The 10th Annual OSU Extension Small Farms Conference will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2010, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
The one-day conference will be held on the Corvallis campus of Oregon State University at the LaSells Stewart Center.
The keynote speaker, author David Mas Masumoto (Epitaph for a Peach, Four Seasons in Five Senses, and his latest Wisdom of the Last Farmer), will speak on It’s About the Flavors of Life: Why We Farmers Work So Hard. Masumoto is a third generation farmer working with his family on their …

The OSU Food Group, in partnership with the Horning Endowment and the Corvallis Environmental Center, is hosting a Food Film Series on the OSU campus. All films are free to the public, though those who can are asked to bring non-perishable food or personal care items to donate to the OSU Emergency Food Pantry. All showings will be in the Memorial Union, located at 26th and Jefferson Way.  For more information, call 541-737-3473 or e-mail osufoodgroup@oregonstate.edu.
We Feed the World: Tuesday, January 19 at 7 p.m. in MU 208: La Raza
Food, Inc.: …

George Brown has gotten to know a lot about the local food scene in his job as a buyer in the bulk department at First Alternative Co-op. He’s also met most of the farmers and food producers in this area through his job, shopping farmers’ markets religiously and making a point to learn all he can about what is grown here. His long-held dream of starting an online local foods shopping service just became a reality. Almost 20 farms and food producers are ready to deliver their products to you through this …

Julie Tilt and Clint Lindsey have jobs that involve canyons of stacked bags and boxes. Forklifts often hum in the background. Their livelihoods are directly dependent upon the soil, but their businesses are very different. Hers is contained within the walls of a metal warehouse in a small city. Her workspace is measured in feet. His workspace is 40 miles away, measured in acres. He spends as much time between soil and sky as she does at a computer. She distributes natural foods throughout the Pacific Northwest. He’s a grass seed farmer, his product going around the world.

I think it’s fair to say that farmers don’t usually like to talk much about their farms. They don’t often say what they are earning, what they are planting, or what they might be planning for next year. Maybe it’s because it’s such a hard and unpredictable business. But some of those closed-lipped patterns seem to be breaking down around here, and perhaps that’s one of the greatest successes so far of the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project.
Project organizers hosted farmer meetings in mid-October to discuss 2009’s successes …