Community Conversations

Saturday 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Queer Farmer Breakout

Lainie Rini

This is a space intended only for farmers who identify as LGBTQIA to come together and build solidarity. It will be a loosely structured conversation around the different joys and challenges we face as queer farmers. If this applies to you, are you invited to come, meet, share, and connect!

River Birch C

BIPOC Breakout Room

August Taylor, OEFFA

The BIPOC Breakout Room is a facilitated discussion for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (non-white people). This session will focus on connecting with each other, identifying goals, sharing resources, finding points of collaboration, and addressing barriers to access. The conversation will also be an opportunity to reflect on the conference themes as they relate to our communities and lived experiences.

River Birch A

Talking About the Weather

Heather Dean, OEFFA

This will be an informal conversation about the impact of weather on your farm. Share your stories about drought, heat and flooding, and exchange ideas about how to make your farm more resilient in the face of these conditions. What have you tried?  What kinds of policies or support would help address these issues?

River Birch D

Seeing Each Other: Bridging Rural and Urban Divisions in the Food Movement

Anthony Flaccavento, Rural Urban Bridge Initiative

The food and farm movement has deep roots in both rural and urban communities. Whether you are raising 200 acres of organic corn in Darke County or market vegetables on a land bank property in Cuyahoga, we are working to heal the same broken food system. We need each other, and yet the cultural divisions and misunderstandings between rural and urban communities divide us too. This is a facilitated conversation about the underlying causes of the rural and urban divide, what we can do to overcome it, and how food and farming can be a bridge builder across both ideology and geography.

Barrel Room