The Northeast Organic Farming Association's (NOFA) 40th annual
Summer Conference takes place August 8-10, 2014 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Appealing to a wide range of interests, 1400 consumers, gardeners, farmers, food policy experts, and urban agriculturalists travel from across the northeast and beyond to participate in 150+ workshops,
pre-conference events, farms tours, and much more. This conference is a collaborative project of all
seven NOFA chapters.
This is a family-friendly event, with special conference tracks for
children 5-12 and
teens 13-17. While parents attend great educational
workshops on gardening, farming, nutrition, and ecological sustainability, children experience age-appropriate and fun workshops about these same topics with other youth. Childcare is available for children 2-4.
Affordable
accommodations (like camping and dorms) are available, as are scholarships, group discounts, work exchange, and other
creative financing options.
"At the heart of NOFA as an organization is the NOFA Summer Conference. A place of inspiration, awakening, reconnecting, and practical education, it is the event that for 40 years has brought the brightest, best, and most collaborative farming game-changers together for one packed weekend celebration of life and farming," says farmer, former NOFA Summer Conference Coordinator, and current NOFA/Mass Executive Director, Julie Rawson.
Trained as a microbiologist,
Dr. Elaine Ingham, this year's keynote speaker, brings a unique perspective to her work with farmers. Her goal is to develop soils that foster thriving microbial communities. Her simple approaches to building soil biology require less labor and off-farm inputs and ultimately help save farmers money, while reducing adverse ecological effects of conventional farming. She maintains that by building soils teeming with the right kind of biology, growers can mitigate plant pests and diseases.
In addition to her Friday all-day pre-conference seminar titled "Changing Dirt into Soil: Specific Approaches for Different Soil Types and Crops", Ingham will lead three workshops during the conference. Three half-day pre-conferences will also take place on Friday, including "Tools for Resilient Urban Ecosystems" with Scott Kellogg; "Healing the Gut and the Body through Nutrition" with Dr. Chris Decker; and "Bioregional Herbalism: Stocking the Home Apothecary with Locally Abundant Herbs" with Jade Alicandro Mace.
Saturday and Sunday's workshops are geared to many skill levels and interests. Knowledgeable and experienced instructors will offer workshops on topics such as nutrition and health, food politics, land access, crop production, cooperative economies, urban and international agriculture, gardening, animal husbandry, farm economics, food preservation and cooking, permaculture, and mitigating climate change through agriculture.
There will be a sing-along event on Friday evening called "Singing for Food and Freedom: Carrying on the Legacy of Pete Seeger" (free for conference registrants and open to the public with a $5-$10 suggested donation). The weekend also features films (such as
The Queen of the Sun, Out Here, and
Food for Change), meet-ups for participants from a variety of interests, organic meals, a country fair, a contra dance, 100+ exhibitors, and more.
Learn more and register at
www.nofasummerconference.org!
