Summit sessions to look at land use for community well-being

Topics of regional food security and land development beneficial to rural communities will again this year be the core of the Land and Community track at the Radically Rural summit in October. This year, the energy track will be combined with the Land and Community track. "The energy track will be doing everything the land track is doing this year," says Lillian Koziara-Chase, program and development coordinator for the Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship. "All of their sessions are combined." Track leader Marty Castriotta says, "I hope that participants will come away from this experience with an understanding that local access to food and the land use patterns that make this possible touches every aspect of a community's well-being." Castriotta, owner of Earthcraft Design and co-owner of Village Roots Permaculture in East Alstead, says this focus is a continuation of last year's Land and Community track sessions, which centered largely on perennial farming. Now, through three different subsessions on Wednesday, Oct. 7, track participants and speakers will be tackling regional food security and how perennial farming can increase security. Castriotta adds that, in most places, supermarkets are equipped with only three days' worth of food in an emergency, and he hopes the track will give participants a better understanding of food access and the implications of food scarcity. They'll also look at how land can be used not only as a source for food but also as a benefit to the community. "We will also continue to explore the development of community land use patterns that are multifunctional in terms of providing ecological restoration while also providing an array of outputs to people, such as food, gathering spaces, shade, neighborhood beautification," Castriotta says. Those patterns can apply to different kinds of land development, from farming or community spaces to a person's own backyard. Ultimately, Castriotta hopes the track underscores the inherent connection between land and community, meaning that a thriving community is one that supports ecological restoration and those who work the land. "Our land informs our community and vitality, and vice versa … A vital local economy can and should be very much a land-based economy, especially for rural areas," he says. Subsessions The track has a robust offering of subsessions, which will see participants travel around Keene and surrounding rural areas as they examine different forms of regional land development while discussing food scarcity and security. The sessions will start at the Hannah Grimes Center at 9 a.m. Oct. 7 with "From Streetscapes to Foodscapes: Building Healthier, More Resilient Communities," which is co-hosted by the Main Street track. During this session, Castriotta says speakers will "discuss the intersection of downtown development and urban agroforestry initiatives" before traveling to the Monadnock Food Co-op to examine a newly installed forest garden and discuss the benefits of agroforestry and forest gardens. "The co-op, as sort of a food hub, is leading the charge in the community in terms of food security issues and supporting neighborhood farms but is also collaborating with us to think about land use in general," Castriotta says. The next subsession, at 1 p.m., will take participants to the Frost Free Library at 28 Jaffrey Road in Marlborough, a public site that has been recently developed by community leaders with plantings that "increase ecological vitality but also provide food and gathering spaces and other benefits," Castriotta says. There, they will join with the All in for Health track for "Local Food Systems, Permaculture and Bioregional Resilience," which will involve lunch and a talk about strengthening local food systems and processing perennial foods. The final subsession at 2:30 p.m. entails a biochar demonstration at Gap Mountain Permaculture at 155 Bullard Road in Jaffrey. Participants will get to meet with Gap Mountain Permaculture co-founder Doug Clayton to learn about the environmental benefits of biochar. Biochar is organic material from agriculture and forestry waste, which offers benefits for farming in terms of improving soil health, water retention and more. Castriotta says, "I hope that [track participants] will see agriculture in a whole new light, as we transition to a permaculture that embraces a more holistic view of human habitat and the production of our basic needs." Visit radicallyrural.org for more information or to register.