Speakers and Participants

Keynote speaker:

Eric Holt-Gimenez

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Eric Holt-Giménez is the executive director of FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy. Eric is the author of the 2009 Food First Book, Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice. His earlier book, Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture chronicles the development of this movement in Mexico and Central America over two and a half decades. Eric worked with farmers, participated in their farmer-to-farmer trainings, and recorded their triumphs. Prior to working at Food First, Eric worked at the Bank Information Center in Washington D.C. where he has served as the Latin America Program Manager. Eric also has four years of experience as a professor and lecturer in Environmental Studies, Area Studies, and Development Studies.

Eric will be delivering the keynote address of the GFCC, which will discuss why international food shortages are becoming increasingly more common. To learn more about Eric, check out his full bio athttp://www.foodfirst.org/en/about/who/staff/eholtgim.

Keynote Speaker and Response Panel Moderator:

Molly Anderson

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Molly D. Anderson is particularly interested in education and effective multistakeholder collaborations for sustainability, food system resilience, human rights in the food system and the transition to a post-petroleum food economy. Most recently, Molly has been consulting on international and domestic science and policy for social justice, ecological integrity and democratic food systems. Prior to that, she held two interim positions at Oxfam America 2002-2005 and a faculty position at Tufts University, where she taught, administered programs, built partnerships and conducted research. She co-founded and for five years directed the Agriculture, Food and the Environment Graduate Degree Program in the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. She will start work as the Partridge Chair of Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, March 2010.

Molly will be moderating our Response Panel, a discussion aimed at understanding how the Hudson Valley Community can help aid local food security and therefore combat the international problem.

Response Panel Participants

Andrea Aldana - Brooklyn Food Coalition

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Andrea Aldana has been running NYU's Washington Square CSA for three years where she has experienced the difficulties with outreach and CSA organizational infrastructure and support in New York City. She is organizing the community around food-related issues in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as part of her involvement with the newly formed Brooklyn Food Coalition where she represents the neighborhood on the Council. Ms. Aldana is interested in studying the ways that communities opt out of the current food system to protect their livelihood, health, culture and survival, particularly in the political and historical context of Latin America.

Don Lewis - Wild Hive Farm

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Don was raised on a farm in the Hudson Valley. His experience with the food system is rather extensive, ranging from commercial beekeeping to aquaculture and farming.  Aside from growing Shiitake mushrooms, he is operating a sustainable flour mill and bakery using only freshly milled, locally grown organic grains. He is currently  immersed in his latest endeavor at the new Wild Hive Farm Store in Clinton Corners, NY located in Dutchess County.  The new location houses a commercial bakery, local foods store and cafe with a menu created by seasonal, locally grown ingredients as well as still running the mill and the wood fired mobile hearth oven that makes occasional appearances throughout the Hudson Valley. His commitment to providing access to clean, local foods is highlighted in the variety of breads, grains and flours that he sells; his product line showcases not just good taste but the restoration of heritage grains and the right to healthy, nutritious food.

Billiam van Roestenberg - Liberty View Farm

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Billiam is the driving force behind Liberty View Farm in Highland, NY. Billiam's tenure as a political and gay rights activist cross pollinated into and laid the ground work for his organic "food Activism". His generosity and passion for community strives to bring attention to current needs such as righting hunger, living healthy, and ending Gay Apartheid. 


Workshops by...

John House Wilson: Permaculture Basics

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John is a certified Permaculture Designer, gardener, educator and activist. He has built several gardens across New York State and worked on farms around the country for the last decade. John will be facilitating an introductory workshop to the rich topic of Permaculture.  

Marigo Farr: Eating locally while living on campus, in town, and beyond

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Marigo Farr is a SUNY New Paltz alum currently living and working in New York City. As a student at SUNY New Paltz she helped found and lead Students for Sustainable Agriculture and campaigned for purchasing local and organic food on campus. She also spent time challenging herself to eat as much local food as possible, and helped to create community around local eating. She will attend law school in the fall and has plans to study legal issues related to land use, food access, and regional economics. 

Interested in eating more local food? Come hear insider tips - for village dwellers, SUNY students, or anyone interested in this lifestyle. We will explore and share the many choices available to us as local foodies, and also discuss how to move past obstacles in maintaining a local diet. Of course, there will be discussion of local food recipes - do bring your imagination! If anyone is excited about sharing local food experiences, please come and contribute!

Dan Guenther: Food Choices and Climate Change

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Farmer Dan has been a food activist for two decades. He has helped start several CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farms in the Hudson Valley and is passionate about connecting college students and the soil. He recently returned from a 'climate change sabbatical' in the coal fields of Virginia and West Virginia. His talk will connect peak oil, climate change and our food choices. He is presently helping to create a sustainable regional food system. 

Chrisso Babcock: Traditional Diets: Relearning Nutrition from our Ancestors


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Chrisso Babcock, anarchist farmer and co-founder of the Fertile Minds (Agri) Cultural Collective, plans on spending this coming growing season in Saugerties, living collectively, farming, and founding a free university and community space. Chrisso grew up in Woodstock, and briefly attended an expensive liberal arts college before dropping out to fall in love, travel, learn, protest and farm. 
Chrisso's workshop will be a Weston Price Foundation style look at traditional diets: What did traditional/primitive cultures eat before the advent of the industrialized modern diet? Why were these traditional diets so nourishing, and how can we incorporate this knowledge into our modern diet?


Charles & Francesca Noble: Grazing Animals for Healthy Food and a Healthy Environment

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Looking for a new direction after twenty years as a corporate consultant and ten years as the administrator of Mountain Laurel Waldorf School, Charles became involved with raising grass fed and finished cattle six years ago. He and his wife Francesca, with 60 animals under their care, are the founders of Movable Beast Farm in Ulster County.  Movable Beast was founded on three ideals: 


  • Producing food that is natural, safe, nourishing and delicious
  • Respecting and honoring the animals we work with
  • Healing and enriching the land
  He believes the question; ‘Can a food production system that enriches the environment and is humane be economically viable?’ is central to the quest for sustainable food production.  He also believes grazing animals are an integral element in building and sustaining the health of the land.


Nick DePalma and Dave Jakim: Water in the world and the Hudson Valley

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Dave Jakim is the Co-chairman Village of New Paltz Environmental Conservation Commission (EnCC), an Environmental Geochemical Science Senior at SUNY New Paltz, a member of the New Paltz Wetlands Commission and a friend of Hudsonia Ltd., an institution studying biodiversity in the Hudson Valley. He has been living in New Paltz for six years and studying the effects of development on local streams, wetlands and biological communities for the last four years, supervising student internships and presenting findings and recommendations to concerned agencies. He is most at home at his secret spot in the woods by a stream.

During his time at SUNY Oswego, Nick DePalma worked on projects to inform students about the environment, kicked off a composting initiative, advanced recycling programs, and raised awareness about global poverty and suffering. Passionate about the relief of human suffering through repair and drilling of fresh water wells in developing nations, Nick began a club upon arriving to SUNY New Paltz in order to fundraise for a charity: water. The goal of the club is to make charity fun and raise awareness. Most recently, Nick is interning for Democracy Matters, where he is working to simultaneously inform and obtain support from students on the subject of fair elections.

Elizabeth Gross: Kombucha Making

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Elizabeth Gross is a Women's Studies student at SUNY New Palz with minors in Italian, Journalism and Political Science. Her interest in sustainable agriculture started with her studies of institutional attempts to dominate the environment and its role in oppression. Her love of cooking and her six month stay in Italy furthered this interest, as she found the food she was eating to be directly correlated to the way she was feeling and environmental sustainability. Local and organic food, as well as traditional ways of preparing food, are very important to her. Her workshop will cover the basics of how to brew Kombucha, a health drink that is costly in heath food stores but as cheap as brewing a cup of tea in your own home. Here's to nourishing your body and mind!

Mimi Edelman & Lani Raider: Slow Food on Campus

...and let's not forget a movie! Check out FRESH!

www.freshthemovie.com

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