Our Future Food Ecosystem and Climate

Explore how to create a resilient food system that supports healthy communities and ecosystems in the face of our changing climate. Join us for a panel discussion on actionable strategies for disrupting our current industrial agriculture systems in pursuit of climate justice through regenerative foodways that build climate resilience and community food sovereignty.

See you there! (Registration required)

Our Speakers:

is a policy director in the LA County Chief Sustainability Office, where she promotes health equity through the OurCounty sustainability plan and related projects. She previously served as Director of Take Care New York at the New York City Health Department, where she oversaw stakeholder engagement and capacity-building for the city's health equity agenda, and held a fellowship at the United States Office of the Surgeon General. Prior to her government service, she worked in the community setting with people experiencing barriers to housing and employment. She has been a food justice proponent since working at an urban farm in 2006, and has engaged in several community food projects across the country. She received her Masters degree in Public Health Nutrition from the University of North Carolina and her undergraduate degree in Linguistics from Yale University.

(PhD) is the director of the research department at Rodale Institute California Organic Center and her research focuses on agricultural profitability and environmental sustainability including developing agricultural systems that maintain high productivity in an environmentally sustainable manner and studying the impacts of global change on the conservation and management of natural resources. More in details Dr. Bozzolo is focusing her research on W**d management and control in horticultural systems, recognized as one of the main challenges faced by growers.

advocates for policies that promote regenerative agriculture to mitigate climate change, protect soil health, conserve and reduce water use, and restore biodiversity. Before joining NRDC, Sharma was in graduate school, where she researched how to incentivize multi-stakeholder partnerships to help mitigate climate change and worked for the Ethiopian Government to help craft the nation’s first sustainable agricultural development strategy. Prior to graduate school, Sharma served as a legislative staffer on Capitol Hill for the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee and Senator Cory Booker. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, San Diego and a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. In 2020, Sharma was awarded the John E. Bryson fellowship for her work on water and agriculture. She is based in NRDC’s Santa Monica office.

is a chronic social entrepreneur, community leader, and self-proclaimed gardengineer. He is the founder of Crop Swap LA, which is determined to grow food on unused spaces, creating green jobs, independent economies, and nutrient-dense food. With a team of 9 urban farmers and administrators, they have installed and managed three water-recycling front yard microfarms that use just 8% of the water previously used for grass to grow and collect fruit and vegetables for 70 families. His innovative business and design models gained the attention of LA City officials looking for sustainability solutions around water, food, and economic sustainability, and he was named a Good Food Champion in 2019 and 2023, and launched a clothing and mural partnership with Adidas as a Black Excellence Honoree in 2022.

is a Council Member on California’s Environmental Protection Agency’s Tribal Advisory Council where he works with the State’s Environmental Boards, Departments, and Offices to support tribal involvement and environmental concerns and provides traditional ecological knowledge for state agencies to enhance their environmental policies to work towards restoring, preserving and protecting the natural environment for our future generations. The Kizh-Gabrieleno Tribe is the only representative of a non-federally recognized Tribe on the CalEPA’s Tribal Advisory Council. Matthew received both his Bachelor of Science degree and his Master of Science degree in biology from California State University, Long Beach and is the Tribe’s specialist in ethnobotanical and cultural uses of native plants and animals including the pre-historic distributions of natural resources throughout the ancestral territory of the Kizh-Gabrieleño Tribe.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Crop Swap LA - The Degnan Microfarm, 3753 Degnan Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States