Organic Trade Association hires farm policy director, True Food Innovations appoints COO, and more personnel news
ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANIZATIONS: Organic Trade Association, Washington, D.C. Johanna Mirenda will join as new farm policy director, effective Aug. 6, succeeding Nate Lewis, who will focus more on his certified organic farm in Washington State after serving four years on OTA staff. Mirenda will help develop policy strategy through producer engagement, serving as primary staff to its Farmers Advisory Council and building relationships with the organic farming community. Mirenda will also serve as lead technical expert on issues related to crop and livestock materials and standards, and in-house technical lead in international standards evaluation and analysis. Mirenda has served as technical director for the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) since 2015, where she gained extensive experience in policy development, project management and technical writing, and oversaw OMRI Standards Manuals for review of materials to USDA’s National Organic Program regulations and Canadian Organic Regime standards. She also served as OMRI’s primary point of contact for governmental and regulatory bodies, among other duties. Previous to this position, she was policy director for Pennsylvania Certified Organic from 2012-2015.