Mark your calendar: October 24-25, 2015! The sixth Green Granger Interest Group Summit is coming up! Join us as the Bellview Grange hosts us in the beautiful Southern Oregon community of Ashland.
Passionate about farm fresh food, responsible land stewardship and humane animal husbandry? Tired of seeing your hard-earned tax dollars subsidize clean-ups for the worst environmental polluters? Want clean healthy food for generations to come?
You’re invited to come celebrate a super-charged, super-informative and super-productive weekend at Bellview River Grange at 1050 Tolman Creek Road, just East of downtown Ashland, Oregon.
2015 Bellview Grange Green Grange Summit Overview:
Friday, October 23, 2015
11 AM – 4 PM – Free Seed Saving And Exchange Public Event – public event Seed Exchange with local growers and gardeners, Installation of Seed Cabinet for Grange Seed Club, seed cleaning demos, etc.
4 PM – Clean Up
5 PM – Set up for Green Grange Summit
6 – 8 PM – Check in for overnight out of town Grange guests
Saturday October 24, 2015
9:00 AM – Reception with coffee and breakfast pastries/food for greetings, name tags, guests welcomed
10:00 – 11:15 – Keynote program will be a performance adapted from “Transformations” by Vicki Robyn on the Bellview Grange stage
11:15 – 11:30 – Break
11:30 am – 12:30 pm – Panel Discussion – “What is a Green Grange?” Grange Master Richard Heller will introduce this question as the over-arching theme for the Summit along with the goal of developing an Action Plan at the end of the Summit in a Group Summary Activity
Panelists: Bob McFarland (California State Grange), Jay Sexton (Chairperson of Oregon State Grange Agricultural Committee) and Leif Brecke (Bellview Grange)
Each panelist will give a 5 minute overview of their orientation to the question. Bob McFarland presents his experience leading Green Grangers in California, Jay Sexton speaks on a bright future for the Grange; attracting people interested in local agriculture and healthy, sustainable, local food, and Leif Brecke supporting the historical role of Grangers as agricultural activists. Then there will be a 15 minute conversation between panelists followed by audience-directed questions to be answered by the Panelist of their choice. Moderator: Wendell Fitzgerald
12:30 – 1:30 – Lunch
1:30 – 2:15 – “Up the Energy: Bridging Generational Gaps at your Grange” – a Presentation by Ruthie King, Overseer of Little Lake Grange and Director of the Grange Farm School in Willits, CA
2:30 – 3 pm – Break/water/networking
3 – 4:30 pm – Workshops
Choice of Three Workshops:
- Workshop 1: Visioning for the Future and solutions for issues facing the Grange and family farms on the West Coast (Legislation, removing small family farms’ insurance and reducing of Farm Bureaus under the sway of Biotech, reducing pesticide use and sales, reclaiming Grange name from Co-op, – led by Lanny Cotler, Catie Faryl, Chris Hardy, Archie and others
- Work Shop 2: How can Granges attract more young people to become active members? Social media to be emphasized. Led by Ruthie King, Leif Brecke (Bellview Grange Member and Cascadia), Hannah Sohl, Rogue Climate
- Workshop 3: Why a Green Grange? Led by Jay Sexton and Richard Heller
4:30 – 5 pm – Break
5 pm – 7 pm –Potluck Dinner, Dessert and Music hosted by local Grange members
7 pm – 8 pm –Presentation by Dr. Ray Seidler, retired Senior EPA Research Scientist “Risky Business: Hazards Associated with Current and the New GMO Products: You Won’t Believe This”
8 pm – 9 pm – “How and Why Southern Oregon is pushing back” by Elise Higley, Director of Our Family Farms Coalition final title pending
Sunday October 25,2015
8 – 10:00 am – Breakfast
10:00 – 10: 30 – Narrative and Art Slide Show “A View from 2050” by Catie Faryl
10:30 – 11:45 – “A Rogue Climate Consumes the West Coast!” a presentation by Dr. Alan Journet of Southern Oregon Climate Action Now followed by Q & A
11:45 – 12 noon – Break/Snacks
1:00 – 2 pm – “The Real, the Radical, & the Revolutionary: Outside the Box with Guides”
Choose One of Three Forums:
- Forum 1: Fracking, drilling, pipelines: Impacts on farming, water and land and how to address them Guides: Hannah Sohl (Rogue Climate) and Leif Brecke
- Forum 2: Legislation and Entities that encumber sustainable agriculture and how to undo or oppose them Guides: Chris Hardy, Kristina LeFever, Jay Sexton
- Forum 3: The Beast of Biotech – How to show it the Exit and reclaiming local, sustainable food systems Guides: representatives of Our Family Farms Coalition, Chamber of Commons, Pollinators, GMO Free Jackson & Josephine Counties.
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Lunch – Salad & Organic Pizza during Summary,
“Setting a Green Grange Agenda” via World Café style compiling of information,ideas, plans and conclusions from the 2015 Summit
3:30 PM – Closing Ceremony and Farewells
Cost: $20 per person. Checks to: Bellview Grange
Mail to RSVP:
Bellview Grange
P.O. Box 3372
Ashland, OR 97520
Attn: Catie Faryl
Questions???? Email us!
Or phone Catie at 541-535-1854
Click Here to download the registration form, (Adobe Acrobat .PDF).