FORT COLLINS - Wellington-area organic farmer Andy Grant was honored Wednesday by the Rotary Club of Fort Collins during the service club's annual Rural Urban Lunch.

Grant, president and general manager of Grant Family Farms, received the club's Master Agriculturist Award for "expanding a small family farm into a successful organic specialty and commodity crops farm distributing product locally and nationally."

Grant helped develop the Colorado Organic Program adopted by the legislature and Grant Family Farms became the first certified organic farm in the state. Grant launched a Community Supported Agriculture program in 2007 to help connect urban dwellers with farmers. A CSA lets consumers buy shares in community gardens, where they can help raise the crops that are produced.

Grant was also honored for his humanitarian work. In the last 10 years, Grant Family Farms has donated more than 1 million pounds of produce to food banks in Colorado and Texas. He is also the co-founder of the Tsunami Boat Project in Thailand that has built more than 150 new fishing boats for those who lost their sole source of income in the December 2004 tsunami.

The Rotary Club also presented a Service to Agriculture Award to the Larimer County Farmer's Market in Fort Collins, which is celebrating its 35th season this year. One of the oldest markets in the state, it was started in 1976 by the Larimer County Master Gardeners to allow backyard gardeners to sell excess produce. Revenue from the market continues to support the Master Gardener program and the Larimer County Extension Office.