Eastern States Exposition Seeks Nominations for Agricultural Adventurers Award

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Nominations are now open for the 2026 Agricultural Adventurers Award, one of Eastern States Exposition’s (ESE) most prestigious accolades. As ESE continues to advance as a national leader and authority in agriculture through initiatives including the Agriculture Is Our Culture campaign, it is the organization’s goal to bring attention to this effort to honor farmers in New England.

The Agricultural Adventurers Award honors those who have influenced how food is grown and produced, as well as how agriculture is understood, sustained, and passed forward into the future. These are the innovators, stewards, educators, and champions whose impact deserves to be recognized on the national stage.

The ESE trustees that compose the Agricultural Adventurers Award committee review nominations in search of candidates that embody excellence and vision. They prioritize those that have made a lasting contribution to agriculture. Intentional nominations ensure that this honor reflects the depth, diversity, and future of the industry ESE represents.

Last year’s award presentation demonstrated the growing reach and impact of this honor. The 2025 recipient, the Bloom family of Copps Island Oysters, was featured through local media coverage as well as an Agriculture Is Our Culture storytelling video that brought their multi-generational legacy to life.

During an interview with ESE, Norm Bloom Jr., owner of Copps Island Oysters, said, “this award I received means a whole lot. It means a real lot that people are watching. When they picked us and offered us this award, it was one of our better moments, I’d say.”

Agriculturists often play a thankless role in local communities, and the Blooms — like so many 21st-century farmers — rarely receive their deserved recognition. The oystermen and women at Copps Island in Norwalk, Conn. are aquaculturists, so their plots for harvesting are in salty waters along the Connecticut coastline, invisible because they are submerged. Passers-by drive over the sound and walk by the farm, unaware that the people at Copps are working hard year-round beside them to put fresh catch on tables statewide and beyond.

Cast your vote by submitting an Agricultural Adventurers Award nomination form by Tuesday, March 3. Visit easternstatesexposition.com for more details.