Speakers

Steve Munno is the Farm Manager at Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge, Connecticut, a non-profit, certified organic farm, which operates a CSA, sells to local markets, offers on-farm educational programs and events, and donates at least 10% of its annual harvest to hunger relief organizations. Steve was a co-founding member of the New CT Farmer Alliance and currently serves as a CT NOFA board member.

Director of Advocacy for CT NOFA since January 2023. Former CT NOFA Board member and co-founder of the Organic Land Care Program. Long-time activist for climate, environment, and peace. Retired scientist at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station.

Dr. Yonghao Li, a plant pathologist, works in Plant Disease Information Office at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, CT. He has more than 30 years of experience in gardening, disease diagnosis, and pest management.

Christine is a paralegal and certified compliance professional. She obtained a master’s in Food Studies at NYU and is a legal and policy manager at Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, helping farmer and food producer members across the country navigate the food regulations that govern their ability to get their products to their customers.

Will’s farming roots go back to high school on Waldingfield Farm in Washington, CT. In 2020, Will and his partner founded Hungry Reaper Farm, where they grow 8 acres of vegetables in Morris, CT. Will served on the Steering Committee of The New Connecticut Farmer Alliance, a chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, from 2017 to 2023, finally serving as president from 2020-2023. Will continued his work with Young Farmers as a Land Advocacy Fellow in the lead up to the 2023 Farm Bill (still waiting…). He is the Chair of the Farmland Preservation Advisory Board, sits on the Working Lands Alliance Steering committee, and serves on the Farm Service Agency State Committee. Will is adamant that bold action needs to be taken to improve farmland access and affordability as well as agricultural viability, and that local food must be affordable and available to all.

Sefra Alexandra – The Seed Huntress – is an ethnobotanist on a perennial quest to preserve the biodiversity of our wild and cultivated lands through seed conservation. Sefra is the co-founder of The Ecotype Project (which began as a CT NOFA initiative), the mission of which is to increase the amount of ecoregionally local native seed available for ecological restoration through the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective. In 2020 she began BOATanical Expeditions, ‘paddlin’ for the pollinators,’ planting autochthonous species along riparian corridors. ​She started the Southport Globe Onion Festival- reviving the prolific allium heirloom in its origin terroir.​ Sefra has conducted fieldwork around the globe, including fortifying community seed banks on island nations after natural disasters. The Seed Huntress holds her M.A.T. in agroecological education from Cornell University, is the Northeast Bioregional Education Coordinator for the Ecological Health Network, is on the steering committee of the Northeast Seed Network, is a fellow of the Crop Trust, and is a WINGS WorldQuest expedition flag carrier and member of the Explorers Club.

Dina Brewster founded The Hickories in Ridgefield as a one acre vegetable garden and has overseen the development of new products and new acreage as the farm business has grown, including the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective, making ecotypic restoration seed locally available in ecoregions 59 | 58 & 84. Committed to connecting people with working land, the Brewsters have stewarded The Hickories since 1936. She is the former Executive Director of CT NOFA. In an effort to strengthen the resilience of her family farm, she co-founded the Ecotype Project, a program at a non-profit partner Northeast Farming Association of Connecticut (CT NOFA). The Ecotype Project consulted and oversaw the initial development of protocols at Dina’s farm and soon many others – and the efforts of this program resulted in more farmers growing restoration seed throughout the region. Farmers growing this ecotypic seed then share the work of labeling and distributing that seed – work that is done by the Northeast Seed Collective, a business Dina now runs out of her farm.

Eric is a Sustainable Agriculture Specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology – ATTRA Program. He educates throughout the northeast and mid-west teaching about small scale and minimal tillage vegetable production, beekeeping, and community farming. He is the former Executive Director of MEVO (Mahwah Environmental Volunteers Organization, Inc.), an environmental not-for-profit organization he founded when he was 16 years old. Among the many honors Eric has received for his work in 2014 he was declared a “New Jersey Hero,” by the Governor.

Jasmine T. Williams-Jacobs (all pronouns) is the founder and director of Black Remote She, a community-driven job platform connecting Black queer, trans, nonbinary people, and allies with inclusive work cultures and gender affirming resources. Using their passion and background in digital organizing, communications, and community engagement, their previous work included freelancing as a ghostwriter, working in digital communications and marketing for cooperatives, program coordination with a conference network for women, and marketing and sales for a music industry vendor. With a passion for collective liberation, transformative change, and dismantling systemic oppression, Jasmine manages Black Remote She as a progressive system of job and resource sharing.

Julie Michaelson is a Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. In this position, Julie collaborates with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the American Farmland Trust (AFT) to provide technical support, training, and conservation planning assistance to producers and land managers seeking to develop pollinator and beneficial insect habitat in the Connecticut River Valley.

Dani has been living and working at the intersections of agriculture and open ag technology for over a decade. After years of working on vegetable and dairy farms, often as a draft horse teamster, they and two collaborators purchased 222 acres in Corinth, VT, and started Shepherd Moon Farm in 2022. They are building a dairy flock and co-operative creamery business on land which will also host folks engaged in social justice work for organizing, retreat, and respite. Dani has served on the board of the Draft Animal Power Network (DAP-Net), as a network facilitator for the open-source farm tool community, FarmHack, and as a trainer and convener with IfNotNow Pittsburgh, organizing American Jews against the occupation of Palestinian land. Dani is an employee owner of the farmer- and staff-owned Farm Generations Co-operative and helps farmers use the co-operative’s e-commerce software, GrownBy. Dani also loves building and making things, cooking and feeding people, and eating cheese.

Jared Krawitz came to farming relatively late in life. After cooking in NYC, he moved to North Carolina where he apprenticed at Fickle Creek Farm, learning the basics of low-stress animal management, rotational grazing, pasture health, crop planning, market gardening, and much more. After the apprenticeship, he moved to Hopewell, NJ, to manage the poultry program at Double Brook Farm. When the opportunity came up to start Closter Farm, Jared jumped at the chance to rejuvenate a piece of land in an amazing community.

Since it’s first season, Closter Farm has maintained organic certification for a 1 acre market garden, 2500 broilers, and a small apple orchard. In addition, they run on on-site Farmhub 5 days a week to sell their own as well as many other growers/producers’ products.