Save the Date for the 2012 Small Farm Summit

LongIsland.com

SAVE THE DATE - The 2012 Small Farm Summit to be held on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at Hofstra University from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Will Allen of Growing Power and Chef Ann Cooper, ...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Please contact: Andrea Millwood or Lisa Ott at the North Shore Land Alliance (516)626-0908

SAVE THE DATE - The 2012 Small Farm Summit to be held on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at Hofstra University from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Sold out in advance, the first Small Farm Summit held in April 2011 at SUNY Old Westbury was attended by more than 600 people interested in locally sustainable agriculture on Long Island.

The 2012 Summit is expected to bring together an even larger, more diverse group of educators, farmers, parents, children, municipalities, land trusts, not-for-profits, community leaders, restaurant owners and chefs, and concerned citizens focused on strengthening the local food system and increasing community awareness of and access to more locally grown food.

Will Allen of Growing Power and Chef Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady, will be the keynote speakers for the 2012 Summit.

Will Allen, a former professional basketball player, is the founding CEO of Growing Power, a national nonprofit organization and land trust that supports people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food. Growing Power has initiated highly successful hands-on training, outreach and technical assistance for a number of successful inner-city/ suburban food programs in Milwaukee, Chicago and other under-served communities throughout the U.S. Mr. Allen has been featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and many others for his great work in helping people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.

Chef Ann Cooper is a celebrated author, chef, educator, and enduring advocate for better food for all children. In a nation where children are born with shorter estimated life expectancies than their parents because of diet-related illness, Ann is a relentless voice of reform by focusing on the links between food, family, farming and children's health and wellness.
She has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, Newsweek , and Time Magazine and has appeared on NPR's 'Living on Earth,' ABC's Nightline, CNN, PBS' To The Contrary and the CBS Morning Show and many other media outlets. Ann is the author of four books: Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children (2006), In Mother's Kitchen: Celebrated Women Chefs Share Beloved Family Recipes (2005), Bitter Harvest: A Chef's Perspective on the Hidden Dangers in the Foods We Eat and What You Can do About It (2000) and A Woman's Place is in the Kitchen: The Evolution of Women Chefs (1998).

There is no doubt that Ann is an accomplished chef, however her focus is now on using her skills and background to create a sustainable model for schools nationwide to transition any processed food based K-12 school meal program to a whole foods environment where food is procured regionally and prepared from scratch.

In addition to two terrific keynote speakers, the 2012 Small Farm Summit will be filled with educational workshops, interesting exhibits, fun entertainment and a community of folks interested in growing, eating and supporting a vibrant local agricultural community.

Sponsoring organizations to date include: The North Shore Land Alliance, Hofstra University, Whole Foods, Edible East End, The Sustainability Institute at Molloy College, Slow Food Huntington, iEatGreen, with others to follow.

For more updates and additional information please check out the Small Farm Summit website www.smallfarmsummit.com

The 2012 Small Farm Summit is an effort of the growing Small Farm Initiative, a diverse group of Long Island organizations all sharing an interest in local food, land use, the farm-to-table chain, and the social interaction between farmers and community residents. The Initiative has the potential to connect thousands of like-minded people in Nassau and Suffolk Counties as well as in Westchester County and New York City. Our aim is to facilitate gatherings and dialogue among these groups and individuals in order to advance efforts to preserve local agriculture and to expand the sources of locally grown food for our community.