Today I got to attend my first conference ever, and appropriately it was all about Organics, something that means a lot to me. I got up early, and instead of going to Brickworks Market this Saturday morning (I missed being there!), I went with my mother and Marni Wasserman downtown to register for this day long event, put on by the Canadian Organic Growers.
It was great that it was sponsored by The Big Carrot, one of my favourite stores, and they served us great muffins for the morning break. Each of us who attended got a great “goodie bag”, and everything inside was something I could use, or eat! That doesn’t usually happen, especially in loot bags I have received at birthday parties filled with toxic waste stuff from China, and “Pseudo Foods” (a term used by one of the speakers today)! I loved the Nature’s Path organic granola bars with coconut and chocolate and can’t wait to eat the whole bag of Love Crunch I got too! I even got seeds from Urban Harvest, so I guess I will be planting Lunar White Carrots this coming season in our garden. Can’t wait for spring!!
The opening keynote was by Deborah Koons Garcia, a documentary film maker, who said at the beginning she didn’t really like to speak, but she was great to listen to and I could have actually listened to her all day (it was much more my speed than listening to over an hour of scientific data in another session, although I know it’s important to know too!). I typed a few of my favourite quotes from Deborah while she was speaking:
“This I would eat. This I would not eat. Listen to your instincts.”
“Soil is the mother.”
“Healthy soil is part of a community.”
“Nature gives back, you should give back too.” (I like this one best!)
I am definitely going to watch Deborah’s two films, The Symphony of The Soil and The Future of Food, and think all of you should contemplate watching them too.
Although I liked lots of other info I heard by great speakers, my other highlight of the conference was listening to Jessie Sosnicki, from Sosnicki Organics tell her story of her farm. Now I know why her food tastes SO much better than conventional produce, and maybe even better than other organic vegetables. She grows the best corn ever by the way, and it’s probably because she puts a lot of love into her work. I hope she posts the video that Ben, her husband, filmed from today, so you can all watch her amazing presentation. By the way, what makes this organic farmer even more cool is that she is on all of the social media sites, so go find her!
During closing remarks, I asked Deborah Koons Garcia for some advice. I asked what one tip that she would teach kids to do if she could. It was a pretty simple answer: to appreciate a good, organic fruit or vegetable over anything else, especially processed stuff. I hope she’s ok with me quoting her from now on.
I hope that I can actually go back next year as a speaker, so that I can share some of my views too. Until then, remember: JUST EAT ORGANIC – no matter what studies say, or the media says, or your friends say, it’s definitely better for all of us if you do!!!
