45 Years of EcoFarm!
Looking Ahead While Looking Behind

Wednesday, January 22 | 8:00-9:45 PM

In 1981 a small group of organic farmers and their colleagues convened the first EcoFarm conference in a Winters CA firehouse to network and discuss common interests. A sole guest speaker, entomologist Everett Dietrick, talked about biological control. In early organic farming days, there were “no signs or dividing lines and very few rules to guide”.

45 years later, we find ourselves with a full-fledged organic “industry” featuring market share, commodification, and rules galore, amidst a world more full of toxins than ever. Are we a success? Are we victims of this success? And what might the next 45 years look like for our movement and agriculture itself?

In this moderated format we’ll hear from seasoned veterans of that early EcoFarm conference and fresh creators of ecological farming’s future, spinning threads that intertwine past, present, and yet to be.

  • Chanowk Yisrael

    Chanowk Yisrael was born and raised in the South Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California, an area identified as a “food desert” by the USDA. During the 2008 economic crash, Chanowk began growing food in his backyard as a response to rising food prices. In 2011, Chanowk traded in his frequent flyer miles for seeds and soil and together with his wife Judith, started Yisrael Farms and began to learn the answers that are contained in the soil. For the past 13 years, Yisrael Farms has been a beacon of ecological land stewardship, regenerative agriculture, racial equity and justice, community building, and workforce development and consists of multiple locations that include chickens, livestock, and market gardens. Yisrael Farms is not only providing healthy food for the community but changing the narrative & overcoming the systemic barriers that stand between us, land and justice. Chanowk has served as president of Slow Food Sacramento, is a founding member of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative, and is on the leadership team of the National Black Food Justice Alliance.

  • Dru Rivers

    Dru Rivers is a founding partner of Full Belly Farm where she has dedicated her life to sustainable farming through education, day to day operations, flower and animal production and 41 years of farmers markets. Dru raised her 4 children at the farm, with hands on schooling and organic food that made three of them want to stay on and become partners in the farming operation. Dru has served on the Board of Directors of EcoFarm for 40 years and has played a significant role in fundraising for the organization through the Hoes Down Harvest Festival - an on-farm fundraising event that is now in its 33rd year. Dru has been a speaker, writer and visionary for the past 40 years on organic farming practices around the state.

  • Miguel Altieri

    Miguel Altieri is an emeritus Professor of Agroecology at the University of California, Berkeley. He has conducted most of his research in California and Latin America working closely with farmers on implementing principles of agroecology to design productive, biodiverse, and resilient farming systems. He has written more than 250 scientific articles and more than 40 books among them Agroecology: the science of sustainable agriculture, Biodiversity and Pest Management in Agroecosystems and Agroecology: Science and Politics. He is currently Co-Director of the Centro Latino Americano de Investigaciones Agroecologicas (CELIA –www.celia. agroeco.org). He is also a farmer in the hillsides of south west Antioquia, Colombia, where together with his wife, Dr. Clara Nicholls, they established an agroecological lighthouse promoting food sovereignty projects in impoverished neighboring rural communities.

  • Sara Patterson

    Sara Patterson is a farmer, activist, chef, and entrepreneur. At age 10, her family moved from the San Fernando Valley to rural Southern Utah. At age 14, she officially started Red Acre Farm, a CSA with four shareholders and one acre. It is now a 2-acre biodynamic certified organic farm with a full diet CSA, farm stand, kitchen, and farm stay. At age 20, Sara co-founded Red Acre Center, a nonprofit for Food and Agriculture. The Center has passed over 19 bills directly helping farmers and artisan producers. It hosts the Utah Farm and Food Conference in its ninth year.

Successful Farmers Panel

Friday, January 24, 2024, 8:30–10:00 AM

  • Wanda Stewart

    Wanda Stewart is the Executive Director of Common Vision, an organization “doing good” at the nexus of education, food, and the environment. Common Vision’s work reflects gardens in schools, trees in ground, and food to families, with a focus on the needs of disenfranchised communities of color and school children . After many professional years as a school administrator, Wanda defines her essential roles now as farmer, community organizer, and enthusiastic tree-hugging environmental steward. As a Black woman, mother and teacher, what’s central are cultural connections, creativity and courageous conversations to her personal growth, her work in community, and her steadfast determination to be of meaningful service in the transition to a blossoming new world.

  • Justin Miller

    Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Justin Miller spent his early career running large scale food manufacturing plants in Sonoma County and Southern California, and now calls Placer County home. Along with his wife and partner Camelia Enriquez, Justin owns and operates Twin Peaks Orchards, a 100-acre certified organic farm growing specialty varieties of fruits and vegetables. Founded in 1912 by Camelia’s family, Justin made a promise to her grandfather to continue the orchard in his legacy, farming in respect to the land and its natural resources. Justin serves on the Board of Directors for CCOF, as chairperson for CDFA Small Scale Producers Advisory Committee, and as Board President of the Sebastopol Farmers Market. Aside from farming, Justin enjoys reading, cooking, traveling, and spending time with his children and beloved dogs.

  • Kelly Brown

    Kelly Brown is a queer farmer and florist on Amah Mutsun land in Santa Cruz, CA. Kelly started Do Right Flower Farm in 2020, farming four acres of organic specialty cut flowers. Do Right is the culmination of 11 years of prior experience growing and selling flowers at Blue Heron Farms in Corralitos, CA. For Kelly, owning a farm business is an opportunity to create a supportive and growth-focused working environment for themself and other underrepresented workers. They believe in the revolutionary quality of cultivating natural beauty and becoming intimate with natural cycles. They hold BAs in Feminist Studies and Community Studies from UC Santa Cruz. When not farming, Kelly is wandering the streets and mountains of Santa Cruz with their dog, practicing yoga, and learning to take it easy.

  • Javier Zamora (Moderator)

    Javier Zamora (Moderator) came from a farming background in Mexico and landed in Los Angeles at the age of 20. For the next 20 years, Zamora learned English and eventually attended college at the age of 43, earning a degree in Horticulture. Following college, he attended Agriculture and Land Based Learning (ALBA). After completing the rigorous program, he began his farming career on an acre and one-half or organic ground. Today, Zamora farms 65 acres in the Pajaro Valley. He currently mentors several first generation farmers, showing them where to get financial help, how to look for land, and how to access other resources to be successful. He regularly collaborates with organizations that have the shared vision of supporting family farms and building a more equitable food system.

How Immigrant Farmworkers & Activists from the Borderlands
Have Enriched American Farm Communities

Thursday, January 23 | 1:30-2:45 PM

In his new history of resistance from the US/Mexico border region, Nabhan shows an unbroken chain of resistance to colonial forces, as well as creative disruption and innovation to the present day. The key themes of the new book, Against the American Grain, are that innovation usually emerges from the margins of our society, that bilingual and multicultural individuals generate problem-solving strategies that spill out from rural areas to enrich all of America, and that multi-cultural collaborations have enriched American landscapes and protected the poor and marginalized in innumerable ways. With a farm workforce that now includes climate refugees from more than a dozen desert countries, we should anticipate another wave of resistance and innovation. Speaking as an orchard-keeper, agave and spice-grower, and rural community development organizer with a half century of experience, Nabhan will inspire more direct action from multicultural alliances that will leave no farmer, farmworker or food service worker behind.

Gary Paul Nabhan is a recipient of a Sustie Award for his work on sustainable food systems in the bi-national Southwest. He is a Lebanese-American and grandson of an Arab fruit peddler who became a refugee from climate catastrophe and war in the Middle East. He is also an Interfaith Franciscan Brother who has spearheaded the Sacred Plant Biocultural Recovery Initiative for which he has received awards from foundations in the U.S. and Arab World. He is author of 35 books, most recently the James Beard award-winning Agave Spirits, Against the American Grain, and Chile, Clove and Cardamom. He grows over 100 varieties of desert adapted fruits and nuts, 55 of agaves, and two dozen spice crops near the U.S./Mexico border.

Solidarity is our Superpower:
Stories from Our Shared Work to Honor our Earth Mother

Saturday, January 25 | 10:30-11:45 AM

Indigenous land stewardship for food is a demonstration of kinship that involves nurturing relationships with ecosystems that once provided an abundance of food prior to colonial contact. As the planet is suffering from the effects of climate change, Indigenous people have seen their natural resources that have sustained their communities for thousands of years depleted or destroyed due to pollution, urban expansion, or climate change. During this discussion, Charlene will share information about some of these ancient local resources and explain their significance and value to society. The hope is to lift their voices, to ensure that these indigenous plants are part of the farm plan and nurtured within their respective ecosystems.

Speakers:

  • Charlene Eigen-Vasquez, Founder of Confederation of Ohlone People and Director of Landback and Cultural Steward, Deep Medicine Circle Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Kinship and Giving Voice to Indigenous Resources

  • Rupa Marya, Founder of Deep Medicine Circle

Charlene Eigen-Vasquez, J.D. is of Ohlone descent, from the village of Chitactac. She is dedicated to land back initiatives, land preservation, land restoration, cultural revitalization and environmental justice because these initiatives have a direct impact on physical and mental health. As a mother and grandmother, she completed a law degree so that she might better serve Indigenous communities. Today her focus is on regenerative leadership strategies and leveraging her legal and mediation skills to advocate for Indigenous interests, negotiate agreements, and build relational bridges. She is an acknowledged peacemaker, trained by Tribal Supreme Court Justices. Charlene is the former CEO and Director of Self-Governance for the Healing and Reconciliation Institute. Charlene also serves as Chairwoman of the Confederation of Ohlone People, Co-Chair of the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council and Board Vice President for the Santa Clara Valley Indian Health Center. Charlene was recently brought into the Planet Women’s 100 Women Pathway, a cohort of diverse women leaders at the helm of the environmental movement.

Physician, composer, writer and activist Rupa Marya will offer a framework to understanding how what ails the planet, our fracturing societies and our bodies wracked by inflammatory disease are interrelated. Marya introduces a higher order of diagnosis from the groundbreaking book written with political ecologist Raj Patel—Inflamed: Deep Medicine & the Anatomy of Injustice. In this work, they weave a rich fabric that brings together ways of knowing from health sciences, history, Tribal Environmental Knowledge, ecology, microbiology and storytelling that can help illuminate how to rebuild a culture of care through repairing fractured relationships between groups of people and between people and the web of life, starting with land relationship. In Ohlone homelands, Marya puts these concepts into daily practice through the Deep Medicine Circle, a collective of farmers, lawyers, scholars, economists, artists, Indigenous elders, youth, healthcare workers, botanists, health students, ecologists who work to repair relationships through the Farming is Medicine program, an innovative agroecological food systems model that is having transformative impacts. Working in the urban center of Oakland on a 1-acre rooftop farm and on the rural coast of the peninsula with Indigenous Ohlone community on a 38-acre Landback farm, the Deep Medicine Circle is building a local food system based in the practices of care, uplifting farmers as the frontline of Whole Systems Health. Marya will share the framework, the practices and data of this ongoing farming and healing work with the Ecofarm community.