World PEAS Cooperative, Lowell MA

World PEAS Cooperative

9 Central Street

Lowell, MA 01854

978.453.1311

http://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/worldpeas/index.html

Tonight, Life Alive in Lowell hosted the final film in the Lowell Film Collaborative's three-part agricultural film series. The film was Good Food. Lately, I've been reading books about industrial agriculture in the US and, frankly, it's pretty depressing. This film, however, was a hopeful one--talking about smaller-scale sustainable farming practices taking hold in the Pacific Northwest.

After the movie, one of the sponsors for this film series, the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (NESFP), talked about their CSA, World PEAS Collaborative. NESFP is a non-profit partnership between Tufts University and Community Teamwork, Inc. It's a training program for immigrant farmers or anyone new to farming. Their office is located right in downtown Lowell and their farm is in Dracut. World PEAS has pick-ups located in Andover, Cambridge (Porter Square), Chinatown (Boston--at Tufts University), Concord, Dracut, East Boston, Lexington, Lowell, Medford/Somerville (at Tufts University), and Winchester.

Also in attendance were a couple of people from Farmer Dave's http://www.farmerdaves.net/ to answer questions about and sign people up for their CSA in Dracut. They have pick-ups in Beverly, Boston, Burlington, Dracut, Gloucester, Jamaica Plain, Lanesville, Lawrence, Somerville, and Tewksbury.

It's a wonderful thing that there are so many CSAs in Massachusetts. When I first joined Brookfield Farm's CSA in 1995, not only had I never even heard of a CSA before, but most people I spoke with hadn't either. Most people also thought it was just another crazy hippie thing I was doing (I swear I'm not a hippie, though :). It's nice to see this crazy hippie thing become more ordinary.

Life Alive Urban Oasis and Organic Cafe, Lowell MA

Life Alive Urban Oasis and Organic Cafe

194 Middle Street

Lowell, MA 01854

978.453.1311

www.lifealive.com

http://lowellfilmcollaborative.org

Tonight, Life Alive in Lowell hosted the Lowell Film Collaborative's Good Food Film Shorts. This was the second in a (free!) three-part agricultural film series. The films ranged from the uncertain future of Canadian hook-and-line fishermen to a crop of enthusiastic new farmers (pun intended).

If you missed this film, you can catch the next one, Good Food, on Thursday, March 25th at 7:30PM. Come early and hungry: Life Alive serves up delicious food. Really--check out the menu. Any restaurant where beets feature prominently on the menu is ok in my book. If you're not a beet person, though, don't worry. Their menu will have something you'll love. It's full of quinoa, brown rice, steamed vegetables, and assorted accompaniments you can arrange to your liking (avocado, cheddar cheese, tamari almonds, hijiki, and a lot more). It's the anti-junk food and you'll feel good after eating there, I promise. They also have a juice and smoothie bar if you want something cold. And, there's coffee, a large assortment of teas, and other hot and cold beverages.