kEYNOTE Presenters
Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, Director, Arizona State University Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems
Dr. Kathleen Merrigan helped write the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. As the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from 2009 to 2013, she managed the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative to support local and regional food systems. She became the first female chair of the ‘Ministerial Conference of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009 and was named one of Time magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world” in 2010. Prior to coming to ASU’s Swette Center, Dr. Merrigan was the executive director of sustainability at George Washington University, leading their Sustainability Collaborative and Food Institute.
Brad Lancaster, Author of the book series Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond
Brad Lancaster is a dynamic teacher, consultant, and designer of regenerative systems that sustainably enhance local resources and our global potential. Lancaster has taught water harvesting and sustainable design throughout North America as well as in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia. His hometown projects have included working with the City of Tucson and other municipalities to legalize, incentivize, and provide guidance on water-harvesting systems, demonstration sites, and policy. In Tucson, with just 11 inches of annual rainfall, he and his brother harvest around 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year on an eighth-acre urban lot and adjoining vegetated right-of-way.
who should attend
Join us if you are...
- Agricultural producers, Tribes, ranchers, community gardeners and orchardists, permaculturalists, water harvesters, and others who produce food for themselves;
- Representatives of government agencies, cooperative extension, universities, and nonprofit organizations who support sustainable solutions for agriculture, forestry, and communities through their programs; and
- People interested in community food forests and forest-agricultural activities including alley cropping, forest farming, riparian forest buffers, silvopasture, windbreaks, and shelterbelts.
