Award Honorees

The Organic Climate Action Leadership Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated exemplary leadership in advancing organic solutions to mitigate climate change. This year’s award goes to Nicole Rakobitsch, Director of Sustainability for CROPP Cooperative/Organic Valley. Nicole is a leader in the climate-smart agriculture community and has spearheaded significant sustainability projects at Organic Valley and with its farmer members. 

Nicole joined the Organic Valley team in 2012 as a sustainability coordinator after working with farmers for almost a decade on soil and water conservation planning and design in her home state of New York. Early on Nicole led a project that resulted in Organic Valley’s facilities being powered with 100 percent renewable electricity by 2019. Her team in 2021 partnered with a credit union to launch the Powering the Good Loan Fund to provide the best loan terms for Organic Valley farmers wanting to cut their reliance on fossil fuels with renewable energy. Her team most recently applied for a USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grant and was awarded $25 million. This grant will allow the co-op to invest in 1,200 new climate-smart practices on more than 500 member-farms over the next 5 years. 

“I began my career working with farmers to design and implement conservation practices. I saw first-hand that farmers are stewards of the earth and discovered that organic farming has the potential to protect and even restore the earth.” say Nicole. “Farmers are interested in making improvements that better the earth...It is our role to help facilitate that change by providing educational, technical and financial resources. We can have a major positive impact on the earth when farmers are given the tools they need to succeed in conservation and climate-smart farming."