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American Farmland Trust conference at UD Nov. 13-15
4:01 p.m., Nov. 9, 2006--The American Farmland Trust (AFT) will hold a national conference, “Farming on the Edge--The Next Generation,” Monday-Wednesday, Nov. 13-15, at the University of Delaware's Clayton Hall Conference Center in Newark. The keynote speaker on the final day of the conference will be Michael Ableman, founder and executive director of the Center for Urban Agriculture in California and an advocate for integrating communities with local agriculture. “This is a national event that is being held in Delaware for the first time,” Robin Morgan, dean of UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said. “Ableman is a Delaware native who is very well known in his field and a respected author. It should be pretty interesting, and I think the public would find great value in the conference.” When he's not traveling the country or the world talking to farmers about their techniques, Ableman, a farmer, educator, photographer and writer, works his own fields with his wife and two sons on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. He recently wrote Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It, Chronicle Books, 2005. Other keynote speakers are Ralph Grossi, AFT president, and Gary Hirshberg, chairperson and president of Stonyfield Farm. Other featured speakers are Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner and Michael Scuse, Delaware secretary of agriculture. The conference will bring together agriculture educators, community leaders, concerned citizens, environmentalists, farmers, foresters and ranchers, farmland protection program managers, government officials and policymakers, landowners and managers, land trust staff and volunteers, natural resource professionals, planners, realtors and researchers. Activities will include more than 30 workshops, keynote sessions, panel discussions and bus tours. For more information about the conference, visit [www.farmland.org/news/events/2006conference]. Article by Martin Mbugua |
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