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Organic farmer receives
University of Minnesota award
KRAGNES, Minn. (AP)--Every summer, buses loaded with screaming kids barrel down the dirt road to Noreen and Lee Thomas' organic farm just north of town.
They're encouraged to laugh and get their hands dirty making ice cream and practicing organic agriculture.
They plant, then nurture "heirloom" gardens that fill with dark red French lettuce, purple dragon's tongue beans and other veggies more common in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Noreen Thomas teaches Boy Scouts and other children to look at agriculture as more than just a way to take from the earth.
Along the nearby Buffalo River, she and area children have planted about 1,000 trees, a natural erosion buffer. And they've used satellite imagery to study the effects of pollution in India and flooding in North Dakota.
Because of her work, in and out of crop fields, Thomas has become the first woman and first organic farmer to be awarded the $50,000 University of Minnesota's Siehl Prize.
The prize is given every three years to three Minnesotans who offer extraordinary contributions to agriculture--a farmer, an agribusiness leader and someone in agricultural academics.
Thomas accepted her award at the University of Minnesota campus in the Twin Cities.
"I was surprised," she said of her award. "It was interesting to me that sometimes people from afar are watching what you do."
Thomas said she and her husband haven't decided what they'll do with all the money. Some of it will go to a charity for disabled children, she said.
Thomas' award was partly based on her work with agricultural researchers, said Charles Muscoplat, dean of the university's College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences. The college administers the Siehl Prize.
"She's in some outstanding company of people who have made a real difference in agriculture," he said.
Thomas has worked with the University of North Dakota, the University of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium to measure organic farming's impact on carbon sequestration--the storing of carbon gases in the ground and in plants.
The Thomas farm has also been a tool for researchers using satellite imagery to study spray drift and the effects of storm damage, she said.
Noreen Thomas takes her lessons in agriculture to the classroom as well, volunteering in Moorhead's after school program.
"Our junior high students have had just phenomenal hands-on experiences because of her ability to put these opportunities together," said Lauri Winterfeldt-Shanks, Moorhead School District's community education director.
Noreen, Lee and their three children farm about 1,200 acres of organic corn, Wheat and soybeans.
This is the fifth year the university has awarded the Siehl Prize, Muscoplat said.
Previous Siehl recipients from the region include farmers Bob Bergland of Roseau, and Leonard Wulf of Morris.
Aldrich Bloomquist of Moorhead received the award for his contribution to agribusiness. Bloomquist is a former American Crystal Sugar Co. president and was the first executive secretary of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association.
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