FRESNO, Calif., Feb. 26, 2020 – The second annual Growing Together Black Farmers with Urban Farmers Conference will be held on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Fresno, California.
Hosted by the West Fresno Family Resource Center and the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA), the conference is open to all farmers and ranchers, yet is uniquely tailored towards black farmers and urban Farmers.
“The “Growing Together” Black Farmer Conference with Urban Farmers is an open forum for farmers and ranchers to share, learn and grow together,” says State Conservationist Carlos Suarez, of NRCS California. “NRCS continues to increase its outreach efforts to minority producers. African American farmers, especially in the Central Valley, constitute an important group of farmers who can benefit from USDA conservation program assistance.”
The free conference will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Maxie Parks Community Center, located at 1802 E. California Ave., Fresno, CA. The conference will include breakfast and lunch for participating farmers. Please contact Christine Chavez at (530) 792-5695 with any questions pertaining to the conference.
This one-day statewide conference will be a great opportunity for farmers and ranchers to network and learn about resources available to them. Workshops will cover four topics:
1) access to capital and business resources; 2) youth in agriculture; 3) resources from agencies; and 4) an urban leadership roundtable. The conference will also allow time for networking with other farmers and ranchers and with more than a dozen resource booths.
The registration website can be found at http://www.wfresnofrc.org/BlackFarmersConference.
The West Fresno Family Resource Center was established in 2001, West Fresno Health Care Coalition (DBA: West Fresno Family Resource Center), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, serves residents of one of the poorest metropolitan communities in California’s Central Valley, southwest Fresno and beyond.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is the lead USDA partner in this conference. NRCS has provided leadership in a partnership effort to help America’s private landowners and managers conserve their soil, water, and other natural resources since 1935. For more information on NRCS, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov.
