Serving should be a fun challenge.”
–Craig Cramer