2010 Food and Farming - Conference Schedule

Now is the time to think big and dream while awake. Just cursing the droughts, melting glaciers, oil spills and pathological politics is futile. As Caroline Casey says, “There is no future in gloom and doom.”

Energy is power. Father sun still offers it free, four and half billion years later. Photosynthesis of the spirit, chloroplasts sprout from my sweat glands. It must have been something I ate, like organic food grown from seeds that my grandfather’s grandmother prayed over, kissing the earth.

Photo by Jan Mangan

It is the women, in many cultures, who are the keepers of the seed; sacred biology avows that truth. It was Estevan’s mother and “Tia” who would “trade seeds from the different waters--Rio Embudo, Rio Chama, Rio Santa Cruz, and the Rio Grande--to invigorate them.”

Hearing the stories of that sacramental Permaculture practice, I am invigorated too.

• Gary Hirshberg (Friday Plenary) has driven his ecological values into the mainstream by building Stonyfield Farm into the largest organic yogurt company in the world.  He believes that the power of the market place can save the world, “The force of commerce got us in this mess and it’s the only force that will get us out.”
• Michael Ableman (Stories and Images from Ancient Traditions to the New Frontier of Food and Agriculture, Friday 2:45 PM) is one of the true lovers of Mother Earth, each season wooing her to full reproductive abundance, while capturing the images and sharing the stories of people who work the land
• Michael Ableman, Gary Hirshberg, and pioneering organic farmer Amigo Cantisano (The Organic Challenge, Friday 4:30 PM) discuss organic agriculture’s challenges, risks and opportunities of developing organic agriculture as the dominant economic food system.
• “We dream a different future for our land and our people.” Peter Warshall (Dreaming New Mexico, Saturday Plenary and Saturday workshop 2:45 PM) elegantly maps out a blue print for a systematic transformation to a more local food system that honors and supports health and culture, while creating green jobs. 

• It’s all connected. Permaculture design teacher Louie Hena, a native of Tesuque Pueblo, reminds us that “respect, caring, and sharing,” the ethics of Permaculture, are also the principles that help organize traditional Pueblo way of life. Louie joins Larry Santoyo, (Permaculture for Humanity, Saturday 4:30) ex-lawman and highly experienced Permaculture design consultant who taught with Permaculture founder Bill Mollison. Larry and Louie share their practical experience guided by the understanding that all elements are interdependent and contribute to the needs of the whole system.

• “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn,” Ralph Waldo Emerson. Conserve biodiversity and engage in joyful, autonomous, seed democracy by exchanging open-pollinated seeds (Seed Exchange, Saturday 6:30 PM). Hosted by Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Tesuque Pueblo Farm and Sustainable Seed Company.

• “The proof is in the pudding” or in the case of the Food and Farming Banquet (Saturday 7 PM) the proof is in the quinoa, wild mushroom, Chevre goat cheese stuffed chile pepper. The dinner’s local food menu is designed by Native American chef Lois Ellen Frank. Enjoy great local food, good company and celebrate our guest of honor, The Mayan Seed Ark Project, working to ensure healthy native food for survival of future generations. This event requires purchasing a special ticket.

• “It’s not just about being a woman. It’s about the impact that femininity has in changing businesses for the better. Women lean towards relationships and long-term strategies that prioritize future generations,” says author Temra Costa (Women Who Change The Way We Eat, Sunday 2:45), who hosts Lois Ellen Frank, author Anna Lappe’, and Nancy Vail co-founder of Pie Ranch.