Board Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Organic Farming Research Foundation

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

Board Chair

Keith Richards served organic and sustainable farmers through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group from 1993-2020. In his capacity as Program Director, he coordinated the development and implementation of thousands of conference sessions and training projects to meet the needs of family farmers and community-based organizations in the South. 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 also managed an organic farm in northern California, producing apples, raspberries and Asian pears. He grew up in a farming community in northern Iowa.

Bryan Hager

Owner, Crager Hager Farm

Bryan Hager and his wife Wendy own Crager Hager Farm, a diversified fruit and vegetable farm in Carroll County, Georgia. Crager Hager Farm sells at farmers markets, local restaurants, and to a regional wholesaler. The farm is certified organic and is working to reduce tillage and use permaculture principles. For the past fifteen years Bryan has been working to promote farms and preserve farm land in Carroll county. He is president of the board of Cotton Mill Farmers Market, served on the Carroll County Farmland Preservation Advisory Committee, the board of Farmers Fresh Food Network, and was a member of the Advisory committee for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at UGA.

Bryan’s current focus is on improving the sustainability of America’s farming and food system by involving new people in growing food, rebuilding the local food system and developing low impact ways to grow food.