Agriculture as the Heart of Environmentalism: Belonging to the Earth, the Soil, Each Other. The Institute for Mindful Agriculture welcomes you to our 2019 Winter Workshop, from Thursday evening, February 21st through noon on Saturday, February 23rd. There will be three guest presenters, Dan McKanan, Karen Washington, and Lorrie Clevenger, as well as the IMA team, and Hawthorne Valley’s Farmscape Ecology Program team.

Workshop Summary: 

The root cause of environmental problems is human estrangement from nature—humans feeling that we are not part of nature. How do we experience belonging and not belonging on the land, in the market, at the table? How do we cultivate a sense of belonging within ourselves and as a society? How can we invite others into belonging? Join us to explore agriculture as a restorative practice for tending our inner sense of belonging and creating spaces for letting this connection live in community.

The workshop will include time for presentations, in-depth discussion, and reflection.

The talk on Thursday evening by Dan McKanan, “Eco-Alchemy,” is free and open to the public.

Presenters:

Lorrie Clevenger, farmer with Rise & Root Farm and co-founder of Black Urban Growers (BUGS)

Dan McKanan, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, author of “Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism”

Karen Washington, farmer, activist, co-founder BUGS, named one of 100 most influential African Americans in the country by Ebony magazine, 2014 James Beard Leadership Award

Institute for Mindful Agriculture Team:
Steffen Schneider
Rachel Schneider
and Jill Jakimetz

Farmscape Ecology Program Team: 
Anna Duhon
Claudia Knab-Vispo
Conrad Vispo

The details:

• Cost: sliding scale $150-$100, includes Friday dinner

• Register here.

• Questions? Contact Rachel Schneider.

Workshop Schedule

Participants are responsible for arranging accommodations. You can find a list of nearby accommodations here. Air BnB has several listings close to Hawthorne Valley Farm here.

Do contact us if housing is the only reason you may not be able to attend.

In addition to this course, our neighbor and partnering institution, The Nature Institute, is offering a four-day workshop directly before ours entitled"The Nature of Animals and Developing Dynamic Thinking." For more info visit their website here.