4th Annual Agricultural Literacy Week

With a focus on local farming, healthy food, and strong communities, we hope to promote the understanding of Vermont agriculture across the state. Join us in creating a week of activities that connects Vermont’s communities to their local farms. You'll find an updated schedule of activities and downloadable flyers to put around your community on NOFA-VT's website.

Here are some ideas for you to get started:

You could bring in some guest speakers such as local farmers, master gardeners, or someone from your local food co-op. Guest speakers can talk about a variety of topics:

• From beginning to end: the life of a crop
• How is the seed planted? How long is the growth process? What happens when it dies?
• Eating with the seasons in Vermont
• How to preserve: a lesson on canning
• How to sustain an herb garden through the winter
• Eating locally on a college budget
• The history of a local farm

Show one of these movies related to food and the food system problems we face currently:

• Bloom: the Agricultural Renaissance: a look at the farming and food renaissance that is reshaping the Green Mountain State.
• Fresh: celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system
• King Corn: a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.
• The Future of Food: distills the complex technology and consumer issues surrounding major changes in the food system today -- genetically engineered foods, patenting, and the corporatization of food -- into terms the average person can understand.
• French Fries to go: documents Telluride, Colorado’s quest to run city buses on recycled fryer oil.
• Garden Cycles, Faces From The New Farm: the story of three women on a three-month bicycle-powered tour of urban gardens throughout the Northeast.
• Sustainable Table, What’s On Your Plate: traces West Coast food production from field to table.
• Food Matters: looks at the often overlooked connection between food and our nation’s current state of health

NOFA VT Farm to Community Mentors facilitate the organization of local events at schools, libraries, farms, and other community centers. For more information on getting in touch with your local Mentor head to NOFA-VT's website.