NEW YORK — Jim Gerritsen, an organic seed potato farmer from Bridgewater, was a guest panelist yesterday at the United Nations in New York.
Gerritsen, who owns and operates Wood Prairie Farm with his wife, Megan, spoke along with four additional panel members at the fourth annual Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature which commemorated International Mother Earth Day.
“I’m grateful to have been provided this unique opportunity to discuss solutions and concerns organic farmers have for the environment and the planet,” said Gerritsen. “United Nations delegates from around the world are quite a remarkable audience.”
Gerritsen offered a farmer’s perspective on the advantages and challenges facing organic agriculture today in an era of declining resource availability, heightened corporate domination of agriculture, and farming systems challenged by the effects of climate change.
In recent years, panel participants at the Earth Day event have included Vandana Shiva of India and Pat Roy Mooney of Canada. Written contributions and filmed presentations are expected to appear online.
In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed April 22 as International Mother Earth Day. In doing so, member states acknowledged that the Earth and its ecosystems are a common home shared by all, and that a just balance of the economic, social and environmental needs of the world may only be achieved when world citizens and leaders come to understand and promote harmony with nature.
Appearing at the United Nations was not Gerritsen’s first time speaking in New York. In December 2011 he spoke at Zuccotti Park and the Occupy Farmers March. The next month, Gerritsen, who is the president and co-founder of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the national farmer-run membership trade organization of the organic seed community, was back in New York for a legal proceeding in the OSGATA et al v. Monsanto lawsuit. Afterward, he spoke at the accompanying Citizen’s Assembly in Support of Family Farmers in nearby Foley Square, an assembly held to demonstrate broad public support for the farmers seeking justice from the courts.
