Field Notes: Resilient Desert and Food Systems + Plant Sale

Field Notes: Resilient Desert and Food Systems brings together a mix of 2026 panel proposals and festival-curated adaptations, all centered on agave as a practical tool for regenerative agriculture in arid and semi-arid landscapes. Across the session, we look at how agave can support soil restoration, water-smart farming, and long-term resilience, grounded in ecological knowledge and place-based agricultural practice.

Join us for a chiltepín plant sale hosted by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and a heritage foods food truck invite for lunch!

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM | Resilient Desert Food Systems
Moderated by Dr. Jonathan Mabry (Tucson City of Gastronomy)
Cesar Lopez (Santa Cruz Farm)
Dr. Laurel Bellante (Center for Regional Food Studies, University of Arizona)
Ayman Mostafa (Maricopa County Extension, University of Arizona)
What does a desert food system look like when it is built for heat, drought, and the long run? This conversation looks at agave through a food systems lens, connecting its deep roots in desert food traditions with emerging approaches to climate-adapted agriculture and the role agave can play in shaping resilient food economies across the Sonoran Desert.

11:00 AM to 12:00 PM | Agave Traditions and Practices in Living Landscapes
Community-led session
Moderated by Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
Manuel Chacon (Mazot)
Noah Schlager (Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance, University of Arizona)
Rafael Encinas Molina (Batuq)
Randy Young (La Tierra del Jaguar)
This panel brings together producers, conservationists, and researchers working with agave to share how traditions take shape on the land. Rooted in local and traditional knowledge, the conversation moves from soil to harvest, where cultivation, care, and use are tied to surrounding plants, soils, and species, including pollinators like bats. It reflects practices that sustain agave alongside habitat, biodiversity, and working lands, alongside ways of knowing shaped through ethnobotany and the responsibility of how knowledge is held and carried over time.

EVENT SPONSORS

UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences | UA W.A. Franke Honors College