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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Session C: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

 

Beyond Peak Toil: Permaculture Solutions for Culture in Transition

Get started using permaculture design to assist in creating a sustainable future for you, your family and community. Much more than an agriculture system, permaculture design looks to Nature for decision making and problem solving. Find out why using natural principles in homes & businesses will lead to less work and waste and more productivity. Learn to recognize and use the indicators of sustainability, read the patterns of the landscape, find your happy homestead, and plan your farm products. The speakers will show how to use natural ecosystems as the guide to designing local food systems, and then go beyond the garden to localize all enterprise. Larry Santoyo has more than 20 years of permaculture design and teaching experience. He is field director of the Permaculture Institute and director of EarthFlow Design Works.
Presenter: Larry Santoyo, EarthFlow Design Works, Morro Bay, CA.

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Farming With a Sharp Pencil!

Often the key to making a profit in farming is step-by-step planning to achieve a healthy bottom line. First, current and potential markets are assessed to realistically determine what the season’s sales will be. Then, the totals of each crop needed for those markets are used in a production plan—a roadmap of how to grow what you plan to sell. Maps of each field are drawn to make sure production and land resources are in sync. Finally, a seedling calendar is written to plan production of any transplants needed. Effective management skills and ways to track profits will also be covered. Our presenter is a remarkable long-time organic farmer from Vermont who just published the Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook.
Presenter: Richard Wiswall, Cate Farm, Plainfield, VT.

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Food Safety for Small-Scale Farmers and Wholesalers

Learn the latest on food safety legislation and how to help shape the final federal bill or the rulemaking that comes afterward. In the meantime, take steps to proactively adopt farmer- and eco-friendly farm standards developed by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) with the assistance of Wild Farm Alliance (WFA). These standards and good agricultural practices (GAPs) address common sense issues, such as prior and adjacent land use, worker hygiene, and sanitation. The speakers will also include what farmers should know about domestic and wild animals, and how best to manage the few that increase risk. Farmers who learn about and implement these standards will gain a marketing advantage and protect their operations. When auditors appear on their farms, these farmers will be in a position to respectfully negotiate about the food-safety benefits of sustainable practices.
Moderator: Elanor Starmer, Food & Water Watch, San Francisco, CA.
Presenters: Jo Ann Baumgartner, Wild Farm Alliance (WFA), Watsonville, CA; Ken Kimes, Greensward Farm & CAFF Board Member, Aptos, CA; Russell Libby, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Unity, ME.

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Generation Food?!

Learn how a new generation of farmers and food activists are putting social justice at the center of their work on sustainable food and agriculture. Building on the framework presented at the Thursday plenary, panelists will get down and dirty about their successful strategies for community organizing and alliance building and how they envision their work as part of a larger societal vision about the future of food. Hear how young activists are persuading communities, schools and other local institutions to take the Real Food Challenge and facilitating the delivery of healthy, fresh, ethically and equitably produced food to people everywhere. Find out how you can connect with youth and adults from diverse backgrounds in your community and across the nation to build a sustainable food system.
Presenters: Barbara Finnin, City Slicker Farms, Oakland, CA; Nikki Henderson, Food Activist, Brooklyn, NY; Anim Steel, The Food Project, Dorchester, MA.

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Growing the Organic Market Despite a Tough Economy

Studies have shown that more consumers than ever are concerned about their food. While the tremendous growth in organics has slowed a little in the poor economy, it is still growing in relation to other segments, and some areas of the industry are doing very well. Learn what people are doing to develop the organic market, create opportunities for more farmers, and keep organics in the consciousness of consumers, government officials, and the media.
Presenters: Christine Bushway, Organic Trade Association, Washington, DC; Melody Meyer, Alberts Organics, Soquel.

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Integrating Animals In Orchards and Vineyards

This session will consider the practical benefits and challenges of raising animals with permanent crops. Animals like to browse, and trees and vines are tasty. So how does one achieve a balance of grazing without damaging the valued crop? Farm Advisor Morgan Doran has been researching how to train sheep not to eat grapevines. When sheep are fed grape leaves mixed with a mild stomach irritant, they learn that grapes don’t taste so good and leave them alone if managed properly. Doran will discuss this technique as well as grazing sheep in walnut orchards. Armando Hernandez grazes goats in a hillside vineyard in the Napa Valley, moving them to brush and pasture during the growing season. In the winter, the goats mow the cover crop and weeds, but Armando has trained them to leave the dormant vines alone. He keeps goats for milk, cheese, meat, brush management, and soil fertility, and also pastures chickens in the vineyard. Chris Kerston grazes goats, sheep, cows, and chickens in his family’s organic stone-fruit, citrus and olive orchards in the Sacramento Valley. As a direct marketer, Chris knows animals are a satisfying and profitable addition to his diversified farming operation.
Presenters: Morgan Doran, UC Cooperative Extension, Fairfield, CA; Armando Hernandez, Terra Valentine, St. Helena, CA; Chris Kerston, Chaffin Family Orchards, Oroville, CA.

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Outreach to Immigrant Communities

How do we reach communities that are isolated from the standard model? CAFF has been working to demonstrate good farming practices and earn the trust of the Sacramento Valley's Punjabi fruit growers. These farmers produce half of the peach and prune crop in the Yuba City area. A UC Berkeley-based program is improving the marketing strategies, profitability and ecological sustainability of Southeast Asian refugee farmers in the Central Valley. In the Salinas Valley, ALBA is working to promote a community food system for and by the Latino population, connecting Latino organic growers and consumers through local market venues by developing new farmers’ markets and farm stands, getting CSAs food stamp/EBT accessible, and expanding fresh produce sales in retail grocery and corner stores.  ALBA adapted the Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign to Spanish, which is evolving in the farm worker communities of Salinas. What have these projects learned about California's diverse communities? And how do we expand the sustainable and local food movement to include these immigrant groups?  
Presenters: Mark Cady, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Davis, CA; Jennifer Sowerwine, UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Berkeley; Deborah Yashar, ALBA, Salinas, CA.
 

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Renewable Energy: Financial Sustainability from Farm to Store Shelf

If you could plant a crop guaranteed to yield a healthy profit, wouldn’t you do it? Wind and solar power can provide farmers, food processors, distributors, and retailers with immediate cash flow benefits and a long-term income, reducing costs and mitigating global climate-change impacts. The speakers will discuss several farms, processors, and distributors that have completed renewable energy projects and how renewable energy is good for the bottom line. Case studies will be presented for numerous wind and solar projects, showing how ag-related projects are financed, and how California and federal subsidies make the economics even more compelling.
Presenters: Peter Asmus, author of Reaping the Winds, Stinson Beach, CA; Rob Erlichman, Sunlight Electric, San Francisco, CA; Warren Weber, Star Route Farm, Bolinas, CA; Tom Williard, Sage Renewables, Belmont, CA.

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To Bee or Not to Bee: How Organic Farmers Can Protect Pollinators

As honeybees continue to decline in numbers due to colony collapse disorder and pests like the Varroa mite, organic farmers are interested in conserving native bees, which can provide pollination services when honeybees aren’t available. This workshop will unveil the Xerces Society’s new “toolkit” that provides organic farmers with information on practices that could benefit or harm native bees. An overview of pollinator conservation efforts worldwide and the results of pollinator studies on organic and conventional farms will be presented.
Presenters: Scott Hoffman Black, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR; Claire Kremen (invited), UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.

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Wise Words from Well Seasoned Farmers

This session offers the opportunity to reflect upon an earlier era of agriculture as we enjoy a round table discussion with three very experienced veterans of agriculture. We’re gonna talk farming as it used to be, as well as the changes that have taken place over the last 50 or so years. We will hear from long-time members of their farming communities. Don grew up farming brussel sprouts and veggies on the coast north of Santa Cruz. Eliot has been farming since the 60s in Vermont and Maine. Wes has been moving farming forward from his research farm in Kansas for decades. This promises to be educational, historical, and just plain fun.
Presenters: Don Bargiacchi, Santa Cruz, CA; Eliot Coleman, Four Season Farm, Harborside, ME; Wes Jackson, The Land Institute, Salina, KS.


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