2023 Conference: A TIME TO GROW

Since 1999, Future Harvest has gathered leaders in regional agriculture for our annual winter conference where farmers come together for expert-led sessions, networking, business and crop planning, trend forecasting, and more. Our 24th annual conference took place January 12th – 14th, 2023 in College Park, Maryland.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE: January 12 – 14, 2023

  • Two main conference days with seven tracks and more than 30 sessions for advanced and beginning farmers, agtivists and educators
  • One pre-conference day with intensive half- and full- day sessions including: farm record keeping, beginner farmer training program orientation, and more.
  • Trade show and networking inside the event with engaging one-on-one opportunities with service providers, sponsors, and business coaches
  • Facilitated farmer-to-farmer meetups
  • Locally-sourced Friday lunch featuring Farmer of the Foodshed awards
  • Seed, book, and gear swaps
  • Exclusive, invite-only screening of Rhythms of the Land 
  • Membership meeting
     

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12TH

8:00 am – 6:00 pmRegistration Open & Exhibitor Set-up
9:00 am – 12:00 pmPre-conference: Grant Writing for Farmers
Pre-conference: Record Keeping with Air Table
10:00 am – 4:00 pmPre-conference: How to Make & Sell Value-Added Products in Maryland
2:00 pm – 5:00 pmPre-conference: Hot Topics for Experienced Market Farmers
Pre-conference: An Afternoon in the Herbalist’s Workshop with Ayo Ngozi

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13TH

8:00 am – 6:00 pmRegistration Open & Exhibits
9:00 am – 10:30 am

Opening Keynote: RHYTHMS OF THE LAND: HONORING OUR PAST TO GROW A STRONGER FUTURE
Dr. Gail Myers, Farms to Grow, Inc
With Remarks from Dr. Jewel Bronaugh, Deputy Secretary of the USDA

11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Session I
Land Access Strategies and Opportunities: Farm Incubator Case Study
Financial Issues for Farmers in the Pandemic Era & Beyond
Organic Transition: What You Need to Know
Connecting and Amplifying Farmer Voices
Minimizing Drug Use in Small Ruminants
Herbs for Farms and Farmers: Caring for Yourself and Your Land with Herbs
Purposeful Cover Cropping

12:00 pm – 1:15 pmLunch
1:00 pm – 2:00 pmAwards Followed By Memorial
2:30 pm – 3:30 pmSession II
Navigating Your Resources Within Government Programs
Happy Campers
Cut Flowers by the Numbers: Pricing, Sales, and Marketing
Sowing Seeds with Our Youth
Ecology and Economy: Developing a Self-sufficient Farm Organism
Value-Added Dairy & What We Learned Along the Whey!
Final Year of Organic Grain Transition: Impacts on Soil Health and Crop Productivity
4:00 pm – 5:00 pmSession III
Farmer-to-Farmer Chats
Black Farmer Caucus
Indigenous Farmers Caucus
LGBTQAI2S+ Farmer Caucus
Jewish Farmer Caucus
Veteran Farmer Caucus
Veggie Farmers Chat
Managing Mental Health and Stress on the Farm
What to Expect in the Next Farm Bill
Maryland Agriculture Climate Vulnerability Assessment: A Listening Session
White Ally to Accomplice Caucus
5:15 pm – 6:45 pmPrivate Film Screening Rhythms of the Land
Q&A Session


SATURDAY, JANUARY 14th

8:00 am – 4:00 pmRegistration Open & Exhibits
8:00 am – 9:15 am24th Annual Membership Meeting
9:30 am – 10:30 amSession IV
Why Should Urban, Small-scale and BIPGM Farmers Care About Food Safety
AgriSolar: Simultaneously Using land for Agriculture and Solar Production

Integrated Pest Management Review
Narrative Justice: Spoons & Stories
Navigating Regulations for Value-Added Products & Direct Farm Marketing
Greener Pastures: Tips for Managing Your Pastures & Hay Fields

Interpreting Soil Tests for Established Growers
11:00 am – 12:00 pmSession V
Africulture: Eating for Your Ethnic Type
Conflict Resolution for Farm Leadership

Soil and Plant Sensor-based Irrigation Management
Urban Farming, Thriveability & Farmtography
Agroforestry: How to Manage Forest-Based Pastureland
More Profits From Your Meats
Managing Biochar for Soil Health and Carbon
12:00 pm – 1:15 pmLunch
1:15 pm – 2:30 pmSaturday Keynote: Resilient Farmer Panel
Stories From the Field
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Session VI
Transitioning From a Homestead Gardener to a Market Farmer
The Road to Land Ownership: Challenges and Opportunities
Leveraging Technology to Support Resilient Local Food Systems
Urban Farming: Getting Realistic About How to Make it Work
Deciding to Verify or Certify? E.O.V. and Real Organic

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Regenerative Agriculture on a Global Scale for People and the Planet
Dr. Rattan Lal (Virtual Address)

How can regenerative agriculture be adapted to produce enough food, mitigate climate change, and advance the sustainable development goals of the United Nations on a global scale? Rattan Lal, Ph.D. has dedicated his career to exploring this question. The answer is truly from the ground up. Because there is no one-size-fits all practice for diverse soils, ecoregions, and communities, this urgent work must be done collaboratively and creatively starting at the local level. 

Dr. Lal is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and is the founding Director of the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration at The Ohio State University. He received the  2020 World Food Prize for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that restores and conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change.

Daniel Firth Griffith

Rhythms of the Land: Honoring our Past to Grow a Stronger Future
Dr. Gail Myers, Farms to Grow, Inc

As an expert in the anthropology of African American farming and co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc., Gail Myers, P.h.D, has made it her life’s work to both honor the past generations of Black farmers in the US while also uplifting and supporting today’s sustainable small producers. Her most recent project has been to launch the film Rhythms of the Land, a valentine to generations of Black farmers in the United States from the enslavement period to the present, whose intense love of the land and dedication to community enabled them to survive against overwhelming odds. A private screening of the film will be hosted Friday evening at the conference.

RESILIENT FARMER PANEL: STORIES FROM THE FIELD

FARMER CHIPPY (RICHARD FRANCIS)
Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm

Daniel Firth Griffith

DANIEL FIRTH GRIFFITH
Timshel Wildland & Robinia Institute

ANN SUTTON (FARMER GALE)
Deep Roots Farm

This keynote centers a panel of resilient and passionate farmers and ranchers in our region who are dedicated to sustainable, organic, and regenerative agriculture. Ann Sutton, aka Farmer Gale, will share about her years farming a small diversified operation, along with wisdom on what it takes to make purchasing land a reality. Daniel Firth Griffith will share about Timshel Wildland, a rewilding project that he and his family have created to nurture peace, grass-fed and finished beef and lamb, heritage hogs, a multiplicity of wild and chaotic gardens. Finally farmer Chippy will share about Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm (PPHUF), an urban farm and an AgriHood in Baltimore that spreads love, supports the community, and brings healthy food to the city. 

Thursday Pre-Conference Sessions

  • Grant Writing for Farmers Thursday 1/12, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. This session is designed for farmers with little-to-no grant writing experience, although the hands-on activities in the second half of the program will be helpful for farmers at any level. It will include an introduction to grants at the local and federal level, overview of the grant submission process, and tips on how to tailor your pitch. We will spend significant time with hands-on activities including a review of two sample request for proposals (RFP), individual pitches in response to those RFPs, and a mock review panel to evaluate and rank sample proposals. You will walk away from this session with a solid foundation to get the money you need! (Caroline Selle & Ben Shorofsky, Stepwell Strategies) $60.00
  • Record Keeping with AirTable Thursday 1/12, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm. If you want to upgrade from Excel, or are still searching for a no to low cost record keeping option for your farm, join us to check out how you could be using AirTable. The platform wasn’t built specifically for farmers, but it sure has all the features they might need. Farmer Jared Planz has carefully built it out to make everything from tracking and entering yields, inputs, plantings, and labor hours year to year a lot easier, whether from a computer or a phone. Amazingly, he did the bulk of this on a free subscription. Join Jared as he gives you the information you need to see if it’s right for you, and to help you build the record keeping system you need for your operation. (Jared Planz, Clagett Farm) $40.00
  • How to make and sell value-added food products in Maryland Thursday 1/12, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Do you grow perishable produce that you want to turn into shelf-stable food products? Do you dream of starting a home-based food business? Join food safety, marketing, and business planning experts and learn everything you need to understand in order to successfully launch a value-added food product in Maryland. (Neith Little, Shannon Dill, & Dr. Shauna Henley, University of Maryland Extension) $35.00
  • Hot Topics for Experienced Market Farmers Thursday 1/12, 2:00 – 5:00 pm. Join this carefully facilitated group discussion on several hot topics that you, as an experienced market farmer in this region, are facing. We know that once folks get past the foundational stages of their farms, different problems and opportunities come to the fore. Let’s dig into those. Topics we will surely visit include: labor, work/life balance, and current market forces. This is a peer-to-peer learning opportunity for those in the business of market farming who have five or more years experience under their belts. (Ellen Polishuk, Plant to Profit) $60.00
  • An Afternoon in the Herbalist’s Workshop with Ayo Ngozi Thursday 1/12, 2:00 – 5:00 pm. Join artist and herbalist Ayo Ngozi to reconnect with sacred plant materials. During this afternoon session, Ayo will guide you in making your own incense and herbal wands, and in exploring basketry. Come ready and open to work with your hands, release your creativity, and have some fun. (Ayo Ngozi, The Creative Root) $60.00 

 

Daniel Firth Griffith

CLICK HERE to book your stay at The Hotel at UMD today!

Group Rate; $139 per night for king or standard queen/queen

THANK YOU TO OUR 2023 CONFERENCE SPONSORS