Organic Food and Farming: Building Rural-Urban Connections

An ANR Program for March 1995

Organic food and farming offer great promise for building more ecologically-sound and socially-equitable food systems. Their potential lies in an ability to bring about new environmental and human relationships. These relationships can reconnect people more directly with the land (the source of our food), with biodiversity and with the rhythms of nature. They can also reconnect producers and non-producers (i.e., eaters) in ways that enable greater interpersonal trust and mutual responsibility.
For these relationships to be realized, farming, food production and delivery need to be reintegrated back into community and regional life. This reintegration will be the topic of the program Organic Food and Farming: Building Rural-Urban Connections planned for March 7, 1995 during Agriculture and Natural Resources Week at M.S.U. The program will explore opportunities for organic farmers and eaters to interact with one another, through direct marketing arrangements, local value-added enterprises, new food-based institutions and celebrations. It will also explore ways to reconnect rural and urban residents and to meet the economic, social, nutritional and food security needs of both populations.
The program will feature two keynote presentations. The first address, Vital Links for a Sustainable Food System, will be delivered by Dana Jackson, co-founder of The Land Institute and now associate director of the Land Stewardship Project. The second address, Farming on the Urban Fringe, will be presented by Andy Harper and Mia Rubow of the Intervale Foundation in Vermont. They will discuss the Foundation's Hospital Garden Project which raises organic vegetables and composts pre-consumer food waste for the state's largest hospital.
In addition to these presentations, there will be six informal workshops organized around the following topics: 1) The Promise of Permaculture in Rural and Urban Settings 2) Local Food and Local Hunger: How Do the Two Relate? 3) National Organic Standards and the 1995 Farm Bill: Whose Interests Are Being Served and What Can Be Done About It? 4) Organic Food Initiatives in Michigan: Three New Projects 5) Seed Saving: Protecting Biological and Cultural Diversity 6) Organic Livestock Production: How It Works. Each workshop will be lead by persons actively engaged in promoting alternative approaches to conventional agriculture and food production in Michigan.
The program will also feature an Organic Map of Michigan, videos on organic farming and sustainable community development, displays by organic farming organizations and enterprises throughout Michigan. All persons interested in organic food and in the construction of more community-based food systems (e.g., farmers, gardeners, processors, wholesalers, retailers consumers, environmentalists, nutritionists, extension personnel, community planners) are encouraged to attend.
Sponsors of the program are the Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance (MOFFA), the Organic Growers of Michigan (OGM), Extension Ag & Natural Resources, M.S.U., and the Departments of Anthropology, Resource Development, Crop and Soil Sciences, M.S.U.

The program is free and open to the public. Lunch will be available, but a reservation and prepayment ($10.00) are required. For more information about the program, registration forms, or luncheon reservations contact Laura B. DeLind (517) 355-7490.