Gaining Ground Webinar Series
Gaining Ground is a free webinar series geared toward agriculture educators. The goal of Gaining Ground is to equip agriculture educators with knowledge from national experts that support Urban Food Systems enterprises in the region. Participants will learn technical and systems-level information for successful Urban Food Systems practices through the series.
Each webinar is delivered by experts from the urban core such as urban farmers, nonprofit educators, food policy advocates and government workers. Webinars are one hour in length.
Gaining Ground is presented by the Urban Food Systems program at K-State Olathe.
Upcoming Webinars
Testing the Waters of Aquaponics: From Challenges to Best Practices
1 p.m. CST on Wednesday, April 2
Aquaponics is an innovative and sustainable farming method that integrates aquaculture with hydroponics, creating a symbiotic system for producing both fish and crops. This webinar will provide urban agriculture educators with technical insights on system design and best practices to make aquaponics more accessible to small or limited-resource farmers. Attendees will hear from experienced practitioners about the challenges of starting an aquaponics system and effective strategies for success. The session will equip educators with the knowledge, resources and connections to support and guide prospective aquaponics producers.
Speakers
- Greg Fripp, founder and CEO, Whispering Roots
- Kevin Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., director of international initiatives, research specialist and professor, University of Arizona
- Janelle Hager, aquaponics research and extension associate, Kentucky State University
Free Tools for Small Growers: From Excel Calculators to Open-Source Software
1 p.m. CST on Wednesday, April 30
Small-scale growers require practical and accessible tools for help with farm planning, financial management and sustainable growing solutions. Various free research-based tools, from Excel calculators to open-source farm management software, can help streamline operations while enhancing profitability and environmental sustainability. Participants will learn about a digital farm management platform designed to assist with planning, task scheduling and sustainability tracking, as well as simple spreadsheet-based tools that help growers with crop storage, heating and cooling needs, and other essential farm functions. Explore how you can share these tools and better serve your urban and small-scale growers.
Speaker
- Hannah Wittman, Ph.D., associate at the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, professor at the Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability and professor of Land and Food Systems at University of British Columbia. She also is project lead for LiteFarm.
Previous Webinars
Nikolaos Katsoulas, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Thessaly in Volos, Greece. He also is director of the Lab of Agricultural Constructions and Environmental Control and of the Institute of Rural Development of the IASON University Center for Innovation Research and Development. He has 18 years academic, research and teaching experience. He is specialized in microclimate control in agricultural buildings with emphasis in greenhouses. His research interests include technologies, automations, design, modeling and control in greenhouses, irrigation scheduling, hydroponic and aquaponic systems, energy management, renewable energy sources, microalgae production and others. He has long-term stays for research cooperation and teaching in several organizations around the world. 
Dr. Tania Kim is a broadly trained community and landscape ecologist with a particular interest in understanding how environmental variability influences plant-insect interactions and biodiversity patterns. She uses this basic knowledge about environmental variability to better manage insects and plants for conservation and sustainable agriculture, and to understand and predict how land-use and land-cover change influence insect biodiversity patterns and the provisioning of ecosystem services in agricultural and natural landscapes.
Katie Nixon co-operates Green Gate Family Farm with her husband. It is a certified organic diversified market farm where they produce vegetables, fruits, bedding plants, eggs and flowers. Katie is a founding member and current president of the KC Food Hub, a farmer-owned and farmer-run cooperative serving the wholesale market. For West Central Missouri Community Action Agency, Katie serves as the Food Systems Director. In this role, she has brought in more than $2 million in USDA and other funding to improve the regional food system. Katie has participated in sustainable food and farming work in Washington, Ireland, South Africa, Mexico and New Zealand. In 2020, she was selected as a Zhi-Xing China Eisenhower Fellow. 
Duron Chavis is an urban farmer, community educator and change-maker. He engages in coordinating innovative and dynamic initiatives around the topics of urban agriculture and local food systems in a culturally relevant way. Chavis served as the inaugural director of the Harding Street Urban Ag Center — a recreation center repurposed into an indoor farm by Virginia State University. Chavis served as the first community engagement manager for Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Chavis founded the Happily Natural Day Festival as a grassroots effort to supplement the summer jazz concert that was held annually at the institution. The festival is a weekend-long experience that focuses on cultural awareness, health, wellness and social change. Chavis is an alum of Leadership Metro Richmond's class of 2011 and received Style Weekly's Top 40 Under 40 Award in 2010 and the Style Weekly Power List in 2014 and 2015.
This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2019-38640-29879 through the North Central Region SARE program under project number XNC19-181 Capacity Building in Urban Food Systems in the North Central Region. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Contact Us
Program Coordinator
Urban Food Systems Initiatives