Randii MacNear honored for Outstanding Leadership

Randii MacNear, manager of the Davis Farmers’ Market in Davis, Calif., received the 2008 Outstanding Leadership Award from the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA). The award was presented during NAFDMA’s annual conference, the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Conference, which was held recently in Wisconsin Dells, Wis.

MacNear has served the agriculture industry for many years. She has been a board member of NAFDMA for more than six years. While on the board, she was chairperson of the Farmers’ Market Coalition, which has since spun out of NAFDMA to become its own independent organization. MacNear has been market manager of the Davis Farmers’ Market for more than 25 years. In 2002, she was named Farmers’ Market Manager of the Year by NAFDMA.

MacNear’s service to agriculture extends far beyond NAFDMA and the market. She is also currently a board member of the California Farm Conference, the Small Farm Center Agricultural Tourism Workgroup and the Davis Farm to School Project.  She was president of the Davis Chamber of Commerce in 1996 and has participated on several Davis Downtown Business Association committees.

Among her many other accomplishments, MacNear has served as statewide coordinator of the Certified Farmers Market component of the California Department of Health Services Children's 5-A-Day Campaign and the statewide coordinator and co-founder of the industry organization, the California Federation of Certified Farmers' Markets.

Through her consulting work, she has helped with farmers’ market projects in Japan and Hawaii, including trips to both those areas, and she was also the project director and facilitator for the USDA grant funded California State Certified Farmers Market Website project.

For more information on the Davis Farmers’ Market, please visit www.davisfarmersmarket.org. More information about NAFDMA can be found at www.nafdma.com.

The North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association is the leading farm direct marketing association in the world. It promotes and fosters the growth of farm direct marketing throughout North America. Its members support their family farms by selling millions of dollars worth of farm-grown produce directly to consumers at farm stands, farmers' markets, pick-your-own farms, consumer-supported agriculture, agritourism venues, and other ever-growing innovations in direct producer-to-consumer agricultural marketing methods. NAFDMA’s 2009 convention will be held in Georgia. Find out more about the organization at www.nafdma.com.