Speakers

Keynote speaker Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin, 50, is a fulltime farmer in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. A third generation alternative farmer, he returned to the farm full time in 1982 and continued refining and adding to his parents' ideas.

The farm services more than 1,500 families, 10 retail outlets, and 30 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey and forestry products using relationship marketing.

He holds a BA degree in English and writes extensively in magazines such as STOCKMAN GRASS FARMER, ACRES USA, and AMERICAN AGRICULTURALIST

The family's farm, Polyface Inc. ("The Farm of Many Faces") has been featured in SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, GOURMET and countless other radio,television and print media. Profiled on the Lives of the 21st Century series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, his after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date. It achieved iconic status as the grass farm featured in the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA by food writer Michael Pollan.

Conference Workshop Speakers

Tradd Cotter - Mushroom Mountain, LLC
Tradd Cotter founded Mushroom Mountain in 1996. Currently, Tradd and Olga Katic's 8-acre research farm and tissue culture laboratory near Clemson, SC focuses on creating spawn and kits for growers, teachers, and researchers. They maintain over fifty species of edible and medicinal mushrooms and are constantly isolating new strains from our native forests. Their goals are to develop environmentally sensitive farming practices for future generations, coupling sustainability with an economically viable model for mushroom farms at home and world-wide.

www.mushroommountain.com

Edwin Marty - Urban farming
Edwin Marty is currently the director of Jones Valley Urban Farm in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Before returning to Birmingham to start the non-profit teaching farm, Edwin earned a BA in Anthropology from the University of Oregon and completed an Apprenticeship in Agroecology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He went on from UC Santa Cruz to work on sustainable farm projects around the world, including Mexico, Mongolia, Australia, and Chile. He also worked as an instructor for the Outward Bound School for four years in Northern Washington.
Returning to Birmingham in 2001, Edwin worked for Southern Living Magazine as a Garden Writer while establishing Jones Valley Urban Farm. In 2006, Edwin left Southern Living to begin working as the full-time Director of Jones Valley Urban Farm. Since then, the farm has grown to include over 28 acres of urban farm land, employs twenty people and teaches thousands of youth every year about growing and eating good food. He has also consulted on numerous urban farm projects around the country, including work with the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assessment Team project in Detroit, MI.


Phillip Thorton - Irrigation
Philip has a B.S. from Tennessee Tech. University in 1973, and has served in the Irrigation Industry since 1989,working for Irrigation Distributors in the Nashville area. He is a certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor and enjoys working with Smart Irrigation Systems, Smart Lighting Systems and Rainwater Harvesting Systems, as well as JDL's complete line of Smart products. Philip spends time teaching contractors how to install and sell Green/Smart Irrigation, Pumps and Landscape Lighting Jobs and is a grandfather of five.

Jeff Poppen - Organic Pest/weed management
The "Barefoot Farmer" is the owner/operator of Long Hungry Creek Farm, one of the oldest (30 years) and largest (300 acres) organic farms in Tennessee. Jeff's goal for Long Hungry Creek is to grow the highest quality farm products possible, while enjoyably developing an economically viable, aesthetically pleasing and humus-rich farm which remains relatively independent regarding its own feed and fertilizer needs. Jeff is committed to demonstrating and promoting the idea that such a farm is a valuable and beneficial addition to the landscape and atmosphere of the 21st century.

Joel Salatin - Going full time with your part time farm/Saladbar beef
See Above

Richard Moyer - Organic orchardry
While picking cherries on their farm in PA, Richard Moyer's grandmother went into labor with his father. Growing up on their suburban lot in Augusta, GA, Moyer's father grew a wide variety of fruits. Their home was on the former site of Fruitland Nursery, one of the great southern nurseries from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a Professor of Biology at King college, Bristol, TN, Moyer did a research sabbatical quantifying antioxidants in 108 cultivars of small fruits. For 15 years in Bristol, TN, they produced all their fruit on a large suburban lot, as their family grew to six children. The Moyers recently bought a farm and moved to Castlewood, VA, where they grow much of their own food, selling the excess to local farmers markets and restaurants.


John Seaborne - Beekeeping
John's fascination with honey bees began when he was a small child and would follow his Granddaddy around the farm as he tended his bees. John describes it as almost magical to see him handle the bees barehanded.
Many years later he acquired his own hive from an elderly gentleman. It turned out to be an old hive with 4.9 bees. Up to that time he had no knowledge that bees had been artificially enlarged. This was when he first learned of the 4.9 bees and from that point began his journey into natural beekeeping.
"My wife and I have had bees during all of our 41 years together. We have been organic beekeepers from the very start thanks to the 4.9 bees and to using organic substances to manage our hives such as powdered sugar and pharmaceutical grade oils."
John and his wife are members of the Nashville Area Beekeepers Association of which he has been vice president for the last two years,the Tennessee Beekeepers Association, The Columbia Beekeepers Association, The Georgia Beekeepers Association and several Tennessee bee clubs. Due to the rising interest in the natural sized bees, he also give speeches about the 4.9 bees and organic beekeeping practices at bee clubs around the state.

Cassi Johnson - Local food systems
is the Director of the Food Security Partners of Middle Tennessee, a food security advocacy group. Ms. Johnson has extensive experience in sustainable agriculture andfood systems outreach and education, grassroots policy development, local food policy, urban and rural food systems development, and food advocacy coalition and partnership building.
Prior to joining the Food Security Partners Ms. Johnson served as Development and Outreach Director for Women, Food, and Agriculture Network in Iowa. In that role she led a project aimed at empowering farmers and consumers to take action to reform our nation's federal food and farm policy. She has also developed and implemented programs aimed at supporting beginning farmers and increasing coordination among groups working to build a strong local food system in southwest Iowa. Ms. Johnson previously developed and team-taught an undergraduate level Agronomy course addressing hunger and food system issues and frequently presents to community and professional groups on these topics. Ms. Johnson holds a Master of Science in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies from Indiana University. She serves on the Executive Board of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.

Workshop Schedule