Georgia Organics Conference

The Georgia Organics Conference was held in Douglas, GA (middle of nowhere, South Georgia) last weekend. It was a fabulous introduction to the principles of organic farming. All of meals were included in the registration fee and they were wonderful! Farmers donated vegetables and organic meat for the event. Avalon Catering prepared the meals with the help of volunteers. The conference included educational seminars, farm tours, a trade show and special speakers. Oh yeah, my registration included a free bag of compost. Never been to a conference that distributed compost, but then again I had never been to a worm farm either.

Worm castings are a natural fertilizer that is produced by worm excretions. We visited Bear Creek Worm Farm and learned about the complexity and challenges of worm farming. The worms are fed eight different sources of nutrients. The rotation cycle includes feed pellets, a brewer's yeast byproduct, chicken droppings, manure, straw and others. The farm consisted of a huge bed of worms. The bottom layer consists of the worm castings and the top is the nutrient/feed layer. About an inch below the surface, you find a thick mass of worms. This farm raises two types of worms. The worms are sold for ~$20 per pound. Annual sales at this particular farm greatly exceed $150, 000. Don't get too excited. It is a great deal of work. The worms must be shaded and keep under light. Large nets covered the worm beds to protect them from robins. The entire bed is brightly lit at night to prevent the worms from crawling out of the bed. (Yes, the are called Night Crawlers for a reason.) The worm castings are collected from the bottom of the bed and have been analyzed for nutrients. A graduate student from UGA has worked at the farm collecting casting samples and using the worm castings as fertilizer. (I have a paper if you are interested.) This UGA student is getting a master's degree in Composting. Yes, composting! Emory has incredible resources, but we really miss out by not having a school of agriculture. By the way, I also received a small bag of worm castings at the end of the farm tour. I haven't used them yet. I think I may put them on my verbena in my front yard.

Later at the conference, I ran into a woman Christy Cook who works for Sodexho and she told me that there are several worm farms on campus. I must find them! They are really cool.

I attended a special session on growing organic strawberries, blackberries, figs and muscadines. The extension agent talked about rice hulls being the ideal fertilizer for strawberries. This made me think of the article Jason read on rice hull extracts as fertilizer. If there is a source of organic rice hulls, there is a market. I am thinking about trying to grow some organic strawberries in my backyard. To get the soil prepared, you use a technique called double digging. Not a fun job, especially with the hard red clay we have in Georgia. We have planted some strawberries at the food community garden outside The Depot. I may just focus on those.

Joe Salatin was the banquet speaker. He is a strong advocate for organic farming. His farm was recently highlighted in The Omnivore's Dilemma. Salatin feels it is important to know the source of your food and he promotes a relationship between farmers and their local communities. He was a charasmatic speaker. The future of organic farming lies in small, family run farms. One goal of organic farming is to be in balance with the natural ecosystem. Animals and crops are part of one community and crops are rotated so not to deplete the soil of its nutrients.

The conference was a great deal of fun and I met some interesting people. I have a much better understanding of organic foods. I was recently asked to be on Emory's Committee on Sustainable Food Systems. I would love to hear your ideas because this is a matter that impacts all of us!