Event: Cultivating Common Ground: Farms, Food & Health

Press Release:

Cultivating Common Ground: Farms, Food & Health - Growing Health 2012 Conference

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Full Press Release

The Rural Health Network of South Central New York presents the bi-annual Growing Health Conference on October 17, 2012, in Binghamton, New York as the second day of the two-day Growing Health 2012 program. The day of workshops, plenary presentations, and interdisciplinary learning starts with two pre-conference walking tours of local projects: the Binghamton Urban Farm and the Binghamton Greenway. 

Morning and afternoon plenary presentations will consider the challenges and opportunities surrounding the development of local and regional food systems. The morning presentation, entitled "Your Role in Healthy Food Systems" will be given by plenary speakers James R. Knickman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation and Shanna Ratner, the Principal of Yellow Wood Associates, Inc. The afternoon plenary speaker, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., ecologist and author, will discuss "Healthy Communities in an Age of Environmental Crisis."

There will be both morning and afternoon sessions.  Conference attendees will choose a workshop from six tracks.

Track 1: Healthy Environments includes "Making and Using Compost to Improve Soil Health: Producing Healthy Crops" and "Farming for Improved Health".

Track 2: Economic Vitality includes "Value-Added Agricultural Economic Development" and "Measuring Farmers' Markets: Where Community Development Meets Public Health". 

Track 3: Farm to Consumer Connections includes "Local Foods on the Menu" and "Farmers' Marketing: Engines of Community Health and Food Security".

Track 4: Healthy People I: Nutrition includes "Milk and Dairy Products in a Healthy Diet" and "Emerging Food Systems – Connecting Food, Health and Community".

Track 5: Healthy People II: Public Health includes "Why Does the FDA Tell me One Things About Overuse of Antibiotics as a Farmer and Another as a Physician?" and "Public Health and the Food System: Innovative Solutions for Facilitating Behavioral Change". 

Track 6: Effecting Change includes "How Local Policy Can Support a Community Food System" and "Illustrating Regional Food Systems: Assessment as Tools for Evaluation and Planning."

In addition to the Growing Health 2012 Conference on Wednesday, October 17, Growing Health begins on Tuesday, October 16 with the New York State Healthy Farms, Healthy People Meeting, followed by an Evening Celebration of Local Foods at 6:00 p.m.

  

For more information about Growing Health 2012, please visit: http://growinghealth.rhnscny.org/  or call the Rural Health Network of South Central New York at (607) 692-7669.  Registration is available online at: http://growinghealth.rhnscny.org/registration.