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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