Category Archives: Upcoming Events

Webinar: Citizen science for vegetable breeding

More sustainable and healthy food systems starts with seeds. Through volunteer trials of various cultivars of tomato seed or carrot seed, lettuce or eggplant, researchers can determine the best environments for seeds without the need for fertilizer or toxins…simply using data to create better food/agricultural security.

Join us to learn about SeedLinked, an emerging collaborative data sharing platform that connects people and data to help characterize, breed, source, and harvest the best. Democratizing data driven decision around seed because a more sustainable and healthy food system starts with seed.

Dr Julie Dawson (UW-Horticulture) and Nicolas Enjalbert will present the overall concept and mission of SeedLinked, a social enterprise platform (B corp). SeedLinked is founded upon the core values of collaboration, transparency, decentralization, and open access.It combines the power of citizen science with accessible smartphone technology and data analytics to create a tool anyone can use to breed, source, and harvest the best seeds for a more successful growing season, and a more resilient food future.

Tuesday May 11, 2021 noon-1pm

For more information and to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/startingblock-innovate-series-seedlinked-and-the-future-of-agriculture-tickets-141374160921

Thinking like a farmer: University challenges in sustainable agriculture and food systems work

Want to know what Universities are doing to organize their work around sustainable agriculture and food systems? Many faculty, staff and students have experienced the challenges of doing trans-disciplinary work inside silo-prone academic institutions. What does it take to build and maintain a home for the kind of research, teaching, extension, and engagement we need? How do those homes weather the storms of budget crises, academic unit reorganizations, leadership changes, and more?

Webinar #1: Thursday, May 27, 3pm Eastern/noon Pacific

  • Casey Hoy, Ohio State Univ. Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation;
  • Nina Ichikawa, Berkeley Food Institute;
  • Tom Kelly, Univ. of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute

Webinar #2: Tuesday, June 22, 3pm Eastern/noon Pacific

  • Kamyar Enshayan, Univ. of Northern Iowa;
  • Nancy Creamer, North Carolina State Univ., (retired) Center for Environmental Farming Systems;
  • Tom Tomich, formerly with the Agricultural Sustainability Institute, Univ. of California Davis

Use this link to register now.

These webinars are brought to you by INFAS – the coalition of sustainable agriculture centers on campuses across the US. INFAS envisions a US food system that is environmentally sustainable and socially just.INFAS catalyzes frontier work in food systems research, higher education, extension, and institutional change that we can achieve much better together than by working alone.

Learn about INFAS: https://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/infas
Join INFAS: https://asi.ucdavis.edu/programs/infas/join-infas

INFAS webinars are open to all. Membership is not required.

Jahi Chappelle: Can we have agroecology without food justice and food sovereignty?

Thursday, April 29, 4:15-5:15

Jahi Chappell
Executive Director, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network; Durham, NC

The answer is: No.

It is increasingly accepted that radical changes to our food and agriculture systems are necessary. Mainstream state and corporate actors nevertheless often attempt to paint recommendations for all but the mildest of adjustments as “political” and thus, somehow, presumptively invalid. Yet malnutrition and sustainability are unavoidably political. Agroecology is a field that, in some cases, acknowledges this inevitability, and encourages deliberation and debate, particularly through the lenses of food justice and food sovereignty. This presentation explores these dynamics, and considers them practically in the contexts of municipal anti-hunger policy in Brazil, and small-scale Black farmers in the US South.

RSVP Link: https://forms.gle/k7eXu26WDEmiuw6M8

The Weston Roundtable is made possible by a generous donation from Mr. Roy F. Weston, a highly accomplished UW-Madison alumnus. Designed to promote a robust understanding of sustainability science, engineering, and policy, these interactive lectures are co-sponsored by the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Office of Sustainability. These lectures build on the tremendous success in past years of the Weston Distinguished Lecture Series and the SAGE Seminar Series.

A U.S. Policy Roadmap: The Intersection of Food + Tech.

Moderated by Chloe Sorvino (Forbes) and Danielle Nierenberg (Food Tank).

Presented by Food Tank and the ReFresh Working Group

TODAY—REGISTER NOW. Tuesday Feb 2: The Power of Connectivity: Broadband Expansion in Rural Communities

Panelists: Michelle Miller, UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems; Leanna Mulvihill, Farm Generations Coop; Kim Olson, Retired US air force, Democratic nominee for Texas Agriculture Commissioner; and Ankita Raturi, Purdue University.

Wednesday Feb 3: Protection and Accessibility: Ensuring the Fair Use of Data in the Food System.

Panelists: Kacey Hanson, Dell Medical School; Ali Lange, Google; Matthew Lange, IC-Foods; and Robyn O’Brien, rePlant Capital.

Thursday Feb 4: Reducing Inequities Through a Digitally Skilled Workforce

Panelists: Kevin Krueger, Facebook; Jose Oliva, HEAL Food Alliance; Chris Ramsaroop, Justice for Migrant Workers; Dr. Sekou Siby, ROC United; and Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli, Farmworkers Association of Florida

Friday Feb 5: Strengthening Supply Chains to Build Trust and Improve Food Security

Panelists: Tatiana Garcia Granados, Common Market; Chris Roper, Chris Roper Services; Karen Washington, Rise and Root Farm; Amy Wu, Farms to Incubators, and more to be announced soon!

All panels are recorded. Register for one or all sessions at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-us-policy-roadmap-the-intersection-of-food-and-technology-tickets-137922635315.

Webinar on COVID19 and regional food systems

WHAT: The first webinar of the Lessons from COVID-19: Positioning Regional Food Supply Chains for Future Pandemics, Natural Disasters and Human-made Crises project that will include a brief introduction of team members, a holistic project overview, survey tools used and example questions from the first survey, preliminary data from an environmental scan of available resources and insights from prior assessments of the impacts of COVID-19 on the Florida food system. 

WHERE: Register, for free, at https://tinyurl.com/lessonsfromcovid-webinar

WHEN: January 28 1 p.m. CST (11 a.m. PST, 12 p.m. MST, 2 p.m. EST)

FOR WHO: Those engaged in the food supply chain at any level

MORE INFO: www.ruralengagement.org/lessons-from-covid-19

UW-CIAS is partnering with researchers at University of Minnesota, University of Florida, UC-Irvine and Kansas State to document lessons from COVID-19 so that we may better position regional food production to respond to future crises. To share what we are learning in real time, we are offering four free webinars over the course of the next year. Please join us for the first webinar, January 28.

This is a great way to learn more about the supply chain survey we’ve developed, too.

This work is supported by USDA-National Institute for Food and Agriculture.

Foodways and COVID19

How has the pandemic changed food for you? How have you adapted your foodways to meet these new conditions?

 CIAS and Spatula&Barcode invite you to participate in the #COVIDFOODWAYS project.

Complete one or both surveys.

Consumers, please visit https://tinyurl.com/CovidFoodwaysSurvey.

Farmers, share your unique perspective at https://tinyurl.com/CovidFoodwaysProducersSurvey.

Hay versiones en español de ambas encuestas disponibles; contáctenos si las prefiere.

CIAS at #uwmadison is partnering with Spatula&Barcode, along with Universities in Uruguay, Sweden, Mexico, and Spain to track the effect of COVID19 on our food ways. We are especially interested in hearing from farmers, and ask you to share these links with farmer friends and colleagues.

We are all affected by the pandemic and its impact on our food systems–please forward this email to anyone who might be interested!

photo credit: Clark & Peterson

Webinar: Using Maps for Food System Access and Planning

Wednesday, April 29 at 4:00pm ET, 1:00pm PT.

With COVID-19 disruptions in supply chains, mapping and analyzing food availability and flows can be powerful tools in guiding emergency food response and future food system planning. On this call, we’ll first look at the way communities have used mapping to collect and share information on food access. The second part of the discussion will give a systems overview of how segments of food supply chains interact at different scales, for different products, and for different end-users. This includes the patterns food distribution followed before COVID-19 and what the patterns might be after the pandemic. The call will help us best use food access maps while planning for food system improvements. 

We will be joined by:

·         Sara Oberle, RDN, Extension Teacher, UNH Cooperative Extension

·         Brooke Kelleher, Program Assistant, UNH Cooperative Extension

·         Michelle Miller, Associate Director of Programs, UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

This call is Wednesday, April 29 at 4:00pm ET, 1:00pm PT. Register here!

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlcuCqrTgsHdUUZembHiuEAl5MZG5sTquv%20

#DairyTogether, globally

Wisconsin Farmers Union has been organizing monthly conference calls to discuss oversupply in the dairy industry. Next week’s Dairy Together Call will be a special webinar brought to you by the UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS). 

CIAS is glad to virtually bring Torsten Hemme from the International Farm Comparison Network in to the Dairy Together conversation. The webinar will allow Dr. Hemme to share some of his work looking at different supply management policies in countries facing oversupply and allow for questions from participants.

The International Farm Comparison Network engages researchers from more than 100 countries and 140 agribusiness companies to better understand the global market. It has published an annual report since 2000 covering milk production trends, dairy farm structure dynamics, regional developments and typical farms data, and policy comparison.

This webinar will allow us to broaden our understanding of dairy supply management from a global perspective. Please join us on Wednesday, April 15th at 12 PM Central for this presentation and discussion. Join the #DairyTogether email list at https://www.dairytogether.com/ to learn more. Look out for an email next week with a link to join us on Zoom. 

Responses to COVID 19 #1

On-line sales platforms

There is a flurry of activity to support small farmers and their farmers markets and restaurant partners as we all grapple with changing supply chains. The good news is that with restaurants closed, people are purchasing more food from groceries. (More than 50% of the food we consume has come from restaurants!) Our independent grocery partners are now on the front line of resilience in the food system.

I will post info to this web site as it becomes available to me. For example, this webinar will discuss on-line sales platforms and will be recorded so you can participate live or listen later. [I realize not everyone has internet access – people are working on options. Time to make the internet a utility!]:

With restaurants and some farmers markets shutting down, we know many of you need to find alternative sales channels for your products. Customers are also looking for new solutions to buy quality, organic food safely.

Join Oregon Tilth’s free webinar on Friday, March 20 at 11:00am PST to learn more about direct-to-consumer online sales platforms.

Please forward this to any farmers that may benefit from attending.

We’ll hear from representatives from four online sales platforms:

 * Barn2Door
<https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftilth.us10.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Da8b54e2fc4edb4203771d7bc8%26id%3D826de0d82d%26e%3D86d54827d5&data=02%7C01%7C%7C6b8b60ce42c24855b99708d7cc33b50b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637202394768923494&sdata=izkRQEW%2BIvddeLqb4%2FVrs%2BJze7cMMdxxhIEtmaSK0js%3D&reserved=0>
 * Harvie
<https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftilth.us10.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Da8b54e2fc4edb4203771d7bc8%26id%3Db582c7f137%26e%3D86d54827d5&data=02%7C01%7C%7C6b8b60ce42c24855b99708d7cc33b50b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637202394768923494&sdata=dCKH%2Bu4XSqq%2FX16VD69MWunTQveQgWhTdhK1hYp0D2Y%3D&reserved=0>
 * Local Food Marketplace
<https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftilth.us10.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Da8b54e2fc4edb4203771d7bc8%26id%3D0fd301af5e%26e%3D86d54827d5&data=02%7C01%7C%7C6b8b60ce42c24855b99708d7cc33b50b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637202394768933489&sdata=XgOPG56qF4qWr9%2BMXpydHdzIgZijUb2RkU1B%2BmKuJKI%3D&reserved=0>
 * Open Food Network
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When you register, we’ll send you a round-up of online sales platforms, questions to consider, and other resources to help your farm adapt during this crisis.

The webinar will be recorded and available on our website.

*REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR <https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftilth.us10.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Da8b54e2fc4edb4203771d7bc8%26id%3Dff815ee4fd%26e%3D86d54827d5&data=02%7C01%7C%7C6b8b60ce42c24855b99708d7cc33b50b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637202394768933489&sdata=dSHxjNVgO5assJxMD6sT%2F2vo6jATUJAJxP24%2FxHBURU%3D&reserved=0>*

2020 Midwest Organic Pork Conference

March 13 -14, 2020
Hotel Julien
Dubuque, Iowa

https://www.midwestorganicporkconference.org

The only conference in the United States dedicated to presenting the best resources and information available to help expand opportunities for organic and niche pork production and distribution. 

The event includes a session on hazelnut-finished pork.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN– use the link above for more information, to register or exhibit.

Reserve your hotel room now!  
Call the Hotel Julien at 800.798.7098 or 563.556.4200