Board

President, Hirzel Farms

Board Treasurer

Lou Kozma is president of Hirzel Farms, which is one segment of a five-generation family farming / food processing operation. He is based in NW Ohio, where the farm was established in 1923. Hirzel Farms have been certified organic since 1981 and currently has approximately 1200 acres in organic production.

Lou is currently on the board of the Agricultural Incubator Foundation, working closely with several area universities. Past Board positions include President of the Ohio Vegetable and Potato Growers. Lou’s focus and passion is cover crop combinations to mitigate soil runoff, and to decrease the nutrient loading in the SW basin of Lake Erie. He also enjoys consulting growers about converting parts of existing farms to organic.

In his free time, Lou works with several smaller inner-city and semi-urban growers to improving soil health and biodiversity.

Executive Director, Center for Agroecology

Board Secretary / Vice Chair

Darryl Wong recently began his tenure in the newly created executive director role at the Center for Agroecology (CfA) in the summer of 2022. Previously, he was the CfA Research Lands Manager, a position he had held since 2013. Darryl has worked across the center’s production, education, and research programs, co-managing 10 acres of production fields, instructing beginning farmer and undergraduate agroecology courses, and collaborating on faculty field research.  He is concurrently completing his Ph.D. in the Environmental Studies Department, focusing on soil health, regenerative agriculture and organic no-till systems in California.  Darryl has farmed for over 15 years and spent 6 years owning and operating a diversified organic farm North of Santa Cruz.

Retired, Formerly with Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SAWG)

Board Chair

Keith Richards is the Chair of the OFRF Board of Directors. From 1993-2020, he worked for the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group where he helped strengthen organic and sustainable farming in the Southern U.S. In his capacity as Program Director, he coordinated thousands of conference sessions and training projects to meet the needs of family farmers and community-based organizations. Prior to his work with Southern SAWG, Keith was the marketing manager for the Ozark Organic Growers Association, a coop of small organic farmers in the Ozarks bioregion. In the 1980s he helped develop a sustainable training farm in mid-Missouri and later managed an organic farm in northern California. He grew up in a farming community in northern Iowa.

Founder and Farmer, April Joy Farm

Board President

April Jones Thatcher is founder and farmer of April Joy Farm, a diversified crop-livestock farm near Ridgefield, WA. Her WSDA certified organic farm has served Clark County since 2009. April has an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship. She is passionate about soil health, animal welfare, and nurturing community.  In 2019, she co-founded the Farm to Heart Food Justice Initiative.