Healthy Farms , Communities Focus At 11th PASA Conference STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) More farmers use more land in more healthy ways to build stronger communities. These will be the topics featured at the 11th annual Farming for the Fu ture Conference Feb. 8-9 in State College. “Healthy Farms, Healthy Commu nities; Our Link to a Sustainable Fu ture” is sponsored by the Pennsylva nia Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. PASA members and guests will gather “for the sake of our farmers, our food system, our corrtmunities and our world,” according to the in vitation of Brian Snyder, PASA exec utive director. Fully 14 of the week end’s 48 workshops relate to some aspect of health from human nu trition to compost-enriched soil to farms that heal communities. A second strong emphasis will be farm economics, featuring a series ti tled “The Farmers’ Own School of Family Farm Economics.” Using the same budget forms, six vegetable and livestock farmers will share their per sonal farm financial figures to track what works and what doesn’t, and how to use careful record keep ing to know the difference. Other workshops, which will be held during five different time slots, will cover direct marketing, pasture- PASA Conference Workshops Related To Grazing Sustainable Graziers Alert! Dairy, Beef, Poultry Topics Await At PASA Pasture-based dairy, beef, and poultry operations will be fea tured in the 11th annual Farming for the Future Conference Feb. 8-9 in State College. “Healthy Farms, Healthy Communities: Our Link to a Sus tainable Future” is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). Location is the Penn Stater Con ference Center Hotel. Pasture workshops include: • After 16 Years of Grazing: Keeping It Simple Works the Best. Art Thicke, Enchanted Meadows Farm, Minn. This vet eran grazier will give an overview of his 16 years in dairy grazing, stressing simplicity, diversity, longer rest periods for pastures and outwintering cattle. He will also talk about the importance of finding balance between profita bility, lifestyle, and protecting the environment. He milks 85 Ayr shire cattle. • Not Just Chicken Scratch -100 to 10,000 in Four Years. Ron and Sheila Hamilton, Armena, Alberta, will explain in two work shops how they went from pro ducing 100 to 12,000 birds on pasture in four years. They will describe the basics of raising chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and laying hens. Topics covered will include brooding, pasture raising, processing, health prob lems, weather concerns, feed pro grams and marketing, from far gate to white-tablecloth restau rants. • Biodynamic, Pastured Beef: A Doctor’s Comparison. Dr. John Foster, associate director of the Integrative Medical Center of the Thomas Jefferson Medical Center in Philadelphia. Dr. Fos ter operates a 325-acre biody namic cattle farm in Chester County. He will make a nutri tional comparison between the meat from his farm and commer cial beef. • Establishing and Managing Diverse Pasture Mixes. Matt Sanderson, USDA Ag Research, State College. Results on best mixes, best species to establish, and animal preference by species gleaned from research through out the northeast U.S., including locations on Pennsylvania farms. • Sustainable Pastures and Warm-Season Grasses. Jose Ta racido, University of California of Pennsylvania. Focus on how grasses with higher production in mid-summer can even out graz ing capacity. These grass species based production and sales, niche en terprises (fiber animals, farm B&B, microdairies), timber management for wood harvest, and reforming the agricultural economy and land-grant ag education. Keynote speaker Dr. John Ikerd will kick-off the weekend with his re freshingly unconventional message. After serving 30 years as an agricul tural economist with the Cooperative Extension Service in four states, he came to a radical conclusion from the farm crises of the 1980 s. “I started to understand that a focus on the bottom line eventually destroyed the viability of the farm environ mental resources and the farm fami ly, and led to bankruptcy.” Retired now from the University of Missouri, he speaks extensively to farm groups and even urban audi ences that want to understand how to build a better “food system” the complex mix of producers, consum ers and distributors who interact through economics, community val ues, and political policy. Rather than production-oriented efficiency, Ikerd believes the best opportunities for farming now lie in knowing a partic ular piece of land well and develop ing resilient relationships with a par ticular customer base. When a farmer finds how to express personal and farm uniqueness in the market place, it will be hard for corporate agriculture to duplicate, he said. also provide good forage produc tion on low-fertility, high-acidity soils and create excellent wildlife habitat in farm settings. • Farmer-to-Farmer Learning Circle: Dairy Grazing. Free wheeling discussion for advanced practitioners. Glenn Moyer, of the well known Cove Mountain Farm, Mercersburg, will be one of sever al presenters in the “The Farm ers’ Own School of Family Farm Economics: Family Livestock and Dairy Farmers Reveal Their An nual Finances.” Grass-based beef, pastured poultry, and or Registration IWho will be attending? # Please list yourself and all members in your party who be be attending Spouse Student/Youth Farm, Company (os you would like it to appear on name tog) Address County Are you fanning? □ YES □NO Daytime Phone ( ) E mad 2 RASA Membership £ Join PASA today and save on conference registration fees! You are invited to become a member of PASA With your support we can restore a vital agriculture and create a thriving and economically viable farm mg system Benefits of membership include a subscription to the quarterly newsletter a Membership Directory for networking communication, access to PASA databases voting privileges discounted admission to the Farming for the Future Conference, invitations to special events and more' Your tax deductible membership contribution will help create a brighter future for Pennsylvania farms and farmers We all have a stake in making sure agncul ture has a healthy future please take this opportunity to join PASA now' To join PASA or renew your membership complete below Are you a currently member of PASA’ □ YES DNO // Yfs w hot »s the expiration date on mailing label Under what name would you like your PASA membership recorded Select one membership category □ individual/Fanuly/Farm $35 By shifting to diverse enterprises that use more manage ment-intensive systems to enhance biological cycles, farmers find profit areas not offered in commodity pro duction. He is a student of farmers who make these kinds of changes, and sees an expanding field of oppor tunity. “We have less than 2 percent of our population in production agri culture, and only about 1 percent are fully employed at it. What would be wrong with having 4 percent of the population farming for a living?” he asks. For more of his thoughts, check http://hometown.aoi.com/jeikerd. Offering the closing keynote at 3 p.m. Saturday will be Cathrine Sneed, founder of The Garden Proj ect in San Francisco. A former law student, she now heads a comprehen sive effort to give former inmates the personal values, job skills and com munity support to become positive contributors to society. She started with a jail garden in 1982 that many men enjoyed, then followed with the Garden Project a decade later. By adding reading and math, counseling and a supportive environment to hor ticultural excellence, the project gives the former prisoners enough advan tages that more than 75 percent do not return to jail. The Sustainable Trade Show and Marketplace will fill the center’s ex hibit area with companies offering the latest agricultural hardware, ag ganic dairy producers will also use a common spreadsheet style to present their farm’s actual eco nomic data, providing unusual insights into budgetary details. Q State ZIP- □ Student □ Nonprofit Organization $5O □ Business Q Sustaining Lifetime products and services. Farm and food advocacy organizations will ex hibit their efforts to build new mar kets and educate consumers. As a convenience, vendors selling farm fresh and ag products will be group ed together. Three of the conference meals will feature sustainably, organ ically, and regionally raised foods. For details, contact PASA, 114 West Main St., P.O. Box 419, Mill heim, PA 16854-0419, (814) 349-9856, fax (814) 349-9840, in fo@pasafarming.org. Complete de- PASA Conference Workshops Related To Marketing Five workshops will address mar keting formats to increase profitabili • B&B, Cabin, Home-Stay: How to Bring Paying Guests to Your Farm. Sharon Kazary, Blackberry Ridge Farm, Md. is a former innkeeper who currently runs a vacation cottage on her farm. Introducing tourists to farming can be profitable as well as socially beneficial as it introduces guests to an agricultural lifestyle and farm values. Kazary will describe how to set up and operate a home stay, cottage, or B&B on the farm. She has 11 years’ experience in the tourism industry. • Intro to Pricing for Direct Mar keting. John Berry, Penn State Ex tension, Lehigh County, regional marketing specialist; Ed Herrmann, Penn State Extension, sustainable ag specialist. This lively workshop will explore how to set prices for profita bility in your target market. Berry spent 20 years on a Pennsylvania dairy and forestry-products farm be fore obtaining his MBA. He focuses on whole-farm oriented risk manage ment and agricultural retailing. Her mann brings years of market-farm ing and market development to his extension role. • Planning Strategies for Success ful Producer Co-Ops. Dick Poor baugh, Penn State Cooperative Ex tension, business education and research. How farmers can benefit from pooling production, and how to manage farmer-based co-op endeav ors. 3 Conference Fees * TWO DAY REGISTRATION Members Early Bird Members' Member Spouse Non members Early Bird Nonmembers* (® 1150 Nonmember Spouse je Student Student Youth Prot For forty Bud discount registration must be post marked by January i J 2002 ONE DAY REGISTRATION D Friday Q Saturday Indicate day Members Nonmembers College Student Student Youth Program 4 Conference Meals * Please preregister to guarantee alt meals you plan to eof at the Conference Friday Irown Bag Lunch Friday Evening Awards Banquet Vegetarian Special Kids Banquet Meal Saturday Lunch Vegetarian Kids Lunch (Youth 12 & under) Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 26,2002-A29 tails and online registration are at www.pasafarming.org. Sponsors for the PASA Conference include Fertrell Company, Eberly Poultry Farms, Tuscarora Organic Growers, Pennsylvania Certified Or ganic, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Penn State University, College of Agricul ture, Pennsylvania Dept, of Agricul ture, and Rodale Institute. • Intro to E-Commerce. Ed Herr mann, Penn State Extension, Leba non County, sustainable ag specialist. E-business connects small- to medi um-sized businesses to the Internet, electronic commerce, and global trade. This seminar will introduce farm marketers to how e-commerce can dramatically increase access to resources and expand marketing op portunities. • Appealing to and Selling to the Urban Consumer. Rochelle Kelvin, Appalachian Natural, Md.; Virginia Phillips, Slow Food Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Bill Fuller, Big Burrito Group, Pittsburgh, Pa. Rochelle Kelvin has spent the past 10 years developing market-based initiatives to increase support for sustainably produced foods. She provides cost-shared sales representation to growers and manu facturers of organic and sustainably produced processed foods. Phillips is a former editor and cur rent freelance food and travel writer from Mt. Lebanon. She co-founded Slow Food Pittsburgh to support bio diversity, sustainability, and preser vation of agricultural and culinary heritage. Chef Fuller has been corporate chef at the Soba Lounge since 1997. He holds a master’s degree in chem istry and has 17 years’ experience in the restaurant trade. A “Chef of the Year” winner (Pittsburgh Magazine), Fuller dedicates time to developing relationships with individual farmers and the Penn’s Corner Farm Alli ance of PASA’s Community Farm Initiative-West. 5 Youth Program * Please list the name and age of each child attending the program m the field below Parents will be contacted with more program details and fat chaperoning hours ® 195 @ 185 g> 165 @ 1160 ® 1110 Contributions (s' 150 ® UO Yes 1 would like to be a Fnend of the Conference (?■ 1100 @ 130 Yes 1 would like to contnbute to the Anas Brownback Memorial Scholarship Fund 7 Payment * Add membership dues (Section 2) and subtotals from Sections 3 4 and 6 & 160 ® $95 PASA Membership fe $3O Two Day Registration <• $25 One Day Registration fci $2O Conference Meals Contributions 1~1 Check Hake check payable to PASA and return with thn form Q VISA Complete below □ Master Card Complete below l p 4i on Djlr (S' $l9 & $l9 SignaCuie (S $lO $lO Mail this form to: PASA Farming for the Future Conference PC Box 419 MrKheim PA 16854 0419