Michael Ableman is a farmer, an author, a photographer, a recognized practitioner of sustainable agriculture, and a proponent of regional food systems. He has written several books, essays, and articles, and he lectures extensively on food, culture, and sustainability worldwide. Michael is currently farming at the Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and developing The Center for Art, Ecology & Agriculture there.

Summary of the talk from the Food Conference participant pack:

Food has become one of the dominant issues of our time. The industrial system that brings it to us is unraveling and the cost of that system, ecologically, socially, and personally, is enormous. While this keynote presentation will touch on these problems, it will leave us with a deeper sense of how we can participate in the solutions: on our farms and in our gardens, in our kitchens and at the dining table, and in the broader communities where we live. In this time of great uncertainty there is reason for hope, embodied in the belief that the health of a nation is inextricably tied to the health of its agriculture.