Eco Farm

I just registered for the 30th annual Ecological Farming Association Conference, which will be Wednesday, January 20 – Saturday, January 23, 2010 at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove. I attended EcoFarm in 2008, when I had decided that I wanted to get involved in local, sustainable food systems, but didn’t know how to connect with like-minded people beyond reading lots of blogs. It was a very interesting experience; it rained non-stop, the Santa Lucia Mountains above Big Sur (where we went on a school gardens tour) were actually dusted with snow, I had a creepy roommate who invited some other woman in to sleep in her bed without telling me, and, of course, I didn’t know anyone (except Debbie and Tom from Live Earth Farm.)

But I met lots of very interesting people, and the talks, though of varying quality, were inspiring and fascinating. I saw the movie King Corn and heard Eric Schlosser give a very impassioned speech. The food was delicious, and Asilomar is a gorgeous facility.

I’ll be going with folks from Veggielution, and I hope we’ll learn a lot that will help us on the farm (Mark is very excited about the pest control talks) and that we’ll make good connections with the people around the Bay who are doing what we’re doing. As Winnie the Pooh says, “It’s so much more friendly with two,” or five or six, as the case may be.