Elizabeth Henderson

Background

Elizabeth Henderson farmed at Peacework Farm in Wayne County, New York, producing organically grown vegetables for the fresh market for over 30 years. A farmer, activist, and writer, she has exerted an enormous influence on the movement for organic and sustainable agriculture since the 1970s.

She served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), co-chairs the Policy Committee, and represents the NOFA Interstate Council on the Board of the Agricultural Justice Project. She serves as Honorary President of Urgenci, the International CSA Network.

From 1993 – 2013, Elizabeth chaired the Agricultural Development Board in Wayne County and took an active role in creating the Farming and Farmland Protection Plan for the county. In 2001, the organic industry honored her with one of the first “Spirit of Organic awards, in 2007, Abundance Co-op honored her with the “Cooperating for Communities” award and in 2009 NOFA-NY honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award, a Golden Carrot in 2013 and then with a scholarship for social justice work in her name to the NOFA-NY Winter Conference. In 2014 Eco-Farm presented her with their “Advocate of Social Justice Award, the Justice.”

Her writings on organic agriculture appear in The Natural Farmer and other publications, and she is the lead author of Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (Chelsea Green, 2007), with a Spanish language e-book edition in 2017.

Publications

Her writings on organic agriculture appear in The Natural Farmer and other publications. She co-wrote Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (1999) with Robyn Van En and Whole Farm Planning: Ecological Imperatives, Personal Values, and Low-Input Practices in the Northeast (2003) with Karl North. She also wrote A Food Book for a Sustainable Harvest for the members of Peacework Organic Community Supported Agriculture (aka GVOCSA) in its twenty seventh year in 2015.

Honors

In 2001 the organic industry honored her with one of the first “Spirit of Organic” awards and in 2007 Abundance Co-op honored her with the “Cooperating for Communities” award. In 2009 NOFA-NY honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award and then a Golden Carrot in 2013.  In 2014 Eco-Farm presented her with their “Advocate of Social Justice Award, the Justie.”

She has been an important voice in national discussions on organic standards, fair trade, and agricultural justice. She believes it is important for people to understood what is involved in getting food from the fields to their tables.

Collection

Elizabeth Henderson has donated part of her personal library and archives to the Schumacher Center, which can be found using the library catalog for books and periodicals and the archives catalog for other materials such as notes, papers, and conference tapes. Library topics include food, organic farming, sustainable agriculture, health, farm management, CSAs, and Russian literature and history. Archive topics are primarily centered around CSAs, agricultural justice, social justice, Sharing the Harvest, CSA and agricultural conferences, and farm research.

Search for items from the collection using the Schumacher Center Archives Catalog.