Over the past 25 years, CROPP Cooperative has matured into the national force it is today due in no small part to the tireless dedication and love of Louise Hemstead.
Entering the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978 expecting to study music, Louise couldn’t ignore the stronger calling from her youth on her family’s farm. What began as a love of horses turned her mind, her studies, and her singular drive to agriculture and in 1993, to Organic Valley. Her accomplishments are too enormous to list here, but they are summed up in the better people we have become. Alongside her mastery of dairy science, of systems creation, of taming the wilds of production, of the arts of negotiation and compassionate business are the people she’s touched near and far who now stand for organic.
Louise passed away on May 15, 2018, just two weeks before her 25th anniversary with Organic Valley. Read her obituary here.