Allison's NOFA Experience

As classes start up and we get into the swing of our schedules, I've been thinking about the NOFA conference quite a bit.  It isn't just that my classes include elements from the conference (from smart, efficient architectural design ideas to the texts we use in class) or that organic and local food has been the center of many conversations I've had of late (though these statements are true).  NOFA was also my pre-fall '12 introduction to attending lectures, expanding my knowledge, and becoming engaged in topic matter.  This said, I'd like to reflect upon my NOFA experience (however overdue) and say what it means for this semester.

I attended a slew of workshops at NOFA in August (the 10th-12th), including:
1) Edible Forest Gardens, a workshop about biodiversity, modeling nature in the home garden, gardening like the forest, and self-renewing fertility (among other things!)
2) Mushroom Cultivation, giving the how-tos for at home mushroom cultivation (with the end result of selling them to restaurants at at markets)
3) Urban Bioshelters - (MY FAVORITE) with Scott Kellogg, a professor in the SUNY system
4) Systems & Species: A Peak-Oil Homestead Example
5) Arcosanti & Paolo Soleri, a workshop about the history of Paolo Soleri's futuristic architecture and ideas to combat urban sprawl
6) Urban Gardening
7) Coppice Agroforestry
8) and a workshop about Value Added products.

Needless to say, I was packed to the brim with new, exciting information after the NOFA conference!  The workshops that left the biggest impact on me were Urban Bioshelters and Arcosanti & Paolo Soleri.

Scott Kellogg has dedicated his life to ecological studies and, within the past year, has started a bioshelter in Albany, NY, as a center to educate youth about ecology, biology, and sustainability in a completely hands-on, interactive manner.  He was so in-tune with the ecological, social, and economic intersections within sustainability, and his application of them to a youth education center was, to me, the perfect way to manifest his interests.

His bioshelter had an aquaponics system that grew plants, provided heat for the building (especially in the chilly winter months in upstate NY), fed fish, filtered water, and ultimately served as an educational tool for students.  They also have small livestock there, a greenhouse, and a building maintained by passive convective cooling/ventilation.  I was excited by his smart architectural design ideas, multi-purpose use items (from the water system heating the building to the livestock living there providing heat just from living!), and his ability to encourage ecological education in the area.  He recently published a book, "The Toolbox for Sustainable City Living", which perfectly explains his sentiments toward the issues with city living now and how we can alter it to become sustainable, albeit urban.

This sort of connected to the next topic I was very interested in, the workshop on Arcosanti & Paolo Soleri.  Soleri coined the term "arcology" - a hybrid of architecture and ecology - and applied it to ideas for mega-buildings that would combat urban sprawl, personal vehicle use, and inaccessibility to resources by building up rather than out.  Although his plans were for futuristic buildings that look near impossible to build, the implications these designs had for ecological sustainability, responsible resource use, and ways to combat pollution are more important than their actual construction.

These workshops truly fueled my preparation for the fall semester as I am currently delving into an architecture course (Sustainable/Adaptive Reuse Architecture), a political ecology course (mainly studying the implications of power relations and resource use/distribution where resources are competed for), and a course on the biogeography of the African continent.  I have been able to refer to notes from the conference to remind me about what really gets me excited academically to better prepare for my junior year - a year of planning for both the end of my education and my future after college.

On that note, may you all delve into studies of your own and get absorbed by the whirlwind that is classes, social life, and more at Mount Holyoke (or wherever you are!).

Best,
Allison

Oh, you know, just another cow in the crowd.

 Keynote speaker and State of Maine Representative Chellie Pingree addresses the importance of healthy food options in schools.

 The (super awesome) NOFA tees - I wear mine all the time:)

 My notes on Scott Kellogg's description of passive convective cooling/ventilation, how he composts, and more.

SO good.

Ginger beer - so tasty!! - and

NOFA: A Formal Reflection

Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference

The NOFA Summer Conference, held this year from August 10^th to August 12^th, is a symposium aimed at sharing and learning about sustainable agriculture through local organic methods. The conference includes workshops ranging from ones about permaculture to soil health to mindful eating and organic land care including a number of exciting workshops for teenagers and children.

The conference also included lectures by keynote speakers Chellie Pingree and Jeffery M. Smith. 

Chellie Pingree is in an ongoing fight to promote local organic farms across the United States. Carving her way from Minnesota to Maine, starting a knitting business that employed local community members, owning and operation a restaurant that features locally grown food, former national CEO of Common Cause, representative of Maine in the Unites States Congress and currently a member of the Agriculture Committee in Congress, Pingree epitomizes an incredibly inspirational woman marking her say in the agricultural system that is largely patriarchal. 

Jeffery M. Smith focused on the health risks associated with genetically engineered food. With a strong belief that stories leave a stronger impact than sheer numbers, Smith incorporated in his speech stories about instances where people have observed significant effects of GMF consumption along with encouraging stories about how switching to Non-GMFs could reverse the illness. In the Philippines when people were living near a particular BT corn variety, during the time of pollination, the people in the village experienced skin, respiratory and intestinal reactions. When the same seeds were used in four other villages, the consequences were the same, along with deaths of water buffalos, chicken and horses and unexplained human death. Not to mention the concerns that are raised by results obtained from scientific experiments. Yet time and time again, scientific data against GMOs has been suppressed and attacked by agricultural and food companies and the press. Smith also mentioned the political corruption that occurs within the walls of food and agricultural industries like the Monsanto and the FDA. Nine out of ten Americans want GMFs to be labeled but because the FDA is ordered to promote the biotech industry, they ignore the desire of nine out of ten Americans in order to protect the economic interests of the few GMO companies. In order to promote non-GMFs, Smith argued, it is less important to change the government policies than to have individuals change their market choices.

The first workshop I attended was called ‘We Become What We Eat’. Energies are transferred into and through the food we consume. Positive energies that go into a raising a local farm animal are transferred into our bodies when consumed. This makes us healthy both physically and emotionally. Commercially raised animals, on the other hand retain negative energetic vibes from the way they are raised and would consequently have negative impact on us. Another workshop, called ‘Mindful Eating’ emphasized on the spiritual processes of food consumption or simply the act of eating. It began with a very simple meditation technique called ‘Eat a Raisin’ which basically involved concentrating on the one raisin that we were consuming and thinking about not only its feel and taste but also recalling where it came from and the processes that was required to get one raisin on my plate. Mindful eating not only improves our eating habits but also helps us to live in the moment. My newly found interest in eating habits lead me to watching a movie at the conference called ‘Food Matters’.  While the medical industry is receiving more budget, conducting more research, developing new antibiotics and more so spreading the drug disease, ‘Food Matters’ documented health risks posed by the increasing consumption of drugs and accentuated the need for people to eat locally grown organic food and avoid symptoms as opposed to treating diseases with drugs.

Other workshops I attended included ‘Permaculture Techniques for your Garden’ that was about, as its name suggests, planning a self-sustaining permaculture garden in our backyards. ‘Urban Gardening’ presented the possibility of having ecologically friendly farms within urban areas like New York.

All in all, the NOFA conference was extremely meaningful. It gave us a chance to hear different views of people, learn about a number of issues, meet new people and share ideas with them, develop an increased interest in food production and consumption and eat delicious locally  grown organic food for three days.

Shristi 

Recipe #3 Kimchi

Ingredients
- 1 head Napa Cabbage
- 6 large scallions, sliced in half and cut into about 1 inch length
- 1 cup grated peeled carrots
- 1/2 cup daikon, match stick cup
- 1 tbs grated ginger (peeling with spoon is easier)
- 3 large cloves of garlic pressed through the garlic press
- 2 Hot pepper chopped
- 1 tsp dried chile flakes (Or 1 fresh cayenne pepper very finely chopped)
- 1 TBS Celtic sea salt
- 4 TBS whey (optional)

Preparation:
1. After rinsing the cabbage, slice it (the size that you would prefer) and put it in the bowl. Sprinkle salts on top then mix it well and let it sit for couple of hours (2-3 hrs is enough).

2. Mix the other ingredients in a bowl.
(I blended the hot pepper, and ginger)

3. Now, mix everything together.

4. After mixing everything together (above 2 pics), pack the kimchi in a clean glass jar large enough to hold it all. Or in 2 jars, which I did. Then cover it tightly.

5. Let it sit in room temperature for 3 days. (during that time, you will notice bubbles forming in the jar)

6. Serve or store it in refrigerator.

Enjoy

Love and Peace

:) Lobsang 

P.S.-learned it during the NOFA conference