Food Day features brunch, tastings, vendors, panel discussion

Local residents are invited to celebrate Food Day — a nationwide movement for healthy, affordable and sustainable food — with friends and family on Sunday at 630 G St. in downtown Davis. Events include a Food Day Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a panel discussion on genetically modified food from 4 to 6 p.m.

The morning will kick off at Monticello Seasonal Cuisine with brunch and $5 beer tastings. Wine lovers can join Davis Enterprise wine columnist Susan Leonardi for a local wine-tasting ($5) from noon to 2 p.m.

Local artisans, fair activities and educational booths include Sola Bee Farms local honey; Mong Farm; Mora Farm, Chavez Family Farm; Williams Family Farm; Sally Fox of Viriditas Farm with local wheat, wool yarn and sox; Full Circle Farm; Dori Marshall’s food- and farm-inspired media paintings; Karen Cornell’s food-inspired paintings and mono prints; demonstrations of print-making from common garden objects; Master Gardeners; the National Gardening Association; High Grade Harvest local hydroponics; Bliss Creations; Davis Food Co-op; Cool Davis; California Farm Academy; Davis/UC Davis Slow Food; Yes on 37 Right to Know Campaign (with lawn signs); and live music by Ken Kemmerling & Friends.

The GMO panel discussion about Proposition 37 and labeling of genetically engineered foods will be moderated by Desmond Jolly, who taught agricultural marketing and international agricultural development at UCD before his retirement. He has served as director of the statewide UC Small Farm Program and Small Farm Center, whose mission is to enhance the viability of small- and moderate-scale agricultural producers through research and extension education in production systems, marketing and farm management.

Panelists are Sally Fox, an organic farmer in Capay Valley; Tom Fendley, political director for yes on Prop. 37; Kent Bradford, director of the UCD Seed Biotechnology Center; and Jim Eldon, a UCD graduate and a Capay Valley organic farmer.

For more information, contact Rhonda Gruska at Rhonda@monticellocuisine.com.