Dunkerley Dialogue to explore food, farming, and future
Students harvest Skidmore garden
What we eat, where our food comes from, and the challenges facing family farms will be among the topics explored in a Sept. 25 panel discussion on at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. The event, open to the public free of charge, will begin at 1 p.m. in the museum's Payne Room.
Titled "Food, Farms, and the Future," the event is part of the Tang's ongoing series of Dunkerley Dialogues,public conversations that bring artists and distinguished speakers to the Skidmore campus to discuss Tang exhibitions and ideas.
The discussion will be led by Ed Yowell, an outspoken advocate on issues of local and sustainable agriculture, food policy, farmland preservation, and good food in schools. He is a Slow Food USA regional governor (for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), co-chair of the Food Systems Network NYC, and a member of the New York City Greenmarket (farmers markets) advisory committee.
Yowell will be joined by local farmers from Flying Pigs Farm, Dancing Ewe Farm, Dension Farm, and Sheldon Farms.
Writes Yowell in his "Farm Views" blog: "Farming is not a simple proposition. Besides hard work, it is science, art, luck and, to be successful, no small amount of shrewd entrepreneurship. It is a profession that affords practitioners the ability to be far more independent in their chosen endeavors than many of us who labor in complicated social structures, like corporations and government. If the great American personality trait is rugged individualism, then I think family farmers are where it is vested mostly these days."
Adds Yowell, "Farming, overall, is big business, but most farmers run small, family businesses, especially in our region. Nonetheless, where there is big business, there is big government. Given the lapses of big agriculture, like tainted spinach, peanut butter, cilantro, and, now, eggs, the obvious solution, to many is more regulation and more inspectors. But, it's not our regional, family farmers that are poisoning us. Yet, many of our family farmers feel they are being regulated out of business."
The inspiration for the event came from a current Tang show,Paula Hayes: Understory, which features "living art" designed to connect people with the natural environment. For Understory, Hayes has transformed the Tang's Payne Room into an immersive environment brimming with life. The space includes large silicone planters housing small trees; a series of Hayes's exquisite hand-blown glass terrariums, which serve as home to a wide variety of plants and gems; and new custom-designed wallpaper and dinnerware.
"This exhibit by Paula Hayes, a Skidmore graduate who grew up on a farm in Fonda, N.Y, has inspired a timely event that builds on a number of initiatives already in place on our campus," said John Weber, Dayton Director of the Tang."How many of us have the chance or take the time to listen to farmers about what it takes to get food to the table?"
A number of Skidmore groups are working with the Tang Museum to organize the event, including the student Environmental Action Club, the Environmental Studies Program, Sustainable Skidmore, and the Skidmore Student Garden. The event is also co-sponsored by Slow Food Saratoga Region and Slow Food Schenectady Community College. Following the discussion, at 3 p.m., the public is invited to a "work party" in the student garden, to help with end-of-the season tasks and to learn about gardening practices.
"Farms, Food, and the Future" is part of the year-long 10 th anniversary celebration at the Tang, which opened its doors in September 2000. The museum draws some 40,000 visitors annually, ranging from local students who visit through programs with area schools to museum-goers from across the globe.