I just got back from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) conference in Albany, NY.  It was educational, fun, network-y, and well worth attending.  I signed up to help with way too many working groups, but if any of them do half of what they have proposed it will be well worth it.

The goal of the conference was to move towards a regional food system for the North East United States.  I’m hoping to help by doing infrastructure research for Virginia, Massachusetts, and Vermont, as well as working on a regional branding system (no, this isn’t ambitious at all!), and creating ideas for a regional cuisine and recipes that will fit in with the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  I cannot express how excited I am about all of these initiatives.  This should be an exciting year for Northeastern agriculture.

Now that this conference is over I have my eyes on another, the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) conference, that is to be held January 16th of this coming year.

http://www.nofamass.org/conferences/winter/index.php

Apparently Joel Salatin of Omnivore’s Dilemma fame will be the keynote speaker.  Not to bad mouth Joel, he’s been huge for the organic movement, but I’m much more interested in some of the workshops being offered.  You can learn how to compost, garden in small spaces, improve soil quality, grow greens during the winter months, prevent disease and pests, interpret the newest version of the farm bill, or (my personal favorite) how to certify your dairy to sell raw milk.

If anyone is interested in attending the conference with me, let me know.  We can carpool and maybe spend the weekend in Northampton, which is a pretty spiffy town.  It’s only $45 to register!