Spa City to host large organic conference

The event will take place Jan. 18-20

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> More than 1,200 people from throughout upstate New York and neighboring states are expected to attend the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York Winter Conference from Jan. 1820 at the City Center and Saratoga Hilton.

The event includes dozens of workshops on a wide variety of topics such as fruits, vegetables, marketing, and urban farming.

This year’s theme is “Climate of Change,” which “recognizes the ever-changing world in which we live,” said Andrianna Natsoulas, NOFA-NY executive director.

“It is not only climate change, but also changing markets, changing policies, and a changing understanding of how we relate to the earth and each other,” she said, on the organization’s website. “This theme explores how we can remain resilient as an organic community.”

The event’s keynote speaker is Leah Penniman, co- director and program manager of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, Rensselaer County, and author of the book, “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land.”

Penniman is a black Kreyol farmer who has been tending the soil for 20 years and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 15 years. She began with the Food Project in Boston and went on to work at Farm School in Athol, Mass., and Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre, Mass.

She co-founded Youth Grow urban farm in Worcester, Mass.

Soul Fire Farm is a people- ofcolor led project that works to dismantle racism in the food system through a low-cost fresh food delivery service for people living under food apartheid. It also provides training programs for black, Latinx and indigenous aspiring farmer-activists, and provides Uprooting Racism training for food justice leaders, and promotes regional, national and international coalition building between farmers of color advocating for policy shifts and reparations.

Farmers of the Year are Fred and Karen Lee of Sang Lee Farms, on the North Fork of Long Island,

will be recognized during the conference. “The Lee family realized the need for change when they saw that cheap food imports were undercutting their prices as food became a commodity on the global marketplace,” Natsou- las said. “They revamped their business model and became certified organic by NOFA-NY in 2007. The transformation has been extremely successful and Sang Lee Farms is one of the highest quality farms on Long Island.

The NOFA-NY conference coincides with the biennial Northeast Organic Seed Conference, featuring 12 in-depth seed saving and plant breeding workshops for beginners and experts alike. People are encouraged to share regional seed stories and traditions with other growers, exchange seeds at the seed swap and build seed sovereignty and seed security for their community.

This event, too, is planned for the City Center and Saratoga Hilton.