UPCOMING EVENT: 'Food, Farms, and Community' - Tuesday, March 13

Christopher Norman, Executive Director of Crown Point Ecology Center in Bath, Ohio, run by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Akron, will present “Dirty Nuns and Guerilla Gardening!” An Amish farmer will be presenting “Who is Your Farmer?” 7:30pm on Tuesday, March 13^th in the Schar College of Education’s Ronk Lecture Hall at Ashland University. They will be addressing such topics as food deserts, food security, and the current and fundamental role of local foods and farmers in building up our community. A Q&A session will follow the presentation.  This lecture, sponsored by the Ashland Center for Nonviolence, is part of the 2012 “Creating a Caring Community” Symposium. This presentation is free and open to the public.

Norman’s presentation is called “Dirty Nuns and Guerilla Gardening!” This presentation will explore the motives some religious groups have in addressing environmental health, especially sustainable agriculture.  A discussion of Crown Point’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and environmental education programming will highlight the challenges and opportunities that re-building the local food system present. 

Following Norman’s presentation will be “Who is Your Farmer?” which will focus on the benefits of a local food economy.  Locally-raised foods, found in places such a farmer’s markets, co-operatives, and some restaurants, solve many problems. Local foods are neighborly, connecting people with the gardeners and farmers who are growing their food. They are fresh and more nutritious, especially if they have been raised organically, and they taste good.  They are “food secure”: every product can be traced to the grower. Awareness of the growing practices assures the consumer that the food is safe to eat and that farmers have taken good care of the soil, their crops, and their livestock. Buying directly assures that the farmer makes sufficient and fair money to assure that unhealthy short-cuts will not be taken. Finally, local foods encourage food independence. Rather than relying on the “global market,” people are encouraged to seek local sources of food, grow their own, and preserve it. 

Make sure to put 'Food, Farms, and Community' on your calendar for March 13th. See you there!