This year’s Western Canadian Holistic Management Conference is in Lacombe, Alberta on February 17- 19th and includes a partnership with Organic Alberta to provide even more value, bringing you 3 days of information, insight and inspiration.
Speakers include Courtney White, Richard Teague, Anna Jones-Crabtree, Doug Crabtree, Takota Coen, and more!
Come join and grow this amazing community of regenerative agricultural farmers! To register, click here.
What to Expect
Thought-Provoking Experts
Regenerative agriculture offers solutions to many of the challenges facing society today. Hear from credible, well-traveled, world-renowned experts on the impact farmers are making to build soil, sequester carbon, grow nutrient-dense food and revitalize local communities.
Practical Skills
Holistic Management educates and empowers people to make socially, environmentally and financially sound decisions. Take home new ideas and practices to improve your farm and business management.
Great Food
This year, we are proud to be sourcing as much local and organic food as possible throughout the conference. Saturday night will feature a
featuring dishes from local holistic management organic farmers. This event is organized and hosted by Tracy Loeppky and Keri Nelson of the Moms for Real Food Initiative.
Speakers
Courtney White
Author of
and
, Courtney has been working on the cutting edge of collaborative conservation, regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration, and climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience for nearly two decades. As cofounder and Executive Director of the Quivira Coalition, he had the privilege to help implement these practices on-the-ground as well as explain their hopefulness in numerous publications and public speaking events.
He believes that positive, solution-based narratives are critical to our collective future. As our challenges grow in size and complexity, we urgently need as many ‘right-brain’ answers to ‘left-brain’ questions as we can muster.
Anna Jones-Crabtree and Doug Crabtree
Vilicus Farms officially started from scratch in 2009 when Doug and Anna purchased 1,280 acres of Northern Great Plains prairie off the open market with 20 years of savings and lots of hutzpah. The vision for Vilicus began years earlier when Doug, whose family’s grain farm in Ohio had been lost in the farm crisis of the 1980’s, began looking for a viable way to return to farming.
Determined to participate in an organic agriculture revolution, Doug and Anna became beginning farmers at the age of 40. Doug and Anna understand the challenges of taking a farm from vision to reality. Through the Vilicus Farms apprenticeship program they hope to give those who want to pursue a career in organic agriculture and aspiring farmers a real opportunity to be part of a large-scale organic dryland crop farm in the Northern Great Plains.
Takota Coen
Takota was born and raised on Grass Roots Family Farm where his family has managed their land according to organic agricultural principles for 26 years. Recently, with the help of community supported agriculture, they have began transitioning their land into a perennial based agricultural system. By facilitating connections between a variety of livestock, fruit and nut trees and the patterns of the land itself they hope to mimic the health and diversity of a natural ecosystem.
In addition to farming, Takota is also the founder of Deep Roots Design where, through his experience and love for the land, he works to empower others with the tools and resources to design and implement resilient living systems that are earth restorative.
Kimberly Cornish
Kimberly Cornish is the Director and Founder of Food Water Wellness Foundation and organization working to support sustainable regenerative agriculture. She has coordinated Rootstock, a field to table event, for the last two years, is working on the development of freshlygrown.ca to facilitate marketing of farm to table food. Kim recently coordinated a pilot holistic management course aimed at true and deep transformational change in farm management practices in Winter 2016.
Food, Water, Wellness Foundation supports a growing agrarian movement in western Canada through innovative education programs and food celebrations, including the Rootstock summer festival.
Kim is an international educator and passionate agrarian who has developed food programs throughout the world.
Dr. Richard Teague
Dr. Teague, associate resident director and professor at Texas A&M AgriLife Research, believes that research and service must provide the linkage that enables managers to base decisions for sustainable land use on the principles of ecosystem function. He has used four key elements to enhance this linkage: a systems research program, resource accounting, long-term assessment and partnering with rancher clientele. His goal is to use a systems approach in developing land and livestock management practices that
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His research focuses on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation including determine the extent that grazing strategies influence key ecosystem services (especially soil and vegetation carbon sequestration), soil fertility and stability, water quality, net primary and secondary production, and the economic viability of working ranches.
Blain Hjertaas
Blain has 15 years of practical experience using Holistic Management running own grass operation. In conjunction with his son Martin they have 350 ewes to lamb and custom graze 150 pairs of cows. They have a small scale poultry operation on grass as well. Blain has a passion for carbon sequestration and is monitoring sites across Western Canada. To register, click here.