University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Special Collections and University ArchivesNortheast Organic Farming Association Records, 1977-2007
Elizabeth Henderson oral history with Leslie Cox and Robert S. Cox
Item Information
- Title:
- Elizabeth Henderson oral history with Leslie Cox and Robert S. Cox
- Description:
-
Conversation with Elizabeth Henderson, organic farmer since 1979. Came to organic agriculture after her husband was killed in a car crash; had been academic in Slavic languages and literature at Boston University; the crash and her hatred of academic hierarchy led her to change life course; behavior of John Silber at BU led her to question her commitments and found the connectedness and unity she was looking for in organic agriculture (00:00:40); got together with friends (students of Chomsky) who wanted to create a college to teach living off the land, but the theoretical bent of these people led to the failure of the experiment, so she went searching in Franklin County, Mass., with other friends and found a place in Gill (00:04:30); reading and learning about organic agriculture, influences; fell in love with gardening helped heal her terrible experiences; read about impact of food additives and was concerned about impact on her son, which led to deeper exploration and desire to grow her own food (00:07:15); parents were "city people" who moved to the suburbs to raise Henderson in a healthier place; led her to become disconnected from the culture around her, but she discovered rural America in the Putney Summer Work Camp and learned a great deal about the land there and loved the experience (00:09:23); was an antiwar activist and involve din environmental issues, so it never occurred to go into conventional agriculture, was looking for peaceful life; active in American Independent Movement and the Hill Parents Association, and some of her colleagues had the idea of creating urban gardens and food cooperatives (00:12:10); lifestyle has always enjoyed good food, cooking; saw food system in France which influenced her thinking; was trained as a literary critic and Marxist, so used that systematic and analytical background to thinking about ecology; raised her son strictly on food she grew, bought at a coop, or traded for, really healthy for him growing up on a farm; her son has maintained his values, though he now lives in a city, teaching (00:14:45); NOFA has provided people who are on a similar path that she is, which is not the mainstream (00:19:45); has been a driving force in NOFA as a community activist and rural activist; activism at Yale in antiwar and community activism, belief in social justice came with her into her work with NOFA; influenced as well from being brought up in a home involved in the civil rights movement (00:21:20); with climate change and other things affecting the country, NOFA has an opportunity to show people the connections we all need to be making; thinking about the low wage workers in the food industry (00:24:50); CSAs and economic vision and justice for farmers; CSA and communities of color (00:27:00); would like people to remember "how wonderfully crazy we all were" to believe the could do this in the organic movement (00:30:50); need to struggle to keep the organic movement a grassroots movement and not corporate; National Organic Program is not a sellout, as some suggest, but a toe in the door (00:31:59); role in developing organic standards in early 1980s at time she was president of NOFA Massachusetts; negotiations between different viewpoints in developing the standards in a participatory process (00:33:00); helped write the Massachusetts organic standards and included concepts of basic fairness for workers they got partly from IFOAM; the connection with IFOAM and the international movements is critical for NOFA; fairness was left out of the NOP(00:38:00); USDA claims they have no jurisdiction over fairness for farm workers, thus fairness was omitted from organic standards, but they and IFOAM have tried to keep fairness alive as an issue; Agricultural Justice Project has taken this as their charge (00:40:50); tension between organic producers and agricultural business; economics of agriculture (00:44:00); newer generation of organic farmers has information available that the previous generations did not; still a challenge to learn to be organic farmers; most will not be able to take the direction of private property, but will need land trusts, cooperatives, or will be hired farmers; need career paths that make it a viable and respected career to be a farm manager (00:46:05).
- Interviewee:
- Henderson, Elizabeth, 1943-
- Interviewer:
- Cox, Leslie
- Date:
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August 17, 2015
- Format:
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Film/Video
- Genre:
-
Motion pictures (visual work)
Oral histories
- Location:
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Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Box 001 (shelf locator) - Collection (local):
-
Northeast Organic Farming Association Records
- Series:
- Series 7. Audiovisual materials
- Subjects:
-
Organic farmers--New York (State)--Interviews
Organic farming--New York (State)
Organic farming--Massachusetts
Organic farming--Moral and ethical aspects
Antiwar movements--Connecticut
Community-supported agriculture
Community-supported agriculture--Economic aspects
Organic farming--Economic aspects
Organic farming--Certification
Organic farming--Standards
Agricultural industries
Agriculture--Economic aspects
Northeast Organic Farming Association
American Independent Movement (Conn.)
National Organic Program (U.S.)
International Foundation for Organic Agriculture Movements
Agricultural Justice Project
- Places:
-
New York
Massachusetts
Connecticut
- Extent:
- 1 videocassette ; 00:51:33
- Link to Item:
- http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums461-s07-v-i003
- Terms of Use:
-
Requests to publish, redistribute, or replicate this material should be addressed to Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
Contact host institution for more information.
- Place of origin:
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Amherst (Mass.)
- Language:
-
English
- Identifier:
-
mums461-s07-v-i003