Organic Education

The organic farming community has a long history of working together—if not in absolute harmony, then at least with the idea in mind that success in organic farming is not just about my farm, but about every farm.

I suppose to a certain degree that just goes with the territory. Organic farmers, by definition, are concerned about what goes on a neighbor’s farm, and by extension, how what they do on their own farm affects their neighbors. A neighbor spraying toxic pesticides may contaminate products and soils; uncontrolled weeds may create problems readily controlled with herbicides, but not with cultivation; and genetically-modified crops may cross-pollinate organic varieties. And if we care about what our neighbors do, we’d best start caring about our neighbors, since that’s the best way to get them to care about us.

Likewise, organic farmers have always taken an active interest in what their organic cohorts are up to, and in helping them along. Organic farmers have been writing and publishing books since before the term “organic” meant much if anything, and very few organic farmers will turn down a request for even the most proprietary information about their key products. And the organic community, perhaps because of an historical lack of support from the universities, USDA, and extension services, has developed its own outreach and teaching resources.

Every fall, around this time, I get caught up in my work as the presentations coordinator for the MOSES Organic Farming Conference. Held in La Crosse in late February, the Organic Farming Conference will attract nearly 2,000 people this year—most of them farmers—for three days of intensive education in everything from organic dairy to potatoes to the finer points of the organic regulatory scheme. I organize almost 60 workshops and more presenters as part of North America’s largest (and, we’re told, best) organic farming conference. For the experienced grower, it is an important piece of a continuing education; for beginning farmers or conventional growers thinking about going organic, it is often the first touchstone in preparing to make a dramatic change.

In the next three months, I will teach courses in financial planning for the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings class, share our post-harvest handling systems, greenhouse production and season extension techniques, and time management techniques with farmers and educators in Iowa, and provide marketing and personal productivity tips to farmers in northern Minnesota. This weekend, I’ll attend the board meeting for the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, the organization that puts on the Organic Farming Conference and provides a huge array of other educational opportunities to organic farmers.

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the conferences we help organize and teach is the rampant enthusiasm and downright good time that the participants are having; at the Organic Farming Conference, we serve thousands of excellent meals based on local and organic foods, host a talent show attended by 500 people, and put on a dance that always goes well past midnight. (I usually can’t stick around for the talent show. I walk into the room and see 500 people listening to their cohorts sing the praises of organic milk and I just about start crying, it’s that overwhelming.) My organic hog farming friend Tom Frantzen says that the first time he attended the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference, when he was just beginning to think about going organic, he knew he could never go back: “Organic farmers have more fun, the food’s fantastic—life’s just better here!”