Women’s Environmental Institute presents

2015 ORGANIC FARM SCHOOL

June 15^th – August 17th

Location: Birchwood Café, 3311 East 25th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406

Time: 6:00-8:00 every Monday evening

Cost: $120 for 10 week session or $20 for drop-ins

The Women’s Environmental Institute is pleased to announce registration is open for the 2015 Organic Farm School. Organic Farm School is a unique ten-week educational summer program composed of lectures, related readings, hands-on workshops and field trips relevant to a larger understanding of sustainable agriculture, food justice and local and global food and farming politics. The Women’s Environmental Institute is a nonprofit organization with a rural campus in North Branch, MN where WEI’s Eco-Retreat Center and Amador Hill Farm and Orchard are located.  Our mission is to promote environmental, food and farming justice, across rural and urban communities.  Organic Farm School began in 2006 with a goal to educate and inform the public about organic food and farming and to support the expansion of organic gardening and farming in Minnesota. This year’s lectures are listed below:

June 15 – “Meet & Greet with WEI”:  Who Are We, What Do You Want to Learn, Overview of the Series and Reading List, Introducing the Women’s Environmental Institute with Karen Clark (WEI Executive Director and Jacquelyn Zita (WEI Farm Manager and Director of Education)

June 22 – “A Tribute to Atina Diffley: Minnesota Organic Woman Farmer Pioneer” 

Atina Diffley (Organic Farming Works, Inc.) reading from her book and sharing her stories and organic know-how.

June 29 – “Starting a Sustainable Farm-based Value-added Business” Angelica Hollstadt (Angelica’s Garden)

July 6 – “Living with Humus, Living with Us” Professor Pat Farrell Ph.D. (UMD Geography)

Saturday Session – July 11 – “What Bugs You?”  Dr. Loretta Ortiz-Ribbing (MN Dept of Ag) Day-long Saturday FIELD STUDY at the WEI FARM: Learn how to identify and monitor farm and garden insects, understand their life cycles, steward beneficials, and organically manage “the unwanted.”

July 13 -“Regenerative Agriculture & Permaculture” Paula Westmoreland (Ecological Gardens)

July 20 – “GMOs:  From the Seed to the Plate to the State”   Jim Riddle (Blue Fruit Farm, Organic Independents, LLP) Tracy Singleton (Birchwood Café) Karen Clark (MN State Representative)   

July 27 – “The Urban Farming Revolution:  More than a Farm”  Eartha Bell (Frogtown Farm) & Christina Elias (24^th Street Urban Farm, Mashkiikii Gitigan)

August 3 – “Rural Farm Labor Struggles”– Anthony Pahnke (Centro Campesino Minnesota, Family Farm Defenders Wisconsin and Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST))

August 10 – “Pollinators and Pesticides: Demystifying the Science and Policy in Bee Declines” Lex Horan (PANNA, Pesticide Action Network of North America)

August 17 – “The Future of Organics and Small Farm Sustainability in the State of Minnesota”