As a crew member at the UMass Permaculture Garden I know that the work that I do in the garden matters. We grow healthy, fresh and sustainable food for the University. It feels pretty great to give back to the students, faculty and staff that have supported me over the past three years. There’s something magical about seeing pea plants sprout from seeds we plant, watching kale plants grow lush and big, unearthing a perfectly round radish, or discovering a bright red strawberry. Growing food offers a satisfaction I’ve never experienced in any other job. But perhaps the best part is walking into a dining hall and seeing the crop we harvested four hours ago on peoples plates.

​At the beginning of the summer we made a list of group norms for the garden crew. One of them was, “cultivate community while cultivating crops.” The permaculture garden creates community, not just among the crew members who work there, but within the larger UMass community. 

One of the many notable presenters at the conference was Sheila Bowman, the Manager of Culinary and Strategic Initiatives at Seafood Watch. Seafood Watch is the leading source of science-based recommendations for seafood found in the U.S. Market. At the conference, Sheila Bowman spoke of the many challenges that our oceans are facing due to the high demand for certain species and unsustainable practices of the fishing industry. Per the United Nations, over 80% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, over-exploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion.  Bowman explained how important it is to know where the fish you are buying comes from, how it was caught, who caught it, and what condition that species’ stocks are in.