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Northeast Organic Farming Association/ Massachusetts Chapter April 2014 Newsletter Northeast Organic Farming Association/ Massachusetts Chapter Inside this Issue: Expanding (sub)urban Solidarity Agriculture: GMO labeling bill edible gardens with Ben A Farmer Exchange to favorably reported out of Barkan Peru legislative committee page 3 page 13 page 18 From the Editor Northeast Organic Farming Association/ By Nicole Belanger, NOFA/Mass Public Massachusetts Chapter, Inc. Relations Coordinator 411 Sheldon Road Barre, MA 01005 978-355-2853 (p) 978-355-4046 (f) Doesn’t that sun feel nice? The snow [email protected] piles melt and we say hello to crocuses www.nofamass.org and robins. It’s spring again! Finally! Here’s hoping that the winter wasn’t too bad for NOFA/Mass Board Meetings are open to all you. I hope that deep freeze killed a lot of your members. For more information please contact: unwelcomed insects, and that your bees and animals Executive Director, Julie Rawson made it through ok. [email protected] 978-355-2853 This time of year, energy shifts towards time outside and beginning to realize those new projects we’ve been scheming about for months. We at NOFA/ © 2002-2014 NOFA/Massachusetts Mass are feeling our plans take shape as well. NOFA/Massachusetts is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible Due to popular demand, we’re offering several new to the extent allowed by law. classes this season. Aaron Englander shares his experience with the closed-loop system of Korean Natural Farming. This diy fertility workshop will take place at Heifer Farm in Rutland, MA on May Not a member yet? 3rd. Read more about it on page 7 CLICK HERE Our Development Director, Kristin Brennan, has also spearheaded the “Urban Agriculture Soil Restoration” workshop in partnership with Gardening the Community, Project Bread and the Bionutrient Food Association. Part 2 on June 1 is open to all. Julie Rawson highlights the expanding interest in (sub)urban edible landscapes, profiling a dynamic young business owner doing this work in eastern Massachusetts. Read about it on page 3. The NOFA/Mass Newsletter is published eleven times per year by the Do you believe it? The NOFA Summer Conference Northeast Organic Farming Association/ turns 40 this year! Conference Coordinator Massachusetts Chapter, Inc. Ben Grosscup showcases new attractions this Circulation: 5,000 year, including collaborative tracks and great preconferences. Read about it on page 6. Newsletter Editor: Nicole Belanger Circulation: Rebecca Buell Hope you have a fertile spring! Submissions: Nicole Belanger [email protected] Nicole Advertising: Bob Minnocci [email protected] Design: Nicole Belanger www.nofamass.org 2 April 2014 Newsletter Expanding (sub)urban edible gardens with Ben Barkan Julie Rawson, NOFA/Mass Executive and Education Director NOFA/Mass in the beginning stages of creating the physical labor of farming while working at Busa a program to focus efforts on our more suburban Farm… Dennis Busa was my mentor and manager members. Initially we will focus on Middlesex County while in high school. He was really supportive. I and do some serious and in depth research with our continued to work on Dennis’s farm part time while NOFA/Mass members, NOFA Accredited Organic starting my edible gardening business. I grew up in Land Care Professionals, and activist organizations Arlington and working at Busa Farm was sort of a to get the lay of the land with respect to personal and spontaneous summer job. It was challenging. I had public organic farming autonomy, and I really enjoyed it. I found and gardening projects. out quickly that it would be hard to make a living at farming, and I looked at With this information landscaping as an alternative.” we hope to shed light on and educate After graduating from high school, about best practices Ben worked on over 30 organic farms regarding organic matter in Massachusetts, Oregon, California, development and carbon Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia. sequestration in the soil “Inspired by meeting so many awesome with food production people, I decided to start an edible as the vehicle. We want gardening company in Boston,” said Ben. to highlight innovative “While I was traveling in Hawaii, I got gardening practices, progressive public organic land a job setting up a vegetable garden. Back home, I got management and enhance the connection between my first client from a connection through Busa Farm. I service providers and those interested in organic started the company at 18 and am now 23.” gardening and land care. Hopefully the inspiring successes of those innovators who are on the ground “Organic farming seems to be an emerging trend can be spread across the region to those who are and a lot of young people are starting to see farming hoping to heighten local organic food production. This as a career path. Farming offers a lot of self worth,” article is the first in a series. observes Ben. “Younger people are starting to realize that we need more small-scale, local, and bio-diverse In mid March when spring still seemed very far away, farms. I am currently learning so much in my last it was nice to speak with Ben Barkan. Ben is exemplary semester at Stockbridge School of Agriculture in the of the surge of young folks who have entered farming Sustainable Food and Farming program. With the and are quickly finding successful niches in the market proper ethics, I think farming can be a way to save the place. Ben founded his Arlington based business, planet. The most sustainable option of all however is Home Harvest, in 2008. He and his staff provide to grow food for yourself. All of our gardens attempt to services that include design and installation of edible mimic nature’s efficiency–biodiversity is an important gardens, raised beds, landscaping, stone masonry, part of sustainability.” chicken coops, and greenhouses. Knowing that growing in cities often means dealing I am always curious about what kind of personality, or with lead in soil, I asked Ben about contamination perhaps upbringing, allows a person to strike fearlessly issues. “First we take multiple soil tests and find out out into the world to do what he or she is passionate where the contamination is the worst,” said Ben. about. It really started for Ben when he was 15 and “Reducing the bioavailability of lead is crucial. Liming got a summer job with Dennis Busa at Lexington and adding compost can reduce plants’ ability to Community Farm (formerly known as Busa Farm). uptake lead, and a heavy-duty barrier is necessary sometimes. We can also take tissue samples to confirm Here is the story, according to Ben: “I fell in love with that the produce is safe. Too much of the wrong type www.nofamass.org 3 April 2014 Newsletter of compost can have negative impacts. Our compost gardens. Education is a part of sustainability. Knowing is primarily made from leaves and grass; it’s well how to generate your own fertility and grow your own rotted and not too rich. When growing in compost food is important.” made solely from food crops, you can have too many nutrients, which causes adverse effects. Our compost is Our conversation shifted to climate change. Ben shared a custom mix and with all our gardens, we are relying his thoughts: “I think encouraging more localized and on microbial activity and mineralization. We are letting bio-diverse systems will help ameliorate climate change. the microbes do the work.” There will be less carbon in the atmosphere. Tillage is a part of the problem, and Ben does not use foliar we generally don’t till. We are nutrition sprays. He feels they huge fans of sheet mulching are not necessary because and mulching in general which plants absorb nutrients most mimics the forest. You can go efficiently through their into Hadley in the spring and roots. He also believes that see dust particles in the air micronutrients are rarely from all the farmers plowing deficient in Northeast soils and up their fields. That is carbon is concerned that some organic growers use copper and soil I want to keep in the soil by minimizing soil sulfate sprays for disease control, which can cause toxic disturbance. Our sheet mulch consists of cardboard, levels of copper to accumulate in the soil. newspaper, compost, wood chips from local arborists, and local leaf mulch, especially for use with perennials. Ben is planning to graduate from The Stockbridge We don’t use peat moss or cocoa fiber. We try to keep School of Agriculture at UMass in the spring. all of our materials locally sourced.” Additionally, he took a 5-week permaculture design course in Oregon. He has attended numerous NOFA Lastly we discussed how we must move forward to events. “I remember when I was at the 2009, 2010, promote more local agriculture in the urban/suburban and 2011 NOFA conferences and took workshops on setting. Said Ben: “Education is going to play a huge soil chemistry; now I have been studying it in school role. During World War II, 20 million Americans and appreciate having the base foundation I acquired grew 40% of the nation’s vegetables. We did it before from NOFA,” says Ben. “I remember hearing Paul and we can do it again. Growing your own produce Stamets talk about mushrooms and how they can save is empowering and the positivity is contagious. I think the world. NOFA was great at introducing me to a lot the movement toward local food systems is already of topics. Will Allen was another real inspiration.” Ben happening. It just has to do with showing people also hopes to learn more about herbalism.
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