Wednesday, January 13, 1:30-4:30pm PT
$35
We invite you to join us for this unique opportunity to look at regenerative agriculture from a different perspective. We have invited leaders from around the country whose lifes’ work focuses on the humanness of a truly regenerative system focused on food access for all inspiring community action and empowerment.
Join us as we tour different regenerative farms, ranches, and urban projects and programs. Engage in an interactive panel discussion defining Regenerative Agriculture as an inclusive system and recognizing barriers in the movement.
Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman Valentin Lopez will provide the opening welcome for our panel.
Register now
Registration closes Tuesday, January 12 at 1:30 PT
Date and Location
Day:
Wednesday
Date:
10/14/20
Presenter(s):
Matthew Raiford
Title:
Matthew Raiford
Presenter Affiliation:
Gilliard Farm
Bio:
Raiford grew up breaking the dirt and trading crookneck squash for sweet potatoes, raising hogs and chickens, and only going to the grocery store for sundries. After a military career then graduation from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Raiford returned to the farm in 2011 to continue the traditions of his Gullah-Geechee heritage and to create an authentic farm-to-fork experience for locals. He received certification as an ecological horticulturalist from the University of California’s Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.He served until recently as the program coordinator and associate professor of culinary arts at the College of Coastal Georgia. In 2015, Raiford, the former executive chef at Little St. Simon’s Resort, and his partner, Jovan Sage, a food alchemist, opened The Farmer and the Larder on Newcastle Street, helping jumpstart the revival of Brunswick’s historic downtown. Raiford has appeared in Southern Living, Golden Isles, Paprika Southern, and Savannah magazines, and is a frequent presenter at food and wine festivals throughout the country.
Karen Washington
Title:
Karen Washington
Presenter Affiliation:
Rise & Root Farm
Bio:
Karen Washington is a farmer and community activist, striving to make the New York City a better place to live. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, she worked with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens. As an advocate, and former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, she stood up and spoke out for garden protection and preservation. As a member of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, she helped launch a City Farms Market, bringing fresh vegetables to the community. Karen is a board member of Farm School NYC, leading workshops on growing food and food justice across the country, Soul Fire Farm and organization committed to undoing racism and injustice in the food system and Why Hunger a grassroots support organization aimed at ending hunger. In 2010, Co- Founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings, and most recently in 2019 co-founded Black Farmer Fund aimed at supporting black farms and businesses with capital and resources in New York State.In 2012, Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential African Americans in the country and in 2014 was the recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award. Since retiring from Physical Therapy in 2014, Karen is Co-owner/Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York.
Rodrigo Sierra Corona
Title:
Rodrigo Sierra Corona
Presenter Affiliation:
Santa Lucia Conservancy
Bio:
Rodrigo is a Grassland Ecologist and the Stewardship Director at the Santa Lucia Conservancy in Carmel, CA. His work involves balancing the integration of livestock grazing and conservation techniques in order to regenerate the land and foster native species while educating local communities about the importance of animal impact for healthy landscapes. Previous to his time in California, he did his Ph.D. work in Chihuahua, Mexico where he studied the ecological interaction of prairie dogs and cattle. While there, he helped establish a grazing cooperative and frequently returns to help manage the cattle.
Leonard Diggs
Title:
Leonard Diggs
Presenter Affiliation:
Pie Ranch
Kellee Matsushita-Tseng
Title:
Kellee Matsushita-Tseng
Presenter Affiliation:
Second Generation Seeds
Bio:
Kellee is a Yonsei, 4th gen queer japanese-chinese american, living and farming on unceded territory of the Awas-was speaking Uypi-tribe, currently stewarded by the Amah Mutsun tribal band. Kellee’s work focuses on building seed sovereignty as a means of cultivating community power and platform for working towards collective liberation. Kellee works with a collective of API farmers and organizers across the West Coast, called Second Generation Seeds, which focuses on preserving, improving and breeding crops significant to Asian American communities. Kellee has over a decade of experience working in community, with a background in anti-penalty work, youth empowerment, worker rights organizing and community education, and then organizing with the Farmers of the Global Majority Collective. Kellee is currently working as the assistant manager of the farm garden at the UCSC CASFS Farm and Garden, serves on the board of directors at the National Young Farmers Coalition, and organizes with the Asian American Farmers Alliance.
