Mass. Agriculture in the Classroom honors Frederic Winthrop

Frederic Winthrop of Ipswich was honored recently as founding member of Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom at a dinner at the Topsfield Fairgrounds. The celebration also marked the group's 25th anniversary and was attended by farmers, friends and past and present board members of the statewide organization.

Winthrop had a key role in the formation of the group and enlisted state government, the Extension Service and Massachusetts Farm Bureau to work together to bring the message of agriculture, nutrition and the environment to school children, teachers and the public.

The educational program now offers numerous workshops for teachers at farms across the state, curriculum materials, an annual conference, a newsletter and this summer will offer a graduate-credit course in agricultural-literacy training for educators.

Winthrop was also honored for his many other contributions to the advancement of agriculture across the state while Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture (now Department of Agricultural Resources). He initiated the state Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program to stem the downward decline in farmland, the first statewide program of its kind in the nation. The program has been a model for other states and now every state is eligible for Federal funding.

Winthrop convened a direct marketing task force to increase the demand for farm products through farmstands, farmers' markets and institutional sales. He initiated a Massachusetts food and agricultural policy which helped jumpstart many other innvovative programs to! improve and strengthen the situation for farmers across the state. He also chaired the board that oversaw the regulation of pesticides in the state.

Winthrop was instrumental in the drafting of a food and agriculture policy for the ten Northeastern states and served as President of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. He served ten years as state Agriculture Commissioner till early 1985 and then fifteen as Executive Director of the Trustees of Reservations, a statewide group devoted to preservation of land and historic sites in Massachusetts.

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