In 2017, the Farm started hosting our monthly educational speaker series. The series of evening presentations aims to spark discussion and learning around important issues. All topics, while related to the farm, are also highly relevant to everyone in our community, including issues surrounding nutrition, change in the food system, the environment, and creating healthy communities.
Whether you are a neighbor to the farm, an outdoor enthusiast, an environmental advocate, or an eater who is curious to learn more and connect with other interested folks, our Speaker Series is a great resource!
2018 Speaker Sessions and Recordings
Food and Fuel from Sunlight, Air, and Water
Daniel G. Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, has created the artificial and bionic leaf to use just sunlight, air and water to make sustainable fuel and fertilization systems. In his talk Professor Nocera discusses how these discoveries set the stage for storage mechanisms for the large scale, distributed, deployment of solar energy and distributed food production. Professor Nocera will also discuss how this technology could be particularly useful to the developing world, where large infrastructures for fuel and food production are not tenable.
Encouraging Healthy Bird Populations in Massachusetts
Dr. Kim Peters is a Senior Biologist at a global risk management and consulting firm, where she provides environmental and wildlife support to wind and solar developers. Isabel Brofsky is a Master’s student in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Kim Peters and Isabel Brofsky will discuss the status of farmland-associated birds, why spaces like Wright-Locke Farm are important for their preservation, and what we can all do to help curb their decline.
Cultivating the Next Generation of Farmers
Jennifer Hashley, is Director of New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, a beginning farmer training program, (http://www.nesfp.org) and a vegetable and livestock farmer in Lincoln, MA. Jennifer holds a Master’s in Agricultural Policy from Tufts and a BS in Environmental Science from Indiana University. She hopes to keep sustainable farms thriving in New England and beyond. In Hashley’s talk you will learn about the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project’s strategies to support next generation farmers to get started in agriculture today, build expertise in the field, and support a thriving local food system.
Can History Help us Reinvent the Food System?
Cathy Stanton is an anthropologist and public historian with a longtime interest in how people make use of the past in their present-day lives. She has studied and written extensively about historical reenactment and industrial heritage sites. Stanton presents a conversation about an expanded and exciting role for historic sites and farm museums within today’s “food movement.”
Chefs as Catalyst Connectors in our Complicated Food World
This session revolves around a panel discussion with local chefs who have been making strides to reconnect people with the food they eat and the landscapes and people that are behind those meals.
Vittorio Ettore- After many years cooking all around the world, Chef Vittorio landed in the Boston area and opened two restaurants; Bistro 5 in West Medford, and A Tavola in Winchester, where he has been instilling in the community his own love and appreciation for good, real food. He has also extended this teaching to local children, offering Seed-to-Plate programming at Ambrose Elementary School and youth cooking classes in his own restaurant.
Lori Deliso – Lori is the co-founder and owner of Kids Cooking Green. Lori recognized the need for a youth cooking program that stressed real cooking and hands-on lessons while emphasizing the importance of local food, the impact it has on the environment and food as a social experience. The philosophy behind Kids Cooking Green is if you teach children about good food, the lessons will last a lifetime. With over 25 years of restaurant experience, Lori, is also a co-Founder of the Lexington Farmers’ Market, as well as co-owner, alongside her husband, of Dave’s Fresh Pasta Shop in Somerville, MA.
Frank McClelland – This James Beard award-winning chef and cookbook author was early to the farm-to-table dining philosophy, which began while growing up on his grandparents’ farm in the White Mountains. By age 25, he had been a chef in two of the most respected Boston kitchens: Harvest in Cambridge and L’Espalier. In 1984, he became Executive Chef at The Country Inn at Princeton, where he established himself as a culinary talent who made time to know local farmers. Chef McClelland eventually purchased L’Espalier, which is now New England’s most decorated independent restaurant with seventeen consecutive AAA Five Diamond Awards and eighteen consecutive Forbes Four-Star awards.
Video Coming Soon
Food Heals our Communities
David Waters has been involved with Community Servings since its inception in 1989, moving from volunteer to board member, Board Chair, Director of Development, and eventually CEO, in 1999. Under David’s leadership, Community Servings has evolved from a small neighborhood meals program delivering dinner to 30 people, to a critical regional program providing 15 medically-tailored meals plans to 2,000 people with acute life-threatening illnesses, their dependents, and caregivers in 20 Massachusetts communities. He is the former Board Chair of the Association of Nutrition Service Agencies, and is a founding member of the national Food Is Medicine Coalition.