How can a community garden be connected to economic development, environmental sustainability, healthier eating in schools and at home, and a sense of community?
It's one big circle. Cultivate community and ideas - with attention and care (as with children, plants, or animals), watch them grow.
The Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, CT NOFA hosts a conference "Cultivating an Organic Connecticut: Closing Connecticut's Food Gap with Urban Agriculture, Small Farms and Gardens."
Featured speakers are Ian Marve, co-founder and director, Added Value and its Red Hook Community Farm (Brooklyn, New York), and Dan Ross, executive director, Nuestras Raices (Spanish, "our roots"), an urban agriculture/community garden centered in Holyoke, Mass. (For a Boston Globe story about how Nuestras Raices is part of global change, see this link.)
The conference with workshops and an exhibit area is Saturday, Feb. 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Windsor High School.
More importantly, anyone considering a community garden, niche business, organic lawn care, or wanting to learn where to get local food can find a network of people at CT NOFA.
Bill Duesing is executive director of CT NOFA, president of the NOFA Interstate Council, and author of Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future.
For details about membership, other workshops and regional conferences, visit www.ctnofa.org or call (203) 888-5146.
