It was a nail biter: whiteouts every few minutes, ice building on the roadbed, semi’s and cars in the ditch. It was late February in northern Wisconsin, so it wasn’t like this weather was rare. It was treacherous, but there wasn’t any way I wasn’t going to get to La Crosse, WI. The 30thAnnual Organic Farming Conference was due to start in a couple of days and I was going to get there.
Put on by the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), I’ve attended the event many times, watching it grow from a gathering of fewer than 100 to the biggest organic farming gathering in the United State, if not the world. Now, as a member of the MOSES board of directors, I worried bad weather would cut attendance and dampen spirits.
I stewed as we rolled through the miles: MOSES staff had – with its signature professionalism and efficiency – developed an exciting program of 60 breakout sessions, nine full-day Organic University classes, and numbers of roundtable discussions, film screenings, and more. Presenters and keynote speakers were en route (I hoped) from all across the country. Exhibitors were due to spotlight the latest in equipment, ideas for cultivation, seed, consultation services, grant opportunities, and technical assistance.
Then there were the researchers, policy makers, financial and communications experts, and educators making their way on ice-crusted roads.
Would all the farmers make it? Pre-registration indicated we could expect at least 2,000+ from rural communities in 40+ states and points beyond, including China. Many were producing from certified organic acres. Others were transitioning, and still other contemplating this shift to organic practice.
From past experience, I knew attendees would include scores of pioneers – the men and women who laid the foundations of the organic sector and pushed for the passage of the Organic Foods Act of 1990. They’d get to the conference come hell or high water (or six-foot snow drifts).
The snow began to lighten through the evening. By Friday, 2,900 attendees packed the La Crosse Convention Center and filled area hotels.
As with any good event, no sooner does it begin than it’s over, and you’re stopping for last hugs and coordinating calendars for pastures walks or FaceTime. Ultimately, this year’s event did for me what it’s done before: it lifted my thinking above the weather and into a place where I would not only welcome the coming growing season, but think into the future – our future.
Well, Spring begins tomorrow. As the drifts melt, I can see fences to mend and calves to prepare for at my farm, Bull Brook Keep. Possibilities swirl for this and next year: Should my husband Dave and I get into hazelnuts? How might that work in combination with Icelandic chickens for insect control in my BueLingo beef herd? Should I get on the bus and lobby at the state capital? How will I find young farmers who’d like to build their skills and income on my land?
Two conference take-aways are helping me explore these ideas: Thursday’s day-long “Organics 2051” session, and Friday’s keynote panel.
“Organic 2051” was emblematic of what MOSES does every year, at every event and conversation – tap the wisdom of the crowd. It was a full day of intensive conversation about the organic sector 30 years from now. Audrey Arner (organic farmer/organics pioneer/past president of MOSES Board of Directors) facilitated the gathering of over 100 thought leaders as they envisioned the growth and strength, challenges and obstacles faced by the organic sector nationwide.
The participants self-selected to spend the day focused on one of 15 issue areas, including market infrastructure, climate change, rural community revitalization, and livestock. I was a fly on the wall, moving from group to group. I listened as farmers and ranchers, financiers and policy makers, economists, marketers, and consumer advocates put their heads together over thorny and complex challenges. They identified key opportunities, drilled down to major obstacles, and worked to synthesize possible strategies.
I was struck by their will to hear every voice. There was so much experience, youthful energy, creativity and hope at each table. Their conversations were pooled into written proceedings as well as artistic renderings. At the end of the day, their ideas and suggestions live on the MOSES website so that hundreds more can help shape direction and action.
The other big impression came from Friday’s keynote panel.
I’d been given the honor to moderate this exchange among six champions, men and women who helped shape the philosophy and practice of the sector, and were instrumental in the passage of the Organic Foods Act of 1990. The panel included Audrey Arner, organic farmer and former MOSES board member and board president; Atina Diffley, organic farmer, educator and author of Turn Here Sweet Corn; Faye Jones, helped establish the Organic Farming Conference, and first director of MOSES; Jim Riddle, helped develop the organic standards, inspector training, with wife Joyce Ford the 2019 MOSES Organic Farmer of the Year; George Siemon, CEO and early organizer of Organic Valley, served on National Organic Standards Board; and Francis Thicke, organic dairy farmer, served on NOSB, on first MOSES Board of Directors.
Each explained how the organic standards they worked to develop in the 1970s, 80s and 90s must be vigorously defended and expanded. They stressed that it is our responsibility to protect organic regulations from well-financed pressures to dilute them. The panel emphasized that the bar must be pushed ever higher.
It was humbling to sit on the stage with these leaders. I got to know most of them while serving as a public relations consultant in the late 1980s. They showed me organic farming could be done well. As they spoke, I looked out beyond the stage lights to the large crowd of students, 20-somethings and 30-somethings, clusters of 40-somethings and 50-somethings with children. They were listening.
Winter’s done, and, hopefully, the deepest freezes are behind us. Once we get through the thaw, we’ll start our growing season. We’ll get super busy; we always do.
Before the long days begin, I’ll need to schedule time to do what I can to protect and improve our standards, to think forward to those young men and women who’ll grow organic foods in 2051 and beyond.
I hope you’ll join me, our nation’s organic and sustainable farmers, and MOSES in this movement.
