International Award Given to Sam Earnshaw of the Community of Alliance with Family Farmers

International Award Given to Sam Earnshaw of the Community of Alliance with Family Farmers

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Washington, D.C. (October 22) Sam Earnshaw, the Central Coast Program Coordinator for Community of Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), has been awarded the NAPPC Pollinator Advocate Award for the U.S.A sponsored by the tri-national North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC).

The award was given as part of an international effort to promote public awareness about pollinators – birds, bees, bats, butterflies, beetles, and other animals that enable the reproduction of over 75 percent of flowering plants, accounting for as much as one-third of the nation’s food supply. Initiated in 2005, the prestigious Pollinator Advocate Award has been bestowed upon such varied recipients as former U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth; Ron Krystynak, Agricultural Counselor for the Canadian Embassy; and Don Pedro Cahun Uh, an indigenous Mayan stingless beekeeper. This year’s NAPPC Pollinator Advocate Award recipients include Juan Francisco Ornelas, Ph. D. from Mexico, Homer Woodward from Canada, and Earl Blumenaur of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Mr. Earnshaw is the Central Coast Program Coordinator for Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF).  He studied Forestry at U.C. Berkeley, graduating in 1974. In the mid-1980’s, Earnshaw and his wife Jo Ann Baumgartner started their own farm, Neptune Farms, and marketed organic vegetables and cut flowers to retail stores, farmers markets and wholesalers in the local area. In 1992, Mr. Earnshaw began working as Lighthouse Farm coordinator for CAFF, sponsoring monthly meetings and field tours for farmers, sharing techniques in biologically based farming techniques. Earnshaw’s work with local growers in Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Salinas and Hollister, through this program, has led to CAFF’s involvement in land use and water issues on the Central Coast. He is the author of Hedgerows for California Agriculture: A Resource Guide published by CAFF, available on the CAFF website. which has a plant list that identifies species which attract native bees.

Mr. Earnshaw is currently working on the design and installation of hedgerows, grassed waterways, filter strips and riparian restoration on farms on the Central Coast, and has planted over one hundred miles of projects on seventy farms. These plantings have included many species of native plants that support wild bees.  Earnshaw collaborates on several projects with the Wild Farm Alliance (WFA) which has published a briefing paper Wild Pollinators: Agriculture’s Forgotten Partners, available on the WFA website.  Sam Earnshaw and CAFF work to bring habitat to farms that supports pollinators and increases biodiversity.

The multi-colored, cut-glass award that is presented to the winners, features a hummingbird, bees and a butterfly and was designed by artist James Randolph whose previous work includes the Air and Space Museum’s Challenger Tribute.  The awards ceremony initiated the 9th Annual International NAPPC Conference, an annual meeting that brings together some of the country’s most prominent scientists and pollinator experts. NAPPC consists of 120-plus organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that work to promote public awareness of the importance of pollinators.  NAPPC is managed by the non profit Pollinator Partnership.  The NAPPC Conference is being hosted this year by the Organization of American States. To learn more about the Pollinator Partnership and the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign visit.

Contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), Pollinator Partnership, 415.362.1137

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