Farm & Food Symposium
Farm & Food Symposium promotes sustainable agriculture practices in the PNW
BY SYDNEY FLUKER
The Spokane Conservation District (SCD) will bring together farmers and consumers for their annual Farm & Food Symposium, a two-day event promoting access to healthy, locally-grown food and supporting agricultural advancements for local farmers in the Pacific Northwest region.
The event features keynote speakers Graeme Sait and Dan Kittredge, who will provide in-depth presentations and discussions around farm sustainability, nutrition and human health. Sait is a sustainable agriculture author and educator flying over from Australia for the symposium and is known for speaking both to farmers and consumers with his Nutrition Farming Podcast that brings in over 500,000 listeners from around the world. Kittredge promotes using food as medicine by focusing on nutrient density and ethical production through regenerative agriculture and is known for his work with the BioNutrient Food Institute.
“It’s a double-whammy with both of them, as they really bring everything agricultural down to the human health forefront,” says event coordinator Hilary Gonzalez. “To have these two in the room together is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for attendees to really have that one-on-one time with them because our conference is a very intimate setting, and we really pride ourselves on that.”
Aside from the keynote speakers, attendees can expect other educational sessions including a discussion on food labels, the importance of building regional food systems and Indigenous perspectives on regenerative agriculture as tradition. Panel discussions bring in other local agriculture experts, including Brian Estes from LINC Foods and Don Scheuerman from Palouse Heritage Grains.
The symposium is led by SCD’s BioFarming Program, a collective of farmers aiming to promote regenerative agriculture across the Pacific Northwest. The event is set to emphasize the importance of reduction of synthetic applications in PNW crops and advocate for full transparency within the food system.
The 2024 Farm & Food Symposium will take place Nov. 12-13 at the CenterPlace Regional Event Center and is now available for registration. Early bird pricing is available for $250 until Oct. 4, when it will increase to $300. To register for the event and learn more about the symposium, visit SCD’s website here.
