I was a lucky kid — my sister and I grew up shaking our milk. My mom would fetch it, raw and delicious, from a farm that was a bit further along Cayuga Lake from our house in Ithaca, NY.

There was always a week in August when the kitchen became a steam-bath as we peeled tomatoes for canning and filled the freezer with summer greens. A neighbor's chickens laid our eggs.

As a kid, I didn't recognize how fortunate we were to have a diet free from the chemicals now common in most children's diets. A recent Halloween moon illuminated that truth quite clearly.

The idea arrived in the shape of a little witch.

I now live in a village in the western Catskills. Families from surrounding agricultural areas travel in to trick-or-treat. In 2020, it was impossible to not recognize that a shocking number of the tiny ghosts and witches at my door were affected with developmental challenges.

What on earth was going on? Google revealed that a number of chemicals used in conventional farming have detrimental effects on all stages of human development — horrifying! Nourishing food cannot be for the lucky few only; it must be the norm.

I've since begun to do what I can to make change, by brainstorming possibilities, having conversations and creating public engagement.

Recognizing that New York State's food production / farming system must provide healthy food for all children, I've committed my hours, energies and creative practice towards making NY the first completely organic+ / regenerative state in the nation.

  • Founder

    Heather Phelps-Lipton is a photographer and communications strategist.

    She is also currently a student at Bard Annandale, studying as a member of the 2021 Bard Baccalaureate cohort with a focus on human rights and social practice (studio art).

    Described as a dialogue between curiosity and alienation + an exploration of the drama of the everyday, Heather Phelps-Lipton's photography has been shown and collected in San Diego, LA, NYC + the Catskills. Her pictures have been published in numerous publications including: The New York Times, New York Magazine and Vogue. Her work has included photo-based pieces that employ pencil, crayon, embroidery, projection, haiku and motion.

    In 2019, she photographed 50+ people doing deep work in the Catskills for the book, Natural New York: 50 Stewards of the Catskills, created in collaboration with designer David Rainbird, writer Jessie Koester and media specialist Michael Connor.

    From 2017-2020, she pioneered the role of the Director of Communications for the Catskill Center, an environmental non-profit in New York State, fine-tuning their communications platform as they prepared for and celebrated their 50th year of advocacy.

    Heather is based + works in Delhi, NY. heatherphelpslipton.com

  • Advisor

    Michael is the Executive Director of Open MIC – the Open Media and Information Companies Initiative. He helped launch the project following a distinguished career as a media executive, entrepreneur and journalist. He has served as a consultant for more than a decade in the field of corporate responsibility and is the owner and Editor of Business Ethics magazine, an online publication.

    Michael is a former staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Correspondent and Senior Producer for ABC News. His television work has received numerous honors, including two national Emmys, a Columbia-duPont Award, a Writers Guild Award and a nomination for an Academy Award. He also held executive positions at Dow Jones & Co., where he led global development of the company’s TV and multimedia operations, served as CEO of a London-based pan-European business news channel and was Executive Producer of The Wall Street Journal Report, a weekly syndicated program.

    Michael currently serves on the board of the Center for an Urban Future, a NYC-based think tank dedicated to highlighting the critical opportunities and challenges facing New York and other cities. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross.

  • Sustainability Director

    It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.

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