Speaker: Zoe Bradbury, Organic farmer, freelance writer, Food & Society Policy Fellow.

Topic: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production

Date: Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Time: 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM

Location: Davis' Restaurant & Bar, 94 W. Broadway

Zoë lives, writes and farms on the southern Oregon coast. Born onto a small sheep ranch on the Oregon coast, Zoë, 31, grew up in hoody sweatshirts and rubber boots - birthing lambs in the spring, watching salmon spawn in the fall, and taming plums, blackberries and tomatoes into canning jars all summer. Her love for food, farming and rural livelihood got its foothold early on and carried her full circle back to her native southern Oregon where she now runs her own farm, growing mixed produce and berries for local markets with the help of her family and a team of draft horses (www.valleyflorafarm.com).   

In the winter, Zoë also freelances for various publications. Her work has appeared in Edible Portland, USA Today, Oregon Coast Magazine, The Oregonian, Grist, In Good Tilth, the Draft Horse Journal, and Stanford Magazine. She is the author of the online blog, Diary of a Young Farmer. Her activism in sustainable agriculture has engaged her with numerous non-profits and commercial farms over the years, including Ecotrust, the Agriculture and Land-based Training Association (ALBA), the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Sauvie Island Organics, Ella Bella Farm and others. She served as a national Food & Society Policy Fellow from 2008-2010, working explicitly to raise awareness about new farmer issues and the need to cultivate a next generation of sustainable food producers in this country.

Zoë did her undergraduate work at Stanford University where she studied ecological anthropology with a focus on sustainable agriculture.  Her honors thesis took her home to Floras Creek and then south to Chile where she took a hard look at the struggle to sustain family agriculture – in both hemispheres. In 2008, she completed her Masters degree with a focus on rural development, food systems and community change.

Cost: Cascadia Members and students; Free (RSVP MANDATORY)
General Audience; $10

Cascadia thanks the City of Eugene and Davis' Restaurant & Bar for sponsoring the event.

The Transformational Lecture Series aims to inspire all building industry professionals to embrace their role in creating as sustainable built environment now, as well as ensuring that sustainability becomes integral to all development in the future. Taking the lead from the Living Future 2010 tag line, “Hope: Revaluing Community,” Oregon’s Transformational Lecture Series will establish a through-line for revaluing the greater community of Oregon by addressing the enormous challenges confronting the state of Oregon and the importance of moving to a more self-sufficient economy for a secure and sustainable future. In an effort to both reduce cost and carbon emissions, and to inspire the local community, most speakers are notable local heroes and reside in the Pacific Northwest.