enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Kate Casale, left, of California carries a basket of fresh produce with Krystal Shelby of North Carolina. The girls are taking part in the Rooted in Community Conference being held by Cultivating Community in Portland.

enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Lydia Hagos of Cape Elizabeth, third from right, gathers vegetables with Minica Logwood, right, and Banica Hoehn – both from Rockford, Ill. – as part of the Rooted in Community Conference being held in Portland that has attracted about 100 young people to learn more about many different facets of farming.

PORTLAND — People travel far and wide to come to Portland. Some have to taste the food, and others want to experience the scenery.

And some want to play in our dirt. Literally.

"This is like what we do back home," said Amber Smith. Home for this 16-year-old is Santa Cruz, Calif. "It's fun to do this with people from all over."

"This" would mean gardening, at the Boyd Street Urban Farm in Kennedy Park, to be exact. And "people from all over" would mean the more than 100 young people from around the country who visited the Portland area last week for a national conference on – you guessed it – farming.

It's the annual conference for Rooted in Community, an organization that works with young people in areas like urban agriculture, sustainable farming and environmental awareness.

But these folks didn't just happen to pick Maine at random. Local youth farming groups, such as Cultivating Community and the Local Sprouts Cooperative in Portland, as well as Lewiston's Lots to Gardens, are hosts for the whole shindig.

Conversations about sustainable agriculture can get dense at times, what with various methods of cultivating vegetables, the role of transportation, the viability of urban farming and the economics of the whole enterprise.

But on a rainy day on Boyd Street last week, the whole thing seemed simple.

"It's just healthy to grow food for yourself," said Agustin Nyapir, 15, of Portland.

A member of Cultivating Community, Nyapir stood with a shovel as others dug holes and pulled up weeds. He considered another reason: "And you don't have to spend money."

Yards away in another part of the garden, another group picked cherries from trees as cars zipped by on the nearby Franklin Arterial.

Well over 6 feet tall, Demetrius Lyons was in high demand to pluck cherries from the higher branches.

Lyons and Kristin Schwab are members of the Urban Nutrition Initiative in West Philadelphia. The group had spent the previous day building grapevines and composting at sites in Lewiston.

"I'm trying to be a vegetarian," said Lyons, 19. "Working in a garden just makes you feel different (about your food)."

Schwab said what makes the Rooted in Community conference special is that it offers hands-on experiences and discussions, all led by youths.

"It's really inspirational," said Schwab, 27. "There are over 100 teens here excited about improving health in their community."

Craig Lapine, the executive director of Cultivating Community, was at the center of the action, keeping people on task picking beans, filling flowerpots and packing food for the Elder Share program, which distributes food to local seniors.

In hosting the conference, Cultivating Community is among a friendly crowd that also sees the potential of helping society two ways – by channeling youth energy into food to feed those around them, Lapine said.

"The young people who work with us get inspired and motivated by this work," he said. But when they go back to their friends or school "there's not a lot of people to talk about it with."

This is something Kaydie Larson would definitely agree with.

The 16-year-old from Oxford Hills says it's hard to get people to change their eating habits, let alone talk about what they put in their mouths.

"Most people just want their food and they want it now," she said.

Larson found like-minds among Smith and her friends from Santa Cruz, who are members of a group similar to Cultivating Community called Food What?!

Brandon McBride of Santa Cruz said conferences like Rooted in Community are a chance to discuss ways of spreading knowledge on sustainable agriculture.

That's important because the toughest audience to convince can be the people around you.

"It's definitely important to try and talk to your friends," said McBride.

"But you have to let them...