OrganiConn: CT NOFA’s Winter Conference

OrganiConn: CT NOFA’s Winter Conference MARCH 7, 2020

by Jeremy Pelletier Winter Caplanson photos

OrganiConn: CT NOFA’s

Conference MARCH 7, 2020

IT MIGHT BE COLD, but OrganiConn 2020 is calling, and you won’t want to miss this farmfocused form of March Madness, on March 7 at Wesleyan University.

In late winter, as we plan spring gardens, prepare crop plans, and begin to see a light at the end of an icy tunnel, The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA) brings together farmers, foodies, activists, and anyone impassioned by the land and communities that grow our food and fiber. Each year, CT NOFA renews our commitment to working lands and environmental stewardship. And each year, we gather to celebrate, learn, and inspire before we head off to the field for another growing season.

For those who have not heard of CT NOFA, we are a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure the growth and viability of organic food, agriculture, and land care in Connecticut. As a membership organization, our strength is in advocating for a healthy, organic Connecticut founded on ecologically, socially, and economically just principles. The lifeblood of CT NOFA is the support of like-minded farmers, gardeners, and advocates.

In its 38th year, CT NOFA’s Winter Conference, dubbed OrganiConn, comes from humble roots in 1983, when a group of organic farmers would meet over a potluck lunch for camaraderie, to share their triumphs and pitfalls, and to collaborate on projects developing organic agriculture in Connecticut. Today, CT NOFA’s Winter Conference has grown into one of the largest organic food and farming conferences in the Northeast. It attracts between 500 and 700 participants each year, who enjoy 30-plus workshops that cover topics such as no-till agriculture, native plants and pollinators, organic vegetable gardening, and many other food, farming, and land care related subjects. Our instructors and panelists draw on extensive knowledge and experience from all seven of the NOFA chapters throughout the northeast.

“EACH YEAR, WE GATHER TO CELEBRATE, LEARN, AND INSPIRE BEFORE WE HEAD OFF TO THE FIELD FOR ANOTHER GROWING SEASON.”

CT NOFA has also made a commitment to the future of organic farming and, to a larger extent, the future of our food system. So the Winter Conference also addresses topics such as food apartheid, racial inequality in the food system, working land access, and seed sovereignty.

This year’s keynote speaker is Niaz Dorry, the Director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and the National Family Farm Coalition. Time Magazine named Niaz a Hero of The Planet for her work with Greenpeace

on environmental justice and fisheries issues. Most notably, she is recognized for her work advancing the rights and ecological benefits of small-scale, traditional, and indigenous fishing and

farming communities as a means of protecting global ecological diversity.

During the keynote session, CT NOFA also will be awarding the 2nd annual Bill Duesing Organic Living on the Earth Award to an individual or organization who demonstrates advancement of these ideals with a project, innovation, action, or lifestyle that supports the continuation of the life work of Bill

Duesing, founder of CT NOFA. Bill Duesing, the namesake for this award, was a beloved farmer, artist, activist, and author whose work and passion continues to reverberate across Connecticut on farms, in organizations, and with all those of us who knew him. Learn more about Bill and his work at ctnofa.org/learn-about-our-founder.

In addition to education and fellowship, attendees can enjoy the vendor fair where more than 30 local and sustainable businesses and organizations provide goods and information on services throughout the state. At the vendor fair, you can learn about energy savings programs, purchase artisanal soaps and balms, order seeds for spring planting, pick up an alpaca sweater, and grab organic scones and coffee to energize you for a day of learning.

So join us on March 7th at Wesleyan University in Middletown for CT NOFA’s 38th Annual Winter Conference, OrganiConn 2020. Registration information is available at ctnofa.org/winterconference. Students and seniors can register for $65, CT NOFA members for $75, and non-members for $85. All rates include lunch.

Come to celebrate organics in Connecticut. Make a plan for life that will soon burst through the still-frozen soil in our gardens. Learn about local food movements, advances in agricultural science, and radical social changes taking place all around us.

“The Wonder of it, of the season, is life. A birth, any birth, is into life—the fantastic variety of life that covers our planet and nowhere else we know—children and wise woman, sheep and hollies, blue-green algae and maples, rhododendron and catfish—it is life—grandparents and spruce trees—the bacteria in our mouths and the whales in the oceans—It is all life”. – Bill Duesing’s The Wonder of Life , December 22, 1990.

“THE LIFEBLOOD OF CT NOFA IS THE SUPPORT OF LIKE-MINDED FARMERS, GARDENERS, AND ADVOCATES.”