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Chip Hope doesn't care if you're a city slicker who is clueless about farming.
He makes you want to go out and start digging in the dirt.
Plant that first seed, he says. Put it in a pot on the deck, the patio or balcony - anywhere. The results won't be perfect.
But the message Hope wants to implant in your mind: Grow something; it could change your life.
Hope, 58, is coordinator of the Sustainable Agriculture Program at Morganton's Western Piedmont Community College. He's one of the speakers at a four-day forum that starts Monday: "Food for Thought: Reinventing Our Food System for a Healthier World."
The big guns of food will be there. Speakers include Joel Salatin, third-generation alternative farmer and author of "Everything I Want to do Is Illegal" and "Holy Cows and Hog Heaven"; Anna Lappe, food activist and co-author of "Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Plant" and co-founder of The Small Planet Institute"; and Joel Bourne, contributing writer for National Geographic and the magazine's former senior editor for the environment.
Hope's part of the forum - "Grow Your Own Food and Medicine ... Starting Right Where You Are" - will be noon Wednesday.
When he's not teaching at Western Piedmont, Hope runs Appalachian Seeds Farm and Nursery in Burnsville.
He digs in the ground, grows his own food the old-timey way and makes medicine out of herbs such as yellow root.
Sustainable agriculture is a subject that's stirring a lot of interest these days. Hope explained what it means: Growing things in economically and ecologically sound ways. The process starts with healthy soil and growing cover crops like clovers, vetches, barley and rye. Turned over in the soil, they become a kind of green manure - compost that brings new life to the soil.
Hope calls himself a "connoisseur of manure." He talks about weaning gardens off chemical fertilizers and pesticides; about using cayenne pepper and soap sprays for insect problems; about how you'll start seeing more butterflies, honeybees and other "awesome beneficial insects."
He has a vision. And he's trying to make others see.
Old Broughton farm
Hope grew up in Charlotte. His earliest memories are going to the backyard with his mom and planting marigolds, zinnias and tomatoes in a 3-foot-by-5-foot garden.
It was, he said, a magical connection.
Hope graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 1974 with a degree in political science. But growing things was what he really wanted to do. This is his second year at Western Piedmont, a campus that sprawls across what was once the old Broughton Hospital farm. Farming has resumed on the historic land - this time by sustainable agriculture students.
One of Hope's students last year was Mary Charlotte Safford, dean of humanities and social science at Western Piedmont. She also chairs the fall speakers forum/Ervin constitutional issues program. The agriculture course inspired her to put together the "Food for Thought" program.
The focus is on the global food crisis, sustainable agriculture for individuals and businesses, and what folks like you and me can do to take part in a growing international movement.
You can hear the message about environmentally sustainable farming that Joel Salatin takes to audiences around the nation. He's been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, the film "Food Inc." and in Michael Pollan's best-seller, "The Omnivore's Dilemma."
The forum has an impressive lineup, and I'm glad a North Carolina farmer like Hope was included.
Just get started
Hope gets pretty eloquent when he talks about sustainable farming, a concept I'm all for. But it's something I could never do. I gave Hope all the excuses I could think of - not having time or the skills and so on.
He's heard it all before. He listened patiently and then repeated his message, letting it sink in. Start small, he said. Stay positive. Keep plugging away. And see the results.
In case I missed it, he said it one more time: Just get started.
I'm still making excuses, but Hope has given me some serious food for thought.
