The land acknowledgement for the conference is

given by Acjachemen Nation/ Juaneño Band of 

Mission Indians spritual leader, Adelia Sandoval

and was assisted by Jorge Contreas, Student

Services and Program Coordinator for the Native

and Indigenous Population for the Office for the

V.P. for Student Affairs at CSUF.

Conference welcome given by Dean Sheryl

Fontaine from the College of the Humanities

and Social Sciences. 

Particpants of the conference listen to virtual

Keynote Speaker, Rowen White, Seed Keeper

and farmer from the Mohawk Community

of Akwesasne.

Abe Sanchez of the Chia Café Collective leads a 

cooking demo of native foods. Chia Café

Collective  is an organization dedicated to the

revitalization of California's Indigenous foods. 

Roy of Monkey Business Café  helps set up the

coffee break for the conference. Monkey

Business Café is a fully operational restuarant

and catering enterprise that serves as work

experience site for emancipating foster youth

and other at-risk young people.

Conference attendees stand outside of the

Monkey Business Food Truck during lunch. 

Conference program coordinators, Michael Dean

(L) and Alexandra Stohs (R), pose with panelists

from the "Black Community Development

through Urban Farming" Session. Jamiah

Hargins, founder of Crop Swap LA, spoke

along with Taylor Harrison, founder of

Plant Plug LA. Dr. Natalie Novoa (center),

CSUF African American studies professor,

helped organize the session. Crop Swap LA's

mission is to grow food in unused spaces,

creating sustainable jobs and local, nutrient-rich

food in communities affected most by

food insecurity. Plant Plug LA, started in 2019, is

the "first curbside nursery in South-Central LA."

Changqi Li of The Sustainable, Optimized

Urban and Latino-driven Agriculture (SOULA)

Project at SDSU presents at the conference.

The SOULA Project aims to provide innovative

solutions to food insecurity by promoting

interdisciplinary collaborations and indigenous

science while fostering a pipeline of a diverese

workforce in the field of food and agriculture.

The  "Geo-Spatial Agriculture" session, led by

Professor Aaron Fox of Cal Poly Pomona,

explores maps of food deserts, defined as low-

income neighborhoods where residents do

not have easy access to a supermarket and

how they fail to represent the various social

grass-roots efforts to build community food security. 

Professor Choi Chatterjee (L) of Cal State LA

and her graduate students, Esmeralda Del Rio

and Chris  Gurrola, present an overview of

their research project, "The Historical

Database of Climate Adapted Agriculture".

This database is centered on two main

inventories: 1) A record of edible and medicinal

plants  that have thrived in the L.A. basin for

the last 300  years; 2) A record of sustainable

agricultural practices that have evolved

in the Southern California region. 

Q&A with Dr. Teresa Lloro of Cal Poly Pomona

and Dr. Grieg Guthey of CSU San Marcos with

Dr. Aaron Fox of Cal Poly Pomona. Dr. Lloro

gave a presentation on "Queer Feminist Food

Justice Activism."

Dr. Greig Guthey presents on CSU San

Marcos'  "Cougar Pantry", a student-led

campus food  pantry coordinating weekly food

delivery to campus from a local non-profit

that was founded in 2017. 

Opening speaker, BBC journalist and

broadcaster, Dan Saladino gives a presentation

on his new book, "Eating to Extinction: The

World's Rarest Foods and Why We  Need

to Save Them." Mr. Saladino makes

programs about food for BBC Radio 4

and BBC World Service and is the host for,

"The Food Programme".

Chef Stacey Whitney of CSUF's Project

Rebound leads a virtual cooking demo on

how to make healthy fried rice. Project

Rebound is a program that supports the 

higher education and successful reintegration

of  formerly incarcerated indivduals wishing

to enroll and suceed at California State Universities. 

Dr. Sara Johnson, director of "The Urban

Agriculture Community-based Research

Experience (U-ACRE) Project presents at the

conference. U-ACRE offers hands-on

community-based research experience for 

undergraduates, as well as community

outreach in areas of food security, nutritional

sufficiency, environemental justice, and 

sustainable agriculture. 

Steve Anticona, CSUF Environmental Studies

Master's Student and U-ACRE  Fellow,

presents his research on the bee colony in the

apiary located at the Fullerton Arboretum

during the U-ACRE session. 

U-ACRE students, Karisa Andert and

Stephanie Ramirez, help out at the conference. 

Steve Anticona, U-ACRE fellow, poses with Dr.

Sara Johsnon, director of U-ACRE, and 

Michael Dean, U-ACRE fellow and program

coordinator for the conference.

Abe Sanchez of the Chia Café Collective gives a

tour of the Fullerton Arboretum to conference

attendees. 

During the tour of the Fullerton Arboretum,

Abe Sanchez discusess the background and

history of plants that are local to Southern

California and their use in local indigenous

communities. 

Emily Miller, project manager of the "Fishful

Futures" project presents during the

"Sustainable Seafood" session. The Fishful

Futures projects is an intiative launched

by a Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant that critically

examined the San Diego seafood supply chain for

waste of edible seafood happening upstream of 

consumers.

Stephen Stohs, NOAA Fisheries Economist,

presents on transboundary endagered species

conversation fisheries during the "Sustainable

Seafood" session. 

Dallas Abel of the Kai Ika Project based in New

Zealand discuess Kai Ika's attempts to

redistribute fish heads, frames and offal that

were previously going to waste back to the

local community. 

NOAA Fisheries economist, Derrick Robinson,

gives a presentation on aquaculture for the 

"Sustainable Seafood" session. 

Miguel Macias, education director at the

Fullerton Arboretum, leads a workshop on

home composting.

Nicholas Rajen, member of the Augustine Band

of  Cahuilla Indians, gives a presentation on

on Temalpakh Farm in the Coachella Valley.

Temalpakh Farms operates an organic farm and

farmer's market in the Augustine reservation,

once the location of the village site of Temal

Waquish, now surrounded by the city

of Coachella. 

Kyndall Noah and Teri Red Owl, members of

the Owens Valley Paiute and members of the

Owens Valley Indian Water Commision, lead a

Q&A after a film screening of "Paya: The Water

Story of the Paiute". The film documents the

history of the Owens Valley Paiute who

constructed and managed sixty square miles of

intricate irrigation systems for millenia, long

before Los Angeles diverted the Owens River

through the Los Angeles Aqueduct, 220 miles

across the Mojave Desert. 

A dove spotted during the conference in the

Fullerton Arboretum.

U-ACRE students, Stephanie Ramirez and 

Avalon Andrews, help out at the conference. 

U-ACRE students, Stephanie Ramirez, Steve

Anticona and Karisa Andert, along with

conference program coordinators, Michael

Dean and Alexandra Stohs, carry out supplies

at the end of the conference.