2005 Midwest Small Farm Conference

Yesterday we wandered out to Greencastle to attend the Midwest Small Farm Conference. The conference is produced by Sustainable Earth, a not-for-profit established by Steve Bonney that promotes sustainable agriculture and education in its value.

There were eight sessions on two tracks. I sat in on "Finding Your Niche in Small Farm Agriculture" presented by Greencastle "pastured poultry" farmer David Harris, "Guerrila Marketing" with David Robb of Indianapolis, "Femmes in the Furrows" co-presented by Janet Feavel of Hillsboro and Valerie Metzger of Logansport, and "Building Our Sustainable Community", a discussion moderated by Rich Molini that allowed attendees to begin planning for a more effective communications sceme for proponents of sustainable agriculture.

We met many people who are growing safe food and marketing it without the aid of sophisticated advertising, and mostly close to home. I hope we can put many of the sustainable farming ideas we picked up into use at Raccoon Creek, both for growing and later for marketing. In addition to nice people and good ideas, we brought back numerous flyers, articles and documents that will come in handy.

I recommend the conference for anyone who wants healthier food to be available to everyone.