Thursday & Friday, June 4 & 5, 2020

Presented by Windham Grows in Downtown Brattleboro, Vermont

What Are Beverage, Food and Local Producers doing for Climate Change, Economic Sustainability & Land Use?

As climate change transforms the planet ⁠and affects our seasons, species, weather patterns, and water ⁠— the Slow Living Summit will explore how the large beverage, food and local producers are utilizing new innovative techniques in their practices of production, farming, and agricultural practices that will help reduce climate change.

Who Should Attend? Farmers, food and beverage entrepreneurs, food system, climate, financial and economic specialists, educators, students, artists, foundation and nonprofit leaders, government officials, community organizers, and engaged citizens.

SUMMIT SPEAKERS

Frances Moore Lappé

Author, Diet for a Small Planet

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Frances Moore Lappé is the author or coauthor of nineteen books, including the three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet. Her latest work is Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning, and Connection for the America We Want, coauthored with Adam Eichen, focusing on the roots of the U.S. democracy crisis and how Americans are creatively responding to the challenge. Frances is co-founder of Oakland-based Food First and the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. The recipient of nineteen honorary degrees, Frances has been a visiting scholar at MIT and U.C. Berkeley and in 1987 received the Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel.”

Tom Newmark

New Chapter, The Carbon Underground, Finca Luna Nueva Lodge

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Tom Newmark was CEO of the dietary supplement brand New Chapter, which was acquired by Proctor & Gamble in 2012. Since that time Tom has focused on environmental activism with specific attention on regenerative agriculture. Tom is the co-owner of Finca Luna Nueva Lodge, a farm and ecolodge in the mountainous rainforest of Costa Rica that teaches regenerative agriculture. www.fincalunanuevalodge.com He is the co-founder and board chair of The Carbon Underground, co-founder of the Soil Carbon Initiative and a founding member of that standard’s Design Team, past board chair of the Greenpeace Fund USA, and a founding member of the Leadership Council of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at California State University – Chico. He is also the past board chair of the America Botanical Council, publisher of the peer-reviewed journal HerbalGram. In his past he was also a corporate attorney and entrepreneur, from which he claims to be recovering.

SUMMIT SPEAKERS

Caroline Gordon

Rural Vermont, Legislative Director

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Caroline was born in Germany and came to Vermont to engage in changing the law so that sustainable farming practices become economically viable. She has her LL.M. in Food and Agriculture Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. Before coming to Vermont, Caroline participated in a four-year training program in biodynamic agriculture in Germany. Aside from advocacy work, Caroline wants to maintain farming herself in a way that increases communal participation and collaboration among producers.

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.

Biologist, Author, and Cancer Survivor

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Biologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. writes about climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment. Steingraber has been named a Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine, a Person of the Year by Treehugger, and one of 25 “Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” by the Utne Reader. Recognized for her ability to serve as a two-way translator between scientists and activists, Steingraber has keynoted conferences on human health and the environment throughout the United States and Canada and has been invited to lecture at many medical schools, hospitals, and universities–including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, and the Woods Hole Research Center. She has testified in the European Parliament, at the European Commission, before the President’s Cancer Panel, and has participated in briefings to Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, and before United Nations delegates in Geneva, Switzerland. Interviews with Steingraber have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Rolling Stone, Outside Magazine, on National Public Radio, CBS News, “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” and “Bill Moyers & Company.”

Krista Scruggs

ZAFA Wine & CO Cellars

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Just fucking fermented juice. Krista Scruggs is the founder and winemaker of ZAFA Wines, based in Burlington, Vermont. Her wild-fermented, unfined and unfiltered bottlings debuted at Brumaire March 2018 and continue to draw rave reviews. Dedicated regenerative farming and using hybrid grapes, Krista manages and farms two vineyards in Vermont and supports organic farms throughout the state by purchasing their fruit. She’s also been known to ferment foraged apples and sometimes co-ferment them together. Krista is also the co-owner of CO Cellars, a working cellar, bar and collaborative label for ZAFA Wines + Shacksbury Cider. Krista started in the wine industry working for Constellation Brands and then ventured to work for an array of growers in Washington, Italy, Southern France, and Texas. Since then, she has been featured on Wine Enthusiast’s 40 Under 40 Tastemakers of 2018 List, Imbibe's 2019 75 Issue, touted as making “the wine of the future” by VinePair and more.

Karen Washington

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Karen Washington has lived in New York City all her life, and has spent decades promoting urban farming as a way for all New Yorkers to access to fresh, locally grown food.

Karen has been a resident of the Bronx for over 34 years, although in 2015 she began living part time in Orange County, NY near the farm. Since 1985 Karen has been a community activist, striving to make New York City a better place to live. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, Karen worked with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens. As an advocate, she stood up and spoken out for garden protection and preservation. As a member of the La Familia Verde Community Garden Coalition, she helped launched a City Farms Market, bringing garden fresh vegetables to her neighbors. Karen is a food advocate and trainer leading workshops on food growing and food justice for community gardeners all over the country. Karen is the former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, a group that was founded to preserve community gardens. She also co-founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an organization of volunteers committed to building networks and community support for 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 awarded with the James Beard Leadership Award.

Mollie Wills

Rural Vermont, Grassroots Organizing Director

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Mollie spent 2010-2016 working in various capacities for Rural Vermont, primarily managing operations and supporting community and member relations. She returned to the organization late in 2018 to fill in for staff on family leave, and ultimately transitioned into her current role as the Grassroots Organizing Director. She firmly believes that a just and dignified agricultural economy based on regenerative practices is the backbone to resilient communities and healthy ecosystems.

SUMMIT HOSTS

Orly Munzing

Founder, Strolling of the Heifers

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Orly is the founder of Strolling of the Heifers. Previously, she served as a learning specialist with the Windham Central Supervisory Union for 24 years. She has a BA in Psychology and Education from Boston University, and Master of Education degree in Psychology and Special Education from Keene State College. She also built a profitable private consulting business, training teachers in cutting-edge educational techniques. Drawing on this background, she gathered a group of volunteers in 2001 to help focus attention on the difficulties of small family farms in the Brattleboro region. Building an organization with no startup funding, under Orly’s leadership they organized the first annual Strolling of the Heifers in 2002. Orly attracted corporate sponsorships ranging from national brands to local businesses, and with the growth in the local foods movement since then, “the Stroll” has expanded to a full weekend which is annually rated one of Vermont’s Top Ten Summer Events (and was rated one of America’s Top 10 Summer Festivals in 2013, and one of North America’s Top 100 Events in 2014). Over the years, Strolling of the Heifers also launched educational programs, a microloan fund, and farm internship program for youth, which are now all carried on by other organizations; the farm/food business planning competition; the Locavore Index; Farm to Table Apprenticeship Program; Windham Grows; and now the Farm/Food Innovation Center at the River Garden. Orly was named the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year in 2010, and in 2013 she received the Vermont Community Leadership Award from the Vermont Council on Rural Development. She received the Vermont Land Trust's Rick W. Carbin Community Conservation Award in 2018. Under Orly’s leadership, in 2006 Strolling of the Heifers received the Harvest Wave of the Future Award from Glynwood.

Lissa Harris

Executive Director, Strolling of the Heifers

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Lissa is the Executive Director of Strolling of the Heifers. Prior to joining the Stroll, Lissa was the Director of Capacity Building at the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust where she was responsible for marketing, fundraising, and more. She has worked in the non-profit sector for over 15 years, working for national organizations like the American Cancer Society and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Lissa also worked as a staff reporter for a local newspaper in New York. She moved to Vermont in 2017 with her husband, two children, and four pets and loves the country life!

Peter Doran

Windham Grows Program Manager

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Peter comes to the Strolling of the Heifers after many years working as a landscape construction project manager. He is also an experienced bike tour planner, and has organized and run many successful charity bike events. As project manager for Windham Grows he is looking forward to using his skills to help our farm and food cohort participants thrive and create new jobs in our community and statewide.

As Windham Grows program manager Peter will also be working on the Farm to Table Culinary Apprenticeship Program, Slow Living Summit, Tour de Heifer, and the small business accelerator. In his role with the Strolling of the Heifers he enjoys contributing to an organization that provides so many benefits to the Town of Brattleboro and the State of Vermont.

Jennifer Brandt

Slow Living Summit Coordinator

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Slow Living Summit Coordinator, Jennifer Brandt, brings years of marketing experience for a variety of clients ranging from Sony to small non-profits. Jennifer’s extensive marketing experience gives her access to a vast professional network of marketing and creative heavy-hitters that can be assembled for projects with even the most daunting marketing and creative challenges. Her passion for sustainable food systems makes her work with Strolling of the Heifers more like a dream than a job. While not working on organizing spectacular events or creating new marketing materials for clients, you can find her exploring new food around the world whether it be via food stall, beach shack and even the occasional high-end meal.

Stay informed!

Join the mailing list and stay up to date on speaker announcements, early-bird registration rates and more.

Come and discover Brattleboro!

The Summit takes place in the non-traditional conference surroundings of Main Street, Brattleboro — a small community in southern Vermont, long renowned for its commitment to healthy, local, sustainable living and technology, for its vibrant communities of visual and performance artists, craftspeople, poets and writers, and for the diversity of its shops, restaurants and galleries. In turn Brattleboro is a gateway to the Green Mountains and Vermont.

Strolling of the Heifers, the organizer of the Summit, is a non-profit organization based in Brattleboro, with the mission of supporting

and sustaining family farms and local food systems by connecting people with healthy local food. We do this through a variety of year-round programs. Best known is our annual Strolling of the Heifers Parade and Slow Living Expo, which takes place during “Stroll Weekend” immediately after the Summit. We also organize a Vermont Farm/Food Business Planning Competition, and we publish the annual Locavore Index ranking the 50 states in terms of their commitment to local food, and other projects and events.

About Strolling of the Heifers

Strolling of the Heifers, the organizer of the Summit, is a non-profit organization based in Brattleboro, with the mission of connecting people with healthy local food, encouraging and facilitating innovation and entrepreneurship in the farm/food sector, and supporting the development of stronger local food systems and healthy, sharing, connected and resilient communities. We do this through a variety of year-round programs. Best known is our annual Strolling of the Heifers Parade and Slow Living Expo, which takes place during “Stroll Weekend” immediately after the Summit. We also publish the annual Locavore Index ranking the 50 states in terms of their commitment to local food, and other projects and events.

In a major new initiative to further our mission, in November 2013 we acquired a prominently-located downtown Brattleboro building, the Robert H. Gibson River Garden (where Summit lunches and receptions take place), which has 4500 square foot of open space used since 2001 for public events, performances, lectures and exhibits. Under our stewardship of this community resource, we plan to maintain the public uses of the building, but also to create exhibits and programming that are related to our own focus areas of local food, food systems, and healthy sustainable living — a Farm/Food Education Center.