2023 BC Organic Conference Sessions

BIO:

Catherine Sylvestre is a professional agronomist and leader of the market garden team at la Ferme des Quatre-Temps in Hemmingford, Quebec. She develops, implements, and teaches best practices for cold season growing, specializing in crop protection and greenhouse production for northern climates. She is also the co-author of the book, “The Winter Market Gardener.”

BIO:

Dr. Ingham uncovered the Soil Food Web nearly 4 decades ago and has been pioneering research about Soil Food Web ever since. Widely recognized as the world’s foremost soil biologist, she’s passionate about empowering people to bring the soils in their communities back to life.

Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web Approach has been used to successfully restore the ecological functions of soils on more than five million acres of farmland all over the world. The courses offered by Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web School have been designed for people with, or without, a science background – making them accessible to individuals who wish to learn and to begin a meaningful and impactful career in an area that will help to secure the survival of humans and other species.

BIO:

Bruce has been involved in irrigation design and implementation for over 30 years. His experience covers all facets of irrigation systems from sports fields and golf courses to large-scale agricultural systems. Bruce is certified by the Irrigation Industry Association of BC (IABC) in Commercial Turf Sprinkler & Agriculture Sprinkler and Drip Irrigation, and he is also a certified Irrigation Scheduler. Bruce was also on the North Okanagan Drought Response Committee. Following this commitment, Bruce continued on to become a member of the North Okanagan Agricultural Advisory Board. In 2016, Bruce became a member of the Okanagan Water Stewardship Council (OWSC) representing the IABC, where he became co-chairman of a sub-committee on Irrigation Management. Bruce also served as president of the IIABC for the 2017-18 term. Since 2015 Bruce established an irrigation consulting company, Sound Water Advice, focused on efficiency in irrigation design & system planning.

Julia Smith

Julia has been raising a wide range of livestock and working in the meat industry for the past 12 years. She is currently working to preserve critically endangered Red Wattle hogs at Blue Sky Ranch in Nlaka’pamux Territory near Merritt, BC. She is the Executive Director and Project Manager of the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association where she works primarily on policy and regulatory issues but most enjoys working with other farmers and ranchers to help them achieve their goals and feed their communities.

Steve Meggait

Steve is a 4th generation farmer in Armstrong, BC. He’s the owner of Fresh Valley Farms, a family run farming and direct marketing business that produces pasture raised beef, pork and chicken. Steve manages over 300 acres of crop lands and mountainside pasture where he produces pork, beef, eggs and broiler chickens in an outdoor pasture system. He has a Provincially Inspected chicken abattoir and Farmgate Plus licence to process pork and is passionate about working to increase meat processing capacity in his community through the Spallumcheen Butcher Hub Network.

Tristan Banwell

Tristan manages Spray Creek Ranch, a regenerative, organic, diversified operation in the Northern St’at’imc Territory near Lillooet, BC. Together with his wife Aubyn and their team, he rotates cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry across irrigated pastures and rugged rangelands along the mighty Fraser River in a resilient agroecological system. He has a Farmgate Plus poultry abattoir and is also developing Maverick Meats, which will be an on-farm Provincially Inspected abattoir, to shorten his supply chain and serve other producers as they build their own direct marketing enterprises. From rotational grazing webinars to hands-on fencing training, virtual field days to on-farm events, Tristan has a gift for sharing his expertise in a relatable way.

Reg Steward

Reg Steward is the BC Ranch Safety Specialist, Chilcotin Regional Safety Consultant for AgSafe BC. He has been providing agricultural safety consulting and articles for over 20 years throughout Canada and the USA. He is an RCMP veteran, recipient of the Canadian Medal of Bravery and numerous commendations and community service awards, most notably an inducted member of the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame.

BIO:

Jo Tobias is a Regenerative Soils & Living Compost Specialist with the primary goal of assisting land stewards in understanding how they can play a role in soil health. Jo founded RootShoot Soils in 2015 and has collaborated with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario farmers. Her direct tool for regenerating degraded landscapes is a biodiverse compost. Compost can provide the foundation to kickstart microbial processes that stimulate nutrient cycling and decomposition when managed correctly. 

Composting is Jo’s craft—she meticulously tends the whole process to create the ideal habitat for diverse microorganisms promoting plant health. Over the years, she has taught farmers practical strategies to leverage their compost to restore soil life. Jo also combines the power of microscopy with her restoration efforts to ensure she is on the right path to improving soil health. To learn more about Jo and her company, RootShoot Soils, visit www.rootshootsoils.com.

BIO:

Percy Folkard is an agricultural consultant and teacher while raising pastured beef, pork and chicken in the Shuswap region. Percy attained a Masters Degree from Thompson Rivers University studying agroforestry while formerly working in rangeland ecology research and policy with the BC Ministry of Forests and BC Ministry of Agriculture. As a food system advocate in a number of professional networks, he is passionate about sustainable agriculture and disseminating knowledge to build resilience in the face of change. Percy is of European ancestry and is a settler ally grateful to reside in unceded Secwepemculecw.

Tiffany Traverse

Tiffany is a Secwépemc/Swiss + séme7 land and seed steward, language learner, Indigenous researcher, and food sovereignty advocate. Her passion for feeding people and firm belief in the right to healthy, culturally-appropriate foods for all, drives her work. She is passionate about the uncomfortable work in dismantling structural racism within institutions and conducting experimental plant breeding projects to adapt nutrient-dense cultivars to our changing climate as a grateful guest in Treaty 8 Territory. Tiffany has served as a volunteer Advisory Council member with the Community Seed Network, former Member at Large and Chair for SeedChange and former Board Member at Regeneration Canada. Currently, she sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Mountain Network, as well as their Research Management Committee. She participated in the Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee for Farmers for Climate Solutions and is a Council member (Mountain Forests Biome) for Indigenous Climate Action’s Indigenous-led decolonizing climate policy Advisory Council. She is part of the Distinction-Based Tools for Food-Related Wellness advisory group being facilitated by Alderhill Planning and is an active participant in the newly-formed National Native Seed Strategy organized by the Canadian Wildlife Federation. As part of her active independent research, Tiffany is the Indigenous Lead in several projects with the Federal Government (AAFC), including a cross-colonial border Living Lab (Peace Region Living Lab), and is currently researching the cultural connections to Indigenous potatoes of Salishan, Athabaskan Eyak-Tlingit, and Na-Dene Peoples and actively working towards rematriation of cultural seeds, plants, and knowledge to their respective communities.

In some of her former emergency management ‘day jobs,’ Tiffany engaged with stakeholders, partners, and rural residents to help present education around wildfire prevention, mitigation and Indigenous cultural burning, as well as encourage autonomy for land stewardship within Indigenous communities. Her hope is to continue being a ‘Weaver,’ advocating to create better access to resources and increase our collective seed and food security and sovereignty and preparedness in the face of climate chaos.

Dr T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh/Sto:Lo/Hawaiian/Swiss
Dr T’uy’t’tanat- Cease Wyss is an interdisciplinary artist who works with digital media, writing, performance and land based remediations as her multi-disciplinary arts practice. She is a community engaged and public artist, Indigi-Futurisms developer/artist, land based artist and ethnobotanist/permaculture designer.

She is currently expanding on her research with wild mushrooms as not only a means for remediation of soil areas damaged by industry, colonialism, and other toxic waste, but as means of healing our bodies, minds, spirits and to go further and expand in to bringing their healing sounds out through biosonic synthesizers. Wyss is working on bridging the languages of plants and mushroom as well as other forms of fungi, with indigenous languages and creating conversations between them all.

Her works range over 30+ years and have always focussed on sustainability, permaculture techniques, Coast Salish Cultural elements and have included themes of ethnobotany, indigenous language revival, Salish weaving and digital media technology.

In 2022 Cease was awarded an honorary PhD from ECUAD and was also awarded the MST [Musqueam/Skwxwu7mesh/Tseil watuth: aka Skwxwú7mesh, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ Lands & WatersSkwxwú7mesh Ux̱imix̱w’] AiR fieldhouse in Stanley Park for the next 3 years. She will be infusing all elements of her diverse practice into this time spent reconnecting to her ancestors whose spirits remain a part of this forest and shoreline.

BIO:

Alys runs Ravine Creek Farm with her partner and children, she has been farming since 2010. In recent years as the impacts and urgency of the climate crisis have increased, Alys has sought new ways of mitigating the effects of climate change on her own farm. This has necessitated adaptations for both the farmers and the farm. Just as the farm has shifted to ever more regenerative practices (after several years of trials, the entire production area was transitioned to no-till in 2021) Alys has sought education and training to better understand how we can protect and recover from the stress that is inevitable in farming and is made significantly more intense by climate change. Alys is excited to share what she has learned about no-till and burnout prevention in the hopes of providing ecological lift to both farms and farmers. Alys is a settler of mixed European ancestry and has lived and worked for the past 20 years in Sinixt, Ktunaxa and Syilx territory. 

BIO:

Alys runs Ravine Creek Farm with her partner and children and has been farming since 2010. In recent years, as the impacts and urgency of the climate crisis have increased, Alys has sought new ways of mitigating the effects of climate change on her own farm. This has necessitated adaptations for both the farmers and the farm. Just as the farm has shifted to ever more regenerative practices (after several years of trials, the entire production area was transitioned to no-till in 2021), Alys has sought education and training to better understand how we can protect and recover from the stress that is inevitable in farming and is made significantly more intense by climate change. Alys is excited to share what she has learned about no-till and burnout prevention in the hopes of providing ecological lift to both farms and farmers. Alys is a settler of mixed European ancestry and has lived and worked for the past 20 years in Sinixt, Ktunaxa and Syilx territory.

BIO:

Chuck Mitchell splits his time between Penticton, BC where he is an organic farm inspector and his organic teaching farm in the Philippines. He is a retired soil conservationist from the US Department of Agriculture and has worked for 45 years in developing nations. 

Renee Priya Prasad, Ph.D is an Associate Professor in the Agriculture Technology Department at UFV. She received her Ph.D. from Washington State University and her Master of Pest Management from SFU (Simon Fraser University). She works closely with local consultants, BC Ministry of Agriculture, and Agriculture Canada experts and various grower groups. Renee teaches many agricultural courses at UFV and has also been a faculty advisor for directed studies projects. Renee’s favourite part of teaching in the Agriculture Technology certificate and diploma programs is that she gets to help the next generation of farmers be future-ready, by focusing on evidence-based practices in all her courses. She is also Department Chair. 

BIO:

David Catzel farmed vegetables, fruits and seeds for 20 years prior to taking on the role of the BC Seed Security Program Manager for FarmFolk CityFolk.  He has delivered workshops on gardening, composting, and permaculture design to adults and children throughout the lower mainland and has a special passion for sharing seed stewardship knowledge with people of all ages.

BIO:

Doug was raised in the city and apprenticed to become a cowboy/ranch hand when he was a teenager. In his early twenties he got caught up in the counterculture movement of the seventies. He then decided he would like to try going back to the land using horse power. He pursued that through the 1970s and 80s, living remotely trying to make a living via subsistence farming. In 1990 he moved back down to Armstrong where he had the opportunity to start market gardening in earnest and has been doing so for 30 years, eventually transitioning to tractor power. 

BIO:

Paddy grew up in Vancouver but moved ‘back-to-the-land’ in the 1970s. He has been an organic farmer all his adult life, from operating a sheep ranch in the Cariboo to a commercial carrot farm in the North Okanagan. Throughout his farming career, Paddy has held many posts within the local and wider farming community. His most recent position was Code Development Manager with ISEAL, based in London UK. Paddy and Elaine now own and operate West Enderby Farm in the North Okanagan, growing cauliflower and winter storage crops. 

BIO:

Danny Turner is a business consultant with over 30 years of experience, as well as an organic farmer. He has been involved in the growth and management of businesses in Canada, the United States and Europe. Partnering with Kootenay Peaks Advisors and as an Executive-In-Residence for the Basin RevUP Program, Danny employs an always-learning philosophy as he assists companies at all stages of growth. When not on a Zoom meeting, you can find Danny running his family farm in Creston or volunteering on multiple boards.

BIO:

Danny Turner is a business consultant with over 30 years of experience, as well as an organic farmer. He has been involved in the growth and management of businesses in Canada, the United States and Europe. Partnering with Kootenay Peaks Advisors and as an Executive-In-Residence for the Basin RevUP Program, Danny employs an always-learning philosophy as he assists companies at all stages of growth. When not on a Zoom meeting, you can find Danny running his family farm in Creston or volunteering on multiple boards.

Julia Smith

Julia has been raising a wide range of livestock and working in the meat industry for the past 12 years. She is currently working to preserve critically endangered Red Wattle hogs at Blue Sky Ranch in Nlaka’pamux Territory near Merritt, BC. She is the Executive Director and Project Manager of the Small-Scale Meat Producers Association where she works primarily on policy and regulatory issues but most enjoys working with other farmers and ranchers to help them achieve their goals and feed their communities.

Steve Meggait

Steve is a 4th generation farmer in Armstrong, BC. He’s the owner of Fresh Valley Farms, a family run farming and direct marketing business that produces pasture raised beef, pork and chicken. Steve manages over 300 acres of crop lands and mountainside pasture where he produces pork, beef, eggs and broiler chickens in an outdoor pasture system. He has a Provincially Inspected chicken abattoir and Farmgate Plus licence to process pork and is passionate about working to increase meat processing capacity in his community through the Spallumcheen Butcher Hub Network.

Tristan Banwell

Tristan manages Spray Creek Ranch, a regenerative, organic, diversified operation in the Northern St’at’imc Territory near Lillooet, BC. Together with his wife Aubyn and their team, he rotates cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry across irrigated pastures and rugged rangelands along the mighty Fraser River in a resilient agroecological system. He has a Farmgate Plus poultry abattoir and is also developing Maverick Meats, which will be an on-farm Provincially Inspected abattoir, to shorten his supply chain and serve other producers as they build their own direct marketing enterprises. From rotational grazing webinars to hands-on fencing training, virtual field days to on-farm events, Tristan has a gift for sharing his expertise in a relatable way.

Ruth Tschannen

Ruth Tschannen is a passionate gardener who brings eurythmy, a modern art of movement, to the healing of the earth through biodynamics.

Gabe Cipes

Gabe Cipes has been the Farm Director, Permaculture Designer and Biodynamicist for Summerhill Pyramid Winery in Kelowna since 2010. Summerhill is the most awarded and visited winery in Western Canada..

Travis Forstbauer

Travis Forstbauer is a third generation biodynamic market gardener/farmer from a very well-known biodynamic family farm in Chilliwack with a longstanding history in establishing organic/biodynamic farming in BC.

Robby Gass

Robby Gass is a seasoned biodynamic/organic farmer, trainer, and consultant. He has an MSc in Organic Farming and is a certified Soil Food Web Microscopist with farming experience from South Africa, Europe and now Canada.