Finding solutions at the 36th annual EcoFarm Conference
As the oldest and largest ecological agricultural gathering in the West, the EcoFarm Conference will offer more than seventy workshops featuring an array of educational and technical sessions for farmers, ranchers, distributors, retailers, activists, consumers, students, and educators. EcoFarm’s goal is to support the success of triple bottom line agricultural businesses, and the farmers seeking to grow thriving, ecological, and equitable farms that can heal and feed our communities and the planet.
This year’s conference, “Regenerating Our Lands and Water”, will focus on the solutions to the major issues the world faces today, both in the food and farming system and beyond, through the ecological and organic approaches to farming and food production that EcoFarm works to champion. Climate change and drought have left the state of our water and soil in jeopardy, and following up on 2015, as the International Year of Soils, the time is now to come together and begin the process of “Regenerating Our Lands and Water.”
A number of different conference tracks, including “Beginning Farmers & Ranchers”, “Activists” and “En Español,” provide guidance for different types of attendees regarding which sessions they might find most valuable. This year, in conjunction with the conference theme, a “Soil & Water” will be offered, which highlights workshops and sessions focusing on soil health, drought management, and irrigation efficiency, and more.
A pre-conference entitled “Building Healthy Soil Ecology: Investing in Your Farm’s Bottom Line” will be on offer, the creation of which was inspired directly by the conference theme. Farmers, orchardists, and researchers will come together to interpret recent insights and new understanding of biological soil science, and attendees will come away with practical soil ecology, no-till management, and crop nutrition methods they can put to use on their own farms.
A second soil health pre-conference will focus specifically on biodynamic compost. “Compost & Soil Health: A Biodynamic Approach”, hosted by the Biodynamic Association will engage attendees in all of the technical and practical details of the biodynamic approach to composting, covering sourcing materials, building and turning piles, and working with the biodynamic preparations.
Several workshops will focus on water efficiency, such as “Innovative Techniques for Recharging Groundwater Basins”, which will profile a Fresno County-based project involving seasonally inundating farmland during wet years for the purpose of recharging the aquifer. The project is expected to reduce overdraft by thousands of acre-feet annually. “Innovations for Drought Management” will focus on the California drought and ways in which farmers are innovating to cope with water shortages and restrictions. Both panelists and participants will share the ways that conservation and holistic farm management can help in times of climatic variability.
Attendees will walk away from the conference this year enlightened, inspired, and with a plan and strategies to make changes in their own lives, on their own farms, and as a whole community to regenerate our lands and water. The impacts of the EcoFarm Conference go far beyond those four days in January, as knowledge is imparted that is used year-round and collaborative partnerships are formed that can last a lifetime. The goal of the 2016 EcoFarm Conference is to effect a change that will persist indefinitely, and that is to inspire and frame our shared project: overgrowing the conventional agricultural system and replacing it with a healthier, safer, more just food and farming system.
Join us at the upcoming 36th annual EcoFarm Conference, January 20 – 23, 2016 at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California. Registration is open on our website, www.eco-farm.org
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For more information on the EcoFarm Conference: www.eco-farm.org, facebook.com/EcoFarm, twitter.com/Eco_Farm, instagram.com/eco.farm
Photos by Trav Williams, Broken Banjo Photography