Ask an Agroforester
The 2025 Season is here!
2025 Schedule
Tuesday, April 15th: Advocacy in Agroforestry
Advocacy in Agroforestry (Cristel Zoebisch hosted by Emilie)
Come learn about the workings of the federal policymaking process and how to make your voice heard! During this session, we will talk about how change happens, where grassroots and grasstops voices come in, and how to identify opportunities to influence policy at the federal level. We will also discuss how the Agroforestry Coalition has advocated for proposals in the upcoming Farm Bill and what the current policy landscape looks like. Join us for a discussion on how to make your voice heard and how to start thinking like an advocate.
Cristel Zoebisch is an independent consultant and founder of Rooted Strategy & Policy. She supports her clients in advancing policy proposals at the federal level and in translating strategic vision into tangible actions. She is the Co-Chair of the Policy Working Group for the Agroforestry Coalition and has been at the forefront of policy ideation and advocacy to scale agroforestry over the past few years. Prior to launching her own firm, Cristel advocated for small and midsize farmers and ranchers implementing sustainable agricultural systems at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and she launched the Land Policy team at the carbon removal nonprofit Carbon180. Cristel holds a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Food Studies from New York University.
Thursday, April 24th: Multigenerational Land Stewardship
Multi-Generational Land Stewardship with Sophia Hampton of Yale Global Food Fellowship (hosted by Steve)
While agroforestry concepts present compelling ways to manage land for the future, the elephant in the room is that tree and forest ecosystems require secure, long term tenure on land, along with connected social structures to caretake them. How do we ensure the work of our lifetime is carried on, into an unknown future? Join us for a discussion that is necessary, and one that might offer more questions than answers.
Sophia Hampton
Sophia Joffe Hampton (she/they) is a Yale Global Food Fellow and in her final year of a dual degree with Yale School of the Environment (MESc) and Vermont Law School (JD). She has a professional background as an agroforestry practitioner along with a decade of experience in diversified farming systems. Her academic research explores how private property, as a system of legal and social relations, reifies systemic injustices in the food system. This is motivated by her own challenges with the land access barriers facing many young farmers and a desire to shift toward more inclusive and collective land stewardship. In this work, she is inspired by community groups using cooperative principles and practices to care for ecologies that will support future generations.
Thursday, May 8th: The Farming with Trees Collective presents findings from their Farmer Listening Sessions
Farmer Listening Sessions with Special Guests (hosted by Steve)
During 2024, the Farming with Trees Collective engaged in conversation with dozens of farmers around the Northeast US to better understand their interest, connection, and desires for trees in the farm landscape. Join us to learn key takeaways from these conversations and how more dialogue and connection is proving critical to the long term success of tree planting efforts across a wide range of communities.
Farming with Trees Collective is a decentralized network encouraging collaborative projects in Agroforestry. We are a small group of farmers, land stewards, organizations, businesses, and individuals committed to increasing the successful planting of trees on farms and who honor the experience and knowledge of people and community as the foundation for success.
Our values and intentions below are aspirational, fluid, and often re-examined as we work together.
Our values and practices informing the work include:
- Transparency
- Authenticity
- Uplifting the Margins
- Collective decision making
- Reciprocity
We believe that trees offer vital solutions when rooted in local agroecosystems and cooperative regional economies. We ground our agroforestry in people-centered organizing, participatory action research, farmer-to-farmer exchanges, and popular education. We engage in projects that center the expertise, wisdom, and experiences of people and places through honest conversation, critical thinking, and deep listening. We examine how power flows and where it accumulates through our actions and work to redirect and re channel resources, capital, and decision making toward those most often left behind.
Wednesday, May 14th: The Farming with Trees Collective presents findings from their Nurseries Listening Sessions
Nurseries Listening Sessions with Special Guests (hosted by Jonathan)
During 2024, the Farming with Trees Collective engaged in conversation with dozens of farmers around the Northeast US to better understand their interest, connection, and desires for trees in the farm landscape. Join us to learn key takeaways from these conversations and how more dialogue and connection is proving critical to the long term success of tree planting efforts across a wide range of communities.
Farming with Trees Collective is a decentralized network encouraging collaborative projects in Agroforestry. We are a small group of farmers, land stewards, organizations, businesses, and individuals committed to increasing the successful planting of trees on farms and who honor the experience and knowledge of people and community as the foundation for success.
Our values and intentions below are aspirational, fluid, and often re-examined as we work together.
Our values and practices informing the work include:
- Transparency
- Authenticity
- Uplifting the Margins
- Collective decision making
- Reciprocity
We believe that trees offer vital solutions when rooted in local agroecosystems and cooperative regional economies. We ground our agroforestry in people-centered organizing, participatory action research, farmer-to-farmer exchanges, and popular education. We engage in projects that center the expertise, wisdom, and experiences of people and places through honest conversation, critical thinking, and deep listening. We examine how power flows and where it accumulates through our actions and work to redirect and re channel resources, capital, and decision making toward those most often left behind.
Interested in watching past Ask an Agroforester webinars? Check out the full Ask an Agroforester playlist on our YouTube channel. There, you’ll find deep-dive discussions on a variety of Agroforestry topics, presented by some of the most knowledgeable leaders in the field.
For questions, comments, or information regarding the Ask an Agroforester programming, please contact Emilie Tweardy at ETweardy@asdevelop.org.
New to Agroforestry? Visit ASD’s Agroforestry page to learn more.
Sign up for our e-newsletter to stay in the loop with Ask an Agroforester.
On This Page