Bio

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Atina Diffley is an organic farmer, public speaker, and author of the Minnesota Book Award winning memoir, Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works. From 1985 to 2008, she and her husband Martin ran the Gardens of Eagan, an urban-edge, organic vegetable farm, which he started in 1973. The Diffley’s on-farm projects now include breeding of sweet corn cultivars, mentoring beginning farmers, and transitioning conventional land to organic.

Land use issues have been a central point for Atina’s advocacy. In 1989, as their 5th-generation family land was being lost to development, the Diffleys collaborated with filmmaker Helen DeMichiel to create the award-winning documentary, Turn Here Sweet Corn, on the loss of greenbelt farmlands to suburbia. In 2006, when the Diffley’s 2nd farm was threatened by a crude oil pipeline owned by notorious polluters, Koch Industries, the Diffleys intervened as legal parties in the route proceeding and succeeded in creating an Organic Mitigation Plan that provides protections for organic farms in Minnesota. Subscribe to Atina’s on-line blog at www.atinadiffley.com.

Awards and Recognitions

2013 Minnesota Book Award, Memoir and Creative Non-fiction | Friends Of The Saint Paul Public Library
2008 Successful Farmer of the Year || EcoFarm (California)
2008 Lawsuit of the Year || Minnesota Law and Politics || December 2008
 2007 Cooperate for Community Award || National Cooperative Grocer Association
2004 Organic Farmer of the Year || Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services
2004 New Initiative Farmer of the Year  || Dakota County MN

Non-Profit Board Service

Past Board Service