Speaking & Organizing

Zachary D. Lyons

Zach at Farm Aid 2004, White River Amphitheatre, near Seattle. Zach was the lead organizer for local activities surrounding the event. Photo by Chrys Ostrander.

Organizing

Executive Director - Washington State Farmers Market Assoc - Jan. 1999-Dec. 2005

* Board member, "From the Heart of Washington" agricultural products promotion campaign

* Board member, National Association of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs

* Vice Chair, Advisory Board of the Washington State Department of Agriculture Small Farm & Direct Marketing and Washington State University Small Farms programs

* Member, King County Farmers Market Health Regulation Task Force

Organizer - Farm Aid - Jul. -Sept. 2004

Primary local activities organizer and liaison for Farm Aid 2004. Developed Ten Ways In Ten Days showcase program at Pike Place Market and organized pre-concert reception.

Event Coordinator - Washington State University Foundation - July 2006-present

Primary organizer of WSU @ Benaroya Hall and WSU @ Pike Place Market, events pairing researchers from WSU's College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resource Sciences with the farmers they benefit and with local chefs using the ingredients that they research.

Food & Beverage Coordinator - Seattle Farmer-Chef Connection - Nov. 2007-present

Seattle Chefs Collaborative holds the daylong Farmer-Chef Connection annually to bring together local food producers and buyers. As Food & Beverage Coordinator, I worked with producers and chefs to showcase a wide variety of foods on the event's tasting menus.

Public Relations & Events Coordinator - SeattleMarkets.org - Jul. 2007-present

Producer of weekly Market Fresh Sheet and Chef Demonstration series for a group of farmers markets (Ballard, Wallingford, Queen Anne & Madrona) in Seattle, including weekly website update and production of weekly press release to local media.

Speaking & Consulting

Zach is available to speak to and consult for your organization, group or community on a wide variety of food and agriculture related topics. An expert on farmers markets, he can consult communities wanting to start a new farmers market, improve an existing one, or help a state organize or reorganize a statewide farmers market association. He speaks fluently about innovators and innovations in local food economy, from the nation's first USDA-inspected mobile slaughter unit, in Washington state, to the nation's first regional cheese aging facility, in northeastern Vermont. Zach will inspire and motivate your community to strengthen its own local food system, sharing great ideas your community can easily replicate, providing links to innovators nationwide that will help you accomplish your goals, and giving you a good laugh along the way with wonderful tales of the characters throughout our great country who have pioneered these great ideas.

If you would like Zach to speak or consult, write or organize for you, please go to the Contact Zach page to let him know.

Zach with Ted Quaday, Farm Aid Program Director, and Kathy Ozer, Executive Director of the National Family Farm Coalition, at Farm Aid 2003 in Columbus, Ohio.