POSTERS

 

Re-Weaving the web: Amazonian Dark Earth, Frederique Apffel-Marglin, Sachamama Center for Biocultural Regeneration

  • At my non-profit organization in the Peruvian High Amazon - Sachamama Center for Biocultural Regeneration -  we regenerate the pre-Columbian Amazonian soil known as Terra Preta, the most sustainable and fertile in the world. We do this to slow down deforestation, for food security for the indigenous people and the small farmers and for sequestering C02 from the atmosphere. We work with several indigenous communities as well as with the Provincial School Board and 6 High Schools.

 

Revitalizing Deindustrialized Cities With Urban Agriculture, Nicole Negowetti, Dominique Edwards, Valparaiso University Law School, Northwest Indiana Food Council

  • This poster will explain how a geographic information system (GIS) can inform the development of urban agriculture initiatives in post-industrial cities.  GIS has been utilized to observe the spatial distribution of food accessibility, nutritional based health disparities, and the location of community gardens and city-owned vacant land.  For example, observing the spatial distribution of food accessibility and community gardens identifies areas lacking in resources.

 

Improving Food Security and Mitigating Climate Change Through Urban Greening, Rebecca Valentine, Vermont Law School

  • This poster illustrates how zoning regulation can reduce food insecurity and climate impacts and maximize urban real estate through urban greening. Using positive and negative feedback loops, the poster compares status quo and proactive models, showcasing the benefits of existing zoning laws supporting lot conversion, rooftop gardens, urban beekeeping and other greening methods. How these methods mitigate climate change is shown through infrared maps of urban-greening leaders, such as Boston, Paris, and Stuttgart, Germany.

 

Common Property in Norway, Matthew Hoffman, New York University

  • Norwegians have a variety of strategies for shielding farmland from market forces, fostering both stewardship and community development.  One of these strategies is common property.  This poster describes some of the different kinds of Norwegian commons, why they exist, and how they work.  The author will be able to answer questions about Norwegian property law in comparative perspective and discuss how some of these tools might be applicable in the North American context.

 

Can farmers’ markets simultaneously address food and farm security? A case study of San Jose, Costa Rica, Erin Raser, American University/ University for Peace

  • A unique feature of farmers’ markets is providing an economic livelihood for smallholder farmers while giving consumers the possibility of accessing high quality and nutritious foods. Costa Rica provides an interesting case for studying the extent to which farmers’ markets address both food and farm security, as there has yet to be significant research on this topic. Research was conducted by 19 graduate students at the University for Peace under Dr. Brian Dowd-Uribe

 

We Can Send the Elephants: Witchcraft and Resistance in Cameroon, Abby Nathanson, Engaging People in Change (EPIC)

  • This research explores an on-going land-grab in Cameroonian primary rainforest by an American company for a palm oil plantation, an increasing majority of indigenous villagers who understand the project as a destructive, neo-colonial, and exploitative theft, and discourses of witchcraft as a method of resistance to defend the rainforest - land that is the site of ancestry, history, and spirituality.

 

Introducing the Protein Project with the Design for Food Literacy Program, Johanna Wood, Sarah Skinker and Caroline Shamberger

PCA Health and Safety Consultants

  • The Design for Food Literacy Program (DFLP) provides a strategy to address the impacts of food desertification on rural and underserved youth, and to minimize the ecological effects of distant food source distribution. The Nestucca Elementary School garden located two miles inland on the North Oregon coast provides a platform for a participative approach to intensive permaculture food production. It also offers the opportunity for food literacy and nutrition education while increasing food access opportunities for students and their families.

 

Community-Based-Natural-Resource-Management: Lessons from Africa in Bottom-Up Regulatory Mechanisms, Steve Gluck, Independent Researcher

  • This poster/presentation traces the history and emergence of Community-Based-Natural-Resource-Management in southern Africa, its expansion beyond Africa, and its potential as a model of natural-resource-management in a global context. I argue that CBNRM represents a shift in the regulation of natural-resources from the “top-down” model that was imposed, originally, by colonial authorities, toward a more “bottom-up” approach that is inherently more just. I employ pyramidal, hierarchical modeling to demonstrate this shift in graphic format.

 

Pigford, Love, Garcia: An Analysis of USDA Discrimination of Marginalized Farmers and its Implications, Alexandria Ward, American University

  • The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been under legal scrutiny for historical racial and gender discrimination. Accusations of racial discrimination manifested in major civil rights lawsuits, such as Pigford v. Vilsack in 1999, which represented African-American growers. Our research examines racial and gender discrimination through semi-structured interviews with farmers, lawyers, and activists. This research is part of community-based participatory action research with the Rural Coalition and National Family Farm Coalition.

 

Just Food? Just Life? Just Dance!, Sally Voris, White Rose Farm

  • What if we imagined farming as dancing with the creative powers of the Universe--a dance which fed us so abundantly—by the process itself and by its fruits—that we would want to share with others?  That is the image of farming that I offer. The current producer/consumer agricultural model separates us from each other and from Nature. What is needed is a new model, a new paradigm: A Bun Dance! ( a bit cheeky, eh?)  .  

 

Our Global Food System: Interconnecting Water, Land and Human Survival, Bessie DiDomenica, Walden University, Independent Researcher

  • The basic demand for food continues to challenge local, regional, national, and international communities. Competition for land and natural resources, population growth, and economics are important factors. This poster presents an overview of global food policy research. It will outline key policies and present a holistic view of our global food system. Basic elements included food security, small-scale farms, weather extremes, food as a national security issue, social justice, and food waste.



 

EXHIBITS


 

Soil Carbon Restoration,  Amie Lindenboim, NOFA/Mass

  • We know we must stop burning fossil fuels to prevent further increases in atmospheric carbon. Where can we put that carbon once it is removed from the air? There is only one practical approach -- to put it back where it belongs, in the soil. Fortunately, this is not an expensive process. But it will take large numbers of people agreeing to participate. Learn more about advantages to farmers, consumers, and our atmosphere from growing food in carbon-rich soils.

 

Cambridge Energy Alliance, Mandy St. Hilaire, Cambridge Energy Alliance

  • CEA will provide an educational table to connect Cambridge and MA residents with energy saving resources for their homes to improve our city's overall efficiency and health. Conserving energy is a main aspect of how we need to transform our current lifestyles to be more sustainable.

 

Growing Food, Storing Carbon in Soils, Reversing Global Warming, Adam Sacks, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate

  • While it's evident that climate has serious impacts on land health and the food system, it's less clear that land health and the food system have serious impacts on climate, far beyond agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions.  The good news is that we know how to restore land to health on millions of acres using the extraordinary power of photosynthesis and the natural world, with myriad benefits for people and all life.

 

Making it easy for busy people to enjoy local food, Gordon Sacks, 9 Miles East Farm

  • Convenience and accessibility are the frontiers for healthy local food. 9 Miles East Farm will showcase workplace and home delivery offerings to expand the audience for local food beyond the established farmers' market and CSA models.

 

Young Farmer Network, Tess Brown-Lavoie, Young Farmer Network

  • We will bring information about our network of young farmers, and reading materials from partner organization. We will also have shirts, postcards, and tote bags. We will answer questions about our network and the resources we offer.

 

Metta Earth Institute: A Center for Contemplative Ecology, Maisie Powell, Metta Earth Institute

  • Metta Earth Institute is a center for contemplative ecology, located on 153 acres of farm, forest, and pasture. We are a non-profit, educational retreat center integrating contemplative practice, deep ecology, regenerative food systems, and social activism to create resilient sustainable communities. We support the cultivation of ecological sustainability with practices of organic farming and gardening, permaculture, alternative and appropriate energy technologies including solar and wind power, composting systems, green building, and locally sourced hand crafts.  

 

Harvesting for the Hungry: Boston Area Gleaners, Dylan Frazier, Boston Area Gleaners

  • Boston Area Gleaners, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing surplus farm crops for people in need.  We deliver high quality, local produce to pantries and meal programs by working closely with local farmers, providing volunteer labor to harvest what would otherwise be plowed under.

 

Land For Good, Jim Hafner, Land for Good

  • Introduction and materials about Land For Good's work to put more farmers more securely on more land in New England - and beyond.

 

In Support of New Farmers, Brianna Bowman, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project

  • This exhibit will showcase the work of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, which works with new farmers to build strong businesses, expertise in the field, and a resilient food system. Opportunities for involvement with the organization and its initiatives will be highlighted.

 

The Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Mujeres Divinas, and the Worker Justice Center of New York

  • The Bandana project is a nationwide effort which stands for the rights of farmworker women to a work environment free of sexual harassment and abuse, which are commonplace on  the isolated and remote farms where they work. The project has adopted the bandana as a symbol of solidarity to end this abuse because many farmworker women use bandanas on the job to cover their faces and bodies in an attempt to ward off unwanted sexual attention that often leads to rape.
  • The National Pesticide Awareness, or the "Morralitos" campaign, stands for safe agricultural working conditions,  free from  pesticide exposure and poisoning. As many as 20,000 pesticide poisonings occur each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and many more go unreported. This nationwide campaign brings attention to pesticide exposure through the design and exhibition of small canvas satchels (morralitos) that represent bags which farmworkers use to carry produce picked in the fields. 

 

The Harvard Food Literacy Project (FLP)

  • The Food Literacy Project (FLP) cultivates an understanding of food from the ground up. Education focuses on four integrated areas of food and society: sustainability, nutrition, food preparation and community. Ultimately, the project goal is to promote enduring knowledge, enabling consumers to make informed food choices. FLP hosts a fellowship program for students, as well as guides several campus-wide initiatives which provide opportunities to explore the food system experientially and academically. FLP hosts events and opportunities throughout the year that are open to the Harvard and broader Cambridge-area communities.    

 

The Harvard Food Law Society

  • FoodSoc seeks to foster on-campus dialogue on numerous issues in law, policy, science and management that confront professionals in the fields of food law and food policy. Members participate in clinical projects and conferences, host speakers, take trips and collaborate with groups throughout the University and the world in their effort to address food issues.

 

Food Law and Policy Clinic

  • The Food Law and Policy Clinic of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation was established in 2010 to address growing concerns about the health, environmental, and economic consequences of the laws and policies that structure the U.S. food system. Under the supervision of FLPC attorneys, Harvard Law students get hands-on learning experience by conducting legal and policy research for individual and organizational clients working to increase access to healthy foods, prevent diet-related diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes,reduce waste of healthy, wholesome food,  and assist small and sustainable farmers in breaking into new commercial markets. As the oldest food law clinical program in the United States, the FLPC is a pioneer in the field of food law and policy, and serves as a model for lawyers and law schools entering this field.

 

The Inclusive Table: A Multifaith, Multicultural Cookbook, Maggie Krueger, The Stony Point Center Intern

  • The Inclusive Table is a multifaith, multicultural cookbook developed by four summer interns of The Stony Point Center’s “Farm the Land, Grow the Spirit: A Multifaith Peace, Justice and Earthcare Program for Young Adults” in Summer 2015. The Stony Point Center in Stony Point, New York, is a conference center and farm  that also is home to a multifaith residential community called the Community of Living Traditions dedicated to the practice and study of hospitality, nonviolence and justice. The cookbook provides recipes for four complete meals, separated by season that also serves as a guide to hosting a multicultural, multireligious, agriculturally and social justice conscientious meal.


 

Greenhorns and Agrarian Trust

  • Greenhorns is an 8-year-old grassroots organization whose mission is to promote, recruit and support the incoming generation of organic farmers nationwide. We do so by creating and curating grassroots media, cultural programming, and events and events that celebrate what is possible on the landscape and along the watershed. We want to invite the public, and potential farmers into a desire narrative that values and works towards a more resilient, regional, sustainable and diverse food system. Agrarian Trust, a project of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, was initiated in 2013. It supports land access for next generation farmers. Currently, Agrarian Trust aims to influence public dialog about land access, support networks of stakeholders and service providers, and build a trust to benefit regional land organizations and future generations.