Jim Embry of Artu-Ballew Farm. (Submitted photo)
Black Food and Farming Conference set for this weekend
- Published: September 18, 2025
The 2025 Black Indigenous People of Color Food and Farming, or BFFN, Conference will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 19 and 20, at Central State University’s Dayton location at 840 Germantown St.
The lead partners with BFFN are the Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association, the City of Dayton and Central State University Extension.
The conference, formerly known as the Black Farming Conference, is in its fifth year of celebrating the heritage of food producers of color in Ohio and their contributions to agriculture locally, regionally and throughout the state.
Free and open to the public, activities include hands-on skill shares and workshops, including creating herbal extractions and fire cider with Donnetta Boykin from the Trotwood-based Endigo’s Herbals and Organics; bee-keeping with James- Beard- award-winning agriculture and food activist Jim Embry; and food preservation and emergency food kits with Jamie Harris of Resilient Roots Doula, among several other informational sessions.
Project L.L.A.M.A — Local Land and Market Access — a program that provides support to fledging farms, will offer business workshops and sessions, including a free small business legal clinic offered by Columbus attorney Ambrose Moses; a workshop on farmland leasing basics; and heir property and succession planning offered by the Bean Foundation and S&B Farm of Eufaula, Alabama. BFFN is a lead partner in Project L.L.A.M.A.
Activities will also include local farm tours and more than a dozen food trucks. Vendors and exhibitors will participate in an outdoor community market at Central State Dayton.
The weekend of activities will culminate on Saturday night with an awards dinner honoring Edgemont Solar Garden for its work in Dayton as the recipient of the 2025 Excellence Award. Edgemont Solar Garden Executive Board Member Nikol Miller, who grew up in the neighborhood and is now executive director of the Miami Valley Urban League, will share the center’s story and impact on her life.
Edgemont Solar Garden was founded in 1978 as a partnership among residents of the neighborhood, the city of Dayton and University of Dayton, who transformed a razed factory site on Miami Chapel Road into a garden and community center. Over the past 40 years, the Solar Garden and center have provided programming within the neighborhood, including serving as an incubator site for Central State University’s Beginning Farmer program. Harvest from the garden, including its signature collards, have provided fresh vegetables to the neighborhood.
BFFN will also honor its youth and young professional award winner, Te’Lario Watkins II, a nationally recognized youth entrepreneur, urban farmer and advocate for food justice. At 7 years old, Watkins founded Tiger Mushroom Farms, growing gourmet mushrooms for local farmers markets, restaurants and grocery stores. Now 16, Watkins has collected several major national awards and recently gave a TEDx talk on “The Future of Food.”
Sponsors of the conference include Farm Credit Mid America, Nationwide Insurance, the Ohio Farmers Bureau Federation, and the Yellow Springs Community Foundation.
For a complete schedule of events and to register, go to http://www.bit.ly/BFFNConference2025.
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