by Donald L. Gibbon, Program Chair

A program titled “Love your Mother: Farming as if People Mattered,” was
shown continuously as a projected exhibit at the PA Assoc of Sustainable
Agriculture annual conference in State College in early February. The
program includes images from across the state. Works by fourteen
photographers are included, with a total of 293 slides.

This striking exhibit is intended to illustrate what is means to practice
“sustainable agriculture,” in contrast to agri-business or large scale
industrial agriculture. It includes the people and the products, the joys
and the disasters, that are part of daily farm life across the state. The
joys include the beauty and the products, vegetable and animal. The
disaters include a new barn blown down and a farm house going up in
flames. The scale of operations ranges from back-yard gardens to fairly
large Amish farms, from green houses to maple sugar bushes, from new
ventures to multi-generational family operations.

The exhibit is available for showing at any appropriate group function
after the PASA Conference by contacting Donald L. Gibbon,
dongibbon at earthlink dot net or calling 412-362-8451. A donation to PASA would
be appreciated. The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Sierra Club PA Chapter,
the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, Slow Food Pittsburgh
and PASA. The program has been supported by the Bernheim Bequest to the PA
Chapter of the Sierra Club.