April 9, 2022
9 am - 4 pm
Johnson County Community College
Free Admission | Free Parking | Masks Required
Hosted by KC Healthy Kids in partnership with Brookside Farmers' Market
Who will you find at the Expo?
These farms have signed on to bring you their best! We're adding more farms as fast as we can.
You can shop with confidence because all KC Food Circle™ farmers pledge to meet high standards for growing and producing the goods they sell. Read the Pledges
Shop Local Farms
Find fresh greens & herbs, small-batch artisans, community supported agriculture programs, healthy transplants for your garden, free-range meats and eggs and sustainable wares.
Purchase a Weekly Farm Share
Enjoy a weekly share of the harvest all season when you join a Community Supported Agriculture program.
Start your Garden.
Buy vegetable, flower and native seedlings ready to plant in your own organic garden. Get your hands dirty and take home a free plant at the Potting Shed.
Ask the Experts
Starting a garden? Want to be more involved in your food system? Connect with experts in the field at the Eat Local and Organic Expo.
Bring the Kids. Kids benefit from local food in endless ways, from knowing where their food comes from to getting to know farmers and feeling a part of an incredible community. Enjoy the Learning Zone where your family can experience local organic food and gardening first hand.
Featuring
Nancy Kost
"Seed Diversity, Resiliency, and our Transformation"
Our food and seed systems have become dependent on specialized areas of growing, high inputs, and minimal diversity within and among varieties of a given crop. While this form of agriculture has substantially increased the surplus of both food and seed, it is unable to acclimate in times of adversity.
Now is the time to reshape our local food system using seed diversity as a foundation. Integrating more diversity into our food and seed system will make it more resilient and sustainable for future generations. Food producers and consumers are walking together in this transformation.
Nancy Kost is from the Altiplano of Bolivia and grew up growing quinoa, potato, and llamas in a resilient and sustainable system that predates the Inca Empire. She has extensive farming experience throughout the Americas and deep knowledge and wisdom of seeds, seed systems, culture of food, diversity in agriculture, food system, and adaptation. In 2018, Nancy and Matthew along with their two kids launched The Buffalo Seed Company. She holds a bachelor degree in agronomy from Earth University in Costa Rica and a Master of Science degree in tomato breeding from Ohio State University.
Daniel Robinson
"The True Cost of Food"
Daniel Robinson will explore the obvious and hidden costs that are built into our food system, especially what goes in to the cost of growing food, and the cost that consumers pay. He’ll break down the recent research study by The Rockefeller Foundation, “True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System.” The report outlines the impacts on our health, the environment, biodiversity, livelihoods and much more.
Daniel Robinson is site manager at Cultivate KC’s Westport Commons Farm. Daniel is plant enthusiast and guerrilla gardener, which he defines as “using and beautifying spaces that otherwise might just be blighted.” His passions have led him into opportunities to see leadership defined and to redefine it himself. As current president of the Kansas City Chapter of the National Young Farmers coalition, Daniel intends to not only strengthen the connection between people and their food, but the policies that affect them as well. He grew up in South Kansas City and holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Elexa Dawson
Emcee and Performer
Elexa is a Neshnabe (the Potawatomi's name for themselves, meaning originally human) artist known for songs that are relatable and healing. In 2020, she was awarded the Western Arts Alliance Advancing Indigenous Performance Fellowship, and in 2021, she was selected for their Native Launchpad Cohort. She is currently a student of sustainable agriculture and dreams of hosting a rural art-farm-camp and outdoor venue on traditional Osage and Kanza territory in the Flint Hills of Kansas.