Organic | Joan Dye Gussow, Francesco Mastalia, Gail Buckland, Zakary Pelaccio, Jean-Paul Courtens, Ken Greene | Art and Food Series Event

FREE - Auditorium doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Photographer Francesco Mastalia's new book of photographs Organic celebrates the farmers and chefs of the epicenter of the local, organic, sustainable food movement: the Hudson Valley.

At this event he talks about the genesis of the book Organic, his journey in creating the body of work and his experiences interacting with the subjects and learning more about the Organic movement from the roots up. He is joined by Gail Buckland to discuss the wet plate collodion process and why he chose this 19th century photographic technique, followed by a panel discussion including Jean-Paul Courtens, Ken Greene, Joan Dye Gussow and Zakary Pelaccio for a conversation about the growth of the organic movement and what organic means to them today. 

The Hudson Valley has become an epicenter for the local, organic, sustainable food movement. With its rich agricultural land, the awareness for sustainable living, and the growing demand for local, organic food, the farm-to-table, locavore movement has become a way of life in the Hudson Valley. “Organic” is one of the most misunderstood and often misused words describing food today. In narrating their stories, the farmers and chefs share their philosophy about what it means to grow and live organically and sustainably. “Organic” is not just about growing and producing food, it is about the life of our planet. It is about preserving an agricultural tradition that will safeguard farmland for future generations. The book Organic spotlights the Hudson Valley as a region at the forefront of this movement and features the dedicated farmers who are committed to growing and producing food using sustainable methods, and the chefs who echo their beliefs and pay homage to the food they produce. It contains over 100 portraits photographed using the wet-plate collodion process, a technique developed in the 1850s. 

Copies of Organic: Farmers & Chefs of the Hudson Valley are available for purchase and signing at the end of the event.

Francesco Mastalia is a photographer, author and lecturer of photography. He has traveled the world photographing tribal, religious, spiritual, and indigenous people. His first book Dreads,  a photo documentary on the history of dreadlocks, is now in its eighth printing, sold worldwide  and includes an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker. His recent book Organic: Farmers & Chefs of the Hudson Valley is a photo documentary of the Hudson Valley’s organic sustainable food movement.

Gail Buckland is an author, educator, curator, and authority on photography. She is a Distinguished Visiting Professor of the History of Photography at The Cooper Union in New York City where she has taught since 1979. She is the author or collaborator on 14 books on photography and photographic history including Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography, The Magic Image with Cecil Beaton, the bestselling American Century with Harold Evans, which includes more than 900 photographs discovered by Buckland and her latest book Who Shot Rock and Roll. Over the years she has curated numerous museum exhibitions and is a former curator of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. To mark the 50th anniversary of American Heritage magazine, the editors selected Gail Buckland, above all other writers and historians of photography, to choose the “Ten Most Indispensable Photographs” in American history.

Jean-Paul Courtens is considered a pioneer leader in the CSA and organic movement. In 1990 he founded Roxbury Farm, a 375-acre farm with a diversified operation producing vegetables, hay, beef, lamb, chicken, and pork. Since 1991 the farm has been a CSA and has grown to serve over 1,200 families. Jean-Paul is on the Board of Directors of the Biodynamic Association, and was recently named Associate Director for Farmer Training for the Hudson Valley Farm Hub. He also works closely with many other organizations such as Northeast Organic Farming and Gardening Association, the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, Columbia Land Conservancy, Cornell University, Just Food, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Equity Trust, the Open Space Institute, and the National Park Service at the Martin Van Buren National Historic site to expand the circle of organizations promoting and supporting sustainable agriculture.

Ken Greene is the founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library. The mission of the Seed Library is to preserve and promote heirloom seeds and undertake breeding projects for new seeds utilizing the traditional methods of plant breeders and open-pollination. Ken is a tireless advocate for seed sovereignty and the important role of art in celebrating our agricultural and horticultural heritage. The Hudson Valley Seed Library has signed the Safe Seed Pledge, is both a Certified Organic farm and Certified Organic Handler, and adheres to Vandana Shiva's Declaration of Seed Freedom. 

Joan Dye Gussow, PhD, is an inspiring pioneer of the food movement. She has been a powerful influence and is known as the matriarch of the organic, locavore, small-farm movement. Joan Dye Gussow is the Former Chair of the Columbia University Teachers College Nutrition Department. At Columbia she created the legendary course, Nutritional Ecology. Joan Dye Gussow is a founding board member of Just Foods, she has been on the board of the Chefs Collaborative, she was the Chair of the Board of the National Gardening Association and the Society for Nutrition Education, she served on the Diet, Nutrition and Cancer Panel of the National Academy of Sciences, she served two terms on the Food and Nurition Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the FDA’s Food Advisory Committee, the National Organic Standards Board and the Advisory Board of the Center for Food Safety. She has given thousands of lectures and speeches and has authored numerous books including The Feeding Web, This Organic Life and her most recent, Growing Older: A Chronicle of Death, Life, and Growing Vegetables.

Zakary Pelaccio is famed for building Brooklyn’s first gastro-pub, pioneering NYC’s nose-to-tail culinary movement, urban foraging and bringing Malaysian inspired food to the National mainstream. Now found in pastoral settings, he has taken his talents to the fertile Hudson Valley, the perfect setting for his most focused and obsessive project to date and the perfect subject for his follow up book to the award winning Eat With Your Hands. His new restaurant Fish & Game celebrates the bounty of the Hudson Valley with a menu that responds to the seasons and the availability of products from local farmers. 

Conceived and organized by Arezoo Moseni in 2013, the Art and Food series events peel back the hidden layers of taste and aesthetics across the literary and visual arts with readings and discussions by acclaimed artists, chefs, historians, writers and others.

​Events at The New York Public Library may be photographed or recorded. By attending these events, you consent to the use of your image and voice by the Library for all purposes.