This past weekend was the annual Northeast Organic Farming Association (MA Chapter) Winter Conference at Worcester State University.
The conference seemed to be a great success, drawing over 750 people from across MA and beyond. Workshops and seminars cover topics covering all aspects of the food system, but mostly focused on the intricacies of production and farm business. But the keynote speaker signaled a bit of a shift for the organization. Karen Washington, a physical therapist and urban farmer from New York City, gave a great keynote speech that she titled “Hands Across the Fields”.
Karen spoke as a mother, gardener, activist, health care professional, and woman of color from the Bronx and of the “food apartheid” she sees in her community. “Not a food desert” she said – there’s plenty of food in her neighborhood and in communities like the Bronx. But there is also a lot of hunger and poverty, as well as fast food chains and small bodegas that abound with chips, soda, and candy. She talked of the rising rates of diet related disease she has seen in her patients and in her community, and how that as well as the large amount of vacant lots in the area helped spurn her work as a community gardener. Photos she showed of gardens were of beautifully maintained oases with gazebos, chickens, bees, men playing dominos, children running around, and lots and lots of veggies.
She spoke of the “Grow the Vote” initiative to get gardeners out in force on voting days over the past decades to make sure that their interests were represented by city officials. There were pictures of farmers’ markets and the farmers’ that came from Long Island for the past ten years to bring fresh produce into communities that didn’t have grocery stores. This urban and rural connection was the theme of her talk, and how we all need each other and must work together to truly transform the food system. Her talk was both practical and inspirational; feel-good and honest. Her photos brought her stories to life and she exuded an amazing energy that left you feeling like you wanted to get to work alongside her. I also thought it was great to see a person of color as the keynote. So often at food and farming conferences the speakers are all or mostly white, even though the food movement is incredibly diverse with so many important, powerful, and experienced people of color having been doing this work in their communities for years. Karen’s presence, as well as her words, really shows how the food movement can be such an amazing tool for working across boundaries such as race, class, age, and urban/rural. Well done, Karen, and well done, NOFA!
