NOFA-Vermont 2011 Conference

by Stowell P. Watters

Climate change author, activist, speaker, 350.org creator, Captain-Planet, wunderkind Bill McKibben took to the podium proceeded by 20-foot mother-moon and father-earth puppets; a fitting way to start the second day of Vermont-NOFA's (Northeast Organic Farming Association) 29th Annual Winter Conference as more than 1,000 organic farmers, do-it-your-selfers, homesteaders, worm enthusiasts, soil gurus, political activists, herders, shepherds, permaculturists, etc. poured across the University of Vermont campus.

"This situation is ugly, and I don't mean 10 years down the line ugly," was McKibben's central message concerning global climate change. A big league advocate for global policy change and the organic movement, McKibben was in his stride, lighting up the room with applause and cheer, striking a chord with all of us as he passionately clamored against the abuses of modern toxic agriculture. Electricity in the air grew palpable with each turn of his speech and as we shuffled out into the crackling cold (Burlington is farther north than Standish and gets chilled by icy winds flying over massive Lake Champlain) I saw only smiles and looks of eager excitement. I am fairly certain that I heard the words "I am so psyched" every hour.

Rippling Waters sent myself and fellow farm journeyperson Marina Steller, as well as Education Coordinator Marielle Mathews and Director Richard Rudolf to the conference to attend daily workshop style classes and network with other northeast farm-ilk. Although I learned enough to fill 10 notebook pages and explode a cardboard folder, the main thing I gained at the conference was a tremendous blast of energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity. To sit among the people there, to see the work being done in the northeast and around the globe, to hear from people who make it their business to work for food security, to see the booming organic community in flesh and feel their excitement moving about the room was empowering, as was the realization that this whole back-to-nature movement is really the zeitgeist of my generation.

The first class I took was titled "Using Cover Crops to Enhance Ecological Functions in Gardens" and was taught by NOFA-Vermont's crop advisor (no small position) Susie Harper. For nearly two hours I sat rapt as she spoke about the cover cropping strategies being studied and employed by NOFA. My mind was immediately blown by the sheer amount of information these people process, the sheer amount of work that goes into their studies. This class set the pace for the weekend; full throttle subject emersion taught by authorities on topics ranging from dairy goat health to food fermentation to using excel to streamline your growing season.

I ate lunch with Ben Gleason- presenter and owner of Gleason's Grains - and cookbook author Andrea Chesman and they wanted to know how I had gotten involved in the organic farming movement. Imagine that! I took a class on energy innovations on the farm and homestead by a bearded Adirondackian by the name of Bill MacKentley who was so off-grid he could barely keep his feet on the floor as he bounced around the room, extolling the virtues of "doing-it-yourself" and powering your home through a variety of solar and wind power systems.

I learned about Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic lectures/system from Mac Mead, director of the famed Pfeiffer Center for Biodynamics in New York (which lead me to the purchase of an immensely dense book on the subject that I am determined to conquer). I took a class on the art of scrounging for building materials with the director of the Yestermorrow Design Build School in Vermont. My brain felt as though it were flowering or perhaps fruiting.

Just outside of the main convention building a portable oven ran all day- the event spokesperson told us this oven has attended every NOFA-Vermont event for the last 20 years- cooking root vegetables free for the sampling. After each day we were given free ice cream and treated to free live music by The Appalachian Horse Thieves, a name with implications and meanings I am still sorting out.

Lastly I want to mention Saturday’s keynote speaker, a homesteader and author by the name of Shannon Hayes. Her topic - Real Cows in a Parallel Universe - characterized the entire event; that we are now a movement, millions strong, in part defined by a growing separation from mainstream culture. On her farm in upstate New York Hayes was snapped to this conclusion by an exiting farm intern, who barked at her "You people aren't living in the real world, you are living in a parallel universe!" At first Hayes was dismayed, disgruntled, maybe a bit peeved, but then she examined the comment some more and decided it to be perfect.

The modern world eats food from gleaming packages in brightly lit stores with dictionary pages for ingredient lists, the likes of which are shipped at great cost from far off places. But in the parallel universe we eat kale, rutabaga, fava beans, pork, and tomatoes that we buy from farmers. We have neighbors that we seek to connect to- a community to nourish- while in the "real world" there is a trend to become as rich as you can as such that you will never need the help of anyone ever again; picture a "KEEP OUT" sign.

In the "real world" we are told who is hot and who is not, what movie to see or what music to listen to- all of it riddled with endless supplies of advertising money. We are shown material extravagance as if it were a vestige of the average working American when really it is a dream afforded (and touted) by a rich elite far detached from the realities of working a 9-5 only to have a mortgage pulled out from under-foot.

But in the parallel universe, Hayes explained, exercise is a product of work and not endless vanity, wealth cannot fit in a wallet or a bank account, and entertainment comes from all angles- our work, our community, our family and our friends. To highlight this last point she left us with a pastoral picture of her daughter, 2 years-old, lilting among a row of tomato plants with a cotton-white lamb in tow.