NOFA-NY’s 38th Annual Organic Farming & Gardening Conference will take place January 17 – 19, 2020 at the Oncenter in Syracuse, NY.
This year’s theme is Extending the Table. From Andrianna Natsoulas NOFA-NY executive director: “At NOFA-NY we are looking to be a more open, inclusive, and welcoming organization, and I believe that theme reflects this intent. In 2018, NOFA-NY moved our office to Syracuse, a multi-cultural city with people from all corners of the world. Syracuse is on the land of the Haudenosaunee, or the Onondaga Nation. I give thanks to the original peoples whose land we now occupy.”
Artist and author Peter Jemison is the keynote speaker. Peter is the site manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site which houses the Iroquois White Corn Project that currently yields an average of 5,000 pounds of corn per year. He is a Heron Clan member of the Seneca Nation of Indians.
Registration is open! This conference is for farmers, gardeners, homesteaders and eaters.
Haley Rylander, New York Soil Health extension support specialist, is helping to organize a half day intensive: “Getting Deep with Compost,” on January 17.
Also presenting: Matthew Ryan, New York Soil Health co-PI and associate professor of sustainable cropping and food systems in the Section of Soil and Crop Sciences at Cornell University
Other soil health-related presenters of note:
- Biochar: Mariana Devault, a Ph.D. student in Crop and Soil Sciences at Cornell, where she is a member of Johannes Lehmann’s Lab. She currently studies the physicochemical interactions in the rhizosphere, following biochar application.
- Cornell Small Farms Program: Ryan Maher
Ryan joined the Small Farms Program, based in Ithaca, NY, in 2013 to support vegetable farmers in building healthier soils. He manages research and extension projects on reduced tillage, cover cropping, and other soil management practices to help farmers protect and promote productive, biologically active soil on their farm.
See Workshop Schedule for complete details.