Carmen Fernholz was born in 1943. He graduated from St. John's University in 1965, and taught high school English in Sleepy Eye and Madison, Minnesota. In 1972, he and his wife Sally purchased a farm in western Minnesota, which he began operating as an organic farm the next year as A-Frame Farm. He became a certified organic grower in 1974.
Fernholz served as Board president for the Organic Growers and Buyers Association (OGBA), which was formed in 1976 and began offering a certification program in 1978. Fernholz and other OGBA members worked for passage of the Organic Foods Labeling Act which the Minnesota Legislature passed in 1986. He has also served on various boards, including the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA), the Organic Farmers' Agency for Relationship Marketing (OFARM, which he co-founded), Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES), the Lac qui Parle County Resource Commission, and the Lac qui Parle Lake Association. He has been involved with the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, started the Southwest Minnesota Poultry Coop, and held the University of Minnesota School of Agriculture Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems for one year (1997 May-1998 May). Fernholz currently works on research projects with the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center (SWROC, where he serves as coordinator of organic research) and other institutions, participates in the Conservation Reserve Program with a prairie restoration and wetlands, and mentors other farmers on organic agriculture methods and marketing.
In 2005 Carmen and Sally Fernholz were named the 2005 Organic Farmers of the Year by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES).
