2026 Grow Conference

GROW CONFERENCE 2026 Theme: The Great Collaboration

• Learn through three tracks and multiple breakout sessions.
• Network with regional food systems stakeholders.

TRACK 1 - ALLIANCES

Session #1

Need some funds to expand your business or buy some land? Come hear about the various programs you can access from a company who understands agriculture operations and farmers.

Session #2

Find out how the Conservation Districts can coach you and your team into making your land better for the environment and ultimately for your profits. Farmer support, soil testing, creating native hedgerows, the benefits of pollinators and more!

Session #3

Food and kids go together like peanut butter and jelly! Come find out how you can collaborate with your local schools to grow what they need to buy. Everyone wins!!

TRACK 2 - STRUCTURES

Session #1

Indigenous farming incorporates sustainability, protecting the environment and your resources. This is more important than ever as our climate is changing and water is more valuable. Join Natalia Solares and learn from her experience.

Session #2

Learn how to improve your soil health and reinvigorate your land. Find out how Erik Unger has applied these practices to great success at Gable Farms.

Session #3

Got pests? It happens to the best of farmers. Come listen to an expert who will guide you to biologically based pest control. This can be a cost effective and sustainable way to eradicate your pesky problems.

TRACK 3 - SYSTEMS

Session #1

Farming looks different in an urban setting. It can be a backyard, rooftop or hydroponic greenhouse. Learn about the challenges and rewards from Julieta Munoz.

Session #2

Growing grass, producing meat and making money on less than one acre with a profitable chicken, duck and turkey operation

Session #3

Your plants and trees are loaded. Now what? Come listen to Scott Berndt give you the ins and outs of selling wholesale to the Food Hub and others.

We are pleased to offer registration fee waivers to qualified applicants. This includes students, nonprofits, and individuals facing financial barriers. To request a fee waiver, please email [email protected] (for students and nonprofits, use your school or nonprofit agency’s email address). A limited number of waivers are available.

Info: Greg Pennyroyal’s focus is on the relationship between healthy ecosystems, and healthy communities. He is following a family tradition of medicinal plant farming from his mother, a traditionally trained herbalist in Norway, to his current position as Vineyard Manager of Wilson Creek Winery and Professor of Viticulture in at Mount San Jacinto College in Temecula and is a founding mentor for the Temecula Valley Highschool Regenerative Agriculture club and CTE program. He is the founder of the Small Winegrowers Association and is developing a regenerative curriculum and campus at Mt San Jacinto College.

Previous experience as manager of Trout Lake Farm, medicinal herb farm, Director of Botanical Research at Leiner Health, a researcher with the National Institutes of Health, 10 years on the United States Pharmacopeial Convention Board developing medicinal plant standards and work with the Global Institute for Tibetan Medicine.

Info: Nikiko Masumoto (she/her) is an organic farmer and artist. She is Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American, and stewards the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic peaches, nectarines, apricots and grapes for raisins. She has co-written a new children’s book, Every Peach is a Story, with her father David Mas Masumoto.

Nikiko is an arts-leader and co-founder of Yonsei Memory Project, an arts-based initiative to activate Japanese American history in the Central Valley. She served on USDA’s State Committee, and volunteers on various non-profit boards.

Her most cherished value is courage and most important practice is listening.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher City of Riverside, Office of Sustainability