Northeast Organic Farming Summer Conference

The Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference is Friday, Aug. 13 through Sunday, Aug. 15, at UMass Amherst, Mass. More than 200 workshops on organic farming, gardening, land care, sustainability and homesteading. Outdoor exhibits and vendors. Keynote speakers: Sally Fallon Morrell, founder of Weston A. Price Foundation and author of bestselling book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. Entertainment including dancing, country fair, live auction. For information before you go, visit www.nofasummerconference.org or call (978) 355-2853.

National Biochar Symposium Nov. 13

The Northeast Biochar Symposium is Friday Nov. 13, at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

This symposium will highlight current biochar research and technological advances and provide information to public officials, researchers, foresters, and sustainable energy and agriculture professionals.

Biochar is considered a significant strategy for removing net carbon from the atmosphere for safe storage in soil, enhancing forest resources and preventing land degradation, and creating clean energy from agricultural and forest biomass.

Keynote speakers include: David Laird, National Soil Tilth Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service; Dr. Johannes Lehmann, crop and soil sciences, Cornell University, chair, International Biochar Initiative and co-editor, Biochar for Environmental Management; Debbie Reed, executive director, International Biochar Initiative; and Dr. Christoph Steiner, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia.

Registration for individuals is $130. There is an optional dinner with an additional fee of $35.

For details see www.nsm.umass.edu/Biochar09/ or contact Susanne Hale, symposium coordinator, at (413) 259-1433; shale@psis.umass.edu.