Standards Committee Members Selected
July 30, 2008 
Leonardo Academy received an overwhelming number of applications from individuals and organizations interested in serving on the standards committee for sustainable agriculture. Fifty-eight people were finally chosen among nearly 200 who applied to develop a final standard for American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval–and seven of those selected have floriculture backgrounds.
Committee members will examine the Sustainable Agriculture Draft Standard For Trial Use, which was developed by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) and submitted to ANSI last year. SCS also developed the VeriFlora sustainable certification program for the floriculture industry.
The committee’s charge is to go through the 128-page draft standard with a fine-toothed comb and reach consensus on a final standard in the next two years.
Hans Brand of B&H Flowers and Mark Yelanich of Metrolina Greenhouses were among the growers selected to serve as committee members, and Will Healy of Ball Horticultural Company and Tom Leckman of Sierra Flower Trading in Montreal will represent the customer segment of the committee with 10 others. Juan Carlos Isaza-Cassolis of Asocolflores, a Colombian cut flower grower, Stan Pohmer of Pohmer Consulting Group, Jim Barrett of the Environmental Horticulture Department at the University of Florida and Jacques Wolbert of MPS-ECAS will also serve on the committee.
Leonardo Academy originally intended to seat a standards committee of no more than 40 members, but because nearly 200 people expressed interest in serving on the committee, it increased the number of seats to ensure that the voting body is broadly representative of the different sectors of agriculture.
Committee members are scheduled to have a kickoff meeting September 10. To view a full standards committee member list, click here.
Those who applied yet were not selected are still eligible to serve on non-voting subcommittees, advisory committees and task groups. Leonardo Academy is still accepting applications, in fact, for individuals who would like to participate without voting power.
To view a list of those who applied, click here.
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