This is a pre-conference day long workshop of the Organic Growers School’s 26th Spring Conference. Pre-conference registration is discounted with full conference registration, but weekend attendance is not required to attend/register.
The availability, quality, and integration of water in food production is an overlooked yet central feature of food systems. Leaders in the work of water interfaces are John Todd and his son Jonathan, who combine cutting edge research with dynamic design to restore waterways all over the world as functional, living components of natural and built environments. In this full day, immersive class, witness them at work as they consider a farm pond as a case study. In the morning portion of the workshop, participants will learn the personality of water features, from chemistry to plant and animal life, and the meaning of their interactions. In the afternoon, the Todds will take years of experience and deep scientific knowledge to develop a design plan that takes advantage of the farm’s pond, while also caring for its well being. Participants will learn the application of methods the Todd’s have used worldwide – from rehabilitating city sewage treatment to creating resiliency on entire islands – living machines, polycultures, restorative riparian and aquatic native plants, beneficial fungi, and animal life. This full day workshop offers a unique opportunity to sit with both the hope and the complexity of the future facing our planet, and walk away with tangible examples for healing ecosystems, either at the farm scale, or much larger.