I'm just back from the NOFA conference held at the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, MA. I am REALLY FIRED UP! What a great event! I could only attend one day out of the three but even that was worth it.
Arriving on the last day of the conference, I walked up from the parking area into the center of the campus and there below me, like a gigantic Bedouin city, was a tent encampment around the central campus pond. The huge registration tent and exhibitor area was centrally located with colorful one-man to family size tents by the scores set up all over the lawns surrounding the pond (really a detention basin - but who else but me would know that?!). Happy hippies with dredlocks sauntered around arm in arm while older back-to-the-landers reconnected with old friends or rushed off to workshops to hear the latest developments on vermiculture, permaculture and lots of other kinds of culture! A high point for me was an intriguing workshop on Financial Permaculture. More on this later when I sort out all my workshop notes.
Connecting with old friends, some of whom I haven't seen in years and some recent ones, is always a bonus, but it is the energy and excitement of the conference that gets me going. It's so energizing to see the younger generation so enthused about organic farming, community building and local grass-roots efforts to overcome the serious issues we face as a species. It reminds me of where I was in the 80's, but then all of my old friends from back then are still in the movement. I'm on a high and need to come back to earth so I can report factually on some very interesting developments going on in the organic movement.
More later.
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