Over the last year, Edmonton's food scene has earned national accolades, and it's only getting better. It's not just thanks to chefs and restauranteurs (though they play a big role). The City has made huge strides in uniting makers, creatives, policy-makers and growers towards the common goal of making our city more tasty.

Green Drinks: Farm to Fork will join together several of those people who have been instrumental in making Edmonton a more delicious and more sustainable place.

On April 4, come mingle with the creme de la creme of Edmonton's food scene and learn about the city's successes, continued challenges and what it will take to keep growing our amazing food scene.

FEATURED GUESTS

Chris Lerohl MEng, MBA, - CEO - provides the overall strategic direction and leads the business development activity for Honest Dumplings. Previously, Chris was the Business Development Manager at TEC Edmonton. In his role as the Business Development Manager – Natural Science, Engineering, and UA Solve, Chris Lerohl offered both business and product development support. On the Business Development side, Chris played a key role helping clients in business planning, and strategy development of early-stage, technology-based ventures in the agriculture, engineering, ICT, software, and environment industries. On the product development side, Chris assessed company needs and helped companies access capabilities at the UofA to find technical solutions. Chris’ educational background includes a MEng in Electrical Engineering and a MBA from the University of Alberta.

Dan Young has invested the last 18 years as a bison rancher. He has sold his products at several farmers markets with in Edmonton and the surrounding areas. He is currently the Operations and Governance consultant for City Market Downtown. Dan is also the President of the Alberta Farmers’ Market Association of Alberta representing 70 farmers markets with over 800 vendors.

Glendon Tan is a local entrepreneur and manager of 4 commercial buildings. He is managing the design and construction of Meuwly's retail location on 124th street. In the meantime, he is leading his real-estate business toward greater social responsibility through curated tenancy that is focused on community benefit instead of profit. Peter Keith is a red-seal chef, culinary instructor and mentor. His passion for cooking competitions has taken him around the world, and now he is back in Edmonton to open Meuwly's with Will Kotowicz and Glendon Tan. He is the General Manager for the business while finishing up a degree at the U of A.

Thea Moss has lived in Edmonton for more than 10 years after moving from Australia and she has two young children. She has been on the board of Slow Food Edmonton for about 10 years as well and considers her membership in the Urban Green Cohousing community to be the most important, once in a lifetime opportunity she has taken for herself and her children. In practice, the central aspect of cohousing is coming together to cook and eat meals. Cohousers share skills, time and resources, with the ultimate goal of sitting down together and enjoying our food. All cohousing communities have a common kitchen and dining room, while their individual homes maintain all the features of a stand-alone home. Urban Green is going to be net-zero-ready and almost-passive house level, and all our residents are interested in local and organic food (and it is near the farmers market and river valley- the best sources of local and organic!). They are so proud and excited about this first for Edmonton (and second cohousing community for Alberta) that they want to tell The Local Good Community about it.This project is entirely funded by its community not by developers and is going to be a great addition to Old Strathcona.

Trina Moyles is a writer and human rights activist. Over the last decade, she's worked with grassroots NGOs on food security and gender equality projects in Latin America and East Africa. Her book Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World (University of Regina Press) weaves together narratives from female farmers and farmworkers in Canada, U.S., Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, India, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The book celebrates women's contributions to food security, world wide, while also delving into the social, cultural, and economic barriers that women are struggling to overcome.

Stephanie Bach is the Chief Scientific Officer at NutraPonics Canada Corporation, an indoor vertical aquaponic farming company located in Strathcona County. She is also on the Board of Directors for Sustainable Food Edmonton, a non-profit organization that builds community through urban agriculture. Prior to arriving in Edmonton, Stephanie earned her graduate degree in Ontario, where she worked in the fields of agriculture and food safety, even spending a couple years working for a dairy conglomerate to increase productivity and efficiency in the cheese-making process. With experience in conventional and organic agriculture, Stephanie focuses on the accessibility of healthy and nutritious food in urban centers.

Tickets: $10 in advance. $15 at the door (cash only - ATM on premises).