Organic farmers say time is ripe for them: Local alternative called safer, cheaper
Craig S. Semon
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
January 19th, 2009
With our country's economic woes and the growing perception that our ecosystem is out of whack, organic farming might make more sense more than ever - at least that's the consensus of the state chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.
"Organic can be for rich people and it can also be for you," said Julie Rawson, executive director of NOFA/Mass. "You can learn how to take charge of your own life and raise your own food and raise your own really healthy food. It's much, much cheaper than you will get at the grocery store."
Featuring workshops on organic farming, gardening, landscaping and sustainable lifestyles, the NOFA/Mass 22nd Annual Winter Conference held Saturday at Worcester Technical High School welcomed 687 pre-registered attendees and roughly 45 exhibitors, which is up from fewer than 400 participants the year before.
Because of concerns of tainted milk and contaminated food, Jack Kittredge, NOFA/Mass public policy coordinator, said food grown locally is a big movement now.
"When you buy food-without-a-face coming halfway around the world, you're going to get the cheapest stuff" they can make you buy, Mr. Kittredge said. "I don't trust these companies. I don't trust these brands. I think after eight years of (President George W.) Bush, people are saying I don't think the government is looking out for me. People are relying more on themselves and people they know. It's sort of local networking."
With 1,100 members, NOFA/Mass is no longer a fringe organization made up of solely of "crunchy granola" and "hippie radical" individuals, said Ms. Rawson, who advocates turning soccer fields into bountiful gardens of food and strongly opposes genetically engineered food.
Mr. Kittredge and Ms. Rawson are married and own Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre. They believe it is time for people to take charge of their lives - and the way to help is to teach them to organically farm and garden and live a more holistic, sustainable lifestyle.
"My son, for one, and a close friend of mine lost their jobs this week. And I feel like we're on this cascading place in the country where things are going down very, very fast," Ms. Rawson said. "At the same time, in NOFA, people are making a huge effort to come out to things like this because it's all about learning how to settle in, live in one's community and taking charge of things, learning how to raise food."
She said the conference gives people hope.
"We're in a really fragile place in the world and we really have to learn in order to survive global warming and no oil or [p]eak oil or whatever is going to happen. People are going to have to really start gathering skills," Ms. Rawson said.
"We need to be able to keep our old people warm in their houses and we need to make sure that our children are eating decent food. I really feel that our culture has started to crumble in a lot of ways."