Spring 2022 ORGANIC REPORT 16 Longtime Leaders Join Team Organic at USDA Leadership AMERICAN CONSUMERS are more focused now than ever before on the healthfulness and environmental impact of their purchases. As the historic leader in health and environmental sustainability, the organic industry has a unique opportunity to fundamentally shift the food and farm landscape. To transform opportunity into reality, the industry will need support from our partners on Capitol Hill, especially the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Organic Trade Association (OTA) recently spoke to two long-time leaders in organic—who now serve in key positions at USDA—about their vision for the future of the industry: Jenny Lester Moffitt, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and Marni Karlin, Senior Advisor, Organic and Emerging Markets. INTRODUCTIONS Jenny Lester Moffitt grew up in California on her family’s walnut farm, which transitioned to organic in 1989 and became certified in 1992. At the time, the organic industry was still incredibly small—there were few other organic farmers from whom to learn and no processors for organic nuts in the area. Jenny spent her youth helping the family navigate partnerships with other local farms, Resource Conservation Districts, Cooperative Extension, and USDA agencies. She even spent some of her school breaks at the helm of the family fax machine, reaching out to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service to find lists of potential buyers and shipping out samples across the globe. Having gained such deep experience at such a young age, it’s no wonder that Jenny went on to run the family farm, high-level positions with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), and eventually landed at USDA. “For me, a big takeaway from that life was understanding there’s not one silver bullet,” says Moffitt. “We really have to take a whole systems approach; we need to look at how everything ties together. That connectivity, I take it into all the work that I do, including policy making.” Jenny started with CDFA in 2015 and served as Under Secretary from 2018– 2021. While there, she spearheaded the development of California’s Climate Smart Agriculture programs, which include water, land conservation, and soil initiatives. Together, these programs provide resources for California’s farmers, ranchers, and tribes to enhance the sustainability of their operations, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and store carbon in soils and trees. “When I came in [to CDFA], we’d just announced the healthy soils initiative and grew it into something really incredible,” says Jenny. “We went from not even talking about ‘climate smart’ to investing over one billion dollars in climate smart agriculture across the state over the course of my tenure.” In 2021, Jenny was confirmed as Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs at the United States Department of Agriculture, the first woman to serve in the position. Jenny describes three key items on her agenda as Under Secretary: • Enhancing local and regional supply chains by expanding local processing capacity and creating open and transparent markets for greater fairness. • Ensuring fairness and equity by ensuring that producers to have access to USDA and that consumers can make educated buying decisions. • Continuing to elevate and integrate organic into more areas of USDA because of all the great work being done by organic producers. Marni Karlin is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, whose head for law and the regulatory world is balanced by a heart and soul that relish good food and cooking. Marni graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in International Economics, received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, and holds a Culinary Arts diploma from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. She has traveled the nation and the world gaining years of experience in law, policy, and organic food systems. Jenny Lester Moffitt Marni Karlin
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