Food & Farming Conference Schedule
General Notes:
- Youth Programs will have two rooms on the Mezzanine and differentiated program for younger children and older children/teens.
- Silent auction fundraiser during the conference. Call the office, 218-331-4099, to register your donation in advance. There will not be a live auction this year.
- “Farmer’s Market” at the registration table. Members may bring items (EG: Flour, jelly, honey, etc.) for sale with 20% of the proceeds going to support NPSAS. Call the office to let us know what you plan to bring and to sign up as a volunteer market host.
Thursday Schedule
Preconference workshops:
- “Cultivating Your Legally Resilient Farm: Farm Law 101” – Farm Commons.
- “A Healthy Soil Sponge: essential for all life on land How Farms can Soak up the Rain; Create Resilience to Flooding and Drought; and Improve the Health of Crops, Animals, and People” – Didi Pershouse
Exhibitor Check-in Time: 12:00
5-7:00 PM Taste of Agri-CULTURE Social Hour with appetizers and cash bar (with pool party for children)
Friday Schedule
7-8:00 Breakfast Buffet
8:30: Keynote: “Making Your Hope in Agriculture Today” by Gary Matteson, Senior Vice President, Beginning Farmer Programs and Outreach at Farm Credit Council
10-10:30 Break/Vendor hall
10:30-11:30 Workshop Session 1 (5 concurrent workshop spaces)
11:30-1:30 Lunch Buffet
1:30-2:00 Break/Vendor Hall
2:00-3:00 Workshop Session 2
3-4:00 Break/Vendor Hall
4:00-5:30 Workshop Session 3
5:30 Cash Bar
6:00-7:00 Banquet Dinner
7:30-9:00 “Map of My Kingdom” a play authored by Mary Swander, Iowa Poet Laureate
Who’s going to get the farm? And what are they going to do with it? Will your future plans for your land create harmony or strife for your family? Or have you even started to think that far ahead? Map of My Kingdom, a play commissioned by Practical Farmers of Iowa and written by Iowa’s Poet Laureate Mary Swander, tackles the critical issue of land transition.
Saturday Schedule
7-8:00 Breakfast Buffet
8:30: Keynote: “Developing High-efficiency and Regenerative Agricultural and Food Systems: A Forever Green Agriculture Initiative” by Dr. Don Wyse, Professor and Co-Director of The Center Integrated Natural Resources & Agricultural Management, University of Minnesota
10-10:30 Break/Vendor hall
10:30-11:30 Workshop Session 1
11:30-1:30 Lunch Buffet
12:30-1:30 Annual Meeting
1:30-2:00 Break/Vendor Hall
2:00-3:00 Workshop Session 2
3-4:00 Break/Vendor Hall (Vendors breakdown at 4:30 PM)
4:00 End of Silent Auction
4:00-5:30 Workshop Session 3
5:30 Cash Bar
6:00-8:00 Dinner, Children’s Music & Entertainment
Sunday Schedule
7:00-8:30 Breakfast
9:00-11:00 “Role of Faith Communities in Climate Change discussion/action”