We welcome you to attend the 2020 Back to the Root Black Food and Agriculture Conference on February 20-21.

Download the conference pamphlet and full program.

Wednesday, February 19 at Akadi PDX

6:00 - 9:00 pm

Meet and Greet Social Mixer

Thursday, February 20 at the Redd on Salmon Street

7:00 - 8:30

Registration and breakfast

8:30 am - 5:30 pm

Workshops, plenaries and keynote with Renard Turner

5:30 - 7:30 pm: Evening social mixer

Friday, February 21at the Redd on Salmon Street

Farm trips and food system tours. Vans depart from the Redd at 9:00 am.

 

Tour 1: Black Food Sovereignty at Learning Garden Labs

Location: Learning Garden Lab (LGL), 60th and SE Duke, Portland, OR

Transportation: Group will travel on TriMet (public transportation) from the Redd to LGL

Number of spots available: 40 total

Description: Visit Black Futures Farm, a new growing space where Black and African-identified people learn, practice and reconnect with ancestral growing practices. 

Tour Lead: Malcolm Shabazz Hoover & Mirabai Collins

Tour 2: Wapato Island Farm 

Location: Wapato Island Farm, 15115 NW Gillihan Road, Portland, Or 97231

Transportation: Provided with two vans from the Redd to Sauvie Island

Number of spots available: 20 total

Description: Visit Wapato Island, a woman-owned, 32-acre organic farm on Sauvie Island in Portland, Oregon. Wapato is committed to utilizing and teaching folk herbalism and permaculture practices to rediscover ancestral traditions and honor the Earth. 

Tour Lead: Jennifer Rose Marie Serna

Tour 3: Unity Farm at Oregon Food Bank

Location: Unity Farm, 7900 NE 33rd Drive, Portland, Or 97211

Transportation: Provided with two vans from the Redd to North Portland

Number of spots available: 20 total

Description: Visit a one acre urban farm. Mudbone Grown’s Pathways to Farming Incubator Program for farmers of color and Oregon Inter-Tribal Breastfeeding Coalition’s Wombyn’s Wellness garden. Both partnering with Oregon Food Bank at their NE Portland headquarters.

Tour Lead: Shantae Johnson

Tour 4: Food Hub, Wild Edibles and Hemp

Location: 831 SE Salmon St, Portland, OR 

Transportation: Walk across the street between Redd East and Redd West

Number of spots available: 30 total

Tour Lead: Edward Hill

This tour includes three parts:

• Redd West: (9:15 - 10 am) From urban bike deliveries to school garden programs, to the freshest harvest from land and sea, the hub at Redd West embodies the hardworking spirit and agricultural roots of the neighborhood, while putting a new spin on innovation and accessibility. Note, the Redd is not a BIPOC led project. 
• Forest to Plate: (10 - 11 am) The group will head back to Redd East for an intro workshop on popular wild edibles with Elan Hagens of Temptress Truffles. Elan will provide a culinary demonstration and tasing of varieties of local, winter mushrooms in the Redd Kitchen.
• Hempin' & Seedin': (11 am - 12 noon) Presented by workshop facilitator Travell Bradford, this session will include an overview on the industrial hemp industry, with cultivation, and possibly drying and extraction cash flow projections. There will also be a hands on demo in the Redd Kitchen with planting materials (soil, seeds, a couple of plants, some hemp flowers, and several samples of consumer hemp products).

Saturday, February 22

A bus to OSU Small Farms Conference will leave Portland at 7:00 am.