GRASSROOTS AND GLOBAL

ORGANIC CATALYSTS

Chris and Jenny May met when they were young fringe hippies of the 60s with a shared passion to create gardens and make things happen. They have been at the forefront of founding BioGro, OrganicFarmNZ, and of evolving group certification schemes (participatory guarantee schemes or PGS) worldwide.

Among many roles, Chris has been the president of the Soil Association (now called Soil & Health), an international inspector working for the US organic certifier Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA), and he’s still a member of the PGS committee of the world’s peak organic body, Organics International – IFOAM.

YOUTHFUL ENERGY

Chris and Jenny’s lifelong involvement with the then Soil Association began in 1976 when they saw magazine which read: ‘It’s a great organisation, well worth being involved with’. At the Association’s meetings, they were “two bushytailed youngsters bursting at the seams to convert the world to organics,” says Chris, amongst a group of gardeners who were “somewhat older”.