Award Honorees

The Organic Groundbreaker Leadership Award honors trade association members who have dedicated their careers to advancing organic agriculture and trade by providing vision, innovative creations and solutions, and the work and leadership that makes dreams a reality. This year’s winner, Mac Ehrhardt, chairman of Albert Lea Seed – inspired by his family’s love of nature – recognized the promise of organic agriculture more than 30 years ago and, working with his brother Tom, led the transformation of his granddad and dad’s seed company into the nation’s largest organic field seed supplier.  

Founded in 1923 by Lou Ehrhardt, the Minnesota-based Albert Lea Seed has been owned and operated by the Ehrhardt family for three generations, earning its first USDA organic certification in 1996. In 2022, the company purchased Blue River Organic Seed, to form the strongest lineup of organic field seed in the U.S. In 2023, Ehrhardt spearheaded another initiative aimed at serving organic farmers by investing in an independent corn breeding program focused on the needs of organic farms.  

“I believe that the demand for organically raised food will continue to grow,” says Ehrhardt. “But we must actively work to encourage that growth by strengthening consumer confidence in the Organic label; addressing the issue of gene-editing from both a scientific and a consumer perspective; and reducing the carbon footprint of organic farming practices.” 

Ehrhardt’s advice to future organic groundbreakers: “Work hard. Be nice to people. Keep an open mind. Be honest and own your mistakes. And to steal a line from Practical Farmers of Iowa, ‘Make your experiments small enough that you can afford to fail.’”