Presenters

Dee Atkin
Presenter
Dee is a lifelong entrepreneur whose ventures have ranged from automotive and construction businesses to software and land development. After selling a high-tech consultancy, he founded the 825-acre Sunrise Valley project—an innovative community integrating permaculture principles and a working farm inspired by A Pattern Language. Since completing Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Design Certificate in 2014, Dee has combined his training in nutrition and permaculture to champion nutrient-dense, locally produced food. His recent work includes designing and implementing a model farm at a Kenyan rescue mission, now feeding over 500 children daily and serving as a regional center for agricultural education.
Pre-Conference Events

Paige Collett
Presenter
From sourcing produce and peeling carrots to printing labels and building websites, Cache Canning is run entirely by Paige. A Utah native, when she's not in the kitchen she can be found wandering around in the desert or in the garage building big art.
Pre-Conference Events
Links

Al Grossi
Seed Exchange
Radio host of weekly Urban farm report, 9 years running at community station KRCL 90.9 FM in Salt Lake City. Seed saver and urban farmer. An advocate of regenerative, sustainable farming, and the importance of where our nutrient dense food comes from, and the benefits we all can reap from eating it.
Special Events
Links

TK Kern
Presenter
After a career in software development, I transitioned to agriculture and have spent the past nine years working at Red Acre Farm in Cedar City, Utah. My work there has focused on vegetable production, soil health, and community-based food systems. In 2024, I was honored with the Utah Soil Health Partnership’s Biological Cultivator Award, recognizing my commitment to improving Utah's soil and farming methods. I have served as a board member of Red Acre Center, where I still play a smaller role supporting education and advocacy around local food and agriculture policy.
In addition to farming, I continue to lend my technical expertise to both Red Acre Farm and Red Acre Center, bridging the gap between technology and agriculture. I am now in transition and exploring the next chapter of my journey: starting my own farm operation. I look forward to building on the skills, relationships, and experiences I’ve gained over the past decade to contribute to Utah’s local food movement.
Pre-Conference Events
Links

Laine & Porter Lamping
Presenter
Pre-Conference Events
Links

Joseph Lofthouse
Yoga Instructor
Joseph Lofthouse, a popular speaker at farming conferences worldwide, authored Landrace Gardening, Semences Paysannes Métissées, and Hundred Hour Yoga Teacher Training. He has grown landraces and sold seeds since 2010. He devotes himself to helping gardeners and farmers grow healthy plants with less stress and empowering communities to adapt seeds to their local conditions.
Special Events
Links

Lloyd Nelson
Presenter
Lloyd Nelson has been practicing the art of Biodynamic (BD) Agriculture for over twenty years. He is a BD preparation maker, builder, artist, farmer, arborist, BD educator & consultant. He is co-founder of Biodynamic Source - a Colorado based non-profit specializing in high potency BD preparations - and he owns and operates a Biodynamic spray, fertilizer and consultation service. He has worked with small and large scale farms, vineyards, and orchards to transition to sustainable Biodynamic land management and Demeter BD Certification.
Pre-Conference Workshop
Workshop
Links

Symbria Patterson
Presenter
Symbria spent a lifetime working in the nonprofit sector. After her daughter started an organic farm, she and her late-husband saw the possibilities and left their employment to work full-time building a sustainable farm. Their focus was to make local food accessible and to create a community educated about healthy food and responsible sources. As her experience grew, so did her vision, and she saw the need for an organized effort in promoting and protecting farmers, farms, and local food economies. She and her daughter started another adventure, while continuing the first, and co-founded Red Acre Center in the midst of farming. She says she has never worked a day in her life. "I always find myself engaged in a cause and loving what I do!" The mother of four and grandmother of nine, she loves, to walk, read, farm, eat good food and be anxiously engaged in a good cause.
Pre-Conference Events
Links

Steven Rosenberg
Presenter
Steven Rosenberg is the Founder and Good Food Evangelist at Liberty Heights Fresh; a nationally award-winning neighborhood good food market in Salt Lake City, UT, founded in 1993.
Prior to founding Liberty Heights Fresh, Rosenberg worked in his family’s Southwest Michigan fruit orchards and vegetable fields; as a street fruitier; wholesale produce merchant; biotech marketer; flower importer; and filmmaker.
A good food movement activist; Rosenberg has served on numerous non-profit, trade association and local government boards committees. Prior speaking engagements include: Borad Bia (Irish Food Board)
Specialty Food Conference, Adare, Ireland 1999. Oldways Olavita Conference, Puglia, Italy 2006. American Cheese Society Presenter/Panelist, Louisville, KY 2006. Numerous live television appearances –KTVX, KUTV, FOX13, and KSL (1994-present).
Rosenberg obtained a BS in Food Marketing/Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University (1983); studied filmmaking at the Vancouver Film School (1990-91); and has completed the Babson College Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program, Salt Lake City (2013).

Michele Schahczenski
Presenter
Working USU Extension and Utah TOPP to support current and transitioning organic farmers and ranchers through mentorship, technical assistance, and community building.
I am an organic and sustainable food systems advocate with experience working in diverse agricultural, small business, public service, and non-profit settings. I have a decade of experience in agriculture as an organic crop inspector, food hub manager, farm worker, food system’s researcher, and extension agent. I have dedicated my life to seeing farmers succeed and communities gain greater access to healthy local food.
Pre-Conference Events
Links

Joyce Skeet
Presenter
Joyce Skeet broke from her career in social services for similar reasons. She grew up as a Mennonite in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and learned rapidly that growing conditions in New Mexico were vastly different than she had encountered at home, where she had tended a 2-acre garden and raised pigs organically. When she applied what she knew to the arid soils of New Mexico, “whatever I did just didn’t work. My whole background had been focused on dominating plants, dominating nature,” she lamented. In her new home, people cautioned that she should listen to the plants. In time she learned that she was only one part of a much bigger whole; an equal to the plants, and equal to the soil.

James Skeet
Presenter
James’ Diné (Navajo) clan name means “Red Cheek, Born of Leaning Tower”. He is full of energy, life, and wisdom. James worked for NGOs fostering childhood development and then served as a financial watchdog for the tribal government. In all of his systematic work with programs and regulations, he began to seek ways to express his spiritual understanding that “all things are sacred”.

