2nd Annual National Heirloom Festival

Description

World’s Pure Food Fair!

2nd Annual National Heirloom Exposition
From Seed to Table at Santa Rosa Fair Grounds


The 2nd Annual National Heirloom Exposition, to be held at Santa Rosa, CA Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, September 11-13, features a speaker line up of 75 leaders in the pure food movement, world-class exhibits and activities for all ages and is to date, the largest festival of its kind ever. The Expo is projected to double attendance from nearly 12,000 in 2011, signaling rapid growth of the movement for pure food. The event is being operated as a not-for-profit with proceeds going to school gardens and education.

The Heirloom Expo will feature “the largest-ever exhibition of heirloom produce in history with over 4000 varieties from farms and gardens across America,” according to Paul Wallace of the National Heirloom Exposition. Visitors from many countries are expected to attend. Food vendors, gardeners, chefs, farmers and anyone who appreciates local, pure food will be descending upon Sonoma County for this pure food extravaganza.

Keynote speaker, Carlo Petrini, of Barolo, Italy, acknowledged as the founder of the Slow Food movement, created global headlines protesting the opening the first McDonald’s at the Spanish Steps in the Piazza di Spagna, Rome. Alarmed by declining food quality and industrialization of the Italian food supply, Petrini sought to bring back the culinary and agricultural traditions of post-World War 2 economic growth in Italy. The Slow Food movement is now over 100,000 members strong in 100 countries and advocates for higher quality food, better soil, protection of natural environment, improved health, and for a fair wage for farmers’ work.

Jeffrey Smith, leading expert on the subject of genetically modified foods (GMOs) and the dangers they pose to human health and the environment, is a best selling author and founder of The Institute For Responsible Technology, returning to the Expo. Ronnie Cummins, Founder/Director, Organic Consumers Association(OCA); Percy Schmeiser, Canadian farmer and anti-GMO activist sued by Monsanto and now of Fight Genetically Altered Food Fund, Inc.; and Andrew Kimbell, Executive Director of The Center for Food Safety, will present. Vandana Shiva of Navdanya, based in India, an advocate for the right to save and share seeds and earth democracy will appear via video. Shiva says she supports the Heirloom Exposition because “it is defending our future.”

Pamm Larry, founder of labelGMOs.org; Sandor Katz, America's food fermentation expert, culinary author, and food activist; Eric Holt-Gimenez, executive director of FoodFirst/Institute for Food and Development Policy; Michael C. Ruppert, investigative journalist, author, and star of the widely-acclaimed film, Collapse; Daniel Imhoff, researcher, publisher, and author of Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill, are among the 75+ food, farm, and gardening related speakers
Excitement is building for the Label GMO campaign, with an initiative placed on November's ballot following the gathering of 971,000 signatures, orchestrated by Pamm Larry, founder of labelGMOs.org, with support from The Seed Bank, California Grange associations and other pure food advocate groups.
Heirloom Expo speakers will discuss seed saving, genetically modified organisms, home gardening, food politics and policy, farming, marketing local foods, and more.

As the Expo benefits school gardens and other food programs, admission is free to anyone aged 17 years and younger. Wednesday, Sept. 12, will be Kids' Day, filled with presentations, contests, and fun activities specifically for school groups from Kindergarten to high school ages.

Sponsors of the Heirloom Exposition include Mother Earth News, Amy’s Kitchen, Whole Foods Market, Sunset Magazine and many more. The Expo is a creation of Baker Creek Seeds and its owner, Jere Gettle, author, with his wife, Emilee, of the Baker Creek Vegan Cookbook, and chief organizer, Paul Wallace, of the Petaluma Seed Bank, a branch of Baker Creek Seeds.

The National Heirloom Exposition will also feature a heritage poultry show, heritage livestock and rabbit exhibits, demonstrations and educational talks on the importance of heritage breeds. Organizers are delighted to have the participation of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, American Poultry Association, and other heritage animal organizations.
Prizes will be awarded in all categories of exhibits, including produce, giant pumpkin, poultry, school exhibits, etc. Growers will compete in a giant pumpkin contest which last year dew an entry weighting over 1400 pounds!

The California Rare Fruit Growers Association will be involved again this year. In fact, Expo organizers welcome CRFGA's annual Festival of Fruit in conjunction with the Expo.

Year one of the Heirloom Expo received extensive media coverage including the Martha Stewart Show, the San Francisco Chronicle and many videos via YouTube as well as other major and local media. For further information, visit http://www.facebook.com/HeirloomExpo or http://www.RareSeeds.com . Tickets available online at http://www.etix.com/ticket/online/venueSearch.jsp

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http://www.theheirloomexpo.com/conference/the-2nd-annual-hei...

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707-773-1336

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