When you think of a farmer, what comes to mind? CFAES alumna Yolanda Owens ’07, president of the CFAES Alumni Society Board of Directors and the first Black/Latinx person to hold this position, will tackle the topic in a talk called “Black Culture and Green Thumbs” during the online portion of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s (OEFFA) upcoming annual conference.
How has society molded our perceptions?
Owens is the founder and chief cultivator of Forage + Black, an apparel and garden consulting company. In her talk, the conference program says, she’ll discuss “how society has molded our perceptions of farming, and how to support the changes that need to happen to make it inclusive and accessible to all.”
“As an advocate of healthy food access, much of my career has been to connect youth to healthy food,” Owens said in her 2021 profile on our CFAES Stories website. “Whether it is teaching about how to grow food, what to eat, what career choices they have, I want to connect the dots between Black people and our food.”
Her presentation is online from 1–2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12. The conference will have an in-person portion, too, on Feb. 17–19 in Dayton.
CFAES is one of the sponsors of the event, billed as the region’s premier sustainable food and farm conference.