Harriet Behar was born in 1954. After attending high school in New York City, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1971-1973. She began farming organically in 1973, and her farm became a certified organic operation in 1989. Behar and her husband Aaron Brin (doing business as Sweet Springs Farm) raise chickens, keep honeybees, and grow vegetables, herbs, bedding plants, and small grains in southwestern Wisconsin.
In the 1980s Behar became active with a number of sustainable agriculture organizations, including the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool (CROPP, later known as the Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools, and now known by one of its brand names, Organic Valley), which was established in 1988. She served as CROPP's marketing coordinator from 1989 to 1996.
Since 1989 she has also served as an independent organic inspector, visiting over two thousand farms and processing facilities during her career. She also conducted final reviews for three different certifying agencies. Behar serves as an International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA) training coordinator, and has led trainings since 1996 in the United States and Latin America, covering the crop, handling, and livestock sectors to diverse audiences with an interest in organic agriculture. She served on IOIA's board of directors from 1997 to 2003, and was chair for 2001 and 2002. She also served on the board of directors of the Organic Materials Review Institute (1999-2005). In 2001 she co-authored the Organic Trade Association's Good Organic Retailing Practices manual.
In 2003 Behar became the organic specialist at the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), where she provides answers to questions on organic production, processing, and certification via a toll-free organic information line; conducts training seminars; produces articles and other written materials; and participates as a frequent speaker/presenter at the organization's annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference.
From 2007 to 2011, she was a member of the Wisconsin Organic Advisory Council (WOAC), which advised the state Secretary of Agriculture, governor, and state agencies on aspects of organic policy and promotional efforts.
Behar currently serves on the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) as an Environmental Protection and Resource Conservation Expert (projected term: 2016 January-2020 January), and serves on committees for various organizations, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (Research and Extension committee and Food Integrity committee), the National Organic Coalition, the Organic Trade Association, and the Wisconsin National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Technical Committee (since 2011). Since 2014 she has served as an approved NRCS Technical Service Provider writing Transition to Organic Conservation Activity Plans. Behar also leads webinars on organic agriculture and related topics for a number of organizations, including University of Wisconsin-Extension, eOrganic eXtension, NCAT, and the Farm Service Agency. On the local level, she has served as the chair of the Town of Clayton Planning Commission since 1998, and has been a member of the Crawford County Land Conservation Committee since 2008.
