2017 Young Farmers Conference

Ricardo Salvador is the senior scientist and director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He is internationally recognized and respected for his dedication to advocating and working for a food system that is healthier and more just. Prior to joining UCS, Salvador was a program officer for food, health and wellbeing at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and worked as an associat... Read More →

Jack Algiere is farm director at Stone Barns Center. Jack graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in horticulture and has been actively farming since the early 1990s. His lifetime of experience in organic, biodynamic and ecological systems brings a broad diversity... Read More →

V. Ernesto Méndez is Professor of Agroecology at the University of Vermont’s Environmental Program and Department of Plant and Soil Science, where he leads the Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC). His research and teaching focus on agroecology, agrifood systems, participatory action research (PAR), and transdisciplinary research approaches.  At UVM he is also an active member of the Food Systems Initiative and a fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment.  He has almost... Read More →

Karen is Co-owner/Farmer at Rise & Root Farm. In 2010 she co-founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings. In 2012, Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential African Americans in the country and in 2014 she was the recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award... Read More →