Dr. Kimberly Stoner joins CT NOFA as new Director of Advocacy
January 26, 2023
CT NOFA is excited to announce that Dr. Kimberly Stoner will be joining our team as our new Director of Advocacy.
Dr. Stoner recently retired as an Agricultural Scientist from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, after 34 years as a vegetable entomologist and researcher on bees, including the effect of their exposure to pesticides. She is also a longstanding associate of CT NOFA, having served on the board for 20 years and chaired the Organic Land Care Committee during the development of the Organic Land Care Standards that would be used to inform the program’s courses.
In her new role with CT NOFA, Dr. Stoner will be advocating for organic agriculture, organic land care, resources to assist new farmers, environmental regulation, and food equity. She provides the following assessment of the advocacy mission ahead, including steps any Connecticut resident can take to advance environmental policy in our state:
No matter what news sources you favor, probably 95% of what you hear and read is about the partisan political game — politicians making themselves look good and their opponents look bad. But what really matters in our lives is policy — how our governments make laws and regulations and spend our tax money to provide the services and the structures we need to thrive as a community.
Right now, the Connecticut General Assembly is in session, and issues critical to our future as a state are on the table: how will we change from a fossil-fuel based economy to one that runs on renewable energy? How will we transition from producing mountains of solid waste that we either incinerate or truck to landfills to a state that says goodbye to plastics and composts our organic materials?
Here’s how to find out and get involved in deciding the answers:
- Go to the Connecticut General Assembly website
- Many of the issues of interest to CT NOFA members are handled in the Environment Committee. On the Environment Committee page, you can find a list of bills under consideration and where they are in the legislative process. You can do the same with other committees of interest.
- If you don’t know who your state legislators are, you can find them by putting your town and street address into the Find Your Legislators page.
- Look them up, see what they are doing, and tell them what you think. Their job is to work for you!
I look forward to being in touch with you again on a regular basis, and I will be presenting a CT NOFA workshop (at the 2023 Winter Conference, this March) on a bill close to my own heart — the CT Environmental Rights Amendment, a Green Amendment for the Connecticut state constitution. I hope that you’ll join me at the conference for that discussion, and that you will be a part of and contributor to policy action in the future.
Recent Posts
Advocacy News: May 2026
The Good News: CT Senator Chris Murphy has introduced a bill (bipartisan and bicameral) to increase funding for Agricultural Management Assistance to $30 million and to expand the eligible uses for these funds to include “soil health improvements, composting, implementing organic farming, and food safety certification in addition to existing authorized uses such as water management structure and soil erosion control.” Let’s thank Senator Murphy for introducing this bill!
The Bad News: The Farm Bill passed the House of Representatives on April 30, despite 320 food, farm, and conservation organizations, including CT NOFA, voicing our opposition to a bill that does not fix SNAP, does not support new and beginning farmers, and does not adequately support conservation programs or organic agriculture. Now it goes to the Senate and we need to urge both of Connecticut’s Senators to reject this Farm Bill.
Our Vision for a Future of Resilient, Plentiful, Healthy and Locally-Grounded Farming and Food
In concluding its annual retreat, the Northeast Organic Farming Association Interstate Council (NOFA IC) reaffirms the values that have grounded our work for 55 years.
Our vision is that every person is able to live their life with healthy food, clean water and air, community, livelihood, dignity, and purpose within the means of our life-giving planet. We seek that vision on every level, from our households and farms to our communities, states, bioregions, nation, and world. For that vision to be fulfilled, every person, no matter their origin or circumstances, must have all their basic human needs met without degrading the air, water, soil, ecosystems, and climate which we have been given and on which we depend for our lives.