The theme for this year's conference, the 29th annual, was Diggin' Diversity, and this was, as it should have been, reflected throughout every aspect of the weekend. From the three keynote speakers - Miguel Altieri, Malik Yakini, and Kevin Engelbert - through the workshop topics, NOFA staff, presenters, and attendees alike, diversity permeated all strata of the conference.
Unfortunately, we missed the Beginning Farmer's Mixer on Thursday night due to commitments here in Syracuse, but arrived late in the evening ahead of the snow storm. The opportunity to meet people and network with young farmers in similar positions as ourselves was fortunately not at all confined to the mixer. The entire weekend offered endless informal opportunities to meet farmers, activists, and like-minded people of all ages from across the state and and northeast.
First thing Friday morning, after woofing down some apples, pears, and yogurt, we rushed off, coffee in hand to our all day intensive workshop on the nuts and bolts of starting a farm enterprise. While those attending the workshop represented a wide range of experience and were at different positions in the starting of their respective farm projects, the information and general atmosphere were invaluable for all. Melissa and Garrett from The Good Life Farm in Interlaken, Donn and Maryrose from Northland Sheep Diary in Marathon, Wyllie Fox Farm owner Jamie Edelstein, and Erica Frenay of the Cornell Small Farms Program, facilitated activities, told their stories, and showed participants how to apply the information to our unique situations. They successfully grounded the vast amounts of information on building capital, planning, accessing land, small farmer resources, and the legal issues involved with starting a farm, by candidly, sometimes embarrassingly, sharing their start-up stories. The NOFA-NY organizers did a great job assembling this panel. The diversity of experiences made it well worth the time of the participants whether we were pursuing livestock, vegetable, or integrated farm operations.
Of course after 8 hours of workshop we were excited to be out of the Civic Center, get some food, and see some friends. We headed over to Max London's for a couple of happy hour beers and one of our favorite pizzas. The Wild Mushroom and Taleggio Pizza topped with truffle oil and a beautifully runny egg is only $9 compared to its normal $15 - coupled with buy one get one local beers, and bam you have one of the best deals in town. Tamara and I shared the pizza and some Chickpea Polenta Fries, drank a couple beers, visited with some friends, (including Jonathan Greene from Saratoga's Local Living Guide) and headed back for the first keynote speaker of the conference.
Miguel Altieri took the stage after poet/farmer Scott Chaskey of Quail Hill Farm and some fellow Long Island farmer's offered moving tributes to fallen friend/father/farmer Josh Levine who recently passed away after a tragic tractor accident on the farm. I hesitate to use this euphemism, but it truly was a hard act to follow. Altieri, a professor at Berkeley, spoke about Agroecology, the successes and methods of South American farm movements, the farmers who've made them happen, and the need to drastically expand sustainable agriculture. His talk was extremely inspiring. The work being done to fight against industrialized agriculture and the subsequent attacks on community autonomy is the most important fight of our time. We all need to do our part, as consumers, growers, teachers, and friends, in whatever ways we can.
After the keynote we made our way to the bar to meet some friends, make some new one's (Brooklyn Salsa Co. and folks from PASA), and consequently stay up too late. But, I was only 5 minutes late to my volunteer shift at the publications table Saturday morning at 7. It turned out the table wasn't scheduled to be open until 8, which made for a very easy hour.
The first workshop we attended on Saturday dealt with mulching and no-till gardening. Wendy-Sue Harper from NOFA-VT gave us a lot of good ideas about how to incorporate mulching and cover crops into our system. But, it was the second workshop that really stole the show for me. 68 year old homesteader Larry Siegel gave us a truly comprehensive look into the way he is able to feed his family of 6 adults on a 1/4 acre vegetable garden, with enough left over to sell at market, and barter for everything from legal counsel to cheese. He shared with us his planting schedule and too many anecdotes to count. He explained how he has managed - in a very laissez-faire sort of way - to grow beds of perennial parsnips and lettuces through what I decided was an almost Taoist method to farming.
Malik Yakini, principal, urban farmer, activist and Chairman of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network gave the second keynote. If it has to do with food, food security, social justice, or Detroit, Yakini is likely playing a large role in it. He spoke about growing up in 1960s Detroit, how he came to appreciate the "spirituality of eating," and the "high vibrations of food," from almost an activists' perspective, as a way to reclaim black culture and black pride. He also touched on the issue of young, liberal-minded, white urban farmers, in tacitly and unconsciously perpetuating racism and the need for and use of dismantling racism workshops. As quick as he was to warn about taking a "missionary-like" or white man's burden-esque approach to food justice, he didn't hesitate to praise all the great and honorable work being done by young farmers in urban and rural America. His keynote marked a high point of the conference for me.
After lunch, Tamara and I attended a fermentation workshop with Leda Meredith. We are fairly experienced in fermenting, but always interested in learning new methods and gaining sounder scientific knowledge about what is at play when we make sauerkraut, pickles, cider, or whatever. The workshop did not disappoint as we learned some great lacto-fermentation techniques and were able to discount some information we'd previously heard. She apprenticed with a hero of ours, Sandor Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation, and has written some notable books herself including, Botany, Ballet and Dinner from Scratch, and The Locavore's Handbook: The Busy Person's Guide to Eating Local on a Budget
. For the last workshop of the day Tamara and I split up. Tamara, our resident beekeeper, opted to learn about some value-added beeswax products from Ross Conrad of Dancing Bee Gardens, while I went to learn about raising rare pig breeds from Mike Yezzi and Jen Small of Flying Pigs Farm. We both learned a great deal and were able to bounce ideas off of each other. We also realized that we probably -as we'd previously expected - should have been attending separate workshops all weekend to get the most out of the conference.
With a great day behind us, having made numerous new friends from our area, learned invaluable information in workshops, and just in general been inspired, we headed out to dinner with some friends from Saratoga. Having dined at Max London's - our 2nd favorite restaurant in town - the previous night, it was time to hit up our number one favorite. When we lived in Saratoga we would try to get to The Beekman Street Bistro once every couple of months. I met Tim, the chef/owner, through my work with Kilpatrick Family Farm, from which he buys a lot of produce for the restaurant. Michael Kilpatrick joined us for dinner along with Paul and Laura of the Saratoga Farmer's Market's Funky Fresh Foods, and Erika, Chris and Jack from Our DIY Life. We ate too much, laughed a lot, and had an all around great time. The food, as always, was beyond incredible. Exhausted, but excited for one more day at NOFA, we crawled onto our blow-up mattress and fell into a deep slumber.
Sunday morning we got an early start and ate breakfast at the conference. Then we were off to learn about crop-mobs from Rachel Firak and Katie Church of the Ithaca Crop Mob, and Deb Taft from NYC Crop Mob. The idea, which finds its' roots in barn-raisings and deep within our agricultural heritage, reemerged (they never really went away) in North Carolina a couple years back. They organize volunteer labor for farms in need and descend on them for a day of collective hard work, rewarded with a shared dinner. Their success in Ithaca and NYC this last growing season offers optimism for the future and proved what activism and volunteerism can do for our agricultural communities, and community in general.
Our last workshop of the weekend came with a boring title, but was one of the most inspiring and useful of the conference. Mara and Spencer Welton presented Marketing Strategies at Half Pint Farm in VT, and explained to us how marketing permeates everything they do. They walked us through their approach to selling at market, to restaurants, and grocers. Their use of themes for deciding what crops to grow provided Tamara and I with a lot of good ideas. It was really a great workshop to finish off with.
With all the workshops behind us, and feeling pretty exhausted, we trudged down the hall one last time for the final keynote from fellow Hamilton graduate Kevin Engelbert - the founder of the country's first certified organic dairy, member of the National Organic Standards Board, and NOFA-NY Farmer of the Year. His story of growing up on a conventional farm, going off to college, coming home and taking the farm in a new direction was moving. But, he left us all with a realistic picture of how far we have to go and how much governmental and industrial agro-business stand in the way of realizing the changes necessary to feed our populations sustainably before it is too late. He, like many other this weekend, urged us to call our representatives and harass them about keeping GE (Genetically Engineered) alfalfa off the market. The harm this crop could do to our food supply can not be exaggerated. So, I will urge anyone reading this to do the same.
Seriously, if you are reading this, the USDA is pushing, under the influence of Monsanto and special interest groups, for the release of GE alfalfa, without evaluating the public health, environmental, and economic consequences. The results will be terrible. Once released commercially, the genetic contamination of all alfalfa is likely inevitable through cross-pollination. Contamination-free coexistence has not been proven, because it can't be. GE free markets in Europe and Asia will cease to buy from the US, because of this, and our farmers and economy will suffer dramatically. Organic standards will go out the window, because without GE free livestock feed we can't have organically raised meat. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MONSANTO WANTS. I saw a commercial today from some lobbyist group complaining that the government is trying to tell you what you can and cannot eat. If the USDA allows GE alfalfa to be commercially released by Monsanto, you really won't have a choice. But, I haven't seen any commercials warning about the that. Instead it is the producers of high-fructose corn syrup and lobby groups for GE Corn, Soy and Industrial Agriculture in general sending red-herring messages, warning that the government is out to tax your food! So, call your representatives!
Petition the USDA and your Elected Officials here:
just enter your zip code in the GET INVOLVED section on the right, click on your representatives and then click contact - it is just a little bit of work, but it is crucial. Act now!
USDA/APHIS
Email: biotechquery@aphis.usda.gov
Call: 1-301-851-2300 and record your comments
President Obama
Comment Line: 202-456-1111
Email: www.whitehouse.gov/contact
If you decided to read past the rant ....
To briefly wrap it up, the beauty of the weekend is this:
I can take Larry Siegel's workshop about his success on a 1/4 acre, the marketing workshop offered Sunday morning by Mara and Spencer Welton of Half Pint Farm, Mike Yezzi and Jen Small of Flying Pigs Farm talk about saving rare pig breeds by eating them (really all the workshops we attended), and run them through the lens of our all day intensive on starting a farm, and I have, in a weekend, figured out the direction of our farm enterprise. From the division of labor, to what we will raise and grow, to how we'll sell and market it, Tamara and I have a significantly improved idea of how to pursue our goals- and what our goals are for that matter. Because as Jamie Edelstein of Wyllie Fox Farm said "you have to have yourself some goals".
I can say with certainty that we will not miss a future conference. As I've said, the theme of this year's NOFA-NY conference in Saratoga was Diggin' Diversity. Consider it dug!
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