2017 27.1 Tilth Alliance Farm Programs
By spanning both urban and rural communities as a new organization, Tilth Alliance brings together producers, consumers, learners, educators and allies around a common vision of building an ecologically sound, economically viable and socially equitable food system. This opens up a world of exciting opportunities! At the same time, it’s a priority for the organization to continue offering activities that foster vibrant and sustainable agricultural communities.
Forming the cornerstones of the farm program are familiar features like the annual Tilth Conference, a series of statewide farm walks and one-day universities, and publication of Tilth Producers Quarterly. These activities have a long history in the Tilth community, and Tilth Alliance is striving not only to maintain but to actively cultivate and grow these programs. In fact, we’d love to hear from you about these activities! Please share your feedback or ideas by filling out the survey at bit.ly/tilth-feedback.
Last year’s merger also brought new and exciting elements to the Tilth Alliance farm program. From Cascade Harvest Coalition came Puget Sound Fresh and the Farm Guide – helping farms and markets to make themselves known consumers. Washington FarmLink, a resource for matching landowners looking to sell farmland with aspiring farmers looking to buy, is also now part of Tilth Alliance. And from Seattle Tilth came a farm business incubator, which provides beginning farmers with access to land and training in everything from production to marketing. Through the website and Farmer E-newsletter Tilth Alliance also continues to share information, resources, job listings and classified ads.
In perhaps the most exciting news of late, Tilth Alliance will institute a new statewide network of regional representatives in 2017. These representatives will be local community members from across the state who can act as a liaison between communities and Tilth, share information and help build programming. This statewide network will become core part of Tilth Alliance’s farm program to more effectively represent our statewide agricultural community.
New and Familiar Faces on the Tilth Alliance Statewide Farm Team
| Sarah Collier is the incoming Farm Program Education Manager. She has worked in crop, soil and sustainable agriculture research and outreach for the past ten years and holds a doctorate in plant breeding. Prior to joining Tilth Alliance, Sarah worked with the National Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture and the University of Wisconsin. |  |
| Kate Nagle-Caraluzzo joins Tilth Alliance as the new FarmLink and Statewide Operations Manager. Kate rejoins the farm team with seven years of experience in sustainable agriculture organizations including Tilth Producers and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. She grew up on a small farm in Upstate New York, and holds a master’s degree in sustainable agriculture. |  |
