Food Justice: Challenges and Opportunities – Thursday Keynote

Malik Kenyatta Yakini,​ founder & executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSM)

Saturday Keynote: Mushrooms and the Mycology of Consciousness

Paul Stamets,​ Fungi Perfecti, Olympia, WA

Pre-Conference Events

Bus Tour: Organic Farming in the Salinas Valley​:​ ​This all-day field trip will visit 3 organic farms and a composting project in the Salinas Valley. World famous as the nation’s “Salad Bowl”, this region right next to the Pacific Ocean is an area of cool, foggy summers, sunny springs and falls, mild wet winters (we are praying!), and features a great range of crops suited to the climate and fertile coastal soils.

Entrepreneurial Two-Day Intensive: Sustainable Business Skills for Sustainable Agriculture:​ From business planning to marketing, record keeping to understanding regulations, these workshops are the perfect supplement to real, on-farm experience. This program is specifically designed for specialty crop producers: vegetable, fruit, nut, etc. In addition to the workshops, attendees will join a statewide network of beginning farmers who have completed the same intensive, giving you peer-to-peer community support to keep you inspired and on track.

Producing Value-Added Foods Safely, Legally, and Successfully:​ ​ ​At this session attendees will learn how to produce value-added foods from their crops or animals. This workshop will include instruction on how to produce a product legally and safely, use basic marketing concepts to build a brand, get products on the shelf at supermarkets and specialty retailers, and price products for profit.

Regenerative Dry-Farming: Perspectives and Practices for Regenerative Agriculture in Dry Lands​: ​This intensive is specifically aimed at determining the role of dry farming within a regenerative, carbon-centric (“carbon farming”) approach. Topics will include perennial grain systems, agroforestry, and dry-farm practices in orchards and vineyards, as well as the use of amendments such as biodynamic composts to regenerate soil.

‘Seed to Eaters’ EcoFarm Preconference Symposium:​ ​ ​Hear from wholesalers, plant breeders, and seed growers who have partnered to create new varieties to fill seasonal gaps, and from grocers and chefs who have joined forces with local farmers to find and promote exciting new varieties that thrive in the field and shine on the produce shelf and the dinner plate.Then, enjoy an interactive showcase where you can taste and hear stories about a diverse range of unique, delicious, vegetable varieties.

Conference Workshops Focusing on Cultivating Diversity

Diversify EcoFarm: What Will it Take?​ ​If we are committed to diversifying our EcoFarm movement, what work do we need to do to make it happen? Diversification does not simply “happen” because we invite speakers from different racial and ethnic groups to the EcoFarm Conference. On the contrary, we all need to examine our own privilege, power, access, and opportunities, exploring deep within ourselves what it means to share and open up the space that has been dominated by our close-knit circle for so long.

Discussion Group – Out Here: Queer Farmers in the U.S.​ ​What does it mean to be a queer farmer in the U.S? Join us for a discussion group before the screening of Out Here: A Documentary about the Hearts and Hard Work of Queer Farmers in the U.S. produced by the Queer Farmer Film Project.

Cultivating Diversity in the Ecological Farming Community​,​ Diversity is important to an ecological farm as well as the ecological farming community. The community should contain a culturally diverse group of stakeholders, but all too often it hasn’t been very diverse at all. Our diverse group of panelists will talk about the challenges of building local, sustainable food enterprise networks in underserved neighborhoods, enlisting a diverse community to do so.