A couple of terrific agriculture/gardening events are scheduled for this week in the Central Pennsylvania Region. Both gatherings will offer plenty of information and dialogue that will be of interest to all backyard vegetable, fruit, and herb growers.

I received the following question from Andreas who is seeking information related to sustainable agriculture and organic farming internship opportunities in the Pennsylvania or Virginia areas. It’s been more than twenty years since my three year organic farming internship and the scene has changed but there are fundamental issues that should always be considered.

To wrap up the recent posts about the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and its recent organic farming conference I wanted to share a little information related to the conference workshops and speakers. There was a long list of nationally and internationally known organic farmers, authors, and educators participating in this year’s sustainable agriculture conference.

I recently wrote an article about the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and the work that they are doing to support natural farming and to ensure the integrity of our food supply. Many of the educational programs and agricultural information that PASA offers are also useful to small market growers and even backyard vegetable gardeners.

I took advantage of the opportunity to attend the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s (”PASA”) 16th annual conference a couple weekends ago. The Farming for the Future Conference’s theme was “Cultivating Excellence - Farming to Serve the Common Good.”

I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent scare involving bagged spinach that was contaminated with the E. coli bacteria. Many people became seriously ill, health alerts were issued, and fresh spinach completely disappeared from grocery stores, restaurant menus, and salad bars across the United States. While it’s unfortunate that the outbreak occurred and has been linked to an organic produce supplier, a part of the story that goes unnoticed is how an isolated contamination quickly mushroomed to the point of impacting the supply of spinach throughout the entire country.