Octavia Butler is the author of eleven novels, including Kindred, Dawn, and Parable of the Sower, and one collection of short fiction, Bloodchild. Butler is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, a lifetime achievement award in writing from PEN, and numerous other literary awards.

An independent writer, teacher, poet, lecturer, and consultant, Akasha Gloria Hull has been a professor of women's studies and literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Delaware, and the University of the West Indies-Mona in Kingston, Jamaica. She holds B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees and also a honorary Doctor of Letters, awarded by Purdue University in 1992 "for pioneering work in the field of black feminist studies that has empowered others to hear and appreciate diverse voices." She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright, Rockefeller, Mellon and Ford Foundations, the American Association of University Women, and the National Humanities Center.

Her book, All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies (co-edited), garnered the National Institute's Women of Color Award. She is also the author of Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson; Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance; and Healing Heart: Poems. Her latest book, Soul Talk: The New Spirituality of African-American Women (Inner Traditions, 2001) was praised in Publishers Weekly as "powerful, practical and nourishing gumbo . . . of the heart and spirit." She is currently completing the first novel of a projected trilogy set in the contemporary United States, the slavery South, and the 23rd century future.

Rebecca Solnit is an essayist, historian, and activist whose work focuses on issues of environment, landscape, and place. Her books include Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West, A Book of Migrations: Some Passages in Ireland, Wanderlust: A History of Walking, Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism, As Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape, Gender, and Art, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism and the Mark Lynton History Prize, and Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities.

David L. Ulin is a book critic for the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith, and the editor of Another City: Writing from Los Angeles and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, LA Weekly, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." His most recent book, The Lost Art of Reading, is due out this fall.

Internationally acclaimed landscape planner and president of Mia Lehrer + Associates, Mia Lehrer, FASLA, has conducted extensive research on urban agriculture. Her "Farm on Wheels" program was the winning design for the\"redesign your farmer's market\" contest, which invited entrants to articulate and render their vision for the next generation of farmers'markets and how they will serve the community. Sponsored by GOOD magazine, The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, CO Architects, The Los Angeles Good Food Network, and The Architect's Newspaper. http://www.mlagreen.com/

Mud Baron operates a seven-acre farm on the campus of North Hollywood High School, which serves as a nursery for the rest of LAUSD. It also maintains some 500 gardens across the LAUSD at varying levels of production. http://www.mudbaron.com/

Glen Dake, LA Community Garden Council - The LA Community Garden Council's mission as a non-profit is to connect people with community garden space in their neighborhood. Approximately 70 community gardens are growing in Los Angeles County, serving 3,900 families. http://www.glendake.com/ http://www.lagardencouncil.org/

Robert Gottlieb is the director for the Center for Food and Justice of Occidental College. Most recently, a $2.34 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has allowed the CFJ to establish and coordinate - in collaboration with the Community Food Security Coalition - the National Farm to School Network. The effort links local farmers with school cafeterias across the country, improving student nutrition while giving small farmers access to a multi-billion dollar market.

Paula Daniels serves on the Food Policy Task Force, City of LA, and is a commissioner for the L.A. Board of Public Works. Formed by Mayor Villaraigosa, this task force will provide a report and recommendations over a six month period on city food policy and a foodshed assessment. The task force will conduct research on a number of topics, including food access and transportation, sustainable agriculture and pesticide use, nutrition education programs, and urban/rural community relationships.