RDLN Advisor Marie Cirillo making a statement about the importance of land. Marie is a founder of the Woodland Community Land Trust in Clearfork, Tennessee. She recently stepped down as director of the Clearfork Commnity Institute, an educational program that provides opportunities for students to learn about the environment and perform community service. She has worked closely with RDLN Leader Carol Judy over the years.

Fracking   RDLN Leader and Board member Anita LaRan explained fracking issues to the group. Mora County, New Mexico, where she is from, is the first county in the country to ban fracking. Two large oil companies have brought suit against Mora County for this action. RDLN Board member Twila-Martin Kekahbah, former chair of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, explained that economic need can cause landowners, including tribes, to allow fracking on their land. Anita is executive director of Collaborative Visions and president of the Sangre de Cristo Livestock Growers Association in Mora. Immigration   RDLN graduate and Board member Mily Treviño-Sauceda, President of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, and Tirso Moreno, executive director of the Florida Farmworkers Association, presented background information on immigration issues.

Food and Health     Ben Yohola (standing), who has been working with Growing Power, spoke of traditional attitudes toward food. RDLN Leader Martha Beatty, executive director of Community Resource Advocate and a licensed practical nurse, gave a blow-by-blow description of the destruction diabetes can cause in the human body. RDLN graduate Nancy Gaynor, owner of Gaynors Ranch in Montana and former director of the Tribal Business Information Center at Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Reservation, presented a film Forks Over Knives, which "empowers people to lead healthier lives," Yawah Awolowa, a farmer, chef, and store owner spoke about nutrition. RDLN Leader Dorothy Grady-Scarbrough, a farmer and school nurse, described her work with farming, youth, and encouraging healthy eating and exercise. National Rural Fellows graduate Chas Wheelock described the Oneoda food sovereignty work.