ASI Hosting National Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems

MEDIA ADVISORY

The 2nd National Symposium on Food Systems and Sustainability: “Making the Invisible Visible”
Davis, CA
November 9 and 10, 2010

Sponsored by the Inter-institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability (INFAS), and hosted by the Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) at UC Davis. With major support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and additional support from UC Davis College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Clover Stornetta Farms.

The theme of the 2nd National Symposium on Food Systems and Sustainability is “Making the Invisible Visible.” The agenda includes interactive tours where guests will explore four thematic areas important to food and agriculture – youth, power, justice, and resilience.

The tours include an opportunity for reporters to join symposium guests and do one of the following:

• Work in the field and meet new, young farmers
• Meet farmworkers and learn about the hidden health costs of their labor
• Take part in seeding hedgerows used in on-farm habitat restoration (as weather permits)
• Sample greenhouse gases from soils in cover cropped and fallow fields
• Meet with teenage & adult leaders improving food access in low-income communities
• Tour with national Real Food Challenge student activists, including those who pushed the University of California (UC) system to agree to purchase 20 percent sustainable food for their campus dining halls by 2020. 

WHAT:  Interactive tours and opportunity to hear from young farmers, farmworkers, ag researchers, water experts, youth leaders from the national sustainable food movement and academic experts from the nation’s top agricultural institutions. For a complete, detailed list of the tours available and more details about the symposium go to asi.ucdavis.edu/conferences/fss2010.

WHEN:  Tours will take place Tuesday, November 9, 9am – 3pm

WHERE: Davis/Sacramento, California region 

CONTACT:  To sign up for a tour contact Penelope Whitney at 415-397-5000 x 313, or Penelope@resource-media.org  Space is limited, so please confirm tour participation by COB, Thursday, Nov. 4.
 
MORE: The tours are hosted by the Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) at the University of California, Davis as part of its 2nd Annual Food Systems and Sustainability Symposium. The event aims to nurture the next generation of sustainable agriculture leaders and invigorate agricultural research and education in the US.

Founded in 2006, the mission of ASI is to ensure access to healthy food and to promote the vitality of agriculture today and for future generations. For more information please visit ASI’s website at asi.ucdavis.edu.