Rubel to Keynote First Farm to Table International Symposium

Gardener and award-winning agricultural writer William Rubel will be the keynote speaker at the first Farm to Table International Symposium (F2Ti), which will take place Aug. 2-4 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. 

F2Ti, produced in partnership with the SoFAB Institute, will feature the thought leaders and practitioners in the burgeoning farm-to-table movement and will explore the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of food and drink sourced locally to globally.

Rubel is the author of “The Magic of Fire: Hearth Cooking: One Hundred Recipes for Fireplace and Campfire” and “Bread: A Global History.” Rubel writes on small-scale agriculture and traditional foodways for Mother Earth News.

Rubel grows his own vegetables and maintains a longstanding interest in the history of kitchen gardens and the raised-bed gardening system. He is founder and co-editor of Stone Soup, the magazine by children, and is the recipient of a World Gourmand award and a James Beard Foundation award nomination. 

Rubel’s F2Ti address will provide historical context to the 21st century Farm to Table movement. He will discuss the British and French kitchen gardens attached to the big country houses of the 1600s and 1700s, which were the gardens in which the raised-bed gardening system was perfected. 

Another featured speaker at F2Ti will be former Texas agriculture commissioner and longtime champion of the farm-to-table movement, Jim Hightower. A popular public speaker who is fiery and funny, Hightower has experience in both agriculture and politics.

F2Ti is designed to facilitate education and collaboration among chefs, mixologists, culinary professionals; restaurateurs; researchers, academics and policymakers; legal and financial professionals; farmers and other agricultural professionals; food and drink writers, publishers and media; slow food advocates and beverage enthusiasts; brewers, distillers, vintners and distributors; farmers markets, urban farms; nutritionists and other health professionals; and anyone with an interest in the farm-to-table movement. 

To register, or for more information about the first Farm to Table International Symposium, please visit www.f2t-int.com.