Workshops: Saturday Session III

SATURDAY WORKSHOP SESSION III

Session III | 3:30 to 5 p.m.

3:30 p.m. — Room A ADD FARM-STAYS TO YOUR FARM BUSINESS

Learn about the triumphs and challenges in adding low-infrastructure farm stays through Airbnb, Hipcamp and Harvest Host from these experienced farmers. Kelsey and Kriss will share how hosting has helped broaden their farm’s financial portfolio, build community around the farm, and allowed them to reach consumers with real-time information about sustainable agriculture. Kriss Marion runs a vintage camper farm stay on her diversified small operation in Driftless Wisconsin, splitting her days between farm chores, activism, public service in local government and her day job in communications for Wisconsin Women in Conservation via Wisconsin Farmers Union. Kelsey Love Zaavedra has a degree in Biodynamic Agriculture and Horticulture and is owner of Heirloomista, a five-acre farm in the St. Croix River Valley.

3:30 p.m. — Room G REDUCE LEGAL LIABILITY FOR FOOD CROPS IN AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS

Integrating crop and livestock production offers efficient, effective, and environmentally beneficial food production... but it also creates unique food safety and liability concerns. This workshop will give you clear answers about what we know, what we don’t, and how to move forward through legal uncertainty. We’ll also be highlighting the power of coordinated action to help create certainty in uncertain times. Rachel Armstrong is the founder and Executive Director of Farm Commons.

3:30 p.m. — Room K SEED ENDOPHYTES, RHIZOPHAGY, NUTRIENT DENSITY, NITROGEN EFFICIENCY AND FIXATION IN CORN

Breeding corn for 50 seasons for organic/biodynamic conditions by the Mandaamin Institute has led to plants that partner with seed borne endophytes. These endophytes cause rhizophagy, which helps the plants to obtain nutrients from the soil and lead to grain enriched in minerals and essential amino acids. Trials showed that some nitrogen fixing hybrids from the program respond negatively to direct manuring but positively to systems that build soil organic matter. Conventional corn does not appear to have these relationships. However, given the right parentage, environments, and selection, corn can generate such partnerships that overall results indicate paradigm shifts are needed in how breeders view and work with crops and how farmers fertilize soil and crops. Walter Goldstein works at Mandaamin Institute.

3:30 p.m. — Room B FARM ENTERPRISE FEASIBILITY: WILL THIS NEW BUSINESS IDEA WORK FOR MY FARM?

Deciding whether your farm should add an enterprise often takes more than the proverbial bar napkin sketch...it takes good data organized into a decision-making framework. But how can I pull together reliable information on something I’ve never tried before? Join us to learn about practical tools for market research, industry analysis, and financing that can inform your plan to grow that new crop, raise another livestock species, or go to market with a value-added product. Andy Larson joined Food Finance Institute as Farm Outreach Specialist in January 2021 and works with entrepreneurial farm businesses in Wisconsin to build farm financial management capacity and access the capital they need to grow.

3:30 p.m. — Room C FSMA AND FOOD SAFETY: UPDATES AND STRATEGIES TO PROTECT YOUR FOOD AND FARM

Join this engaging workshop to hear important updates about the FSMA Produce Safety Rule (PSR) and get a deeper understanding of practical, science-based ways to keep your customers safe and comply with any federal or state food safety regulations. Topics covered will apply to all farm sizes, and to those who are new to farming or experienced farmers. In addition, you will receive a template food safety plan on a jump drive and newly updated factsheets and resources. David Abazs and his wife Lise run Round River Farm, an off-the-grid diversified vegetables and fruit farm. Annalisa Hultberg is a statewide Educator in Food Safety at the University of Minnesota Extension.

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3:30 p.m. — Room H MIDWEST AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES, COMMUNITY HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Midwest Healthy Ag is a research project initiated by farmers with Regeneration Midwest. This project looks at ag production systems, at both the level of the individual farm and across whole clusters of counties, and how different farming practices have impacted community health. In this workshop, we will present some initial results from interviews of 94 farmers across six Midwest states as well as analysis of ag and health census data from all 1055 Midwest counties. Carolyn Betz is the project researcher at Midwest Healthy Ag, whose career has spannned 35 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Robert Wallace is the co-director of Midwest Healthy Ag and is an evolutionary epidemiologist based at the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps in St Paul.

3:30 p.m. — Room I THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY: WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT SHOW UP IN YOUR LIFE, WORK & COMMUNITY?

In this workshop, Emily Kawano will share how the solidarity economy shows up in your lives and work. You will explore ways to expand or strengthen engagement in the solidarity economy — and learn why it can be a powerful transformative framework and tool for yourself, your community, our larger society and Mother Earth. Emily Kawano is a founder and co-coordinator of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network and served for 8 years on the Board of RIPESS (the Intercontinental Network for the Social Solidarity Economy). She is the co-director of Wellspring Cooperative, which is developing a network of worker cooperatives in inner city Springfield, Massachusetts.