Press Release

Re: 20th Annual Southern Plains Conference at
Texas Tech —International Cultural Center on…February 24 & 25th, 2009

For More Information: Contact Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, Ogallala Commons
darrylb@amaonline.com 806-945-2255

Lubbock — Even while our nation struggles through an economic downturn, communities are rediscovering that rebuilding local food systems provides a healthy, affordable asset to their populations.

On Ash Wednesday, February 25th, two nationally-known speakers on local food systems: ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan and food activist Mark Winne–will give keynote addresses at the 20th Annual Southern Plains Conference, to be held at the International Cultural Center at Texas Tech University from 8:15am – 3:30pm. The event if open to the public, and the theme, “Eat, Drink, & Be Merry: Rebuilding Local Food Systems,” will be demonstrated through presentations, exhibits, recipes, and information on growing backyard produce as well as marketing local food.

“The land always welcomes us back,” notes Andy Wilkinson, Artist-in-Residence at The Southwest Collection, one of the sponsors of the conference. “With the milk-and-egg money of the Great Depression and the Victory Gardens of the Second World War, the land welcomed us back. Now, on the eve of a great, new economic restructuring…the land again waits to welcome us back. This conference provides folks from around our region some key ideas and practical tools for rebuilding our connections with local food.”

In conjunction with the Wednesday conference, a special Fat Tuesday Local Foods Evening Soiree will also be held at the International Cultural Center on Feb. 24th from 5:30-8pm. The Soiree will feature fine produce from 12 farmers and ranchers, and the delicious cuisine prepared by chefs and staff from University Catering at Texas Tech. In addition to the local foods court, local wine and beer reception, and visiting with the producers from 5:30-7pm, the Soiree will also feature an hour-long program of music by Andy Wilkinson, Andy Hedges, and Lesley Sawyer, intermingled with a presentation from Gary Nabhan entitled, “Coming Home to Eat on the Southern Plains.”

Those who wish to attend the Feb. 25th Conference or the Soiree on Feb. 24th can register for the package price ($75), or chose to attend one event or the other ($40 per event). To see a complete brochure and to register online, visit http://www.ogallalacommons.org/20thSPC.htm

Sponsors for the 20th Annual Southern Conference are Ogallala Commons, the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, South Plains Food Bank, Oklahoma Food Cooperative, Community Food Security Coalition, and Casa del Llano. To obtain further information, contact Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, Ogallala Commons, at 806-945-2255 (darrylb@amaonline.com).
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Something happening locally everyone concerned now should attend, but there is room for only 200. Lubbock Left, maybe you could editorialize on it. The people involved are real and concerned people as well.

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“Eat, Drink, and Be Merry…
Re-Building Local Food Systems”

20th Annual
Southern Plains Conference & Soiree

Tuesday - Wednesday, February 24 & 25, 2009
International Cultural Center
at Texas Tech University
4th & Indiana Lubbock, Texas

Sponsored by:
Ogallala Commons
Southwest Collection-Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University
South Plains Food Bank
Community Food Security Coalition
Oklahoma Food Cooperative
Casa del Llano

The Commonwealth of Food
The land always welcomes us back. The long memory of our race is bound up in its soil, liberated with each stroke of spade or plow, each seedling, each harvest. We leave it from time to time, casting our lot with the money men and the shufflers of paper, believing that others in other places can do for us what we won’t trouble to do for ourselves. But the land welcomes us back.

With the milk-and-egg money of the Great Depression and the Victory Gardens of the Second World War, the land welcomed us back. Now, on the eve of a great, new economic restructuring, in a world where terrorists at home and rogue countries abroad strike without warning, at a time when the global corporate government has reduced our health and safety to commodities and markets, the land waits to welcome us back.

We can accept that welcome only by re-establishing our personal relationship to the land, a difficult thing to do, now that the vast majority of our kind live in cities and towns. But one way to start, and perhaps the best way, is through the restoration of local food systems, a critical part of the commonwealth of food.
Rebuild your connections at both our festive Fat Tuesday Soiree and the Ash Wednesday conference, or if your schedule allows, for one event or the other.

Schedule

Tuesday, February 24th

5:30pm “Fat & Local” Evening Soiree (Local Foods/Visual Arts/Music)
International Cultural Center at Texas Tech University
4th & Indiana Lubbock, TX

7pm Coming Home to Eat on the Southern Plains (ICC Lecture Hall)
Music by Andy Wilkinson, Andy Hedges, and Lesley Sawyer
Presentation by Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, Tenured Professor, Applied Indigenous Studies and Environmental Sciences, and Director Emeritus, Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University…Author of Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods

8pm Adjourn

Wednesday, Feb. 25th

20th Annual Southern Plains Conference
International Cultural Center at Texas Tech University
4th & Indiana, Lubbock, TX

8:15am Registration & Exhibit Viewing

9:00am Opening Ceremony

9:20 Welcome & Overview of Conference Theme

9:40 Why Local Food Systems Make Sense
Gary Paul Nabhan

10:15 Break & Exhibit Viewing

11:00am Resetting the Table around Food Sovereignty:
Making Healthy Food Accessible & Affordable
Mark Winne, food activist, journalist and author of
Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty

11:45pm Local Foods Lunch

1pm Eat Well, Live Well…
How to Achieve Good Nutrition Through Backyard Gardening
Jenifer Smith & Roy Riddle, South Plains GRUB Program

1:45 Break

2:00pm Marketing Local Food: Cooperatives, Buying Clubs, Etc.
Kim Barker, Oklahoma Food Cooperative
Alan Birkenfeld, Paidom Meats, Nazareth, TX,
Kristen Markley, CFSC, Beaver Springs, PA
Don Bustos, Organic Farmer, Western SARE, Albuquerque, NM Moderator: Darryl Birkenfeld

3:00pm Next Steps to Re-Building Local Food Systems
Commentors: Gary Paul Nabhan & Mark Winne

3:30pm Adjournment

Registration

The International Cultural Center has a capacity for only 200 people,
space for the Soiree and Conference are limited…please register soon!
(Participants can register and pay online at www.ogallalacommons.org)

Early Bird Registration (covers Tues. Soiree and Wed. conference)
Only $60 per person (payment must be received by Friday, February 13th)

Late Registration (after Feb. 13th):
$75 per person (covers Soiree & conference)

One Event Only: either Soiree or Conference: $40 per person
Walk-In Registration:
(depending on availability at either Soiree or Conference): $40 per person

Make checks payable to: Ogallala Commons and mail to:
Southern Plains Conference, PO Box 346, Nazareth, TX, 79063
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Mark with an X in appropriate space…
I am registering for: Early Bird ____ ($60) Late Registration _____ ($75)
Soiree only ____ ($40) Conference only ____ ($40)

Name ______________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________

Phone ______________________________________________

Email ____________________________________

Location & Accommodations
The International Cultural Center (corner of 4th & Indiana) is located on the north side of the Texas Tech University campus, and can be reached by exiting Interstate 27 at the 4th Street Exit and driving west.

A block of rooms have been reserved for a special rate of $74 (double or single occupancy) for this conference…ask for “Southern Plains Conference” at the Radisson Downtown Lubbock, located at 505 Avenue Q (call 806-747-0171 or visit www.radisson.com). The Radisson has free shuttle to Lubbock International Airport, a restaurant and indoor pool. Other lodging options can be found at www.visitlubbock.org

Ogallala Commons is a resource development network offering leadership and education to reinvigorate communities and commonwealths in the Great Plains.
To learn more about our organization and this conference, visit www.ogallalacommons.org or contact Darryl Birkenfeld, Director, at 806-945-2255

Southern Plains Conference
P.O. Box 346
Nazareth, TX 79063