Prescott Bergh was born in 1958. He graduated in 1981 from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, with a B.A. in the Science of Society Program. Bergh served as an organic inspector with the Organic Growers and Buyers Association (1981-1992), Little Bear Trading Company (1985-1986), the Organic Crop Improvement Association (1988-1993), and as an independent organic inspector (1980-1993). In 1987, he and his wife, Juliet Tomkins, established Four Winds Farm, in River Falls, Wisconsin, where they raised grass-fed Angus beef, Berkshire pork, and pastured poultry from 1988 to 2010.
In 1986 Bergh co-authored the Minnesota State Organic Food Labeling Law, and served on an advisory board to the State Department of Agriculture regarding the development of its organic rules. In 1989 he established Four Winds Farm Supply as a source of least-toxic pest management and organic farming supplies. In 1992 he was a founding member of the Independent Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA), and led an inspector training program. He also participated in an effort to promote sustainable agriculture in Latvia in 1992. From 1995 to 2001, he served as the Outreach Coordinator with the Energy and Sustainable Agriculture Program of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, where, among other duties, he worked on an organic certification cost-share program, which later became a national program. He served as Director of Sales and Marketing for Ciranda, a company that supplied organic ingredients, from 2001 to 2014. Since 2001, he has served as CEO of Simply Native Foods, a company that markets convenience foods using ingredients indigenous to North America. From 2015 to 2016, he also worked as general manager of NewOrganics, a supplier of organic and non-GMO food products.
Bergh has also served on various boards, including the Organic Growers and Buyers Association (OGBA, 1984-1989); the Wisconsin Organic Growers Association (WOGA, 1988-circa 1990), where he was involved in the development of Wisconsin state standards for organic certification; and the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), where he was founding board chair from 2000-2005. Since December 2014, he has also served on the Board of Directors of Renewing the Countryside, a rural advocacy organization.
