Present:
Trustees: Brian Drayton, Naomi Schoenfeld, Alice Groh, Barb Healy, Ashley Renwick, Lincoln Geiger, Anthony Graham.
Farmer: Silvano Biffis.
Guest: Tatum Hammer.
Brian opened the meeting with a reading from John Woolman.
The main topic on the agenda was a discussion about the upcoming Members’ Meeting.
Ashley presented us with inspirational thoughts about the farm, which she would like to express at the beginning of the meeting.
After that many points were raised, some of which were:
- people have to want the farm, not only the food
- the farm is important because it presents alternative choices, especially relating to the fact that food is not a commodity
- members need to support the farm for whatever reason they choose, otherwise there won’t be a farm
- if we are the only farm asking people to meet the true costs of our food we will need to quantify the intangibles
- the last four years have shown us that we have to farm the land we have and take care of it sustainably and stop pretending that we have five acres per year to grow on
- the volatility of the climate and the nature of our fields has led us to see that cutting back is the way to invest in the future
We will continue the debate and focus on how to run the member meeting at our next board meeting.
A question was raised about whether we should invite people on the waiting list to attend the meeting. We decided not to do that.
Brian read from Caroline Graveson.
Next Meeting – Tuesday 9th at 6pm in the Garden Room.