Rethink Valentine's Day!

It's that time of year, all the ads for edible arrangements, flowers and Russel Stover Chocolates are back on television.  However, as human rights and environmental groups observe on virtually every holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Halloween) the ecological and human rights costs of these products are in sharp contrast to the holidays they are used to celebrate.  Could there be a worse gift than something dowsed in chemicals, that causes birth defects, and permanent environmental damage?

About 78% of the flowers imported to the U.S. are from Colombia and Ecuador.  Cut flowers are heavily treated with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, a number of these chemicals are considered illegal in the United States.  The people who apply these chemicals are young women and sometimes children, causing serious respiratory disorders and birth defects. Then they have to be shipped thousands of miles, continually hydrated, and refrigerated. 

While the CEO of Russell Stover has promised that their contracts with cocoa companies in the Ivory Coast prohibit slave labor, the ecological cost of plantation farming, pesticide application and chocolate processing is extensive (and don't even get us started on palm oil).

Why not be a little more creative than chocolate and flowers?  

It actually doesn't even require a lot of creativity.  Preparing a healthy, local, organic meal is a pretty great option, and you can avoid the Valentine's Day Restaurant craze.  There is also a growing popularity of local and organic wines. 

Fair trade organic chocolate is a little pricey (and definitely not local) - but it's delicious, and pays workers a fair price and invests in sustainable farming in developing countries, some mainstream brands like dove are even moving towards sustainability. Choosing local jewelry and crafts support local artists and are more unique.  It's also time to buy seeds (if you haven't already) - organic seeds will grow into an organic garden which will turn into organic homegrown food!

The best possible gift of course is a gift CT NOFA membership or maybe a gift Winter Conference registration.  

Have a great weekend!
Kristiane

P.S. The NOFA Accreditation Course in Organic Land Care starting next Wednesday in Connecticut and on Febrary 27 in Rhode Island is still taking registrations if you are serious about "going organic" with your business, organization, town or school!

Big Food at the Yale Peabody Museum

The following 7 minute video gives a great introduction to the challenges and solutions surrounding America's current food system.  It also serves as an overview of a new exhibit at the Yale Peabody Museum, Big Food: Health, Culture, and the Evolution of Eating, that will be running from February 11 to December 2, 2012.  Open to the public, and great for adults and kids alike, this exhibit is a wonderful interactive resource to help you learn more about your food, where it comes from, and why that's important.  And the video even features our friends at Common Ground High School in New Haven!



Learn more about the exhibit here, and check out some interactive online food games related to the exhibit here.  Below is an excerpt from the Peabody Museum's website:

Food is fundamental to life. Yet, our eating habits have become incredibly complex, involving many aspects of daily life far beyond addressing simple nutritional needs. Our world is characterized by environments that promote increased consumption of unhealthy food and sedentary lifestyles; over-nutrition and obesity now surpass under-nourishment as the world’s leading food and nutrition problem.

So why is it that our current food system promotes larger portion sizes, unhealthier meal options, and less exercise?  As the video points out, the answers are complex, but there's certainly more to it than meets the eye.  A recent article on the Spirit of Change Magazine's blog points to farm subsidies and fossil fuels as major contributing factors in the prevalence of cheap unhealthy foods.  Of course, this is only another part of a much bigger picture, but it is an important part that's worth taking into account.  Here is a particularly compelling excerpt from that article:


The truth is, food in the grocery store is not cheap. We pay for it in advance with our tax dollars, which support farm subsidies that go to support an ecologically problematic industrialized food system. We pay for it with the lives of our soldiers and with the unfathomable military expenditures that support our national reliance on fossil fuels, upon which the industrial farming model is completely dependent. The prices only look cheap because we are paying for them someplace else: through our taxes, and via the destruction of our soil, water, and natural resources through irresponsible farming practices.

Our food system has traveled down a long and winding road to get to where it is today.  Because of this, the issues surrounding our food are fraught with complexities and ambiguities, but that doesn't mean that we have to get bogged down by them.  Just remember to buy local and organic as much as you can and really honestly know where your food comes from and who's behind producing it.  That's the easiest way to ensure that you are getting whole nutritious food for yourself and your family.  Check out our Winter Food Project webpage or CT Organic Farms webpage for information about farms, farmers markets, and CSA programs in your area at this time of year.

Have a great afternoon!

Come Volunteer with us at the CT Flower and Garden Show!

We are still looking for volunteers to table at the CT Flower and Garden Show at the Convention Center in Hartford, so if you want to attend an exciting event and promote sustainable land care to the public, please email me, the volunteer coordinator, at melissa@ctnofa.org. 

We have volunteer openings Thursday-Saturday, in two shifts of 10-3 and 3-8pm.  Volunteers be tabling with one other person (so you can take breaks as necessary) and will be provided with free admission.  You can learn more about the Flower Show here. 

The CT Flower and Garden Show boasts award winning landscape exhibits in full bloom ranging from 300 to 2,000 square feet and occupying over 45,000 square feet of the Convention Center Exhibit Hall. There will be 250 booths filled with plants, fertilizers, garden tools, tractors and mowers, patio and lawn furniture as well as other floral and garden related products and services, as well as an extensive floral & garden related artisian section with one of a kind designs including garden ornaments, jewelry, photography and more. Our booth will be among the many non-profit and educational exhibits.  Even if you don't want to volunteer with us, visit the Show and experience some of the hours of educational seminars that will be available.

Have a great afternoon,
-Melissa

Why Seed Catalogs are Great Tools

Our newest edition of Gleanings eNews features organic seed catalogs as this month's favorite tools. Since new organic seed catalogs have just come out for the 2012 season, now is a good time to note how informative and useful seed catalogs can be when starting out your garden or farm for the year.  Really knowing what kinds of seed grow best in a particular soil and climate and when it's best to plant them can mean the difference between a successful harvest and a loss.  Seed catalogs (and the people working behind the scenes to compile them) provide more than just an indexed list of products for sale.  They represent a wealth of knowledge from decades of experience working with seeds.  If you are a farmer or gardener, taking every opportunity to soak up this kind of accumulated know-how can really put you ahead in terms of your production, regardless of whether you are growing for personal or commercial use.

A recent interview by A Way to Garden highlights one individual in the vast well of organic seed producers.  C.R. Lawn, the voice behind Fedco Seeds, is not only an expert on organic seed and production, but also was a keynote speaker at one of our past winter conferences, a co-author of the NOFA Handbook on saving seeds, and his business is a co-plaintiff in our suit against Monsanto.  In the interview, C.R. dicusses a host of topics ranging from his heroes, to the Monsanto lawsuit, to giving advice about the best lettuces, peas, and potatoes.  The following segment was particularly interesting:

Q. I have a famous garden friend who despite his expertise (and Italian heritage) lamented he could never ripen a proper crop of figs. Has any plant escaped your attempts at cultivation, or otherwise exasperated you?

A. I have never done well with peppers or eggplant. With peppers I think it is mostly that I have farmed in two windy locations and I have observed that peppers hate wind. They did much better when I built them little cages with row covers over.

I think plants know when you don’t like to eat them and they won’t grow for you. The eggplant falls in that category. Though a good chef can make an eggplant dish that I would eat, I lack that ability. The plants seem to know that and never grow for me. It doesn’t help that they prefer a great deal of heat (Maine sure was not warm enough for them most years), and they seem to be a favorite target for the Colorado Potato Beetle, which in my experience will decimate them must faster than it will potatoes.

C.R. makes a good point in this section that it's important to grow what you enjoy cooking and eating.  If you love what you grow you will have a vested interest in its success, and all that hard work will be all the more delicious come harvest time!

Have a great afternoon!

Journeyperson Program

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA) will be accepting applications from qualified new farmers to participate in its two-year support program, known as the CT NOFA Journeyperson Program, until February 17, 2012.  The program is modeled off a highly successful program piloted by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA).  CT NOFA, along with state NOFA chapters in five other states running similar programs, is able to provide two years of educational and business planning stipends, support of a paid farmer mentor, educational and networking opportunities and a specific commitment to ensuring that this small group of farmers is able to find sure footing in their first few years of farming independently.

Farmers can begin the application process by filling out an application available at www.ctnofa.org/Beginning_Farmer/Journeypersons.html  or by contacting CT NOFA’s Outreach Coordinator, Kristiane Huber at Kristiane@ctnofa.org.  The application deadline for CT NOFA’s Journey Person Application is February 17, with notification regarding the next step of the process occurring in the first week of March.  Those accepted to the program will be invited to an orientation later in the spring to officially welcome the first northeast-wide cohort of Journeyperson farmers.  The CT NOFA Journeyperson farmers will be invited to meet their counterparts from other northeast states at the annual NOFA Summer Conference in Amherst, MA in August 2012.

The CT NOFA Journeyperson Farmer Program is supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant #2011-49400-30510.  This grant has also enabled all of the NOFA Chapters to offer scholarships to beginning farmers for their respective Winter Conferences.  CT NOFA’s Winter Conference is March 3 and will be accepting applications until February 24.  Experienced farmers that are interested in becoming mentors should contact Kristiane Huber at Kristiane@ctnofa.org. 

The Journeyperson Application: https://nofa.wufoo.com/forms/m7p8m7/

The Winter Conference Application: https://nofa.wufoo.com/forms/x7x1x7/

Please encourage anyone who is eligible for either program to apply.  Higher rates of participation make our program stronger, and allow us to service more beginning farmers and  be more effective! 

OSGATA et al v. Monsanto In Depth

The following is an excerpt from our Executive Director, Bill Duesing's, article in our newest edition of the Gleanings eNewsletter that was released today.  In the article, Bill details his visit to Manhattan on Tuesday to support farmers who are trying to prevent Monsanto from suing them for patent infringement.  If you would like to read the full newsletter, click here.  If you'd like to sign up to receive our monthly eNews, click here.

A GMO Hearing and Wingnuts
February 1, 2012

activists outside the courthouse

Yesterday I had the honor of representing CT NOFA and its members at a hearing, in the Southern District Court in lower Manhattan, on Monsanto's motion to dismiss our suit asking the court to prevent Monsanto from suing farmers whose crops are contaminated by Monsanto's modified genes. (See this document for more information on the lawsuit, including a list and descriptions of our co-plaintiffs.)
 
I joined 54 other organic and non-GMO farmers, representatives of organic farming organizations and organic seed producers before 7 AM in order to get a seat in the courtroom. We came from 20 different states and one Canadian province. Although there was no opportunity for us to speak, our attorney felt it was important to show the judge that there are real people behind the law suit. There was standing room only in the courtroom. Monsanto's only supporters were its four attorneys.
 
After about three hours of waiting... Read more here!

In the following video, Dan Ravicher explains what OSGATA et al v. Monsanto is all about.  The video is a little long, but gives a really good explanation that's easy to understand for those of us who aren't familiar with legalese. 


These resources help to explain why this lawsuit is important, and give an idea of what the outcome will mean for both farmers and consumers.  If you want to learn more about activism surrounding this case, check out the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association's website.

You can also read two articles in the news about Tuesday's event here and here.

Winter Conference Updates!

We have some exciting updates about CT NOFA's 2012 Annual Winter Conference!

Trainwreck Jerry

• Did you know CT NOFA is 30 years old? And that this is our thirtieth Winter Conference? We look at the conference as a bit of a celebration of our 30 years supporting sustainable food and farming. But what better way to celebrate our past than to discuss the future of food?
• The labeling of genetically modified ingredients is becoming a big debate in Connecticut.  There is draft legislation expected to be introduced in the Connecticut House of Representatives this spring advocating the right of consumers to know exactly what's in their food - including genetically modified ingredients. Learn more about this issue with our keynote Jeffrey M. Smith, world renowned speaker on genetically modified foods in our food system and with Dan Ravicher (pictured in the post below addressing protesters) the attorney representing organic seed producers and farmers in our lawsuit against Monsanto.
• Did we mention that John Turenne, a board member, one of our favorite chefs and founder of Sustainable Food Systems will be orchestrating the Winter Conference pot luck?  We're not sure if it's the largest pot luck in the state, but we bet it's in the top 3.  And when you bring together hundred of people who love farms and food and tell them all to bring their favorite dish - we are talking about an amazing potluck here.
• What kind of celebration doesn't include music? Trainwreck Jerry will be joining us to provide some musical entertainment.  Watch a youtube of one of his performances.

Check out the official Winter Conference page!
Register today!
If you are a beginning farmer (have less than ten years of farming experience - but are serious about making farming your livelihood) you can apply for a scholarship to the Winter Conference to cover your admission fee! Apply for the scholarship here.