Virginia Farm to Table Conference 2024
“Connecting Food, Farms, and Health”
Thursday, December 5 and Friday, December 6, 2024
We learned and enjoyed collaboration, conversations, and community with farmers, practitioners, researchers, and more. Thank you to the conference partners, including Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, the VT Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition, Virginia Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (SARE), Blue Ridge Community College, and community partners.
Featured Speakers
Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley
Green Hefa Farms
Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley is a visionary entrepreneur, farmer, herbalist, and advocate for ethical business and sustainable living. Known affectionately as “Farmer Cee,” she is the founding CEO of Green Heffa Farms, a wellness brand and herb farm that celebrates the power of nature to heal and nourish. Beyond her work as an executive, farmer, and herbalist, Farmer Cee is also a passionate educator and community leader. Her farm has achieved the distinction of becoming the nation’s premier Black-owned farm to earn the Certified B Corp credential, a significant recognition denoting its commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Learn more about Farmer Cee here.
Nicole Masters
Director and Owner of Integrity Soils
Nicole Masters is an agroecologist, educator, systems thinker, and author. She has extensive practical expertise and experiences in regenerative soil and landscape practices and coaching and training the trainers. Nicole has a huge commitment to finding win-win solutions for the wellbeing of both landscapes and land managers. With her team they work alongside food producers and the organizations who support them, covering over 29 million acres. Learn more about Nicole here.
Maureen McNamara Best
Executive Director of Local Environmental Agriculture Project (LEAP)
Maureen loves food — thinking about food, growing food, eating food, cooking food, and, of course, buying local food at LEAP’s famers markets. Maureen has been working with food, agriculture, and community since the early 2000s. Her work and professional experience is wide-ranging and includes teaching high school agriculture in Raleigh, NC, working with migrant farmworkers in eastern North Carolina and in the Colorado plains, doing food safety inspections in Boulder, CO, and studying the economic viability of the local food system in Northern Colorado. Learn more about Maureen here.
Elisha Barnes
Pop Son Farm, fourth-generation farmer
Elisha Barnes of Pop Son Farm is a fourth-generation peanut farmer in the small town of Branchville, Virginia. Barnes farms two locations totaling 36 acres, one of which was bought by his father sometime before World War II. On this land his family sustained itself raising everything from animals to produce. Learn more about Elisha here.
The Peanut Grower: Farmer Feature
Hubs Peanuts and Elisha Barnes’s “single origin” peanut story
David M. Kohl, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech
Dr. David Kohl is an academic Hall of Famer in the College of Agriculture at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Dr. Kohl has keen insight into the agriculture industry gained through extensive travel, research, and involvement in ag businesses. He has traveled over 10 million miles; conducted more than 7,000 presentations; and published more than 2,500 articles in his career. Dr. Kohl’s wisdom and engagement with all levels of the industry provide a unique perspective into future trends. Learn more about Dr. Kohl here.
Conference Hosts & Partners
The conference is presented by the Virginia Cooperative Extension in partnership with the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, the Virginia Tech Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Virginia Beginning Farmer and Rancher Coalition, Virginia Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (SARE), and Blue Ridge Community College.
Hosts
Eric S. Bendfeldt, Virginia Cooperative Extension and the VT Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation
Mary Sketch Bryant, Virginia Tech and the Virginia Soil Health Coalition
Partners
Thank you to our sponsors and partners!
Networking
Hosted by the Virginia Soil Health Coalition
On Thursday, December 5, attendees enjoyed an evening of community, networking, and a jam session at Valley Pike Farm Market!
Valley Pike Farm Market is home to a local farmers market, coffee shop, bakery, deli, and wine & beer shop. The barn is over 100 years old and has been restored with great care. David Gardner, a local farmer saved the Sellers barn from demolition to make way for large-scale commercial development. Learn more about David’s work and the venue here.
The Flip Charts shared their brand new music video of their original song “We Are 4 The Soil.”
Virginia Farm to Table 