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Daniel Parson, an organic gardening specialist who will supervise the GreenHose Organic Garden, was recently named the Georgia Land Steward of the Year by Georgia Organics.

“To me this award is the greatest honor I could receive in Georgia,” Parson said. “Being a steward of the land means taking good care of that which we can never truly own.”

Georgia Organics, the state’s leading advocate for real farmers and real food, created the Land Steward of the Year award to honor an individual or individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the tenets of organic agriculture – soil fertility, biodiversity, on-farm recycling, and water quality – and also the larger community through leadership, education, and outreach.

“The campus garden is exciting to me,” Parson said, “because we can bring the principles of organic growing to a generation of students who are increasingly disconnected from where and how their food is grown.

“Slow Food's motto is ‘Good, Clean, and Fair,’" he added, "and I can't think of a better set of values to strive for in our food system.”

Parson received the award because of his influential leadership and work with emerging farmers, 12 years of organic growing, and an incredibly popular mushroom workshop, says Georgia Organics.

Parson, a former Georgia Organics board member, has worked with dozens of groups, promoting the health and environmental advantages of organics farming, including Team Agriculture Georgia, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, North Georgia Technical College, and the African American Family Farmers Foundation.