About 400 educators, administrators, graduate and undergraduate students and others in involved in farmer training in North America are expected to attend a sustainable agriculture conference at the University of Hawaiʻi–West Oʻahu this summer. The conference will highlight models of higher education that represent indigenous knowledge, engage critical political-ecological analysis and train future generations to achieve food system resilience and equity.

Through presentations, workshops, field trips and hands-on activities, participants will share their theories, practices and visions for integrating indigenous knowledge, decolonization and socio-ecological resilience into post-secondary agroecology and food systems training.

Albie Miles, assistant professor of Sustainable Community Food Systems Program at UH West Oʻahu, will serve as co-coordinator and host for the 2018 National Sustainable Agriculture Education Association conference July 27–29, 2018.

Call for proposals

The conference invites participants from across the food system, including academic scholars, students, farmers, cooks, community organizers, land/resource managers and other professionals. Presenters will represent universities, colleges, farmer training organizations and a range of professional and civil society organizations.

The request for conference proposals for the event are due February 5, 2018. The online application form is available on the conference website. Organizers are inviting proposals for presentations, panel discussions and workshops in three focal areas:

Indigenous knowledge, power and pedagogy

Decolonizing the food system: Feeding ourselves and others through higher education

Living traditions, living economies: Toward self-determination, resilience and equity in the food system

The conference will be co-hosted by the University of Hawaiʻi System Office of Sustainability and the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association (SAEA), a group of scholars that champion interdisciplinary agroecology and sustainable food systems programming in higher education.

The Hoʻōla ʻĀina O Māʻilikūkahi Youth Food Sovereignty Congress will run in parallel with the SAEA Conference and is providing a platform from which community-oriented, intergenerational and cultural approaches to building a sustainable food system are honored, cultivated and launched.

—By Leila Wai Shimokawa