Come join us in April on Mount Desert Island to learn about food systems education from some of the people who are forging paths in new distribution methods, policy that favors small organic farms, getting more sustainable food to campuses, cultural connections with foodways, and advocacy for food justice and sovereignty. And NAMA is proud to be a part of this group of people!
Keynote speakers:
Come join us in April on Mount Desert Island to learn about food systems education from some of the people who are forging paths in new distribution methods, policy that favors small organic farms, getting more sustainable food to campuses, cultural connections with foodways, and advocacy for food justice and sovereignty. And NAMA is proud to be a part of this group of people!
Keynote speakers:
- Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director, Food First/Institute for Food & Development Policy
- Gary Paul Nabhan, author and Research Scientist, Southwest Center, University of Arizona
Workshops on Intersections between Farming & Fishing Policy, How Can Colleges Help Move State & Regional Food Plans, Examining & Improving College Food Systems, Students Organizing for Social Justice in the Food System and more!
If you don’t make it to any other workshop, we hope to come to this one:
Intersections of Farming, Fishing & Forestry Policies
Moderator: Chris Petersen, COA faculty
Presenters:
- Niaz Dorry, Northeast Atlantic Marine Alliance
- Amanda Beal, Eat Local Foods Coalition and By Land and By Sea project
- Erin McGuire, Legislative Assistant to Congresswoman Pingree
- Andy McEvoy, MOFGA Forestry Coordinator
Farming, fishing and forestry-based communities and people trying to make a living from these businesses face similar issues, despite the very different sources of their revenue. Concentration of food businesses into a few large vertically-integrated companies that skews competition opportunities for small-scale and independent producers, environmental threats to and degradation of the resource base, and development pressure are just some of these similarities. This session will focus on appropriate policies to address issues facing these industries, such as the Local Farms, Food, & Jobs Act that Congresswoman Pingree introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011 and the policies for which NAMA advocates to keep smaller-scale independent fishing businesses viable. Each presenter will briefly explain the need for policy changes, then talk about what those policies entail and how to support them.
For more information, contact Matthew Doyle Olson, Sustainable Food Systems Coordinator (mdoyleolson@coa.edu or 207.801.5688).
More about COA
Many colleges and universities now have their own farms, where students can learn about food production. But learning about the rest of the food system—food packaging, processing, distribution, sales, consumption and waste and the policies and institutions that govern these—is still fragmented and not integrated with surrounding farms or the community where higher education occurs. Reconnecting Hands, Mouth & Mind is about food systems education: WHAT people need to learn to engage in transforming food systems, and HOW these subjects can best be learned. It will culminate a four-year partnership among College of the Atlantic, Elm Farm Organic Research Centre in England, and the Faculty of Organic Sciences at the University of Kassel in Germany.
College of the Atlantic is a unique liberal arts college that emphasizes interdisciplinary, self-directed learning about human ecology. It is located on Mount Desert Island in Downeast Maine, on the grounds of a former monastery between Acadia National Park and Frenchman’s Bay. The conference will be based at College of the Atlantic and include field trips to Beech Hill Farm, our organic farm that supplies a significant proportion of food to college dining services, our new Peggy Rockefeller Farms, other local farms and fishery operations, and Acadia National Park.
For more information, please visit the conference website for more information.