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Climate Change and Farming Week 2025
September 21st – 28th, 2025
Climate Change and Farming Week is an opportunity for farmers, CISA and allied organizations, and individuals to host events that build awareness of and support for local food and farm businesses as they seek solutions to the many challenges of growing food in a warmer, wetter New England.
Climate Change and Farming Week is held annually in September, in conjunction with nationwide Climate Week events and the UN General Assembly meetings in New York. This collaborative event series seeks to celebrate climate resiliency and facilitate stronger and broader relationships between our food system’s stakeholders through learning and adapting together.
*Photo credit: Paul Shoul
List of Events
Big River Chestnuts Farm Tour: Sunday, September 21st, 2:00-5:00pm, 195 River Rd, Sunderland, MA 01375
Join us for a tour of Big River Chestnuts agroforestry farm, cohosted with Sowing Solutions Permaculture. We’ll talk about growing and caring for chestnuts, soil health, alley cropping, grazing sheep under the trees, and the future of a chestnut industry in New England and the Pioneer Valley. We have limited quantities of potted hybrid chestnut trees, and elderberry, hazelnut and black currants. Farm pickup only at our events, or by appointment. No RSVP necessary.
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Climate Grief: Building Understanding & Resilience (Multiple Dates and Locations)
CISA, Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, and University of New Hampshire Extension are partnering to offer two in-person workshops exploring how farmers and others working in food systems are experiencing and coping with climate grief. These trainings will offer an introduction to the notion of climate grief or eco-distress. Participants will be encouraged to explore specific things they have lost to climate change, and identify and share with each other healthy strategies they are currently using to cope with climate-related stress.
BAV Event in Millbrook, NY: Monday, September 22nd, 10:00-1:00pm, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Dutchess County
CISA Event in Sunderland, MA: Tuesday, September 23rd, 5:00-7:00pm, Sunderland Public Library
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Feeding the future — Innovation, equity, and climate resilience in the food system: Wednesday, September 24th, 5:00-9:00pm, Berkshire Dining Commons, UMass Amherst
The UMass Dining Sustainability Team is excited to kick off the fall 2025 semester with a Dining for a Cooler Planet event at Berkshire Dining Commons. The event will feature a special menu from 5–9pm, that will showcase seasonal ingredients from our regional partners. We will also have a panel discussion from 6–7pm in the Berkshire Room. The panel will bring together farmers, advocates, professors, and other food system professionals to share firsthand stories and perspectives on building a more innovative, equitable, and resilient food system.
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Farming in a Changing Environment: Wednesday, September 24th, 4-7:30pm, De Hoek Farm, New Milford, CT
In Northwest Connecticut, the changing climate isn’t an abstract debate; it’s in the fields, the greenhouses, and the creeks that run through them. Farmers here are adjusting planting schedules, managing unpredictable rainfall, and finding new ways to protect soil and water. These adaptations are as much about survival as they are about stewardship. On Wednesday, September 24, the public will have a chance to hear directly from the people on the front lines of these shifts. Berkshire Agricultural Ventures will present its third annual climate-focused forum, hosted this year by The Farmer’s Table and the Northwest Connecticut Land Conservancy at De Hoek Farm in New Milford. After a farm tour will be remarks on statewide perspective on climate and agriculture from Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt, followed by a moderated farmer panel.
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Walking Tour at Barstow’s Longview Farm, Thursday, September 25th, 10:00-11:00am
Click here for more details, no registration necessary
Barstow’s Longview Farm will be offering a free walking farm tour at 10:00am with a focus toward climate. We will visit our anaerobic digester, which converts food waste and cow manure into green energy. Stand in a bunk silo and consider how dairy farms keep land open in our community. Check out the dairy barn and learn how our farm is doing more with less while adapting to hotter summers. We’ll end at the calf barn before returning back to Barstow’s as a group.
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Setting up for Success in a Changing Climate: Equipment and Weed Management in Reduced Tillage Systems – Thursday, September 25, 4:00-6:00pm, Hampshire College Farm, Amherst
Walk the vegetable fields of Hampshire College Farm to look closely at the various living cover trials with white Dutch clover. Engage in conversation with the Hampshire farmers and folks from Momentum Ag to better understand the trial process, the learning goals and take aways about tools, weed management and more when working with reduced tillage systems in a changing climate. This will be a tour with plenty of time for questions and conversation!
Agroforestry Crawl: Three farms in one day! – Friday, September 26, 9:30am – 6:00pm
Join CISA on Friday, September 26th for an all-day Agroforestry Crawl visiting three innovative western MA farms with agroforestry systems on their land. We start out at The Long Game Orchard in Northfield, a 6-acre silvopasture farm with tree crops including chestnuts, American persimmons, Asian pears, Yellowbud hickory, and pawpaws. From there we travel to Firefly Farm in Sunderland, a 25-acre no-till farm with perennial herbs, a no-till veggie area and orchards of heartnuts, hazelnuts and chestnuts. Finally, we hit Carr’s Ciderhouse and Preservation Orchard in Hadley for a look at their apple orchards that are integrated with grazing flocks of sheep and chickens based on the farm and raised in collaboration with Meadowfed Lamb.
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Agriculture and Conservation Education: On-Campus Resources and Food Security, Friday, September 26th, 3:00-5:00, Greenfield Community College
Greenfield Community College has a small but thriving agricultural education program that utilizes on-campus gardens to teach and grow op-produce for the GCC food pantry. Please join program coordinator, Anthony Reiber and Farm and Food Systems student Michael Hannigan to tour the on-campus agriculture education resources and discuss the successes and challenges of the programs.
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Building Fertile Ground: Biochar, Soil Health, and Agroforestry in Action, Saturday, September 27, 10:00am-1:00pm, Big River Chestnuts
Curious about biochar and how it supports soil health and climate resilience? Join us at Big River Chestnuts in South Deerfield to learn about the benefits of this carbon-rich soil amendment. We’ll discuss how biochar is made, how it can enhance soil health and water retention, and what to consider when using it on your farm. We will also discuss how to access funding and other forms of assistance through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
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North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival: Portal to the Future, Saturday, September 27 & Sunday, September 28th, Forster Farm
Now in it’s 27th year, the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival unites the farmers, artists, civic organizations and individuals whose livelihoods are connected to the land and the arts and invites both local residents and those who do not live in the region to experience the richness and resiliency of rural life in western Massachusetts. Resiliency in the face of climate change is an urgent need for rural and urban communities alike, and the festival’s Portal to the Future highlights actions and opportunities for visitors to pitch in to the challenge.
For more information, contact CISA’s Climate Program Coordinator, Stephen Taranto, at stephen@buylocalfood.org or 313.