Colin Wilson Elected New PFI President

Hail to the Chief! In a bipartisan election held in conjunction with the PFI Annual Meeting, the PFI Board of Directors elected Colin Wilson to be its new president. Wilson, a Paullina farmer and fifteen-year member of PFI, takes charge after serving as the organization’s Vice President. Susan Zacharakis-Jutz, Solon, became Vice President the same evening, and, incidentally, PFI’s first female officer.

These two step to the helm at an exciting time in PFI’s history. Colin writes, “At present I see the PFI board shifting their energies in a little different direction. In the past we have focused mainly on grants for our funding, but as we continue to grow and diversify our organization we are finding it necessary to find a more reliable funding source for the day-to-day operations of the organization. Thus the decision to start an endowment fund which would only support the day-to-day operations like membership services, the newsletter, office supplies, etc. With this decision comes the shift of energy for a year or so until we get the endowment fund under way. This doesn’t mean that we have forgotten or abandoned the other parts of PFI, only shifted some time and energy away from them for a while. The amount of time that we have to shift will depend a lot on how much help we get from the membership at large. So stay tuned to see where and when your help is needed.
There are a couple of areas that I find quite exciting in PFI. The first is the continued diversification in both the membership and the programs. The whole area of local foods systems opens up a lot of opportunities for a lot of members whether you are a meat producer, fruit and veggie producer, or a specialty grains producer. It is exciting to see the possibilities that spring up as we bring the food consumers closer to the food producers.

For most of you that were at the Winter Workshops and heard John Ikerd, you know what I mean. The huge variety of consumers out there and the huge variety of food products that they desire means a lot of marketing opportunities. All we have to do is find ways to meet the consumers’ desire for better and healthier food. And that is where PFI comes in. Where can you find a group of producers and consumers together that are more willing to exchange ideas and skills to solve the problems at hand? I would encourage everyone to be part of the solution and share your ideas with others, as well as your talents and skills. The challenges ahead will affect us all and together we can meet these challenges and overcome them.