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THIS YEAR'S THEME - CULTIVATING A TRANSFORMATIVE FOOD SYSTEM
It takes a region to cultivate a transformative food system that is in right relationship to people, place, and planet.
Everything that we do requires balance. Just as plants seek the right relationship between rain, sun, nutrients, soil, and each other to flourish, we must also seek balance within ourselves, our organizations, our ecosystems, and our communities.
We are struggling with imbalance: some have hoarded resources at the expense of others, who are left with too few; some wield power, where others have little influence over their own destinies. Some go without adequate food, others suffer to produce it or are deprived of land and foodways, and all beings are harmed by continually contaminated watersheds, polluted air, and depleted soils. We grow anyway, as all life will because that is the essence of life. We survive, but we cannot thrive without the precious balance between, within, and among human and non-human alike.
What does it take to come into right relationship with each other? First, we must name the imbalances and their impacts. Then we must recalibrate, always being aware of our own power and access to resources, and acknowledging that some of us having more than we need often requires that others go without. These are wounds we can heal together, with full knowledge that this balancing restores land, community, and self. This is the beauty and essence of solidarity: our liberation is bound together.
In the midst of this grand transition, we invite you to come hear from others who are transforming our food system, to share what you know, gather resources for the world we seek together, and experience what thriving can and might feel like over a few days in the City of Brotherly Love.
Opening Plenary - Laying out the Work Ahead of Us
Friday, Oct 26, 8:30 - 9:45am | Liberty Ballroom
What stands in the way of achieving a transformative food system that equitably nourishes people and the planet? If we are to achieve a truly transformative food system, we must hold ourselves accountable for the ways we have helped to construct these barriers, and learn what we need to do to take them down. In this plenary we will name some of the less visible problems in the food system. Join us as we hear from activists and leaders working on the local to the global: with urban farmers, dairy producers, farm workers, immigrants, and the next generation of food systems leaders.
Speakers:
Charlyn Griffith, Wholistic.Art and Soil Generation; Niaz Dorry, National Family Farm Coalition and Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance; Rafaela Rodriguez, Milk with Dignity; Vanessa Garcia Polanco, Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University
Moderated by Kathy Lawrence, NESAWG Board Member, consultant at Antibiotic Resistance Action Center, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University
Charlyn Griffith: An interdisciplinary artist and social scientist, deeply committed to naming frontline communities as impact makers in all areas of industry (particularly as it relates to development, food, education and art), she supports sustainable and culturally responsible design and placemaking. Charlyn Griffith is a part of Wholistic.art, a queer, woman and POC led design lab. She is an active member of Soil Generation, a Black & Brown-led coalition of gardeners, farmers, individuals, and community-based organizations working to ensure people of color regain community control of land and food, to secure access to the resources necessary to determine how the land is used, address community health concerns, grow food and improve the environment.
Niaz Dorry: Longtime Coordinating Director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and National Family Farm Coalition board member and treasurer, Niaz Dorry was named Executive Director of NFFC in May 2018. NFFC and NAMA have entered into an innovative shared leadership model, with Niaz at the helm of both organizations. Prior to joining NAMA, Niaz was Interim COO for the Healthy Building Network, helping to apply environmental justice principles to building materials, at a time when HBN was working on homes in the Gulf of Mexico in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She worked with Greenpeace for 11 years as a toxics and environmental justice campaigner. She spent two years in Ohio in that time, fighting with communities along the Ohio River Valley against a Waste Technologies Industries hazardous waste incinerator. It was during her time at Greenpeace that she began working with community-based fishermen. The span of her work has made her well aware of the problems facing rural communities through concentration, lost markets, crumbling infrastructure, and diminished health care.
Lunch - Welcome from PA Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding
Afternoon Plenary - Cultivating the Strategies to Transform the Food System
Friday, Oct 26, 1:30 - 2:45pm | Liberty Ballroom
Around the Northeast, dedicated people are working in small ways and big to build the food system we all want to see. This work takes vision, analysis, and commitment, and persistence to keep doing it in the face of setbacks and heartbreak. We will hear from leaders about what they do to educate, empower, and mobilize their community and colleagues to work towards a transformative food system.
Speakers: Leah Penniman, Soulfire Farm; Lan Dinh, VietLead; Cristina Martinez, El Compadre Restaurant and South Philly Barbacoa, Popular Alliance for Undocumented Workers' Rights
Moderated by Onika Abraham, NESAWG Board Member, Farm School NYC
Lan Dinh: Lan comes from a family of Vietnamese refugees, farmers, and fisherfolk. Lan and her family first resettled in West Philadelphia and learned how to grow from her mother. She attended the University of Pennsylvania studying Health and Society and has eight years of experience working with food justice and youth. She is the Farm and Food Sovereignty Director at VietLead where she manages the Resilient Roots Community Farm, an intergenerational farm run by high school youth and elders. She is also apart of SumOurRoots project, a collaboration between Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Bhutanese Organization of Philadelphia, and VietLead that is building a community garden at Furness High School and the food sovereignty power of South and Southeast Asians.
Closing Plenary - Staying Inspired and Moving Forward
Saturday, Oct 27, 11:30am - 12:30pm | Liberty Ballroom
Where do we want to be? How do we leverage what is underway to advance the work identified to be done? What keeps us inspired and moving forward, hopefully together? We close the conference hearing from leaders who will answer these questions in their own work and their thoughts for the food system as a whole, so that we are energized to return to our communities and continue this work.
Speakers: Neftali Duran, I-Collective; Brandy Brooks, Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellow, CRN '15; Ingabire Adam, Massachusetts Avenue Project
Moderated by Heber Brown, NESAWG Board Member and Black Church Food Security Network