Day one - Acres Conference

The first part of the day was organized for visiting the trade show. It is quite a large trade show with lots of booths promoting kelp products. There is also a large book sale available with a lot of the ACRES recognized books. We watched the film Fresh. It is a film with a message about choosing fresh food. Michael Pollen was in the film along with the farmer he follows in his book, Omnivores Dilemma, Mr. Nayor. It was worth watching.

We both took in 30 minutes of "Pigs on Pasture" with Dr. W. Winter. He raises Berkshire pigs on pasture. He talked about a lot of things but kept coming back to his pigs and the methods he uses to raise them.

Josh went to "Back to the Key Principles when the Eco Input isn't enough" by Gary Zimmer. Josh took in that he needs to make sure his Magnesium and Boron are plentiful as they are important minerals for plant health.

I tried to participate in a session on Fertilizer needs and costs, but I couldn't stick with so I went to the trade show and talked to the people at the biodynamics booth and then joined back up with Josh for the "Advanced Soil Ecology and the Soil Food Web" session.

Now we are on our way out for dinner and then back for the evening lecture on "Taking Back the American Food Chain".