Eco-Farm 07 Conference Schedule Saturday

Workshop Session G: 8:30 - 10:00 am
Bamboo: The Giant Grass with a Million Uses
As building materials become ever more expensive, some farmers are turning to the big grass, bamboo. Bamboo is an amazing and renewable building material as well as a source of food and a highly profitable ornamental crop. This workshop will give you some basic information about growing methods, bamboo species and their uses, keeping bamboo under control, and how to harvest and build with it. Special attention will be given to choosing bamboo species for particular climates and for architectural use, food, fodder, and value-added bamboo products.
Presenter: Karl Bareis, International Bamboo Association, Santa Cruz, CA.

Biodiversity as a Pest Management Service for Your Farm *
Increasing your farm’s biodiversity can dramatically reverse your operation’s pest problems. You don’t have to pay the creatures who take up residence in the habitat you provide, but they work long hours for you. How can you restore more biodiversity on your farm? The speakers will discuss many approaches including creating bat habitat; planting trap crops; managing weed seeds with mice, microbes, and beetles; and dealing with gophers, ground squirrels and other vertebrates.
Presenters: Rex Dufour, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), Davis, CA; Virgilio Yepez, Farm Manager Dutra Farms, Watsonville, CA.

Colleges Convert to the Wisdom of Local, Organic Food
Universities, colleges, and institutions are finally learning about other options for their food service operations. Consumer demand at these institutions is leading to more healthy meals sourced from local, organic farms. This is a great opportunity for regional farmers to establish new markets and build community food-sheds while improving the diet in nearby institutions. Students are calling for a more environmentally and socially responsible footprint for institutional food buying. Food service directors are making changes to succeed with this model. Farmers and co-operatives are organizing to meet the emerging local market. And customers are pleased, as the food speaks for itself.
Presenters: Tim Galarneau, UC Santa Cruz Food Systems Working Group and UC Sustainable Foods Project, Santa Cruz, CA; Dina Izzo, Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association, Salinas, CA; Heidi Nuti, Sodexho Food Service at Menlo Community College, Menlo Park, CA.

Compassionate Treatment of Livestock
Dr. Temple Grandin is the pioneering author of Thinking in Pictures; Livestock Handling and Transport; and Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals. Her book Animals in Translation was a New York Times best seller. Her visionary work in livestock handling, housing, and slaughter came about as she was overcoming autism, when she realized there was very little understanding of or compassion for how animals perceived the environment and situations that increase stress. She has designed countless confinement, handling, and slaughtering facilities that are based on the fact that animals have rights and are thinking creatures and not just property. Her talk will focus on the ways a farmer or rancher can “audit” a facility with animal welfare in mind. As Dr. Grandin says, “I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” She is in demand around the world as a speaker on both autism and cattle handling.
Presenter: Temple Grandin, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO.

Fossil-Free Landscaping
There were beautiful gardens long before there was fossil fuel. Our dependence on oil for the creation and care of gardens and landscaping is not a necessity, just a bad habit. Wise landscape professionals can redefine their careers to make the best of the transition to fossil-free landscaping. As Richard Heinberg says, “...if you can’t do it without fossil fuels, by definition, it ain’t sustainable.” Indeed, fossil-free is the Next Big Thing in horticulture. Join two visionary landscapers in this exploration of the future of sustainable landscaping.
Presenters: Owen Dell, County Landscape and Design, Santa Barbara, CA; Ken Foster, Terra Nova Ecological Landscaping, Santa Cruz, CA.

Industrial Hemp Strategic Roundtable
Be a part of the strategic discussion about the next steps to secure farmers’ rights to grow hemp as a food and fiber crop in the state of California. Governor Schwarzenegger’s veto of AB 1147 — the Hemp Bill that passed the California legislature this year — has necessitated a definitive and targeted response to finally remove the threat of legal prosecution for farmers who wish to grow hemp. Hear about the strategies to date in California and across America from the advocates who helped put the bill legalizing hemp production on the governor’s desk. Let them know, “We’ll be baaack!”
Moderator: Peggy Miars, CCOF, Santa Cruz, CA.
Presenters: John Roulac, Nutiva Hemp Foods, Sebastopol, CA; Patrick Goggin, CA Counsel for the Hemp Industries Association and Vote Hemp, San Francisco, CA; Charles Meyer, Farmer, Stratford, CA.

Let’s Get it Together!
Nonprofits often look to collaborations with other organizations to leverage resources, reduce competition, and increase effectiveness and power. Working together, however, can be difficult and frustrating, and frequently fails to live up to expectations. The Institute for Conservation Leadership recently completed a comprehensive study of collaborations among environmental and sustainable agriculture nonprofits, and has created a tool kit designed to help us create strong and functional collaborations. Come share the challenges you’ve faced in working together and learn about methods and skills for building better coalitions and partnerships.
Presenter: Barbara Rusmore,
Institute for Conservation Leadership, Bozeman, MT.

Passionate Pumpkins, Squash Sisters, & Glorious Gourds *
Jattepumpa, Mandan Yellow, Kindred, Mammoth, Lumina, Omaha, Warty Orange Hardhead, Benning’s Green, Nest Egg, & Beirut. The list of the luscious, quirky, individualistic family of Cucurbitaceae seems endless in variety, as do their tastes, textures, colours, and shapes! Our workshop will explore this fascinating rainbow of plants, including keys to their culture and wise harvest, and the best means of saving their seeds. We will also hear about their role in celebrations, art, music, and the creation of culinary magic.
Presenters: Nancy Vail & Jered Lawson, Pie Ranch, San Mateo County, CA; Doug Gosling, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Occidental, CA; TBA

Closing Plenary Session: 10:30 - 11:45 am (more info)
Food as Medicine: Food as Poison
Chuck Benbrook and Dr. Alan Greene
The way that foods are grown and processed determines food quality. Production systems can have surprising impacts on nutrient content, antioxidant levels, fatty acid profiles, and the presence of pesticides, animal drug residues, and food-borne pathogens. These key dimensions of food quality, coupled with dietary choices, play critical roles in sexual development and reproduction, as well as a child’s development through adolescence. High quality food can also help prevent conditions such as ADHD, autism, infertility, low IQ, Alzheimer’s, high cholesterol, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, depression, obesity, and premature birth.

Chuck Benbrook will describe factors contributing to the downward trend in nutrient density of many conventional foods and how organic farming can help reverse this troubling erosion in food quality. Alan Greene, MD, storyteller, physician, and expert on organic foods, will share the latest research on how food production systems, inputs, and technologies alter us — for better or worse.

Closing Circle at the Beach: 1:00 pm

friday schedule

* indicates DPR credits have been applied for