Wild Ideas for Farms and Food

This Tuesday Triangle Land Conservancy is set to host another installment of its Wild Ideas series in October. Wild Ideas for Farms and Food will be on October 11 at The Frontier at Research Triangle Park starting at 5:30pm. Community members are invited to learn about farm and food issues and ideas while enjoying free local food and beer. Register online at https://triangleland.org/explore/wild-ideas. Leigh Ann Hammerbacher, Associate Director of Conservation and Stewardship at TLC, explains, “In the last 20 years we have lost over 60,000 acres of farmland in the Triangle. These farms are home to important soil and water resources that cannot be replaced once they are developed. Farms also provide wildlife corridors, buffers for streams, and opportunities to explore nature and connect with our cultural heritage.” TLC’s Wild Ideas series provides a unique venue for experts and the community to share their innovative ideas to support local farms and food, safeguard clean water, protect natural habitats, and connect people with nature in order to make the Triangle a more vibrant place for all of us to live, work, and play. The featured speakers for Wild Ideas for Farms and Food are Ryan Butler (Green Button Farm and Picnic), Kay Coleman (Inter-Faith Food Shuttle), Mavis Gragg (The Gragg Law Firm, PLLC), Leigh Ann Hammerbacher (TLC), and Matt Whitley (Co-founder of Happy + Hale). The emcee for the event is Shorlette Ammons (Center for Environmental Farming Systems). After hearing from these experts, guests are invited to explore an Expo of organizations, groups, and businesses actively working in fields related to farms and food, including Black Family Land Trust, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Compost Now, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, Farmer Food Share, Keep Durham Beautiful, NC Composting Council, NC State Agroecology Education Farm, Piedmont Picnic Project, Tilthy Rich, Triangle Land Conservancy, Well Fed Community Garden. Food will be provided by Vimala’s Curryblossom Café and Piedmont Picnic Project. Plow-to-pint beer by Fullsteam Brewery will be featured. Many organizations and individuals are working to protect farmland and local food sources in our region. “TLC works to protect high priority farmlands across the Triangle Region. TLC protects farms through easements, where landowner continue to farm their land, but donate or sell the future development rights for the property. We also work closely with other agencies to help landowners develop plans for conserving their farms including strategies to protect the soil and water resources,” Hammerbacher said. “TLC also owns and manages farmland. We have a farm preserve at Irvin Farm in Orange County and are working to develop an additional farm preserve at the 405-acre Walnut Hill Preserve in Wake and Johnston Counties.” TLC extends special appreciation to our program sponsors Johnson Subaru of Cary, Duke Energy Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC, Triangle Community Foundation, Centrex Properties, SunTrust Foundation, Morgan Stanley Foundation, and Docusource for their support of this free event.

Photo by Caroline Gilmore

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Musolé Kambinda

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