NM Organic Farming and Gardening Conference:
“No Mad Cows Here”

   The New Mexico Organic Farming and Gardening Expo 2004, will take place Friday, February 13th, and Saturday, Febrary 14th, at the Univeristy of New Mexico Student Union Building in Albuquerque. The conference is sponsored by the Farm Connection, a statewide organization providing support to local growers, and the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission, the state agency responsible for certifying organic farmers.

   The New Mexico Organic Farming and Gardneing Expo is the Southwest’s premier conference on organic agriculture.  Erica Peters, Director of the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission commented, “The recent outbreak of ‘mad cow’ disease in the U.S. has raised in a dramatic way the question of how livestock is produced in this country. Organic agriculture provides safety for consumers, humane treatment for the animals, and good markets for the producers. And organic farmers treat their veggies really well too. Whether you are an experienced organic farmer or rancher, someone interested in transitioning to organic methods, or someone intersted in finding out more about growing food in a way that harmonizes with nature, there will be something for you at the Organic Farming and Gardening Expo.”

   Expo 2004 is expected to draw over 500 farmers, gardeners, natural food retailers, ag educators, and environmentalists from around the state. The opening keynote will be delivered by Joel Salatin speaking on “Holy Cows and Heavenly Hogs: Creating and maintaining a habitat on a farm that allows a cow “cowness” and a hog “hogness.” Salatin, who raises a broad mix of livestock on his Polyface Farm, is the author of several books including “Salad Bar Beef,”  and “Family-Friendly Farming.”

   The closing keynote will be given by Michael Abelman, author of “On Good Land; The Autobiography of an Urban Farm” and “From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World.” Abelman is a farmer, photographer, and the Director of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fariview Gardens near Santa Barbara, Claifornia.

   Friday’s workshops are three-hour intensive sessions and Saturday features the keynote sessions, a delicious organic/local lunch and two workshop sessions. Workshop topics include: Business Planning for New and Existing Farms, Organic and Sustainable Greenhouse Design and Production, Organic Fruit Production, Getting Into Value Added, Diversification with Flowers and Starts, Building Soil Fertility, Federal Support for Organic Producers, Market Development for Organic Producers, Multi-species Grazing Systems, Consevation Tillage Systems, Fruit Tree Grafting and Heirloom Orchards, Water!, Medicinal Herbs, Strip Tillage, Building a Food System Pyramid, Appropriate Equipment for Vegetable Production, The Independent Organic Farmer in the World of Corporate Giants, and Mulching.

   Friday’s intensive workshops will be followed by time to visit the exhibition hall packed with books, equipment vendors and farming and conservation organizations. “This is the time to get the information you need to start your farming or gardening off on the right foot this spring,” Peters said. “It’s the one time New Mexicans can hear from so many ogranic production experts from around the country.”  The conference is open to the public. For more information about the conference, call (505) 841-9067 or email: joan.quinn@state.nm.us.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ….   ( PART 2)

“Imagination Is At The Heart Of Children Learning To Read”  

by FINN CLARK-BROWN

“I am convinced that imagination is at the heart of children learning to read”.  This comment was made by the keynote speaker at the recent World Congress on Reading.

The most common complaint by parents is that children who where prodigiously creative lose their imagination upon entering school.  I have checked this comment with many teaching colleagues on three continents.  It is true. This is also the reason given by many parents for home educating their children. 

What are the implications of putting imagination at the heart of school?

I was provoked by this question of imaginative reading and so re-opened my college notes, as reading was my specialization.  When we “read” the information around us – expressions on peoples’ faces, the clouds and potential for rain, the money markets, as well as text, we bring to this information our creative intelligence, our imagination, our ability to “see” what our world or universe is telling us.

But what has this imaginative, creative intelligence to do with reading?  According to Margaret Meek Spenser, quoted above, it is “at the heart of children learning to read”.

What is imagination?  What is creativity?  What is intelligence?  Our monotheistic tradition and spiritual center combines image, creator and intelligent mastery in the story of creation (Genesis 1:26).   Einstein talked about the gift of fantasy in mathematics, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is “made up of stories, metaphors, parables and projections”

If experts, and our tradition, link image, creativity, and intelligence, then why do teachers persist in basing their teaching on mechanical skills in phonetics and mathematics, rather than on children’s imagination and spirituality?

Several examples will illustrate a new approach. Kiran, whom I taught to read, was five going on fifteen.  When reading the story of the Ugly Duckling she read the phrase, “they quarreled and quarreled” instead of “they argued and argued”.  This taught me that people read ideas, not text.

Ashwin, Kiran’s brother, was four at the time.  He was always wrapped in a recently heard story.  For days he could be King Arthur, or Sherlock Holmes, the wizard of Oz, or some war hero.  I existed only as some character in his story.  The story he was living defined our relationship.

Xolani, on the other hand, who had heard two other children read their class reader to me, had already memorized the story by the time his turn came to read the story.

Most teachers try to “school” literacy.  However, true reading goes beyond deciphering text.  Kiran, Ashwin, and Xolani, in their different ways lived in that world of relations that comprises literacy.  They already knew about reading.  They brought to the text their imagination, their creative intelligence, and their ability to live in an imaginative world that interpreted the text.  It is this ability to interpret that motivated and interested them in the author of the story.  This is what literacy means.

The majority of school reading schemes do not provoke the response I saw in these children.  They are typically based on producing readers that decipher text.  Like preprocessed food the words are fed to children as though words have no context, as though children have no imagination to provide meaning to these words.  While phonics helps to sound out words, and must be taught, it does not provide the “heart of children learning to read”. 

How do we provide that heart of reading so that children love and value reading books? 

Next month:  NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND …. PART 3:  LITERATE READING – A SCHEME THAT PROMOTES BOTH IMAGINATION AND LITERACY FOR YOUR 4-7 YEAR OLD.  (This approach produced significantly higher scores on standardized phonics and word breaking skills tests.)

Finn Clark-Brown is the principal of Innesence School.  He is a recipient of a fellowship based at Oxford University on spirituality in education and is completing a doctoral thesis in education on the same topic.  He runs workshops on reading and writing, particularly for those who home educate.  He may be contacted at innesence@msn.com or (505) 455 0004.

Who Do you Trust?

The Bush Administration gave the USDA Secretary of Agriculture position to Anne Venemon (who once served on Monsanto’s Calgene Board of Directors). She appointed Dale Moore as her Chief of Staff. Prior to playing his new role of “protecting” consumers from food safety threats like Mad Cow Disease, Dale Moore was the chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Source: http://www.usda.gov/agencies/gallery/moore.htm

 Innésence School in Pojoaque

Do You Want to Enrich Your Child’s Life?

Stop! Read! Think!

Stretch your world to include a school where the principal … ·Achieved 70% more than state schools in national tests Ran schools on 3 continents Designed, taught, assessed  & administered curricula for K-8  Head of science in high school Tutor & lecturer at universities Doctoral candidate in educat. An education fellowship based at Oxford University, England International speaker on a Curriculum for Spirituality Publications in four languages National age group champ in two sports

 Recognising & unfolding latent gifts

Phone: (505) 455 0004

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