Young Farmers Shaping the Future of Food. Food Tank, in partnership with Whole Foods Market, will kick off Climate Week NYC 2026 on the evening of Sunday, September 20, by hosting "Putting Farmers First: How Young Farmers Are Shaping the Future of Food." The free event will celebrate the next generation of farmers and food systems leaders who are redefining agriculture through innovation, resilience, and climate leadership. Farmers in the United States are facing a generational challenge. While the number of new and young producers is beginning to rise, farmers overall are getting older: The average age of U.S. producers increased from 56.3 in 2012 to 58.1 in 2022. At the same time, the total number of farms fell by about 7 percent between 2017 and 2022. This makes supporting young and beginning producers increasingly important. New farmers face significant barriers to entering and staying in agriculture, including access to affordable land and capital, housing, health care, production costs, and climate-related risks. "At Whole Foods Market, we believe that investing in the next generation of farmers is one of the most important things we can do - for our food system, for our customers, and for our planet," says Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer at Whole Foods Market and Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores Private Brands & Marketing. "We're proud to partner with Food Tank during Climate Week to put their voices front and center, because when farmers thrive, we all thrive." Sessions will include a young farmer storyteller panel with an immersive video and tasting experience. Panelists will explore what it means to be a farmer today, how to work better with farmers, and how to elevate farmers' voices among those influential in this space. A panel of three consumer packaged goods company CEOs who have signed the pledge to support farmers - Brita Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms, Becca Millstein of Fishwife, and Anna Turrell of Mars Snacking - will also join the stage. The discussion will explore how to humanize the farmer connection for consumers, why supporting farmers is a winning business angle, and the need for greater transparency from food companies. The event will kick off at WNYC-NPR Studios' The Greene Space in New York City at 6:30pm with food, drink, and live musical performances, followed by a reception until 9:40pm. Speakers include Jason Buechel, Vice President, Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores and Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods Market; Amalia Colón-Nava, Farmer and Co-Director, Dirtbaby Farm; Michelle Hughes, Executive Director, National Young Farmers Coalition; Sarah Jones, Jones Farms Organic, Hooper, Colorado; DeVonne Jackson Perez, Brooklyn-based Urban Farmer and Sustainability Educator; Emily Grant, R&S Acres, diversified/livestock farmer, Genesee County; Caitlin Liebert, Head of Sustainability, Worldwide Grocery, Whole Foods Market; Brita Lundberg, Fourth-Generation Farmer, Lundberg Family Farms; Becca Millstein, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fishwife; Danielle Nierenberg, President, Food Tank; Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer, Whole Foods Market and Vice President, Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores Private Brands & Marketing; and Anna Turrell, Global Chief Sustainability Officer, Mars Snacking. "Putting Farmers First: How Young Farmers Are Shaping the Future of Food" will feature a special musical performance by Tristen Buettel, Broadway actor, singer, and dancer currently appearing in Just in Time, where she covers Connie Francis and Sandra Dee, following roles in BOOP! The Musical, Bad Cinderella, and Jersey Boys. She will be joined by Cullen Curth, New York City-based pianist, music director, and conductor who recently made his Broadway conducting debut with Just in Time. This summit will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank's YouTube Channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank's full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2026. Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can Foodtank please count on you to be part of its growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Collierville company bands with Whole Foods to donate supplies to hundreds of schools. By Noah McLane, Daily Memphian Published: September 17, 2026 6:08 PM CT Collierville-based Tower Garden is partnering with Whole Foods to donate its aeroponic gardening systems to schools nationwide. The donation is part of the Whole Food Market Foundation's Garden Grant program, which has made 750 grants worth more than $2.6 million to schools to start or expand edible learning spaces. Topics. Thank you for reading The Daily Memphian. Your support is critical. Did you know we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit news organization? We rely on a mix of revenue from subscriptions (50%), advertising, events and other earned income (25%) and fundraising (25%). Please consider making a fully tax-deductible donation or other contribution to The Daily Memphian today. Your subscription pays for you to read all our journalism. Your donation powers the work we do to reach everyone else with the news. We believe an informed Memphis is a better Memphis. If you agree, join our growing list of donors now. Noah McLane Noah McLane reports on business for The Daily Memphian. He was born and raised in Tennessee and attended journalism school at Middle Tennessee State University, where his passion for community-focused storytelling blossomed. Prior to writing for the business section, Noah was the editor-in-chief of his college newspaper, worked on general assignment for the Jackson Hole News & Guide in Jackson, Wyoming, and was most recently the statehouse reporter for The Daily Memphian. Want to comment on our stories? If you're a subscriber, scroll down to the comments. If you're not a subscriber, only paid subscribers can add their thoughts, so subscribe now. Our commenting policy can be viewed here.

Oceanside's old BurgerFi corner has a fourth act: tapas and Cocktails from Barena. by Long Island Wave · September 15, 2026 The corner of Long Beach Road that has cycled through burgers, charcoal chicken and Dominican home cooking is about to try something more ambitious. A new application landed in the New York State Liquor Authority's files this week for Barena Kitchen and Cocktails at 3115 Long Beach Road in Oceanside, a restaurant license filed under a corporation of the same name. The paperwork gives the corner its fourth act since 2020, and the first one built around a cocktail list. What Barena is planning. Barena is not hiding the concept. The restaurant's own site describes a modern dining room where Mediterranean cooking meets Latin flavor, organized around plates meant for the center of the table. The menu preview reads like a tour of the Peruvian-Mediterranean borderlands: a mixed ceviche in aji amarillo tiger's milk with sweet potato puree and crispy calamari, grilled octopus with caponata, fried capers and mojo, slow-braised short rib empanadas with chimichurri, and a passionfruit tuna tiradito with avocado mousse. On Instagram, where the restaurant has been posting under the Barena Kitchen and Cocktails name, the pitch is a tapas fusion spot, and a September 1 post described a room where the lighting and every corner had been designed for atmosphere, with the kitchen nearly ready. The site lists reservations as coming soon and pitches the space for private events. No opening date has been announced. The paper trail. The business has been quietly assembling itself all summer. Barena Kitchen and Cocktails Corp. was formed with the New York Department of State on June 15, with Esteban Escobar named to receive legal papers at the Long Beach Road address. The liquor application, for a full restaurant license in Nassau County, was logged by the State Liquor Authority on September 14 with its intake marked complete. That is the filing that usually signals a build-out is real: it names the premises, and it is the last major piece of paperwork between a finished dining room and a first pour. A restaurant license of the type Barena applied for is the full package: beer, wine and spirits served on premises, which is what separates a cocktail bar from a kitchen that happens to have a wine list. Nothing about the filing is exotic on its own. What makes it worth noticing is that it is the first sign, in any public record, that the long-quiet corner at 3115 Long Beach Road is coming back to life. A corner with history. The address will be familiar to anyone who drives Long Beach Road. State license records show a BurgerFi operated there on a license issued in early 2020, which ran out in 2022. Chimichurri Charcoal Chicken took the corner next, licensed at the start of 2023. Lucas Dominican Spot followed with a license issued in June 2024, and that license lapsed at the end of this past May, leaving the corner dark on the state's books ever since. Three concepts in six years is a hard record, and Barena is answering it with the most built-out concept yet: a designed room, a chef-driven menu and a bar program rather than a counter. Oceanside is having a moment. The bet makes more sense in context. Oceanside's main commercial strips have been filling in fast this year. Whole Foods is taking over the shuttered Amazon Fresh on Long Beach Road. Taty's Tacos and Margaritas opens September 16 on the old Me'Lore corner. A new Haagen-Dazs opened at the Sands this summer, and a burrito shop that started in West Islip signed an Oceanside lease as part of a three-town expansion. A tapas and cocktails room joining that list suggests operators now see the hamlet as a place people will stay for dinner rather than drive through on the way to Long Beach. What to watch. Two things will tell you when Barena is close. The first is the license itself moving from pending to issued in the state's records, which typically comes weeks to a few months after intake. The second is the reservation book opening on the restaurant's site, which currently promises updates through its Instagram. For a corner that has spent six years searching for the right idea, the interesting question is no longer what is coming, but whether Oceanside shows up for tiger's milk and tiraditos the way it has been showing up for everything else lately.