GRAINS WEEK Recap

by Noelle Spence

Hosted by Cascadia Grains, GRAINS WEEK was ‘an interactive online educational event featuring research, information, community sustainability and heath of regional value-added small grain economies for farmers, bakers, brewers, distillers, millers, maltsters, and consumers.’ The Cascadia Grains website highlights their partners and speakers at the conference. You can watch the entirety of GRAINS WEEK on YouTube.

The Cascadia Grains Regional Call featured two GRAINS WEEK talks with Neftali Duran on cultural synergy and Mike Potter, Bill Thorne, and Dreux, Black brewers seeking a new narrative in the craft beer scene.

Duran explained the difference between his coined term cultural synergy and cultural appropriation in his talk, Cultural Synergy and Indigenous Foodways: Corn. Cultural synergy is the blending, exchange, and appreciation of differing cultures, versus appropriation, theft, and, Duran says, colonization.

Black Brew Culture Grains to Glass: A New Narrative in Craft Beer Sourcing featuring Potter, Thorne and Dreux, highlighted the importance of connecting farmers to their market. Métier Brewing Co. and Black Brew Culture work together to grow the community of Black farmers, millers, brewers, maltsters, and consumers. They will be hosting the second Blacktoberfest, bringing over 100 Black-owned businesses to three different cities to celebrate beer and community.