This is my second BLOG posting about the MOSES Organic Farming Conference that Michelle and I attended last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. MOSES stands for Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service. Here is the URL to their main website: www.mosesorganic.org. In this posting I would like to share my schedule of events and sessions that I attended. I do this with the perspective that some followers of this BLOG may be curious about what this conference is all about, and may be interested in attending in the future -- which I would highly recommend!
Day 1 - The Drive
La Cross, Wisconsin in a 663 mile drive from Strugis. Michelle and I drove my Honda Civic for about eleven hours along I-90 to arrive in La Crosse just after dark. After checking-in at the hotel, we headed downtown. We discovered a nice sushi restaurant named Sushi Pirate. The service and the food was great, but the really interesting part was our conversation with the waiter. He was a friendly Chinese immigrant, probably in his late twenties. In being polite, he asked us why we were in town. We mentioned the MOSES Organic Farming Conference and he lit up! He said that it is his dream to be a Farmer! He wants to someday own his own small farm and grow Dragon Fruit. He came back to our table several times and each time had a few more questions about being a farmer. What a nice guy.
Day 2 - Registration and Conference Opening
During the AM, we took a drive about town. We had breakfast at a small local restaurant named "Rosie's", stopped in at a couple of music stores, an outdoors outfitter type store, and had lunch at "Cony Dog Island". For you music enthusiasts, "Dave's Guitar Shop" is INCREDIBLE! Here is the URL: davesguitar.com.
After lunch we went to the convention center and checked-in at the conference (which took about two minutes). We then watched a film titled Queen of the Sun about bees. It was good. Here is the URL: www.queenofthesun.com. After that we briefly checked-out the Exhibit Hall, which was packed with vendors in a room similar in size to the main concert arena at the Rapid City Civic Center. The main event of the day was the conference opening keynote and "Farmer of the Year" presentation. This year's recipient is Charlie Johnson of Madison, SD. Who knew it would be a guy from SD? We ended the evening by attending a Poetry Slam -- with farmer poets! Nice!
Day 3 - Sessions
This day started with continental breakfast at the conference. At breakfast, we met Atina Diffley. During conversation, we discovered that Atina is the author of the book "Turn Here Sweet Corn" (which we purchased and she signed), a session presenter, and a keynote speaker. Here is a URL with more info about Atina: atinadiffley.com.
The educational sessions were the main events for this day, and the next. My 1st session was "Weed Control Equipment for the Vegetable Farmer". This session mainly covered physical/mechanical cultivation tools -- everything from hand hoes to recommendations on good deals for old tractors and cultivation equipment. Now I want to go buy an old Allis Chalmers G and convert it into a solar powered, electric drive tractor! :o)
The keynote speech this day was titled "What We Learned Making GMO OMG". I spoke of this keynote in my previous BLOG post. This looks like a great film! The URL is: www.gmofilm.com.
This day offered an organic lunch at the conference. Yum, yum. At lunch we met Frank James and his wife. Frank is the Staff Director at Dakota Rural Action. Great conversation! Here is the URL for DRA: dakotarural.org. After lunch we hit the conference book store, which had hundreds of titles covering all aspects of organic vegetables, livestock, poultry, water/land management, recipes, AG politics, AG philosophy, health, and more.
My 2nd session was "Restoration Agriculture - An Introduction to Farm-Scale Permaculture", presented by Mark Sheppard. This was my favorite session of all! I came out of this session with all kinds of new ideas that I want to try at Bear Butte Gardens! Mark got a roar of applause from the audience several times during the session, and a standing ovation at the end of the session. Wow. Just, wow.
My 3rd session was "Composting Organically for Small to Mid-sized Farms". This again was a very good session. I took pages and pages of notes. After that, we hit the exhibit hall again.
For our evening meal, Michelle and I left the convention center and found a very nice restaurant named "Piggies". The food was fabulous! And, they had a great four-piece blues band. Later in the evening, we went to the "New Young Farmers' Shindig" social event in downtown La Crosse. Here we got another opportunity to chat with Frank James, his wife, and some of his staff from Dakota Rural Action. Fun! Fun! Fun!
Day 4 - More Sessions
Again we had an organic breakfast and lunch at the conference. My 1st session on this day was "Time and Labor Saving Equipment for the Vegetable Farmer". This session was full of ideas for building and using small devices, carts, tools, tractor implements, and many ideas about working safely and efficiently. At the conclusion of this session, I decided I need to get a welder and learn how to weld. Anyone know of any good deals on a used welder?
At lunch, Michelle and I had so much to talk to each other about, we could hardly contain ourselves! After lunch, we attended a short panel discussion about Farm-to-School food programs, policies, news, methods, and success stories. We also hit the exhibit hall again.
My 2nd session this day was "Farming's New Future: Thriving in the Face of climate Change". This session was hosted by a panel of national experts in the field of weather and climate change. Very, very interesting... and enlightening... and a bit scary!
My 3rd session of the day was "Living with Parasites: Building Healthy Ruminant Livestock". We don't have our own cattle at Bear Butte Gardens yet, but I learned a lot about how to build an entire livestock system that is organic. In Sturgis, a fella can get a lot of advise about livestock -- but little of it pertains to organic livestock. This session covered everything from grazing, feeding, watering, fencing, breeding, weening, common ailments, and how to doctor a sick organic cow. Very good info for someday soon.
After that session, we had our evening meal at the Health Food Coop Store in La Crosse. Good stuff!
Then we headed back home to Sturgis.
Conclusion
The conference was very well organized. It was easy to find your way around -- lots of signs and maps. Parking was easy enough - and we never had to pay for parking. The overall mood was light, cheerful, and friendly. All of the session presenters were very good. There were many sessions to choose from. The schedule flowed nicely. And, the conference food was great!
One more thing that impressed me about this conference was the number of "young" people in attendance. I recently heard that the average age of the the American farmer is 55. There are many challenges in the AG industry to get new, younger people interested in farming. It is very difficult to "break-into" this business -- high cost of purchasing land, high cost of equipment, high inheritance tax, lack of a "sexy" image, and all the hard work, just to mention a few. This conference showed me another side of the issue -- a lot of young people (twenty-somethings) who are interested! Many of these challenges are being addressed and are changing for the better. This is GREAT!
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this entire conference! I highly recommend it!
Rick Grosek
Bear Butte Gardens
Sturgis, SD
www.bearbuttegardens.com
Rick@BearButteGardens.com
