Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture
Events
Exploring Regenerative AgriCultural Practices, Traditional Knowledges & Sustainable Modes of Living
Date: April 13, 2023
Time: 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Location: Sisters School District Office Board Room
Details: This event is free, but prior registration is required. CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE REGISTRATION PAGE & RESERVE YOUR SPOT
This event will feature three lectures from three speakers:
Dallas Hall Defrees, Regenerative Ranching Program Director, Sustainable Northwest
We are at a critical time for the American food system. Producers are facing mounting challenges due to climate change, conversion pressure, regulations, and other stressors. Retail markets are evolving as the demand for more carbon neutral and sustainable food products increase, and the frequency and severity of climatic events are driving the need to build more resilient land bases to maintain stable food production. Regenerative agriculture exists at the nexus of these social, economic, and environmental issues and is rapidly gaining attention as a comprehensive strategy to achieve conservation on working lands, sustain rural economic viability, and meet growing demand for greenhouse gas reduction and sustainable goods. Translating this strategy to on-the-ground implementation requires a producer-led, scalable approach. Through technical assistance, producer education, and a robust monitoring system Grazewell partners are aiming to accelerate the adoption of regenerative ranching practices across the West and will quantify the impact of these practices to further drive implementation.
Craig Barber, NW-based Photographer
Craig J. Barber is a NW based photographer documenting farmers and their work — growing our food. For over 30 years he has focused on the cultural landscape in rapid transition, some fading from memory. Barber works with both contemporary and antiquarian processes. His work has explored Viet Nam, Havana, Tuscany, farmers in the Finger Lakes and Catskill Mountain regions of New York and now Skagit Valley in Washington State. For this event, he will discuss his ongoing project “Farming the Valley,” which is a portrait of food production on small farms in the early 21st century in North America. The talk will include digital slides projected, as well as photographic prints.
Javier Lara, Anahuac Program Manager
Anahuac is a community-centered program that offers traditional education in agriculture, culinary arts, cultural arts, wellness and native languages. We support our community that is made up of Indigenous People from different ethnic groups of this continent to reclaim our culture, tradition, knowledge, and ancestral values and to restore sacred relationships with all life and Mother Earth for future generations. We recognize the urgency of collectively rescuing and reclaiming our ancestral languages, knowledge and practices, and native seeds to sustain life and Mother Earth for many generations to come.
MORE ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Dallas Hall Defrees is an eastern Oregon cattle rancher with an established career in rangeland ecology and management. Dallas is an engaged, active member of her family’s operation, which has received honors in recognition of excellent land management, including the National Tree Farmer of the Year. Since childhood, Dallas has had a passion for land stewardship and sustainable management and has catered her education and professional life towards natural resources and taking care of the land. Dallas received a Master’s Degree in Rangeland Ecology and Management (Oregon State University) to gain the skills and scientific knowledge needed to help preserve natural lands. As a trained rangeland ecologist, Dallas seeks to find the best uses for an array of ecological environments. The interface between science and land management is where her passion lies. Dallas’ roots in eastern Oregon, her extensive educational training in rangeland science, and her passion for finding consensus for complex ecological challenges influences her passion for thriving and resilient ecosystem management.
Craig J. Barber is a photographer who travels and works using antiquarian processes and focuses on the cultural landscape. For over 30 years he has focused his camera on Viet Nam, Havana, the Catskill Mountain region, and Skagit Valley, WA documenting cultures in rapid transition and fading from memory. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America and is represented in several prominent museum and private collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Brooklyn Art Museum; the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; and Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, among others. He has received several grants including the Puffin Foundation, the Seattle Arts Commission, the Polaroid Corporation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2006 Umbrage Editions published his book, ”Ghosts in the Landscape: Vietnam Revisited.”
Javier Lara is originally from the state of Guerrero, Mexico and now based in Turner, Oregon. In the last 9 years, he has focused on growing traditional plants and vegetables in a way that allows us to exercise our ancestral traditions through agriculture, art, and tradition. With this in mind, he focuses on unifying our grandfather’s/grandmother’s ancestral knowledge and practices with our youth, to keep our relationship with the land, plants, fungi, and every being that gives us knowledge and allows us to coexist alive. As a hobby, he likes to hike in the mountains, collect plants, roots, and wild mushrooms. Also, he enjoys making string instruments, traditional Native American stone pipes, and traditional cooking.
