Meet My Beets: The 2016 EcoFarm Conference Rocked!

Educational, inspiring and fun! As a MESA steward from Taiwan, those three words describe how I feel about the 2016 EcoFarmConference. After three days of learning new things, meeting great people and having so much fun in the process, I definitely can say that I will be back next year if I can.

This year’s EcoFarm Conference provided many workshops and plenaries so people had plenty of options of where they wanted to go or what they wanted to learn. One of the best plenaries I attended was Dr. Daphne Miller’s session. She talked about how “Food Is Medicine” and also shared her farming experiences. Her words were like gospel to my ears because before I worked as a kidney dialysis nurse. In Taiwan, where I am from, I witnessed many people who never cooked and ate out all the time suffer from kidney failure. Like Daphne Miller, I too believe that food is medicine. But many people believe that if you buy your own food and cook then that’s enough. It’s not true. She explained that only good quality, organic, non-GMO food is the solution to cure disease.

I also attended a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) workshop. This workshop helped me develop a business plan on how I will operate CSA in my community when I come back to Taiwan. I learned that this is the best way to gain support from my family, friends and neighbors but also teach them the benefits of organic, locally harvested food. Now I can picture myself happy to provide fresh produce that I grew with love and joy to all my family and friends when I return.

Because of EcoFarm, I met many interesting farmers from all over the US. We talked, shared and exchanged our thoughts and seeds. Some already planted their seeds for many years, others just started to plant their seeds like myself, a beginner famer. So no matter how much farming experience we had, all kinds of farmers gathered together at the 2016 EcoFarm Conference to share our love for people, our soil and our land.

When I headed back to my host place, Golden Rule Farm, my pocket was full of business cards from the people I met. Those business cards will serve as my farming library network. They will serve as my cheerleaders, who are only a short email or Skype chat away from providing me with advice on how to start my farm when I come back to Taiwan.

The 2016 EcoFarm Conference was educational and full of networking opportunities, but it was also full a lot of fun. The conference planners made sure they arranged fun events for the attendees from morning until night. When my brain couldn’t take any more learning, I went to have a beer and sampled cheeses to refresh my thoughts. Even in the evening, I was extremely busy running around like a honey bee from one social event to the next. One evening I spent seed swapping and finding those special seeds that I was dying to get my hands on. The best part of the experience of course was mingling with the seed growers and learning from them. The final night, I swung to the EcoFarm dance party to celebrate love and peace until midnight. It was so much fun. The 2016 EcoFarm Conference rocked! I gained a ton of farming knowledge, made new friends and had an amazing time. Thank you MESA for awarding me this great opportunity.