NOFA/Massachusetts 2007 Summer Conference Recap

Sustainable Food, Sustainable Communities 33rd Annual NOFA Summer Conference a Powerful Demonstration Of (Organically Occurring) Bonds

by Jason Velazquez, NOFA/Mass Communications Coordinator

The two women turned and saw each other at almost exactly the same time. "Eeeeeeeeek!" screamed the one with the scarf and wiry salt and pepper hair. "Oh my Gahhhhh…!" shouted the slightly younger woman with ski jacket-turned-barn coat. But she didn't get to finish because, like magnets, the two of them hurled and crashed into each other, locking in a fiercely electric bear hug.

And that was pretty much how I found the whole weekend to be during the 33rd Annual Summer Conference put on by the Northeast Organic Farming Association -old friends from the far corners of NOFA running into each other for the first time in a year or two or more. New friendships were wrought over discussions about food, farming, and fuel prices. Old friendships were re-energized by the buzz of activity and the pleasure of seeing so many newcomers excited to learn all they could about organic food in three short days.

By late afternoon, the cold drizzle had stopped and there seemed to be a high-pressure system forming directly over Hampshire College in Amherst. This front may have been powered by the electro-organic bonds between some potently optimistic people. Under the big tent, staff members and volunteers worked with enthusiasm to ensure that the steady flow of attendees had what they needed to enjoy and educate themselves the weekend of August 10 through the 12th.

When Bill McKibben gave his keynote address around eight o'clock Friday night, he told all assembled in a very full Crown Center that the source of hope against some very possible gloom and doom was the strength of the bonds within our communities. To a more cynical crowd, the address might have seemed like a trite pep talk. To the Summer Conference attendees, his words rang true and the gymnasium thundered with approval every few minutes. You could almost count the space between the applause-one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand…

The sharing of information and knowledge is, of course, a primary reason the conference is held every year. So many workshops and events were occurring simultaneously that a person would be hard-pressed to decide how to spend his or her time. Presenters held sessions on everything from bio-diesel to maple sugar. Families came with the sensible strategy of splitting up and attending as many workshops as they could individually, then briefing each other at the end-of-day rendezvous. Children's workshops that were both fun and educational seemed to make the whirlwind weekend easier on the kids.

Interestingly, although the workshops were led by presenters, the information didn't just flow in one direction. In "Sheep Breeds for Wool (And More!)," Jill Horton Lyons and her husband Jim made a point of asking attendees about their experiences raising sheep. The class was mixed, with about half the people new to sheep raising. Soon, it became clear as we passed around samples of Dorset, Icelandic, Cormo, and other wool, that all our combined knowledge was flowing on currents of engagement. As the workshop ended, people continued their conversations on sheep and wool out into the hall. They exchanged contact information. Fibers of community were strengthened.

The NOFA Summer Conference community will undergo a slight change after this year. After 18 years the event's location is to move from Hampshire College down the road to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Hampshire College's Farm Center Manager, Leslie Cox, said "Hampshire College is having a problem that a lot of businesses would like to have--too many customers." Cox explained the administrative difficulties of over-enrollment. Colleges and universities typically experience a predictable loss of students due to accepted, incoming freshman who decided not to attend. Students who attended classes one year also choose not to continue at the same institution the next fall. Like airlines estimating how to book flights to ensure no empty seats, colleges have to do their best to assure that classes have as few empty desks as possible.

"Ten to twenty percent of the students that you think aren't going to show up in the fall are actually coming," Cox said.

Officials from UMass, Amherst were at the conference Friday morning, already finalizing plans for the transfer of the conference to their campus next year. New communities will undoubtedly be formed, new bonds forged that will reinforce the ones woven over more than a decade and a half.

Other partnerships have also given NOFA a chance to expand its presence beyond the sphere of farmers over the years. Whole Foods Market, Stonyfield Farm, Newman's Own, Greenfields Market, and the First Pioneer Farm Credit AgEnhancement Program were all sponsors of this year' conference. Though I kept my eyes open for a chance to interview Paul Newman, I'm not sure he was able to make it.

Dan Felton, a "Local Forager" for Whole Foods, was on hand, however, to explain his company's connection to NOFA. He explained that Whole Foods Market is proud to be involved with the organization beyond being a food and financial sponsor.

"It's what we're all about," said Felton. "Our core values include giving back to the communities we serve and promoting a sustainable lifestyle so that we can all exist." He said that their customers tend to want to educate themselves about food, not just shop for it.

"They want to know how what they're buying hurts or helps the environment. They want to know how we can keep what our grandparents had," Felton explained, noting that many consumers are becoming aware that only two generations ago the business of food was very different on both sides of the plate. About organic food, Felton described the increasing demand from shoppers.

"Oh, the demand for less 'fake' food is growing. When [our customers] buy a box of cereal, they want to know that it's JUST a box of cereal," he said.

As a "forager," Felton hunts down food products grown or produced locally that Whole Foods can carry. If the farm or vendor can meet the company's quality and packaging requirements, it doesn't matter if the vendor can only supply enough food for one or two stores.

"Local farmers can be seasonal, one store suppliers. We definitely want to talk to them, Felton said. Just to make sure he was on the up-and-up, on my way home from that day of the conference, I stopped by the Whole Foods on Route 9 in Hadley. I wanted to make sure that I really could find local produce among fruit and veggies originating from California, Florida, and the southern hemisphere. Although not as much was available as I would have liked to see (perhaps owing to it being just the beginning of August), I did pick up some peaches grown in Deerfield. Other items like locally-produced cheeses were also on display. I'll be watching to see what they do with their "local foraging" initiative.

Of course, this is just the sort of thing that is good news to people who sat in at the "Food Sovereignty and Food Democracy" workshop that took place on Sunday afternoon. Led by Brian Tokar, director of the Biotechnology Project at Vermont's Institute for Social Ecology and Bob St. Peter, director of the Good Life Center in Maine, the session focused on the micro. Again, optimism seemed to flood the Adele Simmons Auditorium as the white-board list of obstacles to local control of food morphed into a discussion of point-by-point strategies for harvesting the strength of community.

Despite some obvious threats to local control of food, including the consolidation of the majority of the world food supply into just a handful of multinational corporations, rising oil prices, and the control of the genetic destiny of seeds, headway is being made on some fronts. College and university students, it turns out, are forming alliances with local farmers and distributors to demand that more of the meals served in the cafeterias are prepared with ingredients that originate closer to campus. Ben Grosscup, the National Animal Identification System Response Coordinator for NOFA/Mass highlighted some of the stories of towns that have passed resolutions against genetically modified foods, as well as against the NAIS program.

These victories are victories of sustainability--the theme of this year's Summer Conference. They are precisely the type of encouraging news that Bill McKibben discussed in his address. Quoting from a wealth of sources and information on organic and local food production versus industrialized, far-flung food manufacturing, McKibben described a shift in worldview that is occurring in the public as a whole.

Citing statistics that show local farm markets to be the fastest growing sector of the retail food industry, he joked that Wal-Mart is sure to be "looking over their shoulder." He tempered his humor with heartfelt praise for NOFA members.

"Many people in this room," he said, "are among my real heroes in the world. You've built something powerful and something precious over the last few decades."

McKibben predicts that the age of a return to local food production is at hand.

"Our short experiment with something very odd and different is coming to an end, and it's coming to an end very quickly. Part of the reason…" he said, "is that you guys have been doing an amazing job, and part of the reason has very little to do with you. The system of industrial agriculture that we've built in this country, carried to its logical extension, turns out to be a bizarre disaster."

If the charge of social energy is rewired to a new circuit in next year's new home for the 34th Annual NOFA Summer Conference, I sense that this tightly bonded community of organic producers and consumers will have even more solutions.

Hazel Henderson, our "beamed-in" Saturday keynoter, showed in her talk and Q & A period afterward why she is a renowned futurist. Her sharp critique of how corporate and political forces try to control us, and her positive belief that the human spirit will prevail, (as well as her unsolicited words of praise for this humble rag - ed.) revealed her intelligence and thoughtful approach to the admiring audience. …and from the Conference Co-Coordinator, Julie Rawson:

The numbers were higher than they have been since 1998 and Wendell Berry - 1406 to be exact. Internally, it was a surprise to us to invite Bill McKibben, a local hero but relatively unknown person in the larger world, and see that over the year, due to his incredible work on climate change, he became a real national hero. Bill's fame and the explosion of organic and local were major factors in the large turnout this year.

It will be hard to say goodbye to our relationship with Hampshire. Jack and I and all of the conference committee members from all of those years have such fond memories of working with the Hampshire staff and being on "our own campus" for the weekend. I do believe, however, that this new relationship with UMass will open new opportunities for the conference to grow (we were getting too big for Hampshire). As organic goes mainstream, it is curious that we are moving to a mainstream university to house our conference. The folks at UMass have been extremely gracious with us, acquiescing to all of our off-beat requests. I know that many of you are concerned that we will be swallowed up there. We will be working quite closely with the staff to centralize all of our events, workshops, camping dorms, dining, exhibits, as snugly as possible so we can still feel the sense of community while we are there.

Do you want to serve on the NOFA Summer Conference committee? We meet 6 times per year, and members receive free registration and housing and two meals. We have several paid jobs opening up for this season. Ads/exhibits/sponsors, to be consolidated with food donations, will pay around $3300. This is a crucial fundraising job for the conference that takes a person who likes to solicit and to talk to folks. The graphics job is open also, a 50 hour job ($550) that takes responsibility for our signage, banners and clothing sales, logo design, etc. The children's conference coordinator job is also open with a 120 hour position that manages the kids all weekend, gathers workshop leaders and coordinates the teachers. Contact me at (978) 355-2853 or julie@nofamass.org if you are interested in applying for one of these positions. Our first meeting will be on Sunday, October 28 from noon to 5 pm at UMass in Amherst.

Many thanks to the workshop presenters, the exhibitors, advertisers, and sponsors, the hard working top notch staff and all the participants who make the NOFA Summer Conference an integral part of our lives each year. It is truly an honor to work with all of you to put on this event.

This page was last modified on January 27, 2008 at 11:10:12 AM.