Hawthorne Valley Farm Biodynamic Winter Intensive
Save the dates: the third annual Biodynamic Winter Intensive will be held at Hawthorne Valley Farm and the Nature Institute in Ghent, NY from February 12-24, 2012. Learn more...
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Thanks for subscribing to the BING e-newsletter! Have something you'd like to share with others? Send it along to me at [email protected] and I will include it in a future issue.
- Thea Maria Carlson, BING Coordinator |
A New Biodynamic Nutrition Group
Chef Jem has posted in our forums: "The BDA survey that circulated earlier this year invited additional topic suggestions for possible consideration by the Association. I have suggested the formation of a Biodynamic Nutrition Group. The following includes some background and an essential foundation of my inspiration.
"Some number of months ago I began thinking that children deserve to know where their food comes from. However, I imagine that parents may not want their children to know if the food is coming from the typical factory farm. Yet I think parents would want their children to know if the food came from a biodynamic farm! I am convinced that the children would really love to know these farms!" Read more and respond to this idea in the forum.
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Adding BING to the Mix in Oregon
Since starting his internship early this fall, BING Intern Christopher Chemsak in Oregon has been brainstorming ways to regionally connect young people inspired by Biodynamics, so when we heard about The Greenhorns film touring the Northwest, we knew that we couldn't miss out on the opportunity to mix and mingle with all the young farmers, old farmers, short farmers, tall farmers, soon-to-be farmers, and friends of farmers that would come out of the woodwork at the Oregon screening parties.
On Thursday October 20, not willing to let a lousy cold/sore throat keep him away, Christopher arrived at the Young Farmers Mixer at Mary's Grange in Philomath, OR wearing a hand-painted wooden sandwich board with the words "Biodynamic Enthusiasts UNITE!" on one side and "Ask me about the Biodynamic Initiative for the Next Generation" on the other. For those of you who don't know, Philomath is located just outside of Corvallis (home to OSU) in the southern portion of Oregon's uber-fertile and massive Willamette Valley, famous for hops, grapes, and berries production, as well as nursery stock.
Approximately 50 folks were present and joined in the potluck, free beer, conversation, and merrymaking which took place before the film-- many of which responded to Christopher's sign eager to hear more about future BING gatherings and events in the area. Some had not even heard of Biodynamics, while others were well-versed on the subject and hungry for the opportunity to network. Even the film's maker, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, was excited to see the grassroots style organizing efforts of BING and applauded our cause.
The night was an awesome example of a relatively easy-to-organize community gathering that attracted a diversity of people. It was a great start for BING in Oregon and we hope to continue to have a presence at similar events in the future, if we are not the ones organizing ourselves. To all who signed up for the mailing list that night, welcome to the BING newsletter! Please contact [email protected] if you are ever interested in working on Oregon BING events! Feel the call! Let's join together!
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Interested in writing for the Biodynamics blog or journal?
The BDA is looking for enthusiastic new writers for reviews, event updates, and more. An immediate need is a review of The Greenhorns documentary for the winter journal.
No compensation available, but we would love to explore your ideas and suggestions for possible topics and provide a venue for your creativity. Photographers welcome too.
Email [email protected] if you're interested!
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New report highlights challenges facing young farmers
The New York Times ran a story on young farmers this past weekend, prompted by the release of a new report by the National Young Farmers Coalition. The report, titled "Building a Future With Farmers: Challenges Faced by Young, American Farmers and a National Strategy to Help Them Succeed" is based on a survey of 1,000 young farmers nationwide. The survey identified access to capital, land and health insurance as the big obstacles young people must overcome when getting into farming.
As suggested by the title, the report not only lays out the challenges, but also states some clear policy objectives that could help young farmers achieve success, including improving access to credit, ensuring farmland is affordable, and funding conservation programs.
Read the report from the National Young Farmers Coalition here and the New York Times article here.
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Upcoming Events
The following is a sample of upcoming events listed on our website. For full details on these and many more events, please visit our new and improved calendar, where you can search and sort by region. You can now also add your own events to the calendar with a few easy steps.
Compost (Biodynamic Series Session 3)
Beekeeping for the Future
Adventures in Plant Breeding
Pocantico Hills, New York
Horns of Plenty BD 500 GATHERING
Tennessee Local Food Summit
Making Horn Manure Preparation (BD #500)
Awakening Nature Perception - Water (Session 3)
Bringing Biodynamics Down to Earth...from Cosmos to Compost
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Opportunities
The following is a sample of opportunities posted on our website. For a full and current list of opportunities available, please visit our forums. You can also post opportunities on the forums if you create a site login.Summer Camp Director Residential Farm and Nature Director - Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent, NYThe Hawthorne Valley Visiting Students and Summer Camp Program seek a Summer Camp Director to live on site and operate its small residential summer camp program for ages 8 to 15 andassist in the operation of our school year program. This program is an integral part of the Hawthorne Valley Association. We are located on a 400 acre biodynamic farm. This position develops, manages and evaluates the farmer training initiative (FTI) of Angelic Organics Learning Center. The Program Director coordinates and supports the farmer-led Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) for the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin region. This position manages related initiatives with project partners. This position is full time and partially grant funded. This position supervises a program assistant, a program facilitator, independent contractors and an extensive volunteer network. Demeter certification began in 1996 on this 44 acre property and continued without lapse until just last year. At that time the current owners had to greatly scale down their current operations due to age and health. As is common with the farmers of today, those are also the reasons they are looking to sell. The integrity of the methods and procedures on the farm have been preserved. Therefore, to our best knowledge, nothing has occurred on the farm that would hinder the certification process for new owners.
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Biodynamic Initiative for the Next Generation
www.biodynamics.com/bing
BING is a program of the Biodynamic Farming & Gardening Association
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