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Call For Proposals

Now accepting workshop proposals for the 2020 Back to the Root Black Growers & Producers Gathering on February 20-21, 2020.

Workshops will be held on Thursday, February 20th.

This year, we are planning for 12 engaging break-out workshops focused on providing “take-aways” for participants (learning, increased understanding, improved skills, shared solutions, etc.).  Workshops sessions will be 75 minutes (1.25 hours).

Session proposals are requested around four themes:  People, Place, Economy, and Reparations.

All tracks offer space to exchange PRACTICAL and TECHNICAL SKILLS, including:

  • FOOD POLICY action-planning and legal interventions that have impacted your local food ecologies.
  • HEALTH AND WELLNESS practices that demonstrate our ability to take care of ourselves and each other.
  • FARMER-TO-FARMER EXCHANGES that create a space for folks to share knowledge, experiences, challenges, and best practices.
  • DESIGNING THE FUTURE: Afro-ecological practices, implementation, and design.
  • SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL TECHNIQUES Soil health, composting, vermiculture, microbial & fermented DIY fertilizers, mycelium and fish emulsion, hydroponics, aquaponics, propagation, irrigation, integrated pest management, crop management, and animal husbandry.

PEOPLE - This theme asks us to ground ourselves in the wisdom and knowledge of our elders in order to create an intergenerational space of reverence and resilience that connects and sustains members of our community. We invite you to share beliefs, traditions, values, and practices. Ideas include:

  • Historical narratives and storytelling about our collective Black agrarian legacies and foodways
  • Healing and spiritual practices in relationship to land.
  • Who has inspired you to do this work or has inspired your vision of the future?
  • Connections to land and food that explore Black life and how Black Lives Matter.

PLACE - This theme calls for current projects and work around food systems strategies that empower, liberate, connect, and (re)define community places and spaces. We invite proposals that speak to generative and regenerative relationships across personal and physical geographies. Ideas include:

  • How can we strengthen our relationships and explore the futures of Black farming?
  • How can farmers in the Pacific Northwest stay connected, learn from one another, and organize cooperatively through collective food work?
  • What solutions are we considering to get away from the industrial food complex system?
  • How can we utilize our access to southern land to train young farmers
  • On the ”green coast,” how do we reclaim and honor our past in a place that has rarely allowed permanence?

ECONOMY - Imagine our liberated future selves and the future of Black farming. This is the place to plant the seeds for building our self-sustaining, self-determining communities and food systems in the most expansive ways possible. What do healthy communities look like and what resources do we need to get there? Consider:

  • Creative future systems that address solutions to existing problems and challenges.
  • Developing technologies that provide community solutions as we move away from our current food system to make way for a new one.
  • Food as a local economic driver for Black communities.
  • Current and/or future food-related policies that impact our communities.

REPARATIONS - This is a place to discuss strategies, policy, planning, and actions around reparations and reparative justice. This could include:

  • What do reparations look like for Black farmers and food systems in our communities?
  • What are some examples of interpersonal and institutional reparations projects?
  • What are some local, regional, and national policies that can be developed as frameworks and pathways to reparations, especially land-based reparations?