Contact: Valerie Berton, SARE Communications Specialist
(301) 405-3186
vberton@wam.umd.edu
* For a conference program and registration materials, visit
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/san/10year/
Washington, D.C.-- To mark a decade of progress in advancing sustainable
agriculture practices and principles to farmers and ranchers throughout the
country, USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
program will host a national conference March 5-7 in Austin, Tex.
The conference will bring together researchers, farmers and ranchers,
sustainable agriculture advocates, agricultural extension agents and other
educators in a collaborative learning environment that will feature two
days of concurrent sessions and a daylong farm tour. SARE, which works to
increase knowledge about -- and help farmers and ranchers adopt --
sustainable farming practices and systems, oversees a competitive grants
program that has funded 1,200 projects nationwide since 1988. Forty of
SARE's most innovative projects are detailed in a book to be released at
the conference.
"We are proud of the tremendous strides SARE and its many partners have
made together by researching and testing alternative farming systems using
a participatory approach," says SARE Director Jerry DeWitt. "We want to
take this opportunity to pass on the wealth of knowledge SARE has
accumulated to those who need it most--people who care about agriculture,
the environment, and the continued viability of farm families."
The conference will include poster presentations, an Austin-area farm tour
and viewpoints in three plenary sessions from the following sustainable
agriculture advocates:
* Jim Hightower, radio personality and former two-term Texas Commissioner
of Agriculture
* Frederick Kirschenmann, a 3,100-acre organic grain and livestock grower
in North Dakota
* Margaret Krome, a sustainable agriculture policy advocate at the national
level as well as in her home state of Wisconsin
* Karl Kupers, a wheat grower whose expanded crop rotations led to an
integrated growing system on his 3,000-acre Washington farm
* Lorraine Merrill, a lifelong farmer whose sustainable dairy operation
fronts on a New Hampshire wetland
* Frederick Payton, a University of Georgia professor who works with a
local nonprofit organization to link disenfranchised farm families with new
markets and services
Conference organizers worked with a committee of farmers/ranchers,
university researchers, and representatives from extension and nonprofit
organizations to structure a conference expected to draw some 400-500
people interested in the future of agriculture. Scheduled sessions cover
such topics as: agricultural marketing, on-farm research, animal
agriculture, the changing structure of agriculture, precision agriculture,
and soil quality. Sessions will include various presenters, many of them
farmers and ranchers.
"The information that has been gleaned for this conference should become an
invaluable resource for those of us who work on the ground," says Tom
Guthrie, a Michigan farmer who served on the conference planning committee.
Poster presenters will represent the breadth of projects SARE has funded
since its inception, as well as other efforts in sustainable agriculture
research and education. SARE funds not only are awarded to university
researchers performing research trials but to educators training extension
agents in sustainable ag concepts and farmers and ranchers testing
sustainable agriculture strategies on their properties.
The farm tour on the conference's third day will highlight the
direct-marketing strategies of an Austin vegetable grower, a community
organization's work to improve the quality of life for Austin residents
through agricultural opportunities, a cattle ranch that garnered an award
for range management and a pastured poultry operation.
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