Farmers to Descend on Northampton to Talk Crop QualityNorthampton, MA - From February 9-11, farmers will gather in Northampton from across the Northeast to learn about farming techniques that regenerate soil and produce high nutrition crops. On Thursday, February 9, from 7:30pm to 9:00pm, they will hold a public event at First Churches on 129 Main Street in Northampton. The topic is the decline of nutritional quality in crops and what farmers, consumers, and food activists alike can do to reverse this trend. There is a suggested donation of $10 for attendees. NOFA/Mass and Real Food Campaign are co-sponsoring the conference and Thursday evening plenary. Both are educational non-profit organizations, and they have have been collaborating since 2009 to put on a variety of educational programs about methods for remediating mineral and biological deficiencies in soil throughout Massachusetts. Organizers say the three-day conference will feature farmers experienced in the art of building healthy soils. The aim of the conference is to grow the movement for enhancing soil health as a basis for the long-term ecological and economic sustainability of farming, the environment, and the whole society. The Thursday evening event will feature two panelists. Dan Kittredge is director of the Real Food Campaign and a farmer in North Brookfield, MA. He teaches courses throughout the Northeast on producing "bionutrient-rich" crops. "There is a profound disparity in average crop nutrient levels between today and 80 years ago when the USDA began tracking these statistics," said Kittredge. "This degradation of nutrient quality in our food is leading to increases in degenerative diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. But we have the potential to significantly increase the nutrient levels in crops by addressing basic deficiencies in the soil. The science shows that crops with high levels of complex nutritive compounds can reverse degenerative disease." The second panelist is John Kempf, a national and international speaker on soil fertility based in Middlefield, Ohio. He consults extensively with farmers and has a small company called Advancing Eco-Agriculture. He will also be giving a full-day seminar for farmers at First Churches on February 9 about the connection between soil health and plant health. "Producing nutritious, high quality crops depends on a healthy soil, which means high levels of soil biology and balanced mineralization," said Kempf. "When we achieve this health in the soil, we can produce crops that have better flavor, and more complex molecular compounds, which enhance people's immune systems and cause people to be healthy." Kempf, who rejects the use of toxic chemicals in agriculture, says that whether farmers are organic farmers or conventional farmers, there is a basic paradigm shift that is needed in order to increase the quality of the food they produce. "When we start to view nature as our helper rather than our adversary, it opens up very exciting possibilities for agriculture in which plants can produce much better yields and much better quality than we have come to accept as normal," he said. For farmers and gardeners interested in registering for the full conference, the cost of registration is $145 for non-members and $135 for members. More information can be found at Winter Seminar page or by contacting Ben Grosscup at 413-658-5374 or ben.grosscup@nofamass.org.
This page was last modified on February 01, 2012 at 8:23:12 AM.
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