I have unexpectedly been in the northeast for the better part of a year now and realized, I have no social life. So I signed up for some Meetup.com events that would introduce me to like-minded people and teach me a thing or two, I hope.  This week I ventured out to the Eco-Exchange: Food & Nutrition Forum – Sharing Ideas, Knowledge and Solutions.  Just up my alley.

They weren’t all strangers, I sat behind long-time friend of the Green Divas, Paul Miller from Sustainable Morristown, and next to our Daily Record: Grassroots buddy Meghan Van Dyk.  Meghan will be joining us soon as a regular feature on The Green Divas Radio Show.

The speakers that I heard were:

• Wanda Knapik from www.MyLocalGarden.com, who organized and introduced the event.  She is a gardening educator and conduit of great green goodies in the region.
• Jenn Bostedo, from www.gourmetdiningllc.com, who illustrated the new paradigms in nutrition education.
• Jim Walsh from Food & Water Watch, who was my favorite speaker.  He spoke about genetically modified organisms or GMO’s. I liked the way he took a complicated subject and made it digestible and understandable, with an action to boot.  Please join us in signing a petition to get Walmart to NOT buy Monsanto’s GMO sweet corn, which has not been tested to see if it is safe. This could be a game changer folks.
• Marnie Vyff , founder of the Mountain Lakes Food Coop, talked about what a coop is and how different ones operate. We got into a general discussion about raw milk, which is apparently illegal to sell in NJ. Who knew?
• Farmer Mark Canright from Farm the Earth.  He talked about his farm, the Comeback Farm in Asbury, NJ and shared some of the things he’s learned as an organic farmer. I may look into the apprentice program or just volunteer on the farm.
• Roman Oscadca a farmer and beekeeper from Valley Fall Farm, Johnsonbury, NJ.  He talked about how he became a farmer from his career as an engineer. The most interesting part of his talk for me was about garlic and bees.  Did you know that there are more than 600 varieties of garlic. After understanding the new markets of garlic, I am now committed to only buying organic garlic, and local when possible, short of growing my own.

Other CommunityEarth event dates for the Morris County area include:

• Jan. 26^th – 6:30 @ Unity charter School – Green Movie nights – “The Economics of Happiness.”
• Jan. 22, Feb. 26, March 25 1-5pm @Eleanor’s Studio – Mosaics Classes
• Feb. 8 @Ursino Restaurant at Kean University –Farm to Table Night (meetup.com event)
• Feb. 12^th  – 2pm @Bernardsville Library – the documentary “Gasland” about fracking

This is my foray into finding out what like-minded people are doing in my area.  Check out Meetup.com and other social sites to see what’s happening in your neck of the woods.