Panel 1

Capital & Infrastructure Needs

Panel Objective: session provides attendees with opportunities to seek and obtain capital and builds a shared understanding of livestock processing needs, with:

• Shermain Hardesty, UC Davis - Matching Regional Niche Meat Processing Capacity with Demand

• Glenda Humiston, State Director - How can we access resources from USDA Rural Development and other USDA resources?

• John Finger, President of Hog Island Oyster Co. - Hog Island’s investment strategies and ideas for consumer investment in agriculture.

Expert: Robert Eyler, Marin Economic Forum

Moderator: Liza Crosse, Aide to Supervisor Steve Kinsey

Shermain Hardesty (shermain@primal.ucdavis.edu) is an Extension Economist and Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California—Davis, and also serves as Director of the University of California’s Small Farm Program.  She is responsible for research, education and outreach programs related to alternative food marketing systems, small farms and cooperatives.  Additionally, Shermain is part of a University of California team assessing the feasibility of a multi-species meat processing facility in Northern California.

Dr. Glenda Humiston (glenda.Humiston@ca.usda.gov) was appointed by President Obama on August 23, 2009 to serve as the California State Director at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development. Humiston brings over 25 years of experience working on public policy development and program implementation supporting rural development and sustainable communities to the Agency.  Humiston completed her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in 2009. She received her Master’s degree in International Agricultural Development from the University of California at Davis and her Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Colorado State University.

John Finger (john@hogislandoysters.com) is a surfer, fisherman, and marine biologist. Growing up on Long Island, NY - a community steeped in shellfish culture - John honestly never touched an oyster. After graduating, magna cum laude, with a B.S. in Marine Biology from Southampton College, Long Island, John packed his surf board and headed West in pursuit of Pacific Ocean waves. Arriving in California, he landed a job with International Shellfish Enterprises (ISE) in Moss Landing, CA.  Wanderlust called and he left for Europe, traveling his way around the continent as a mariculture consultant, first in Ireland then in Spain. John returned to the U.S. in 1983 to launch the Hog Island Oyster Company on Tomales Bay, CA with friend and co-partner Michael Watchorn.

Robert Eyler is Professor and Chair of Economics at Sonoma State University. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1998, and a B.A. in Economics at CSU, Chico in 1992. He is the director of the Center for Regional Economic Analysis at Sonoma State University and has worked on multiple regional studies for Sonoma, Napa, Marin, and Mendocino counties. Dr. Eyler also currently acts as the interim CEO of the Marin Economic Forum.