Women Food and Agriculture Network Conference

By Taylor on December 9, 2014 in Blog

Karen Washington presenting at the conference. *Photo courtesy of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network Facebook page.

On November 14th and 15th, Mary Runkel, INHF’s Volunteer Coordinator, and Andrea Piekarczyk, INHF’s Program and Development Assistant, attended the Women Food and Agriculture Conference with about 400 other guests from around the nation. A majority of the attendees were farmers and landowners who were interested in organic and sustainable farming.

“The best part of the conference was probably the atmosphere,” said Andrea. “It was very invigorating to be around people who were super positive and empowering. Everyone who was there was interested in making changes and wanted to find new ways to bring more sustainable farming to their community.”

This year’s theme was Women Doing Democracy: Building Grassroots Coalitions to Grow Healthy Food and Farming in Your Community. The conference consisted of two key note speakers, field trips and breakout sessions. The keynote speakers were Karen Washington and Diane Rosenberg. Karen is the founder of Black Urban Growers and a Just Food board member. Diane is executive director of Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors, Inc.

“I want to give a shout out to Radiance Dairy,” said Mary, who visited the small organic dairy as part of a conference field trip. “I went on the field trip to their site and I was very impressed by their work to support women in the agricultural business.”

Learn more about the Women, Food and Agriculture Network.