Here Is Your 2024 Organic Farmer of the Year
May 7, 2024 
Larry Santos of Taylor Farming is the Organic Trade Association’s 2024 Organic Farmer of the Year. He, along with other colleagues in the industry, will be honored as part of a special reception.
Photo courtesy of Organic Trade Association.
The Organic Trade Association is once again recognizing individuals for their outstanding leadership, vision, and commitment to advancing the organic movement and making a positive difference on their farms, in their communities, our climate and more. Among the 2024 Organic Leadership Award honorees is Organic Farmer of the Year, Larry Santos, Senior Farm Manager for Taylor Farming, grower and supplier of vegetables to Taylor Farms and Earthbound Farm (owned by Taylor Farms).
Santos oversees 3,000 organic acres, working with four experienced organic farm managers to produce more than 30 different vegetable and high-quality tender leaf crops in the Salinas Valley.
Santos’ farming roots date back to when he was a young teenager in South Monterey County, California, and his involvement in organic farming to 1995. Santos was in his early 20s and working on a piece of land in the Salinas Valley that had not been farmed for 15 years; he encouraged his boss to give this “new, experimental” growing method a try, and the farm was transitioned to certified organic by 1998. What started as 200 acres is now a 600-acre organic farm. Santos still manages that farm, planting three crop rotations per year and producing 1,800 organic crop acres a year from the 600 acres.
He also helps educate the local school kids on how to grow organic vegetables; he works with his community’s elementary school in an after-school program in which 14 students are each tending their own organic garden box and growing organic spinach, broccoli, radishes, and more.
The Organic Trade Association’s (OTA) leadership awards were established in 1997. Since then, OTA annually recognizes a group of exceptional individuals who have been nominated by their peers and chosen unanimously by the association’s Board of Directors.
The 2024 Organic Leadership Awards will be presented at an official reception on May 14, the opening day of Organic Week (May 14-16) in Washington, DC.
Joining Santos on the list of distinguished 2024 Organic Leadership Award honorees are:
• Organic Lifetime Achievement: George Siemon of Organic Valley
• Organic Champion: Jenny Lester Moffitt of USDA
• Organic Groundbreaker: Mac Ehrhardt of Albert Lea Seed
• Organic Climate Action: Renaud des Rosiers of Amy’s Kitchen
• Social Impact: Jyoti Stephens of Nature’s Path
For more information, visit ota.com.
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