upcoming: heritage livestock conference

The Livestock Conservancy are holding their annual conference in Williamsburg VA from November 9th-12th 2017. The Livestock Conservancy, is a national nonprofit which plays an important role in educating the public about heritage livestock breeds on both a national and international scale.

Speakers include Deborah Niemann-Boehle, a heritage breed farmer and author of three books on sustainable living, Kathy Donovan who produces  award winning heritage wool from her flock of Karakul sheep, and Steve Edwards of Gwaltney Frontier Farm, Inc , a non profit breed conservation program in VA. There are full-day and pre-conference clinics which cover a vast array of topics, from heritage breed selection to social media marketing and everything in between.

There will be a networking reception on Thursday evening before the pre-conference intensive clinics begin on Friday morning, these include:

• All Things Sheep (Full-day)
• Using Entertainment, Education, And Public Service to Promote Heritage Horses (Full-day)
• The Natural Home Dairy
• Maximizing Your Products and Marketing Heritage Breed Wool
• Chicken Processing
• Social Media Marketing Options for Your Breeds
• The Tricky Business of Breed Registries and Associations

The conference workshops include:
Grass Based Cattle  Geese – What Makes Them Special | Managing Poultry Health Before Problems Happen | Dutch Belted Cattle | Maternal Breed Selection | Gardening with Chickens | Strategies to Protect Your Favorite Breed for the Future | The Shocking Truth About Electric Fences | Small Ruminant Health and Biosecurity | Selecting the Correct Forage for your Ruminate | Value-Added Meat Goat Production…and more!

The conference has much to offer greenhorns. If you would like your rare breed meat to be featured, the Livestock Conservancy encourages you to send business cards and flyers to Angelique (athompson@livestockconservancy.org). These can be shared with attendees during the kick-off banquet on Friday night. Your name and contact information will also be included in the conference packets that all attendees receive at check-in. There are also a number of volunteer opportunities available.

For more information about the conference or to register click HERE

internship this summer in farmland conservation in greenwich, ny

The Agricultural Stewardship Association is currently accepting applications for their summer internship program. This paid position is geared towards undergraduate students. The intern will gain experience working in a fast-paced nonprofit on event planning, community outreach, data collection, and project management. This looks like a great opportunity for someone interested in agricultural and natural resources education, communications, event planning, and land trusts.

The ASA is a community-supported nonprofit organization that works with land owners in Rensellaer and Washington Counties in New York’s upper Hudson Valley to conserve farmland.

Full job position is included below.

severine and the last american food commons, part I

 

This past Fall, Severine travelled to beautiful Alaska and wrote three comprehensive articles based on her experience for In These Times. From Halibut festivals to fish processing boats to the rugged Alaskan homesteaders, she explores three questions fundamental to her journey:

• What can the farming community learn from the highly managed, and highly abundant commons of Alaska? Are these lessons applicable to land?
• What do young agrarians have to learn from the governance and politics of a wild fishery?
• What does a wild fishery have to learn from the cultural activities of agrarian organizers?

Convinced? You can read the three articles, Part I, Part II, and Part III on In These Times.

But maybe you’re still not sure why young farmers should care about the ocean? We’ll be posting a few short excerpts on the blog throughout day, and we suspect they might just change your mind.

 

packaged foods with a mission— now there’s a supply chain trend we’d like to see deepen

Imagine if all the young farmers who scale up their pop corn, millet, broom corn, chestnuts or filbert crops could find a buyer that adds value, champions our diversity, and guarantees a great price…
Yes, I think this can happen!

Ventura-based Patagonia, a brand best known for its outdoor apparel, is getting into the buffalo jerky business, the company announced Tuesday. And thanks to its partnership with a sustainably minded South Dakota meat company, when you snack on a little bit of buffalo you’re helping save where those buffalo roam.

The new foodstuff is the result of partnership between Patagonia’s wholly owned Sausalito-based Patagonia Provisions subsidiary and Wild Idea Buffalo, a meat purveyor that, by partnering with ranchers raising sustainable herds of bison across a swath of South Dakota, is helping to restore and preserve some 100,000 acres of grasslands.

To read more, click HERE!

grazing for restoration

Flemish shepherd breathes life into old practice, and moorland

by Toon Lambrechts

 

SUMMARY: With the help of 200 sheep and a couple of herding dogs, Leen Ricour is helping the former moorlands of a nature reserve in East Flanders recover – one munch at a time.

DIG cooperative is growing!

After 10 years of pioneering cutting-edge water catchment and reuse systems in the Bay Area, longtime Greenhorn Anya and her colleauge at DIG Cooperative are excited to announce that they have begun a new phase of growth. They are partnering with KivaZip to help us raise $15,000 to meet the growing demand for services amidst increased awareness of the severe drought conditions we are faced with in California. This is the first time the cooperative has applied for any outside funding since the inception and they are eager to begin working with the community to help launch themselves into this new era!

Anya and Maria and have split the loan request into two based on needs:
* Maria is taking on raising $7,000 to invest in marketing materials and activities along with providing much needed seed funding for a new office and storage space. Click here to learn more about this campaign and lend to Maria!
* Anya is taking on raising $8,000 to invest in tools and safety equipment as well as necessary hardware and software for design and administrative activities. Click here to learn more about this campaign and lend to Anya!

KivaZip makes 0% interest loans to small businesses like DIG that generate positive social impact in their communities. Lenders can provide contributions from $5 and up and all you need is to create a KivaZip account and have/create a Paypal account to get started. As a bonus, for every contribution under $100, KivaZip will match it for us! This makes your lending that much more powerful.

Thank you for supporting a business that promotes integrated water conservation systems in California during this fragile time!

nature conservancy’s design for a living world