Patricia Foreman

Patricia Foreman is the Founding President of the Gossamer Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to global sustainability and local foods. As Pat says: "We can't have one without the other". www.GossamerFoundation.org.

Pat is the author of the popular paradigm-shifting book: City Chicks: Employing Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers. City Chicks is the primary textbook for the Chickens and You™ Training Series that leads to the Master Backyard Chicken Keeper™ Certification (with a diploma suitable for framing). www.ChickensAndYOU.com.

She is the co-author of:

* Chicken Tractor: The Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Health Soil

* Backyard Market Gardening: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow.

* Day Range Poultry: Every Chicken Owner's Guide to Grazing Gardens and Improving Pastures

* A Tiny Home to Call Your Own: Living Well in Just Right Houses.

Forthcoming books in progress are:

• Way of the Hen: Incubating Eggs and Raising Chicks Naturally—Summer 2014

• Primary Poultry Health Care and The Poultry's Pharmacy— Late Fall 2014

• Garden Chicks: Growing Food With and For People and Chickens—Fall 2015

• Chicken Whispering: Discover the Chicken You Never Knew— Spring 2016 (maybe earlier)

Pat has been widely published in major national magazines including Mother Earth News, Backyard Poultry, BackHome Magazine, and others. She is a very popular guest on local and national radio and TV talk shows, including NPR and CBS. She was the Co-host of the Chicken Whisperer Talk Show for 4 years.

Her many awards include a Fulbright Scholarship, and appointment as a Presidential Executive Management Intern. She served as a Science Officer for the United Nations in Vienna, Austria, and has worked in over 30 countries conducting workshops and providing consulting services. Agencies funding projects she has worked on include the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank, World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization.

Pat has kept poultry for over 25 years. Her experience includes raising chickens not just for eggs, but to specifically build and enrich topsoil for community gardens. She co-owned and operated a small farm raising free range, organic layers, broilers and turkeys. The farm operations included keeping breeder flocks, incubating eggs, brooding baby chicks, finishing birds on pasture, and on-site processing. She formulated their feed rations.

Pat keeps a family flock of heritage chickens to help with the kitchen garden, egg supply, entertainment and as research assistants for future books. Her flocks have been her teachers. As she says: "I'm chicken taught". One might say her chickens granted Pat an honorary PhD—Poultry Honor Degree. Whatever, it's no yolk that she's a genuine Poultry Pioneer.

Pat is the course developer and director for the live 2-day intensive, and online 8-week series of the Chickens and YOU Training Series™ that awards the Backyard Chicken Keeper Certification™. (www.ChickensAndYOU.com). Classes include:

• The Chicken Have-More Plan

• Laying Hens Made Easy

• Brooding & Educating Baby Chicks

• Introduction to Gardening With Chickens

• Composting & Biomass Recycling with Chicken Helpers

• Primary Poultry Health Care

• The Poultry's Pharmacy

• Chicken Whispering: Discover the Chicken You Never Knew!

Other available workshops that award the Master Backyard Chicken Keeper Certification™ are:

• Chickens as Partners Toward Zero Waste

• Way of the Hen: Incubating Eggs and Raising Chicks Naturally

• Animal Control Handling & Management of Chickens

... and about 6 other workshops.

Pat lectures and facilitates workshops across North America on various topics of enabling local food systems and helping communities navigate these transition times with healthy food security and self-sufficiency. She is available for consulting services. Contact her through www.GossamerFoundation.org.