Category Archives: Food System Planning, Management, and Policy

2019 Virginia Farm to Table Conference: Servant Leadership and Courageous Conversations is set for December 5 and 6

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We hope you have your calendars marked and plan to attend the 2019 Virginia Farm to Table Conference. The theme for this year is servant leadership and courageous conversation.  Virginia Cooperative Extension, in partnership with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Virginia Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (SARE), Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), LD&B Insurance and Financial Services, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, Virginia Foundation of Agricultural Innovation and Rural Sustainability (VAFAIRS), and community partners present the eighth annual Virginia Farm to Table Conference on Thursday, December 5  and Friday, December 6, 2019, at Blue Ridge Community College’s Plecker Workforce Development Center in Weyers Cave, VA.

The planning committee is pleased to have Virginia’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services  Jewel H. Bronaugh, Ph.D., open the conference on Day 1. Dan Goerlich, Ph.D., associate director of Virginia Cooperative Extension will kick-off Day 2 with remarks on service, leadership, and conversation.

The planning committee has put together a solid core of speakers and practitioners for the two-day conference. Speakers and practitioners who may be of interest to you and your organization include:

  • Elnian Glibert of ZingTrain
  • Bob Muth of Muth Family Farm
  • Dr. Timothy Woods of the University of Kentucky
  • Amani Olugbala of Soul Fire Farm
  • Danial Austin of Green Sprig Ag
  • CJ Isbell of Keenbell Farm
  • Charlie Wade of Deep Roots Milling
  • Sarah Cohen of Route 11 Potato Chips
  • Nancy Bruns of J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works and J. Q. Dickinson Appalachain Mercantile
  • Keith Ohlinger of Heritage Hill Farm
  • J. B. Daniel of Virginia USDA-NRCS
  • Matt Booher of Virginia Cooperative Extension
  • And Others.

Speakers and panelists will address and share their experiences about The Art of Giving Great Service, Servant Leadership, Bottomline Organizational Change, Soil Management for Organic Farmers, Livestock and Grazing Management, Courageous Conversation: The What and How?, Nuts and Bolts of Values-Based Farming and Marketing, Growing and Marketing Small Fruit, and Dismantling Biases. There will be four value chain case studies presented during the concurrent sessions including Route 11 Potato Chips, Common Grain Alliance, and others. Additionally, participants wil have the flexibility for water cooler conversations and follow-up with confencerence speakers.

On Thursday evening, there will be Farm-to-Table Networking at the Granary at Valley Pike Farm Market with hors d’oeuvres and live music.

More details about the conference will be coming soon but mark your calendars for December 5 and 6! You will be challenged and inspired!

Learn more and register at https://tinyurl.com/2019VAF2TRegistration

USDA Programs in Support of Farm-to-Table Initiatives

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If you are looking for grant and loan programs to incubate your local food and farm initiative or enterprise, this graphic from USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food site may be of interest. The color coding refers to the specific USDA agency that manages the grant or loan program (i.e., USDA – Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA – Farm Service Agency, USDA – Natural Resources Conservation Service, etc.).

If you have specific questions and would like to talk with someone about the different programs, please visit your closest USDA Service Center or Virginia Cooperative Extension office for further guidance.

USDA Grant and Loan Programs in support of Local Food System Development.

USDA Grant and Loan Programs in support of Local Food System Development.

Stop Being a Clod: Minimize Soil Disturbance

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Farming and the marketing of farm and food products has many challenges without being a clod and making the job even tougher. With vegetable production and farming in general, the question of whether to till the soil or not can be a dilemma or the start of a new way of thinking? For proper seed germination, good seed to soil contact is critical so a good seedbed is essential even if it’s a very small area. However, can we be doing more harm than good by relying solely on tillage for providing a good environment for the seed and subsequent plant? Or are we leaving the soil naked and hungry and the plant vulnerable?

Obviously, too much tillage is bad. Any tillage is disruptive, but over-tillage destroys soil structure, disrupts the habitat for many microbes and beneficial insects, increases the breakdown of soil organic matter and the oxidation and loss of soil carbon. Can we minimize soil disturbance and use gentler options for creating a healthy environment for a seed and growing plant? Can we create a soil environment that is not cloddy and too hard and tight for even a plant root to penetrate? Can we avoid pulverizing the soil with tillage equipment so the results are a dust and the powdery remains of a soil?

Virginia Cooperative Extension is cooperating with Virginia’s USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to encourage soil building strategies to minimize soil disturbance and promote overall soil health. Here are some tips to get you started on your way: 1) Start slowly and manage plant residue from previous crops better; 2) Add soil organic matter as often as possible with compost, mulches, green manures and soil amendments; 3) Use diverse cropping rotations that include plants with different rooting depths and patterns; 4) Feed the soil microbes a diverse diet; 5) Experiment with planting different soil building cover crops like radishes, turnips, crimson clover, buckwheat and old standbys like rye and barley; 6) Be aware of the adverse effects of pesticides and certain types of fertilizers on soil ecology; and 7) If you have to till, use the most gentle equipment possible under the right soil moisture conditions to avoid pulverizing the soil, creating clods or just being a clod!