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Welcome to the 37th annual California Small Farm Conference, a week-long event featuring over 40 online workshops as well as a dozen in-person gatherings around the state. Whether you’re a beginning farmer or a seasoned grower, a local food advocate or a farmers market manager, you’ll find something here for you. This year’s theme, "Rooted in Place", honors the vital relationship between farmers, communities and the land they steward.

Check out the schedule below for event times and locations. Click "Reserve Tickets" to register. Admission is on a sliding-scale, to ensure everyone can attend. Please select the amount you’re comfortable paying. Enjoy the conference!

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Is There Soul in the Soil? The Spirituality of Farming
Sunday February 23, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm PST
Online
This workshop will explore the weaving of spirituality and agriculture from the experience of several panel members. These will include representatives from (for example) the Biodynamic community, Native American / Indigenous farmers, food producers with a more traditional faith background, and those with an atheist/agnostic spirituality.  

Science has given us so many incredible tools to advance agriculture and especially food production. We can now produce more food with greater nutrition in more diverse ecosystems while paying attention to the impacts of different methods on the environment and segments of society.  But a scientific focus can also lead to objectifying nature as something to manipulate at will, to control and use as a lifeless, mechanical resource.  But what if the soil has soul? What if the land we depend on for life and livelihood has something akin to consciousness or even personhood--different from the human sort but just as real?  Historically, many indigenous cultures have not separated their collective experiential knowledge (another name for empirical science) from their spirituality. What might it look like to form more intentionally collaborative relationships with the more-than-human beings that feed us, to honor spirit and science together?  This upbeat workshop will be facilitated with curiosity, dialogue among speakers, and respect for diverse views.
Speakers
avatar for Dr. Stan Rodriguez

Dr. Stan Rodriguez

Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel
avatar for Angelie Ryah

Angelie Ryah

I'm a new farmer with my very first commercial growing operation!  Belong Farm has been a dream for many years so I am excited to see it take shape. I am using regenerative ag methods, and thrilled to join the badass farmer network that makes up Foodshed where we make uber nutritious... Read More →
LC
Sunday February 23, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm PST
Online
  Farmer Life

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