DIALOGUE
Inspiring the Next Generation
to Engage in Organic
An Interview with Theresa Marquez, Chief Marketing Executive for Organic
Valley Cooperative and Recipient of OTA’s 2010 Organic Leadership Award
What happens when a passion-driven activist gets behind an authen- tic business model she really believes in? In the case of Theresa Mar- quez, the chief marketing executive for Organic Valley, this
combination helped catapult the farmer-owned cooperative from
$5 million in sales in 1995 to over $627 million
today—all the while maintaining an unwavering commitment to its core values. Organic Valley, the brand
name for CROPP cooperative, is now the number one
brand sold in the natural foods channel.
Marquez not only helped build the Organic Valley
brand, she has also been a key leader in building the
organic industry from the ground up. She was a
founding member of the Organic Trade Association
(OTA, then called OFPANA) and a board member for
over 20 years, and was also a founding president of
The Organic Center, which supports current research
on the benefits of organic. In October, she was hon-
ored for this dedication to organic as the recipient of OTA’s “2010 Or-
ganic Leadership Award.”
Recently Marquez sat down for a heart-to-heart, activist-to-activist talk with the editor of
Organic Processing Magazine and shared insights on everything from communicating the message
of organic to the next generation to feeding the world.
