The 2011 conference is over, but you can still read about the workshop offerings, below.  Curious about our next event?  Follow us on Facebook!


Health Track

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Honoring Our Bodies with Healthy Foods
Presenter: Leah Penninman, Soul Fire Farm

We will learn about the connection between the food we eat and our overall wellness. Our communities suffer from high rates of diet-related diseases and we have the power to change this. In this workshop, we will prepare food together using vegetables from Soul Fire Farm. Details will be shared about how to grow these foods and turn them into delicious and easy-to-prepare meals and snacks. This information is crucial as one of the barriers to our health is the perception that corporate junk food is “good.” Everyone will get to taste some fresh, nutritious food that really is GOOD and take this information back to their communities.

Sustainable Life Choices and Renewable Resistance

Presenters: Jason Corwin and Leslie Jones, Woods News: People of Color Off Grid n Unplugged & Southern Tier Advocacy & Mitigation Project, Incorporated (S.T.A.M.P.)



This alternative living strategy session will invite participants to answer these questions by re-defining sustainability and self-determination in terms that make sense to them. In addition to learning about the experience of the facilitators in leaving the city for rural living off grid – solar power (for electricity), wood heat (for warmth), well water (for life), composting toilets (for health and wellth), family farming (for local/organic food), and waste vegetable oil/biodiesel (for fuel) since 2002 – we will collectively develop practical strategies for manifesting abundance, clarity, and well-being in all aspects of our lives, and for community empowerment.



Kitchen.Connection.

Presenters: Eboni Banks and Edo Mohammed, Resident.Connect.Care.

Participants will learn how to maximize the nutritional value of the food they’re eating at home. Most of the workshop will be interactive. We’ll start with a brief introduction of raw/living foods and a conversation on the impact these foods have on the body and in particular in managing and preventing chronic illness. Next we’ll have a demonstration of how to make one tasty raw snack to be sampled by the participants along with a variety of other raw snacks for participants to try with questions being asked of the audience throughout the tasting. Lastly, we’ll end with a discussion and distribute information and recipes for participants to take away to share and try on their own.Edo and Eboni have worked professionally in the arena of raw/living food in various capacities and both have facilitated workshops and food demonstrations on this topic. Participants will learn where they can buy their fruits and vegetables as well as dairy, eggs , and meats from Black farmers.

Why We Garden: A Discussion on Men of Color Who Do Gardening to Fight and Heal

Presenter: Andrew Hoyles

This workshop is to be an open discussion on how men of color who are often left out of the dialogue on urban gardening, actually have a lot of input in how our involvement in the process can be incredibly healthy and restorative to ourselves and our communities at large. Topics of discussion would be stereotypical roles as providers, our larger historical experience in agriculture and what it means to take part in it now, self-care. The simple action is mainly empowerment and acknowledging that the work is being done by men of color (especially young) too.


Your Thoughts: A Different Type of Advocacy: Approaches to Community Food Education

Presenters: Tre Williams, Melissa Danielle, Angela Davis
A discussion on the role of Community Food Education in the Urban Food Movement. This panel will survey approaches to Comnunity Food Education and the challenges in creating public programming that is accessible, culturally relevant, educational and economically empowering all while engaging community by way of the palate.

Justice Track

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Black and Green: 200 Years of Sustainable Living
Presenters: Elissa Blount-Moorhead and Jennifer Scott, Weeksville Heritage Center

Nineteenth century residents of Weeksville developed a positive relationship with the land and their environment, however it is important to note in the African American community (as in many under-served or disenfranchised populations) this existence has not been without struggle and inconsistencies. Needless to say, in our efforts to attain equality, material stability, and a place in urban America, many of these former connections, folkways, and traditions have become distant and, in some cases, wiped from our collective memory. Despite this dichotomy, triggering positive elements of this “memory” of the long history of interaction with the environment is a central theme of the work that Weeksville is currently developing and carrying out. Weeksville has been able to draw upon its historic research to create and confirm African Americans long-standing participation with the environment and voice around these issues that are generally not acknowledged or embraced by the current, elite, Green movements.

Our presentation will give participants programming and workshops ideas that incorporate the history of early African American intentional communities’ relationship to land and their environment to rethink and reshape urban agriculture programs.

Building Bridges (We must Tread water in order to Build Bridges for those who Follow.)
Presenters: Kyoka Akers and Jason Patterson, Live Real

Participants will learn how the industrial agriculture system is killing the people and poisoning the land, along with how to engage policy makers, community leaders and the youth in the ongoing struggle for food and social justice. The workshop will consist of short videos and lectures that will highlight our experience of working with youth and being apart of urban areas that are currently suffering from an inadequate food and justice system. Both Jason and Kyoka not only have experience by being Live Real Fellows and participants of the Food and Freedom Ride, but also by doing work in their own communities by way of educating, planning, organizing and implementing. Participants will be able to engage youth within community centers, schools, juvenile institutions and places of worship, in order to establish; garden clubs, agriculture based workshops, community gardens, social media and other ways to support you within the food system.

Developing Popular Culture Around the Farm Bill: Building a Popular Base for Action

Presenter: Nancy Romer, Brooklyn Food Coalition and Suzanne Babb, Black Urban Growers (BUGs)

The Farm Bill has controlled major elements of our food system for the past century. Yet most activists and consumers have no idea what it is or how it works. Our plan is to create an interactive nuts and bolts roadshow to help everybody understand not only what the farm bill is but how it effects what is on your plate. Workshop will end with action items participants can do.

Shared Struggle: Global Challenges in Food Security and Models for Student Activism

Presenter: Keondra S. Bills, Graduate Student in Sustainable Development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs

This workshop examines the fundamental factors influencing global food security and the shared struggle of Diasporic and Indigenous African farmers.  The first segment will focus on the core issues affecting smallholder farmers on the Continent including land rights, access to inputs, soil degradation, desertification and distribution challenges. Parallels to structural constraints of US farmers will be emphasized.  The second segment will highlight case studies of student-led activism and advocacy, providing participants with a framework for organizing around food justice issues at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Structural Racism, Land, and the Food System
Presenters: Anthony Giancatarino and James Subudhi

Center for Social Inclusion uses the Structural Racism lens for all our policy work including: land loss, transportation policy, renewable energy policy, broadband policy, healthcare implementation, and in communications. We also have built in capacity around food systems analysis.Participants will learn about using a structural race lens to analyze the food system. This lens can be used by farmers and gardeners to identify opportunities and leverage points for creating change. In addition, participants will gain a structural race lens that can help them advocate for policy change and give them some tools to support the knowledge they have and work they are already doing.

The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act and Economic Justice

Presenter: Thomas Mitchell, University of Wisconsin Law School

Participants will learn that the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws recently promulgated the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act which the American Bar Association endorsed in February. Nevada became the first state to enact UPHPA into law and state legislators in a few other states such as Georgia may introduce bills in the coming months so that UPHPA can be considered in those states. The Act improves the ability of those who own heirs’ property to retain their property or at least the real estate-wealth which is associated with their property. During the workshop, I will review the problems with tenancy-in-common ownership (the technical legal name for heirs’ property ownership) which makes It the most unstable form of common ownership the law recognizes and will demonstrate how UPHPA provided heirs’ property ownership with stronger property rights. Participants will find out how they can play an important role in helping to enact UPHPA in states across the country. Further, participants will find out how to connect with a coalition called the Heirs Property Retention Coalition.

Video as an organizing tool: A Hands-on Workshop and Discussion

Presenters: Nicole Betancourt and Flavia Jordan, Parent Earth

Parent Earth uses video as a tool to educate, inform and organize parents around important food issues. This hands-on workshop will screen new and entertaining activist videos related to the Food and Farm Bill. Parent's Earth short videos to be screened will include the following: 1) Scripted PSA 2) Short documentary about the amazing work of Karen Washington, trailblazer, urban gardener, community organizer and grandmother 3) Short video with Dr. Lisa Thorton, who is on the front lines of the obesity epidemic. Every participant receives a free DVD/screening materials and has a chance to contribute ideas for future film topics.

Organizing for Power: Visions of Black Food Justice and Sovereignty

Presenters: Maria Whittaker, Anan Lololi, AyeNay Abye, Sasteh Moseley, Zakiya Harris

This strategy session for Black folks will highlight and explore organizing led by and for Black folks for food and health justice and food sovereignty, to achieve concrete goals of food justice and food sovereignty. The three main outcomes of the session are to: 1) Identify the system of problems related to food and agriculture at various levels affecting our communities;  2) Brainstorm and share successful policy initiatives for resolution and;  3) Conclude with clear next steps on how we can build the collective organizing power of Black Farmers, Urban Gardeners and others.  The session is designed as a dialogue, an open space focused on participant knowledge, sharing and engagement.

Black and Green: The Story of DBCFSN
Presenters: Malik Yakini and Monica White, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network


The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) was formed to build food security in Detroit's Black community by: 1) promoting urban agriculture; 2) encouraging cooperative food buying programs; and 3) promoting healthy eating habits. The purpose of this session is to describe how DBCFSN fulfills its purpose through its various educational programs (e.g., workshops, annual harvest festival), partnerships with local schools (e.g., Food Warriors Youth Development Program), the UJAMAA cooperative buying program, and two-acre D-Town Farm

Black/Land: A Different American History
Presenters: Mistinguette Smith and Danvelle O'Hara, Black Land Project

Smith and O’Hara will present a different American history that places black Americans’ relationship to land and place at its center. Then, using race as a lens, presenters and participants of all ethnic and racial backgrounds will actively participate in: Identifying their own relationships to land and place, including links between southern farms and northern urban cities; land loss, homeownership, and homelessness; wealth, health and historical trauma related to land; Exploring new connections between issues that usually are treated as unrelated environmental, economic development, or civic engagement concerns; and
Considering new allies and partnerships to support black access to land.

Engagement Inner-city Communities on the Issue of Food Justice and Local Farm Bill
Presenter: Jeremiah Lowery, Common Good City Farm

How to engage members of the community on food justice issues and the creation of local farm bills through various media outlets, community outreach techniques, and programs. Will teach the community how to create their own radio shows for the community on the topic of food justice, how to do community outreach and get lower income communities organized and active around food justice issues, and what programs are most inclusive to inner city and lower income communities. Also will teach people how to pass a local farm bill in their communities.

Growing Food Together CSA

Presenters: Willie Flowers and Vincent Shelton, Park Heights Community Health Alliance and Black Food Tribe

Participants will learn how to build community gardens and build a community CSA. The presentation will show that the application of the community garden in the neighborhood and how an organization can produce food for community in need. PHCHA has an existing CSA for two seasons that has won an award for their community involvement. The facilitator will illustrate simple grassroots steps for organizing a garden.

If You Don’t Eat, I Don’t Eat: Think on These Things
Presenter: Lila Cabbil, Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development

Dismantling structural racism calls for conscious intentional behavior on the part of anti-racists. In the absence of accountability there is little movement toward change. A guided process will challenge participants to conduct an accountability self assessment and translate principles of accountability to an action agenda. Sharing of personal stories and strategies to address the white supremacy in the structural racism we live daily. At the end of the day participants will come to a clearer understanding of their own personal accountability for relationships in their current anti-racist efforts.

Wealth Track

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A Fool With a Plan
Presenter: Greg Allen, Sweetwork Project, Inc.

Participants will learn about early-stage business planning in an interactive setting. The focus will be on self-education and self-confidence (two vital and interrelated components of successful entrepreneurial risk-taking). Participants will discuss Sweetwork Project, a worker-owned organic grocery store in the start-up stage that will eventually involve young people who have recently aged out of NYC youth services. The presenter is the founder of this project. It will be impressed upon participants that they may take actions to start writing a business plan immediately.

Cornell Small Farms Program and Northeast Beginning Farms Project resources
Presenters: Anu Rangarajan and Matthew Goldfarb

Join Anu Rangarajan and Matthew Goldfarb from the Cornell Small Farms Program (CSFP) and Northeast Beginning Farmer Project (NEBFP) for this two part session exploring the a variety of on-line video links, webinars, published guides and tools to help you find who and what you need to support your decision making process for your farm. These resources were designed specifically for beginning and small farmer audiences. The tools and resources range from financial planning, land access, marketing strategies and more. In the second half of the session workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss the educational materials or resources that may be missing. We will discuss effective outreach and communication strategies to best reach urban farmers and farmers of color.

Ensuing Fair and Equal Access to Black and Disadvantaged Farmers in NYS: A Listening Session with Empire State Development - New York State’s Economic Development Agency
Presenters: Linda La Violette, Empire State Department

Governor Cuomo is committed to expanding the opportunities for black farmers in New York State. While launching the “Fresh Connects Farmers Market Program” in 2011 we encountered problems finding black farmers to participate in our markets. In response to this New York State is making a commitment to ensure fair and equal access with targeted outreach and assistance for black, minority and disadvantaged farmers. The objective of our listening session would be to develop suggestions on how to build upon existing cultural transformative initiatives that would increase black and minority participation in agriculture in NYS.

Insights from Africa for Building at Home
Presenter: Eugene Cooke, Gebsite and Truly Living Well

Participants will learn detailed information about innovations in small scale farming operations in Kenya, East Africa. In the workshop we will view images and discuss a recent research trip to Kenya. We will then investigate techniques and services that we can integrate here in the States to insure that our production sites are diverse and dynamic in their capacity. I have studied and worked in East Africa on food systems for 5 months and traveled there twice between 2007-2011. The simple action steps will be learning to reorganize space for diverse growing as well as developing innovative cooperatives that serve specific populations, such as raising dairy goats as an income stream for women affected by AIDS.

Floyd Bennett Field Farm and Education Center
Presenters: Maggie Chaney, Bushwick Farm and EcoStation and Lorrie Clevenger, Black Urban Growers (BUGs) and WhyHunger

The Floyd Bennett Field Farm and Education Center is a new project being developed as a farm business incubator and sustainable agriculture resource for New York City residents. The project site will be located on National Park Service Land at Floyd Bennett Field. If you’re an urban farmer or simply interested in supporting NYC's thriving urban agriculture movement, join Lorrie and Maggie for on an introduction and overview of how you can get involved in making the Floyd Bennett Field Farm and Education Center a reality.

USDA-Farm Service Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service Programs
Presenters: Peter Elmer, Susan Pierzchanowski and Tammi Willis, USDA-Farm Service Agency and Natural Resource Conservation Service Programs

Most of the workshop will be interactive. We’ll start with a brief introduction of raw/living foods and a conversation on the impact these foods have on the body and in particular in managing and preventing chronic illness. Next we’ll have a demonstration of how to make one tasty raw snack to be sampled by the participants along with a variety of other raw snacks for participants to try with questions being asked of the audience throughout the tasting. Lastly, we’ll end with a discussion and distribute information and recipes for participants to take away to share and try on their own.

Walking Through the Field: A Space for Me in Food and Agriculture

Presenters: Erica O. Symmonds, Green City Force



During this session, conference attendees will be exposed to different careers and career tracks, including educational opportunities, connected to the food and agriculture sector. Panelist will share their life experiences that led them to their work in food and agriculture and speak to their experiences in the sector. The session will include a presentation, panel, and open discussion. The panel will be moderated by Erika Symmonds, Program Manager of a New York City-based, Green City Force, an AmeriCorps service and training organization geared towards exposing and connecting young adults to careers in the Green Economy. Participants will be better equipped to start planning their career path in agriculture-related fields.