Sunday, August 10, 2008

Working to Grow Nutrient Dense Foods

This past weekend, Katie and I had the opportunity to attend the 34th annual Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Summer Conference at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. We attended a wide variety of workshops, caught up with old friends, and enjoyed two great keynote speeches.
On Saturday night we listened to Mark McAfee, a raw milk dairy farmer from California who has been a national advocate for expanding legal raw milk sales throughout the country. Since leaving Hawthorne Valley Farm in New York this past winter we have been enjoying raw milk from a small herd located just down Tucker Road at Paskamansett Farm.

On Friday night Dr. Arden Andersen presented a talk on: Real Medicine, Real Health Begins in the Soil. In his speech, Arden presented results from medical research connecting health benefits to consumption of high-quality food. It was exciting to hear from a voice who has been working to help farmers grow nutrient dense foods for many years. I came across the topic of nutrient density a few years back while reading an article in Acres USA, and have been actively seeking out more information and background on what could potentially become the next food revolution in America.

For a nice introduction to nutrient dense foods I would suggest reading an interview published in Wise Traditions, a quarterly-journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Growing nutrient dense foods and building a healthy soil that can sustainably produce delicious vegetables is one of our biggest goals at Brix Bounty Farm. In addition, I hope to engage our local community in considering our gardening and agricultural practices and what steps we can take toward increasing nutrient density in our local food supply. To this end, we will be hosting a free conversation series beginning in September titled "Know Your Vegetables." More on this in a upcoming post.

1 comment:

oceanscape arts said...

Nice to hear there's more interest in raw milk!