news

2019

In August, Jane Shey traveled to Rwanda to support the Rwanda Cooperative Agency develop a 7-year strategic plan for cooperative policy. Jane is one of the volunteers mobilized by USAID and CRS’ Farmer-to-Farmer program, which connects U.S. volunteer experts with farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses and other agriculture sector institutions in developing and transitional countries. The program promotes sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural processing, production and marketing.

2016

On April 16, Jane Shey spoke at an Earth Day 2016 event organized by the Frankfurt am Main Chamber of Commerce (IHK), Earth Day International, and the U.S. Consulate Frankfurt. Photos, along with Jane's presentation, are available here. Focused on sustainable food systems--with an eye on both existing trends and emerging strategies--the free event offered first-hand perspectives from both Germany and the United States.

2015

Jane Shey spoke at the grand opening celebration of The Good Acre, a Minneapolis-St. Paul area food hub for which she serves on the Board of Directors. The Good Acre's mission is "to enhance how food is grown and shared in the Twin Cities region, to improve marketplace opportunities for diverse independent farmers, and to increase access for all consumers to healthy, locally-grown fresh produce." Over 700 people joined the October 30 event, where Jane reflected on the Twin Cities' robust local food community and The Good Acre's early successes. The Good Acre will focus on ensuring broad access to healthy, fresh food; creating economic opportunity for farmers; providing mentoring and training opportunities through a training kitchen and hoop house; and building community around food.

Requiring special labels for genetically modified foods, or GMO foods, may be banned in the U.S. under a law making its way through Congress. Learn more in an Aug. 20 article from Jane Shey in the Organic Farming Research Foundation's newsletter.

Effective advocacy isn't easy, but it can still be fun: that was one of Jane Shey's messages at a recent workshop she conducted at the invitation of the Minnesota Pesticide Action Network (PAN) entitled "Legislative Advocacy 101: How to Make Your Voice Heard by Elected Officials and Have Fun Doing It." Read more about the workshop here.

Jane Shey recently organized a training program for women farmers from Moldova as part of the US Department of Agriculture's Cochran Program.

Learn how to host an urban agriculture candidate forum in Urban Farm Online's April 2015 article on the topic -- featuring quotes from Jane Shey.

In Spring 2015, Jane Shey participated in a two week study trip to Turkey with the KU Leuven (Belgium) Faculty of Theology, and the Liverpool Hope University (United Kingdom) Department of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Studies. The trip included visits to 27 archaeological sites relevant to the New Testament and the Greek and Roman culture of the first century CE.

In March 2015, the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) hired Jane E. Shey as a Policy Associate. In this role, she will advocate for organic research funding and policy support at the federal level.

2014

Jane E. Shey was recently invited to speak at the American Farmland Trust's national conference as part of a session on "Planning for Agriculture and Food Systems - Communities That Are Leading the Way: Growing Food Connections." View her presentation, which highlights her work with the Homegrown Minneapolis local foods initiative.

2013

Jane E. Shey and David Belis' article, "Building a Municipal Food Policy Regime in Minneapolis: Implications for Urban Climate Governance", was recently published in Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy's special issue on novel multisector networks and entrepreneurship in urban climate governance. View the abstract.