47th Annual Ohio Food and Farm Conference

Details about event

Registration is now open for Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s (OEFFA) annual conference! This educational event is now in its 47th year, bringing together farm and food advocates from across the region with educational workshops and community building.

The 2026 OEFFA Conference, Finding Common Ground, will take place Friday, February 13 through Saturday, February 15, 2026, at Cherry Valley Hotel in Newark, Ohio.

“We are excited to gather in community around sustainable and organic farming in February," said OEFFA Executive Director Khara Strum. “The last year has been difficult for many, and we know how uplifting gathering together can be. Our format this year will allow for greater connection between attendees, while still offering curated content.”

White People Against ICE: solidarity with Minneapolis and how we fight back everywhere

Details about event

Monday, January 12, 2026, 8-9pm
Zoom

This week, a white woman did what those in power fear the most: she broke rank, rejected the racist lies aimed at winning over white people, and instead chose to stand in solidarity with her immigrant neighbors in the midst of the largest ICE deployment yet.

Right now, we are scared, angry, and grieving. And– this is a time for those of us who are white to root in our commitments to justice and continue to take risks and step into action. In the face of intimidation and state repression we must stand resolute, refuse to be intimidated, and recommit to the fight against ICE and white supremacy everywhere.

Join us on Monday after the weekend of action for a space to gather with other committed white folks, hear from immigrant rights organizers and folks on the ground in Minneapolis, be in community in our grief, fear, and anger, and learn how you can move into action.

Video: ICE Off of Our Streets Columbus protest

ICE off our streets in front of upside down US flag

Watch video here

Hundreds gathered on Saturday, January 10 at the Ohio Statehouse to protest ICE in Columbus and everywhere, and to protest the murder of Renee Good by ICE in Minneapolis. 

Meet Qatar Education Minister Lolwah Al-Khater

Lolwah Al-Khater is a prominent Qatari diplomat and the current Minister of Education who is known for her significant contributions to Qatar's foreign relations and education sector. Al- Khater is a Phd candidate at the University of Oxford in the area of Oriental Studies. Al-Khater is a female rising star in the Arab world. The name Lolwah translates to "pearl" in Arabic.

The Arab world is witnessing a new wave of young women rising to prominence and shaping the future with their bold vision, creativity, and influence. Lolowah Al-Khater the Qatari diplomat is one among those women.

This woman speaks the truth, a quality that is rare among kings and presidents in the Arab and Muslim world and only those whom God has blessed can utter it. She is truly an honor to all Muslim women. Al-Khater supported the Palestinian cause through the media and showed the world that the Palestinian issue is the most important issue in the world. May God reward her immensely.

BLATANT fascism

According to footage from CNBC, it is no longer just a proposition out of the mouth of JD Vance. ICE agents are going door to door, kicking in doors, and breaking into peoples homes in Minneapolis. This is a direct violation of the U.S. constitution and something needs to happen about this NOW. If you are seeing this, call ALL of your congressperson now even if you don’t think it’ll do anything. And if you are nearby, help the community who is standing up against this BLATANT fascism.

See video on her substack page:  https://substack.com/@dissentinbloom/note/c-198551422

Venezuela discussion at the Free Press Salon

Stansfield Smith

The Columbus Free Press held a Second Saturday Salon over Zoom on Saturday, January 10. Here is a summary:

U.S. Defeat in Venezuela Strategy

Ohio Divest Toolkit

Divest protest

Stop Ohio’s Investment in Israel Bonds (No New Bonds) 

Campaign focus: Ohio State Treasurer & public funds

Primary demand: No new investment or reinvestment in Israel Bonds

Opportunity to address the treasurer directly 

January 21st at 10am Rhodes tower 

**Even if you do not want to speak, please try to attend! We need to have a large turnout to show the treasurer that our movement is growing and that the pressure to stop investment in Israel Bonds is not going away. 

How to Prepare testimony: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1862bnwXU7h4j5Wdekkdy-q331oeBITE8dsDwBRrgiWg/edit?usp=drivesdk 

Zoom Testimony training Jan. 15th 7pm est. : https://zoom.us/j/92021624402?pwd=PffWudbfBcv7I3M56TNKn2VgvFjnfJ.1 

📄 Ohio Divest Resource Page:

https://www.ohiodivest.org/

✉️ Email the Treasurer Action:

http://bit.ly/NoNewBondsOhio

ICE Watch training

Details about event

Sunday, January 11, 12:30pm
United Methodist Church for All People, 946 Parsons Ave.
Learn how to protect our community and to take action when there are ICE sightings

What a Spring Chicken Knows That the New 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines Don’t

I have spent most of my adult life working at the intersection of food, health, and public policy. I did not come to this work through ideology. I came to it through lived experience, long before I ever held a policy title.

My mother reversed severe, debilitating Crohn’s disease decades ago after being advised to undergo radical intestinal surgery. Doctors told her there were no other options. She refused to accept that verdict and changed what she ate. Through a whole food, plant-based approach, she regained her health. That decision reshaped our family’s relationship to food and planted the seed for my life’s work.

My mother’s healing journey is also rooted in land and farming history. Her family were pasture raised cattle farmers. They raised animals on grass, with care for land, animals, and food quality long before industrial confinement systems existed. I grew up understanding that animals, soil, and human health are inseparable, and that how food is produced matters as much as what is eaten.

What Does Venezuela Have to Do with Israel?

It is interesting to observe how United States foreign policy, such as it is, often appears to have an Israeli back story that explains at least in part how Donald Trump’s mindless aggression against much of the world is driven by Zionist imperatives rather than actual American interests. Ukraine is supported by Israel and the US Israel Lobby in part because the roots of many diaspora and Israeli Jews are “Kazarian,” i.e. they derive from that part of Eastern Europe. Plus, Ukraine’s acting head of state Volodymyr Zelensky is a Jew whose mother and father reportedly live in Israel in a posh residence paid for by the money stolen by their son from US and European donations to Kiev to fight Russia. Also, the Jewish antipathy towards Moscow in large part derives from the belief that Imperial Russia was the source of many pogroms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That narrative fails, however, to mention how Russian Jews turned Bolshevik and, becoming enforcers of the Communist Revolution, subsequently got their revenge a hundred-fold on Russian and other Eastern European Christians.

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