Growing Power's National-International Urban & Small Farm Conference
September 10 - 12th, 2010
State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin
Winona LaDuke speaks on the Friday morning (10-11:30 AM), Sept. 10. on Indigenous food issues and perspectves at the Growing Power Urban Ag Conference listed above.
Ben Yahola (Muskogee) and Indigenous youth will lead a walk over to the burial mounds on State Fair Park grounds each morning at 8 AM for a ceremony, remembering the ancestors.
One Day Conference fee (meals included) $180. Full conference fee, Sept. 10-12 (meals included) is $350. Register online via www.growingpowerfarmconference.org

Come to the Milwaukee area and help grow the good food revolution. Hosted by Growing Power—a national organization headed by the sustainable urban farmer and MacArthur Fellow Will Allen—this international conference will teach the participant how to plan, develop and grow small farms in urban and rural areas. Learn how you can grow food year-round, no matter what the climate, and how you can build markets for small farms. See how you can play a part in creating a new food system that fosters better health and more closely-knit communities.
Location : Wisconsin State Fair Grounds, West Allis (near-southside Milwaukee): www.wistatefair.com
SPEAKERS:

Will Allen, son of a sharecropper, former professional basketball player, ex-corporate sales leader, and now farmer, has become recognized as among the preeminent thinkers of our time on agriculture and food policy. The founder and CEO of Growing Power Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Allen is widely considered the leading authority in the expanding field of urban agriculture. Will speaks Friday AM and Sunday to the assembled.
In 2008, Allen was named a John D. and Katherine T. McArthur Foundation Fellow and was awarded a prestigious foundation “genius grant” for his work – only the second farmer ever to be so honored. He is also a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and in February 2010, he was invited to the White House to join First Lady Michelle Obama in launching “Let’s Move!” her signature leadership program to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity in America. Will Allen’s work is prominently featured in the new documentary, FRESH, to be shown at the conference on Friday evening (7:30-9:00 PM).
Grace Lee Boggs is an activist, writer and speaker whose more than sixty years of political involvement encompass the major U.S. social movements of this century: Labor, Civil rights, Black Power, Asian American, Women's and Environmental Justice. Born in Providence, R.I. of Chinese immigrant parents in l915, Grace received her B.A. from Barnard College in l935 and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College in l940. In l953 she came to Detroit where she married James Boggs, African American labor activist, writer and strategist. Working together in grassroots groups and projects, they were partners for over 40 years until James’s death in July l993. Their book, Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century, was published by Monthly Review Press in l974.
In 1992, with James Boggs, Shea Howell, and others, she founded DETROIT SUMMER, a multicultural, intergenerational youth program to rebuild, redefine and respirit Detroit from the ground up, which completed its 14th season in the summer of 2006. Currently she works with the Detroit City of Hope campaign and the Beloved Communities Initiative and writes for the weekly Michigan Citizen. (Grace Lee Boggs will be joining us via live video conferencing.)

Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Reservations, and is the mother of three children. She is also the Executive Director of Honor the Earth, where she works on a national level to advocate, raise public support, and create funding for frontline native environmental groups. A graduate of Harvard and Antioch Universities, Winona has written extensively on Native American and Environmental Issues.
She is a former board member of Greenpeace USA and serves, as co-chair of the Indigenous Women's Network, a North American and Pacific indigenous women's organization. In 1998, Ms. Magazine named her Woman of the Year for her work with Honor the Earth. Also in 1997, her first novel, Last Standing Woman, was published by Voyager Press. In 1999, South End Press published All Our Relations, a non-fiction book on Native environmental struggles. Winona speaks on the Friday morning (10-11:30 AM)

Dr. Judith Palfrey is currently the Director of the Children's International Pediatric Center and is working to establish training and service programs in international sites based on her experiences in the United States. She is the author of five books including Community Child Health (Praeger Press, 1994) and Child Health in America (Johns Hopkins Press, 2006). Judith Palfrey's primary research interest is in designing and evaluating programs for children with special health care needs. Her work is focused on the development of innovative systems of care and the assessment of the costs and benefits of such systems. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the NIDDR funded Opening Doors: The National Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs. This project is directed at improving access to early identification, community inclusion and effective transition services for children and youth from traditionally underserved communities. Saturday Lunchtime keynote.

The “Building the Good Food Revolution” conference will give you a chance to

• Understand how non-profit organizations can work cooperatively with city and state governments, as well as for-profit and non-profit agricultural enterprises.
• See how to create successful farm-to-school initiatives by drawing on Growing Power experiences in Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago.
• Learn how to grow relationships with corporations that can help support locally grown food initiatives.
• Discover how to create and utilize renewable energy in local agricultural systems.
• Learn about the development of multi-story vertical farms.
• Find how social justice and food justice can be fostered through the local and regional farm system.
• Visit successful small farms in the Milwaukee metropolitan area.
• Enjoy food grown by local and regional farmers and prepared by local chefs!
• Network: Over 2,000 participants expected and Exhibit Hall available.

Choose from Exciting Conference Tracks: Urban Aquaculture; Experiential Education; Brownfields Development; Renewable Energy; Urban Farming Workshops; Youth; Growing Food & Justice Initiative; Corporate Companies, Governments, Universities working with Communities; Food, Fitness and Nutrition; and Urban Planning.

3rd Annual Growing Food and Justice Gathering
This year the GFJI Gathering (leadership training; dismantling racism; and empowering low-income and communities of color through sustainable and local agriculture) will be held in partnership with the Growing Power - Urban Agriculture and Small Farms conference in Milwaukee, WI, this year: September 10-12, with pre- conference activities beginning September 8th, making it a little easier for folks to attend both GFJI's annual gathering and the urban agriculture and small farm conference!!!! See GFJI conference track online www.growingpowerfarmconference.org