[Pardon the interruption. My website moved webhost servers. I lost a few months of blog posts and my honey main page, but I think I’ll live without bringing them back. Except for the Younkers building honey bee relocation. Losing that post hurts. The honey main page will return at some point, but since business is going well currently, I don’t have an urgent need to fix this.]
I attended the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network conference #WFAN2014 this month. As I mentioned this past spring, I now consider myself a (van) farmer (look here for insight on that), so attending a food and ag conference seemed like a natural step.
As I spent this last week processing everything that occurred, my thoughts are now shaping up like this:
– Similar to home schooling and going to a conference about home schooling, or keeping bees and attending a honey producer convention, there was plenty of education and networking. What I really saw as different was the personal development courses. I attended Friday’s programming especially for the leadership workshop and it did not disappoint.
– The people attending the weekend were awesome! Usually there is some sense of competition, differences in opinion or theology, but here, everyone sincerely seemed united and encouraging.
– At some point, the participants who have smaller operations mentally shifted, just like I did, from ‘gardening’ to ‘farming.’ It seems that garden is a noun for the place where vegetables are grown and that farming is name of the occupation of the one who keeps the garden. I found the mental movement of food –> gardening –> farming –> agriculture to be powerful. It helps put our activities in context and makes relating everything in the world easier for me.
– I love food. Buy fresh and local, know your producer. That is all.