Speaker Series Archives
Our media database includes the latest news footage and archives of past articles.
SOIL Sangre de Cristo Annual “Speaker Series” featuring Nicola Twilley, author of “Frostbite, How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet and Ourselves”. Nicola Twilley co-hosts "Gastropod", an award-winning podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. In just 100 short years refrigeration has changed our diets and expectations regarding the food we eat.
Woody Tasch, is the founder of Slow Money Institute. He also created the model for community investment. During a recent visit to Colorado he met with some of the SOIL Sangre de Cristo investors to discuss his new book titled “A Call to Farms, Some Thoughts on Food, Money and Nonviolence”. The book is written in honor of Wendell Berry.
The gathering was in a relaxed environment sharing the bounty of local food. Reasons why they support local food producers was shared by each of the participants. Some of those were community food access with nourishing, fresh food; restoring the heritage as an agricultural region and improving the environment we live in with healthy soils and water access.
Meet Rusty Welch. Rusty is an independent financial advisor living in Villa Grove, CO. Rusty works with small businesses helping them develop their full potential with sound investments and long range cash flow and tax planning. He explains in simple terms ways to leverage money to create long-term success. Rusty shows the lost opportunity costs and tax consequences of using your own capital and how borrowing at no interest is the best option of all the alternatives. Rusty will demonstrate how purchasing the tools, equipment, storage, and retail capacity you need NOW using a 0% Interest Loan from SOIL Sangre de Cristo builds volume and sales right away, saving time and physical labor
Dr. Devon Peña, founder of the Acequia Institute in San Luis, Colorado brings us an update on the recent developments of restoring native prairie in Southern Colorado. In conjunction, local farmers are growing food native to this area including bolita beans and heritage corn. A large variety of local food products will be sold in their “San Luis People’s Market” due to open in the Fall, 2024.
Michael Jones, Jones Farms Organics, Agricultor SLV de cuarta generación
La agricultura en Jones Farm Organics, Hooper, CO, abarca cuatro generaciones de múltiples experiencias cultivando papas en el Valle de San Luis. Michael comparte una presentación con comentarios sobre lo que lleva a la granja a sus prácticas regenerativas actuales de rotación de cultivos teniendo en cuenta la conservación del agua y la salud del suelo. Las preguntas y las respuestas de Michael están incluidas en esta velada informativa.
Michael Jones, Jones Farms Organics, 4th Generation SLV Farmer
Farming at Jones Farm Organics, Hooper, CO, spans four generations of multiple experiences growing potatoes in the San Luis Valley. Michael shares a presentation with commentary on what brings the farm to its present day regenerative practices of crop rotation with water conservation and soil health in mind. The questions and Michael’s answers are included in this informative evening.
SOIL Sangre de Cristo Interview with Chaffee County Community Foundation
PJ Bergin, Chair of SOIL Sangre de Cristo spent some time chatting with Betsy Dittenber of the Chaffee County Community Foundation (CCCF) during August, 2022. The conversation ranges from the history of SOIL Sangre de Cristo and its accomplishments since starting in March, 2020.
There are highlights of the nonprofit’s plan for the future, while establishing itself as one of the premier supporters of local food producers in the South Central Region of Colorado.
The interview is about 30 minutes long. While listening you may discover new information about SOIL Sangre de Cristo and how you can participate in the efforts of awarding 0% Interest Loans to farmers and ranchers.
Thank you to Mark Schoenecker, KHEN Radio, for producing this conversation.
Michael Moss, a #1 New York Times bestselling author, will discuss his new book, “Hooked”, a powerful exposé exploring the science of food addiction and how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts and legal loopholes in the name of profit over public health.
HOOKED
Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
by Michael Moss
Because what we eat has never mattered more.
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Learn how local farmers, ranchers and food producers navigate the maze of processing regulations to bring food to YOUR Table. Panel guests are Chrissy McFarren, Badger Creek Ranch; Emily Brown, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union; and Zachery Willis, Paonia Food Club Custom Meats
Key takeaways:
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Local food producers are dedicated to their work, striving to bring their customers the best, freshest food possible and a reasonable price
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Yet the food we purchase should be much more expensive. Learn why.
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By using regenerative farming practices, the land used for producing food is being constantly nourished, keeping its value.
George Sibley on The Impacts of Society and the Water Crisis in the West.
Sibley’s credentials are well known throughout this region with his extensive writing portfolio and career as an educator at Western Colorado University in Gunnison. He’ll explore the issues of sustainability, community, and the interaction of humans in their environment; all topics of his professional focus.
AHA!
SOIL Sangre de Cristo celebrates the publication of “AHA!” with nationally known
author Woody Tasch. Join SOIL Sangre de Cristo members as Tasch reads key
selections and explains Slow Opportunities for Investing Locally.
SOIL concepts work for any community in building a resilient local food system.
Woody’s latest book is a “how to” for nurture capitalists as they navigate with
renewed awareness the need to expand a local pool of capital. This supports
regenerative farming practices and widens the diversity in our food systems.
Given today’s dire state of climate change and ongoing disruptions in the global
supply chain, investment in a local, resilient food system is vital not only for good
health, but literally for our future survival.
SNOWPACK AND WHY IT MATTERS TO FOOD PRODUCTION
LA CAPA DE NIEVE Y POR QUÉ ES IMPORTANTE PARA LA PRODUCCIÓN DE ALIMENTOS
This presentation (translated to Spanish) briefly discusses snow data collection, the challenges of monitoring the snowpack, and general snowpack trends.
From here the discussion shifts to CSAS’s Colorado Dust-on-Snow program, an applied science program serving stakeholders in all major Colorado watersheds. Desert dust transported from adjacent arid regions is deposited on the Colorado snowpack, drastically altering spring runoff and storage of water in mountain snow. With changing climate and increased development in the desert southwest, aridification and dust transport will continue to be a major driver of change. These factors will be summarized as to what it means for runoff forecasts and water resources and food production.
SOIL Sangre de Cristo Benefits of Heritage Grains
SOIL Sangre de Cristo celebrates
One Year Anniversary
SOIL Sangre de Cristo held its first meeting virtually as the country started to close due to the pandemic in late March 2020. The timing was perfect. People in the communities throughout the south-central region of Colorado became concerned about keeping food on grocery store shelves and their families fed.
SOIL SdC presents
SOIL Sangre de Cristo Presents "Investing Locally" with Adrian Reif
SOIL SANGRE DE CRISTO LAUNCHES ZERO-INTEREST LOANS TO SUPPORT LOCAL FARMERS AND FOOD PRODUCERS
Inspired by local farmers’ markets and the agricultural heritage of the San Luis Valley, co-founders PJ Bergin and Julie Mordecai of SOIL Sangre de Cristo have launched zero-interest loans to support local farmers and food producers in South Central Colorado. After multiple organizational meetings with founding members, a grant application was filed for “seed money”.