Sixth Annual John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize will be Awarded by Family Farm Defenders to Eduardo Rivera of Sin Fronteras Farm and Food on Sat. March 11th 6:00 pm at UW-Madison’s Union South as Part of the Food Sovereignty Symposium and Festival!

Family Farm Defenders is pleased to announce the winner of this year’s John Kinsman Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize: Eduardo Rivera of Sin Fronteras Farm and Food! Eduardo is a young immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico, who’s dream is to one day own his own farm. Currently, he must commute an hour to his leased land near Stillwater, MN, where he grows wholesale produce for sale to many Twin City co-ops, and also offers a culturally appropriate CSA for the Latin@ community. He serves on the board of the National Young Farmers Coalition and was recently profiled in a New York Times 4/25/16 article titled “Growing Organics Sin Fronteras.”  For a video about Sin Fronteras visit:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v= rmM9GH9xdSk

Eduardo will be receiving a $2000 cash prize, as well as a local food fair trade gift basket, at an award dinner to be held on Sat. March 11th at 6:00 pm at UW-Madison’s Union South – Varsity Hall. The keynote speaker for this year’s ceremony is Dr. Martin Reinhardt, Anishinaabe Ojibway citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe and Associate Professor of Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University who will be speaking on “Decolonizing the Diet.”

The Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize is named after FFD founder and longtime president, John Kinsman, who dedicated his life to advocating for family farming and food sovereignty. John passed away in Jan. 2014, but Family Farm Defenders is extremely proud to continue this award in his honor and to further his legacy.  Many members of the extended Kinsman family will be in attendance at this year’s award dinner.

Previous prize winners include in 2011: Lindsey Morris Carpenter of Grassroots Farm, near Monroe, WI, and Daniel and Hannah Miller of Easy Yoke Farm near Millville MN;  in 2012:  Nancy and Jeff Kirstein, Good Earth Farm, Lennox SD and Tracy and Dick Vinz, Olden Produce, Ripon, WI; in 2014:  Blain Snipstal of Five Seeds Farm near Sparks, MD and Jed Schenkier and Will Pool of Loud Grade Produce Squad in Chicago, IL; in 2015: Carsten Thomas from Moorhead, MN and Emmet Fisher and Cella Langer with Oxheart Farm near Mt. Horeb, WI; and in 2016: Donald (Jahi) Ellis from Vidalia, GA and Polly Dalton and Oren Jakobson with Field Notes Farm near Custer, WI.

Other Food Sovereignty Symposium events before the dinner will also feature FFD speakers, such as the Wed. March 8^th 7:00 pm screening of the film, Seed, the Untold Story, with a followup discussion with John Peck, FFD executive director; Sat. March 11^th 1:00 pm Food Sovereignty and the WI Idea panel with organic dairy farmer and FFD board member, Jim Goodman, as well as the Sat. March 11^th 3:00 pm Leadership for Food Sovereignty panel with Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food and Water Watch and FFD board member.

For a complete schedule of events, please visit: https://food-sovereignty.com/