HMI had a booth at the M
other Earth News Fair, held in Belton, Texas on February 18 & 19th. This year the fair featured more than 150 workshops from the leading authorities on organic gardening, food preservation, homesteading and livestock, green building, and natural health.
Holistic Management Program Manager Peggy Cole manned our HMI booth there and wrote this great blog, which we'd like to share with all of you.
HMI had a booth at the giant Mother Earth News Fair in Belton, TX last month. According to fair organizers, there were 12,500 people there. I believe it. Our booth was constantly full of people, many of whom had never heard of Holistic Management. We gave away lots and lots of copies of In-Practice and various flyers and brochures and talked till we were hoarse, but didn’t have the time to attend much in the way of the many workshops offered.
Holistic Management Certified Educator Tracy Litle did live demos at our booth, explaining how the soil enriches and holds more water with every pass of the cattle after complete recovery of the grasses. Tracy has been studying the soil food web with Betsy Ross and others. She demonstrated how water runs right off dirt (represented by a pile of flour) without the sponge-like structure of a healthy soil food web, while soaking into a slice of bread (representing the soil) without losing a drop to run-off. Tracy also had a set of slides to accompany her demonstration. But the best part was when she pulled out the baggies of soil from her own ranch. It was clear to see the change in color and texture as the gray lifeless soil became brown and crumbly after 2 passes, and amazing rich, dark and fragrant after more passes of the cattle.
Many HMI friends were at the fair with booths, and with talks on one of the many stages around the Bell County Expo Center. Joel Salatin stopped by the booth to say hi. Butch Tindell, another long-time friend of Holistic Management, did several talks from The Ploughshare Institute for Sustainable Culture. Other collaborative organizations, such as TOFGA (Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) and FARFA (Farm And Ranch Freedom Alliance), had booths at the fair as well.
So many HM class alumni stopped by to give us a hug; it felt like a big party. We had such a good time that we plan to go back next year and hope to have a larger stage to tell even more people about Holistic Management. Hope to see you there.
Our 20/20 Vision
Together We Can:
Heal 20 Million Acres of Land by 2020
Sequester 1 Billion Tons of Carbon by 2020
Educate 25,000 People by 2020
Sequester 400 Billion Gallons of Water by 2020
Help Farmers and Ranchers Reduce Their Bare Ground From 70% to 40% by 2020
Please consider helping to fund our whole farm/ranch programs and scholarships today.