Panel discusses efforts to keep farms from becoming fables in Idaho
Steve Lombard // Idaho Business Review // May 23, 2025
“Smart planning and taking the initiative to get involved led Meridian resident Kristen Pooley to attend the session. A social worker by trade, she shared her strong feelings about the important role community discussions play when it comes to the topic of developing local farmland.
“These kinds of conversations are how we become better through coalition building, Pooley said. “We all have to try to connect to the community builders. HMK is doing that. It all resonated with me tonight.””
The Future of Food is at Stake
Tuesday, May 6
5:30-7:30pm
Inspiration Ally
Downtown Boise
217 S 11th St.
Boise, ID 83702
For years, the phrase farm to table has symbolized a transparent and sustainable connection between food producers and consumers. But as the landscape of agriculture shifts under mounting pressures—climate events, corporate consolidation, labor shortages, and the limitations of small-scale farming—the idyllic farm-to-table story is at risk of becoming more fable than fact.
Across the country, aging farmers are struggling to keep their land, young growers are unable to break into the industry, and consumers are left wondering where their food truly comes from. Meanwhile, large-scale agribusiness and global trade policies are reshaping the future of food in ways we can no longer afford to ignore.
So, what does this mean for the farms, food systems, and sustainability efforts we’ve come to depend on? Join us as we separate fact from fiction, challenge the status quo, and plant the seeds for a more sustainable and just food future. Because when it comes to the future of farming, everything is at stake.
Meet Our Panelists
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As the fourth-generation owner of Grasmick Produce, Angela operates in the critical but often invisible layer of food distribution. As a fresh produce provider for restaurants, schools, hospitals, government institutions, and grocery stores across the states of Idaho and Montana, her insight reveals how logistics, liability, and regulation quietly shape what ends up on our plates. Over the last seventy years, Angela’s family has fostered strong partnerships with local growers and has been a leader in bringing safe, high-quality produce to customers across the Northwest. Prior to joining Grasmick Produce, Angela was a partner at the law firm of Givens Pursley where she advised clients on a broad range of legal and regulatory matters.
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Tim Sommer, of Purple Sage Farms, is a third generation Idaho farmer and rancher. He spent a short time living in California, with his young family, and was exposed to the early organic movement of the 1980s—that’s when he and his wife, Tamara Sloviaczek, figured out a way to return to their hometown and continue the farming tradition of their families. He would start an organic farm and meet a niche need for specialty produce in Idaho, avoiding the “go big or get out” trap that most farms were forced into.
In 1989, he worked with the Idaho Legislature, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, and other Idaho farmers to establish the Idaho Organic Certification program. Today more than 330 farms are certified organic in the state.
Now in its 37th year, Purple Sage Farms grows more than 250 varieties of organic herbs, greens, vegetables, and edible flowers and sells to local restaurants, grocers, food distributors, and direct to eaters at the Boise Farmers Market.
Farming organically transformed Tim from a farmer focused on a business niche into an advocate for organic and regenerative farming practices like composting, crop rotation, cover crops and minimizing tillage to build healthy soils. He also continues to advocate for a diverse, healthy, and flavorful foodshed that serves Idaho communities across cultures and incomes.
As board president of the Boise Farmers Market he speaks out strongly and frequently that buying and eating locally grown food matters for keeping farm and ranch land in place. Local agriculture sustains healthy communities in Idaho, rural and urban.
Tim has received numerous awards for his advocacy and farming practices including the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides Rachel Carson Award for Healthy Food and Farms, The Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in Agriculture Marketing Innovation, The Western Idaho Fair Farm Family of the Day Award, and the Idaho Growers’ Own Conference Steward of Sustainable Agriculture Award.
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With a career that began in federal compliance and budgeting in the natural gas industry, Debbie Davis brings a seasoned, cross-sector perspective to the conversation around farmland development. Now a licensed Idaho Realtor with over a decade of experience—and a small business owner for more than 25 years—Debbie has become a leading advocate for rural communities and agricultural preservation.
She is the co-founder of Rural Community Advocates, a nonprofit working to protect Idaho’s local agricultural economy from incompatible large-scale developments, and the founder of the Melba Chamber of Commerce, created to support visionary leadership and collaboration among rural businesses. As an advisory board member for Fare Idaho, Debbie offers a vital voice at the intersection of land use, food systems, and rural resilience.
As massive development projects, urban expansion, and shifting land values threaten the future of farming, Debbie’s insight highlights that protecting agriculture isn't just about crops—it’s about contracts, zoning, and who gets to decide the future of our food-producing landscapes.