February Virtual Coffee Meet: Farmers Chat | Cash Crops, Beekeeping, and Market Gardening

Описание: Pull up a chair and pour yourself a coffee. Join us for a relaxed and meaningful conversation with three organic farmers who are cultivating resilient, biodiverse, and community-rooted farms across Ontario.

Let's look at the lineup:

Tiffany Lauren is a female entrepreneur who belongs to the BIPOC community. She has a mission to thrive, survive, and improve humanity's well-being. Born in the Caribbean, Tiffany grew up on her grandparents' biodynamic farm. They were excellent stewards of the land and taught Tiffany valuable lessons about ecological farming. Tiffany loves to explore new things and share innovative concepts. She is passionate about nutritious food, cooking, and ecological farming. Tiffany cultivates and delivers diverse, organic, and nutrient-dense food and seedlings. She is committed to educating and inspiring individuals to make healthy, locally-grown food choices that positively impact their well-being. Tiffany now operates a certified organic farm, Agápe Farmgates Ltd., and a certified organic nursery, Trout Lily Organic Plant Nurseries. Her focus is ethnocultural crops and native plants.

Luc Peters is the founder and co-owner of Humble Bee. He is an apiarist and is the current Chair of the Food Strategy Committee for the city of Hamilton. In 2010, Luc started working for an industrial beekeeping operation focused on pollination contracts and honey production. After several years of keeping bees as a hobby, it was clear that beekeeping was something Luc wanted to do long term, but in a more sustainable way than his experiences with industrial beekeeping had taught him. Luc started the urban bee farm Humble Bee in 2013 and teamed up with Dan Douma in 2015 when they were both hired at Toronto FoodShare to mentor the Toronto Beekeepers Collective. Luc has always been interested in environmental issues and has been a member of Environment Hamilton and the Golden Horseshoe Beekeeper’s Association since 2010. He has also been a member of the Ontario Beekeeper’s Association since 2014. Luc is passionate about not just honey bees but about native bees and pollinators in general. He is also interested in local, organic, and sustainable farming. In 2018, Luc was awarded a Business Link Media Group ’40 Under 40 Business Achievement Award’.

Morris Van de Walle runs a family operation managed alongside his wife Irene and their two sons Matt and Derek. They have been organic since 2006.  They are mainly an Organic cash crop operation growing corn, soybeans, edible beans, wheat, cereal rye and vegetable crops. They grow and clean all our own cover crops for seed with our own on farm cleaning facility. Morris is passionate about improving our soils through good farming practices and cover crops.

The discussion is moderated by Dr. Erica Shelley, guiding an open and thoughtful exchange on organic farming today.

Whether you are a farmer, food advocate, or simply curious about life on the land, this session offers a warm and welcoming space to listen, learn, and connect.