The Organic Center is pleased to announce that four new members have been appointed to the Board of Directors –

• Sara Snow, host of TV’s Get Fresh with Sara Snow, Discovery Networks; media, consumer advocate
• Ken Cook, President of Environmental Working Group, an environmental consumer advocacy nonprofit organization
• Margaret Wittenberg, Global VP for Quality Standards and Public Affairs, Whole Foods Market; representing retailers
• Timothy Escamilla, VP for Procurement, Ready Pac; fresh produce industry

Current board members Michelle Goolsby and Anthony Zolezzi, were re-elected to new three year terms on the Board. Michelle Goolsby, former EVP of Development, Sustainability and Corporate Affairs for Dean Foods, is the Board Chair-elect, and will take over as Chairperson in November 2008.  Alan Greene, M.D., Clinical Professor at Stanford University Children’s Hospital and Co-founder of DrGreene.com, is the current Board Chair.

Founding Board member Katherine DiMatteo, who was recently elected to serve as President of IFOAM (the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements), and Walter Robb, Co-president and COO of Whole Foods Market, will be leaving the Board in November after many years of service. Their many contributions to the work of the Center will be sorely missed, but fortunately they have agreed to serve along with Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D., as “Advisory Directors” of the Center.

New board members Snow, Cook, Escamilla and Wittenberg will be working together with existing board members including Alan Greene, M.D.; Kathleen Merrigan, Ph.D., Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program, Tufts University; David Pimentel, Ph.D., Professor, Cornell University; George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley; Mark Retzloff, President, Aurora Organic Dairy; Sheryl Lamb, organic advocate; James White, Senior VP, Consumer Brands, Safeway; Anthony Zolezzi, Co-founder of Pet’s Promise and President of Zolezzi Consulting; David Gagnon, Interim Executive Director, Organic Trade Association; and Chair Elect Michelle Goolsby.

The Organic Center welcomes its new board members and officers and very much appreciates their contributions in furthering the mission of the Center to advance the scientific research behind the human health and environmental benefits of organic food and farming–and to communicate those findings to consumers, media, businesses, policy makers, academia and other thought leaders.

For more info, visit www.organic-center.org.