Congressman Mark Takano to Address Seedstock’s “Grow Riverside” Sustainable Agriculture Conference

February 6, 2014 | seedstock

Press Release – Seedstock today announced Congressman Mark Takano (CA-41) as the opening day luncheon speaker for the “Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond!” conference. The March 19-20 event, to be held at the Riverside Convention Center, will assist cities in examining and developing solutions to reconnect with their agricultural roots as well as evaluate potential economic and public health benefits of sustainable urban agriculture.

Representative Takano presently serves on the House Veterans’ Affairs and the Science, Space and Technology committees. Prior to being elected to Congress, Takano spent 23 years as a high school teacher in the Inland Empire and more than 20 years on the Riverside Community College Board of Trustees. The Congressman, an advocate of “slow food” – an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986 – will share his perspective on this fast food alternative and the quest to preserve traditional and regional cuisine through the farming of plants and seeds characteristic of the local ecosystem.

“The progressive sustainable urban farming innovations to be presented at this event will prove an invaluable asset to Riverside and its environs,” said Congressman Takano. “I am greatly impressed with the forward-thinking leaders of this historically rich agricultural region and look forward to witnessing the future success of the collaborations that are certain to be generated as a result of the Grow Riverside conference.”

Conference participants interested in establishing their own small “slow food” urban farming interests are encouraged to attend the March 20 afternoon presentation: “From Start to Finish: Setting up an economically viable operation on a 1 – 2 acre plot.” The panel will feature faculty from UC Riverside Cooperative Extension, including: Milt McGiffen, Cooperative Extension Vegetable Crops Specialist & Plant Physiologist; Peggy Mauk, Director of Agricultural Operations Cooperative Extension Specialist, Subtropical Crops; and, Etaferahu Takele, County Director/Area Advisor Farm Management/Agricultural Economics.

Organized for the city of Riverside by Seedstock co-founder Robert Puro, the conference has been formulated as a model for cities looking to enhance local agriculture. To register for the conference, please click here: http://growriverside.eventbrite.com

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Glenda Humiston – California State Director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development
Bob Knight – Founder of Inland Orange Conservancy and Old Grove Orange, Inc.
Val Dolcini – State Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA)
Colin and Karen Archipley – Archi’s Acres and Veterans for Sustainable Agriculture Training program (VSAT)
Mark Hoddle – Biological Control Extension Specialist at UC Riverside
Erika Block and Noah Fulmer – Local Orbit
Paula Daniels – Founder of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council
Don Webber – Partner, Cultivating Good, Inc. and Owner of Harvest 2U
Leah Di Bernardo – Exec. Chef & Founder of E.A.T. Extraordinary Artisan Table and Partner, Cultivating Good, Inc.
David Rosenstein – Founder of EVO Farm and Chair of the Aquaponics Association – Western Region
Milt McGiffen – Cooperative Extension Vegetable Crops Specialist & Plant Physiologist at UC Riverside
Pierre Sleiman – Founder of Go Green Agriculture
Rickey Smith – Founder of Urban Green
Rodney K. Taylor – Director of Nutrition Services, for the Riverside Unified School District
Dwight Detter – Local Forager for Whole Foods Market
Hassan Ghamlouch – The Grove
Gabriel Ruiz – Unity Farm
Daniel Aaron Francis – Riverside Permaculture Guild
Etaferahu Takele – Riverside County Director/Area Advisor Farm Management/Agricultural Economics for UC Cooperative Extension
Robert Hewitt – USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Clay Monroe – Principal Account Manager for the City of Riverside Public Utilities Department
Fortino Morales III – Community Garden Coordinator at University of California, Riverside
Rick Pruetz (FAICP) – Founder of Planning & Implementation Strategies

REGISTRATION & TICKETS: A limited number of Seed Saver Tickets remain, so register quickly to reserve your spot!  http://growriverside.eventbrite.com

About Seedstock

Seedstock is a social venture that fosters the development of robust and sustainable local food systems through consulting services and the use of a variety of tools, including the news and information blog Seedstock (http://www.Seedstock.com ) and live events. Seedstock works with government agencies, municipalities and all private sector stakeholders to create a sustainable food ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship and investment.

Cal State Director of USDA Rural Dev to Talk Local Food Systems at Seedstock Grow Riverside Conference

January 9, 2014 | seedstock

Dr. Glenda Humiston, who was appointed by President Obama in 2009 to serve as the California State Director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development, will be participating in the upcoming Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond! conference at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20. Dr. Humiston will discuss the economic and societal benefits of developing a local food system infrastructure.

Humiston brings over 25 years of experience working on public policy development and program implementation supporting sustainability; prior experience includes service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, as Executive Director of nonprofit advocating farmland preservation and value-added agriculture development, and several years as a consultant on environmental and agricultural issues throughout the western states. She served President Clinton 1998 – 2001 as Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at USDA and managed the Sustainable Development Institute at the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development in South Africa and the 2006 World Water Forum in Mexico City.

Humiston earned her Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management in 2009 with research focused on U.S. Farm Bill policy; a Master’s in International Agricultural Development from U.C. Davis in 1989 and a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Colorado State University in 1983. Recently she produced a widely acclaimed guidebook on “Access to Capital” and has led efforts to bring rural issues to the forefront of the state’s Economic Summit and policymakers throughout California.

Register today and receive the Early Bird Ticket discount!

Food Systems Expert to Host Panel on Value of Local Agriculture at Seedstock Grow Riverside Conference

January 7, 2014 | seedstock

Local food systems expert and Whole Foods Market forager Dwight Detter will be participating in the upcoming Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond! conference at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20. Detter will moderate a panel that will examine the value and importance of setting up a local food systems infrastructure in Riverside and beyond.

Dwight has spent 20 years in the Food Service Industry in San Francisco and Los Angeles before joining the grocery industry. Dwight has been with Whole Foods Market for 14 years. As a local forager for the past 3 years he been helping local start-ups get on to retail shelves. Dwight also teaches a series of 4 classes throughout LA, Orange County and San Diego in conjunction with the Fine Foods Group on developing local artisan businesses. He works with community groups such as the Orange County Food Access Coalition, the San Diego Food System Alliance and county Farm to School groups. He is currently involved with developing a value added program with Archi’s Acres VSAT Program for returning Marines and Soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

California State Exec. Director of USDA FSA to Talk Microloans at Seedstock’s Riverside, CA Conference on March 19 – 20

January 6, 2014 | seedstock

Val Dolcini, the State Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), where he is responsible for all USDA farm programs and policies in the nation’s leading agricultural state, will be participating in the upcoming Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond! conference at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20. Dolcini will talk about the USDA’s Microloan program and how the FSA can help new farmers and agriculture entrepreneurs get their operations off the ground.

Dolcini has been appointed to this position by two presidents – President Clinton in 1999 and President Obama in 2009. In 2011, he served as the acting Administrator of the Farm Service Agency in Washington, DC.

Prior to his appointment, he worked for a Fortune 500 technology consulting firm where he guided government relations programs for company clients, strategized with business teams about relationship development and consulted with company executives on a wide range of political matters. He has held senior staff positions for the Governor and Lt. Governor of California and earlier in his career, Dolcini spent several years as a senior staff member for two California members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

A fifth-generation Californian, Dolcini received a B.A. in History from San Francisco State University and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law. He also attended the University of Uppsala in Sweden. He currently serves on the San Francisco State University Foundation Board of Directors.

Register today and receive the Early Bird Ticket discount!

LA Food Policy Council Founder to Address Urban Ag Conference in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20

January 3, 2014 | seedstock

Paula Daniels, the founder of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, a collective impact initiative that is advancing innovative policy initiatives and programs designed to increase the production and availability of food that is healthy, affordable, and grown locally, sustainably, and fairly, will be participating in the upcoming Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond! conference at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20. Daniels will discuss how cities can create effective policies to support robust local food systems.

An expert in food and water policy, she was Senior Advisor to Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, and has taught at UC Berkeley and UCLA. As a Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner, Paula led the development of a suite of green infrastructure policies, best practices and tools. An attorney actively engaged in California environmental policy issues for over 20 years, Paula was also commissioner with the California Coastal Commission, and a gubernatorial appointee on the governing board of the California Bay-Delta Authority.

She has served on a number of boards of environmental and Asian American non-profit organizations and bar associations, and is the recipient of a number of recognitions and awards, including: Heal the Bay’s Superhealer Award (1991); the Environmental Leadership Award of the California League of Conservation Voters (2005); the Water Quality Leadership award from the State of California Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (2007); and the Stanton Fellowship of the Durfee Foundation (2012-2013). She was named by the LA Weekly as one of the top ten people making Los Angeles a better place, in their People 2012 issue.

Register today and receive the Early Bird Ticket discount!

Archi’s Acres and VSAT Co-founders to Participate in Urban Ag Conference in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20

January 3, 2014 | seedstock

Colin and Karen Archipley, the CEO and Co-founder/Vice President, respectively, of Archi’s Acres, Inc. and the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program will be participating in the upcoming Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond! conference at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside, CA on March 19 – 20. The two co-founders will discuss sustainable agriculture entrepreneurship, how to create an economically viable operation on a small plot of land and how to create more new farmers.

Founded in Escondido, Ca., Archi’s Acres has demonstrated there is profit, public interest, and a compelling story in joining one of our country’s most pressing needs—sustainable food—with our country’s greatest untapped resource—our returning veterans.

Archi’s Acres developed sustainable, hydroponic, organic farming to create opportunities for our returning veterans. To reach out to these veterans and give a hand up (not a hand out), Colin and Karen created the Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training (VSAT) program, an intensive six-week agriculture entrepreneur incubator. By making business opportunities available to our veterans through farming, and capturing the entrepreneurial spirit with rigorous training, the mission is defined.

Now, Archi’s Acres is looking to expand its successful, profitable and environmentally friendly hydroponic growing model and enable motivated VSAT graduates to open their own Archi’s Acres farms in select areas nationwide. This expansion is poised to become the largest, for-profit, veteran-driven initiative in our nation’s history.

In addition to the healthy, high-nutrient food that this initiative brings to local communities, every acre of greenhouse will create over ten jobs, and every job created on the farm will create over 2.5 jobs elsewhere in that community.

Register today and receive the Early Bird Ticket discount!

Seedstock “Grow Riverside” Conference to Provide Template for Cities Developing Urban Sustainable Agriculture

December 11, 2013 | seedstock

If you are an elected official, county supervisor, council member, city manager, planning director, community development director or finance director looking to bring the budding concept of local sustainable agriculture to your community, “Grow Riverside: Citrus and Beyond!” is the conference to attend!

The event, to be held at the Riverside Convention Center on Wednesday and Thursday, March 19-20, 2014, will feature keynote speakers Dr. Glenda Humiston, California director for U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, and Val Dolcini, California executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.

An expert in environmental and agricultural issues, Dr. Humiston will share her insights of more than 25 years working on public policy development and program implementation supporting rural development and sustainable communities. Dolcini, who oversees 30 county offices from Mt. Shasta to the fields of the Imperial Valley, will elaborate on his primary mission of delivering USDA programs such as farm loans, commodity price support, conservation support and other available resources to California’s farmers and ranchers.

Other notables presenting keynote addresses will be Paula Daniels, former senior advisor to the Mayor of Los Angeles on Food Policy and Special Projects in Water and founder and present chair of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council; and Rodney Taylor, Director of Nutrition Services for the Riverside Unified School District.

“The Grow Riverside conference is designed as a template for regions seeking to identify the economic and community advantages of local urban sustainable farming,” said Robert Puro, Seedstock co-founder and Grow Riverside event organizer. “We are thrilled to present our attendees with these illustrious keynote speakers and the opportunity to hear from some of the most respected experts in the arenas of agriculture, food policy, and nutrition.”

The conference will explore solutions to sustainably increasing local food in an economically viable manner and developing practical next steps to leverage an area’s agricultural assets. The underlying objective is to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable agriculture and forge new partnerships to develop creative solutions to building and expanding local urban agriculture.

This conference is being organized by Seedstock in partnership with the City of Riverside. For additional information and to purchase early bird tickets, please visit http://www.growriverside.com