11/12/2008
Kansas Rural Center
Whiting, KS - The Kansas Rural Center will hold its annual sustainable agriculture conference Saturday December 13, 2008 with the theme “Meeting Agriculture’s Challenges in a Rapidly Changing World”. The one day conference will be held at St. Monica-St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, 1007 East Avenue, Blue Rapids, Kansas beginning at 9 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m.

 

The purpose of the conference is to provide an opportunity to discuss the big picture of agriculture in this time of increasing input costs,volatile markets and high energy prices, provide practical information on alternative marketing and production ideas through workshops, and provide opportunities for farmer, rancher, and consumer networking.

 

Keynote speaker will be Dr. Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.  Also, since January 2008, Kirschenmann has held a half-time appointment at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York, exploring ways that rural and urban communities can work together to develop a more resilient food system and agriculture. He divides his time between Iowa and New York, as well as overseeing his family’s 3500 acre organic farm in North Dakota. On December 13, Dr. Kirschenmann will talk about the challenges of climate change, high input costs, expensive energy, and volatile markets, and what we need to do to respond.

   

Kirschenmann is a long time leader in national and international sustainable agriculture, speaking around the country helping to define the challenges facing agriculture and the “thinking outside the box” necessary to address these changes.  “The principal reason industrial agriculture has been so successful during the past century is that is has been blessed with cheap energy, abundant water, and relatively stable climates. That rosy landscape seems poised to undergo rapid and significant change,” Kirschenmann wrote in a paper presented to the Ag History Conference in 2007.

 

“The elephant in the room,” he stated during another speech, “is whether we can make the changes we need to make in the timeframe we have available to us.”

                                                                         

Dr. Daryl Buchholz, Kansas State University, College of Agriculture, and Donn Teske, Kansas Farmers Union president, and others to be announced, will offer a response to Dr. Kirschenmann’s remarks, followed by audience discussion about agriculture and the food system’s future.

 

The afternoon offers six workshops covering a range of practical information including switching to grass based livestock systems, reducing input costs with integrated crop and livestock systems, local and regional food system opportunities, how to produce food for your neighbors and community, transitioning to organic farming, and on-farm and community wind energy options.

 

Workshop topics and presenters include:

  * Ruminants Have 4 Stomachs and 4 Legs for a Reason: Grass Based Livestock Systems—Dale Kirkham, KRC staff, and Dale Strickler, Farmer/Grazer, Jamestown, Ks.

 

   * Local and Regional Food Systems- Kansas’ Past, Present and Future— Dr. Rhonda Janke, KSU Horticulture Department; Dan Nagengast, KRC Executive Director.

 

   * Living Without High Priced Fertilizers: Reducing Input Costs with Integrated Crop and Livestock Systems— Dr. Deann Presley and Dr. Dorivar Ruiz Diaz, KSU Agronomy Department, Will Boyer, KSU Watershed Specialist; and Ed Reznicek, KRC staff.

 

   * Producing Food for Your Neighbors: Challenges of a Local or Regional Food System— Dan Kuhn, Courtland, Ks.; Elaine Mohr, Manhattan, Ks.; and Kirk Cusick, Salina, Ks.

 

   * Less Oil, Less Chemicals- Transitioning to Organic Production: Planning, Certification and Farm Bill Programs— Jackie Keller, Executive Secretary Eastern Kansas Organic Crop Improvement Association; Ed Reznicek, Kansas Organic Producers Marketing Association; Mary Fund, KRC staff.

 

   * Energy: Is It Feasible to Produce Your Own? On-farm and Community Wind— Ruth Miller, KSU Wind Application Center; Dan Nagengast, KRC Executive Director.

 

The conference is being held in the parish hall of the St. Monica-St. Elizabeth Catholic Church at 1007 East Avenue, in Blue Rapids, Kansas. Blue Rapids is located about an hour north of Manhattan, Kansas. The church is located in Blue Rapids five blocks south of Hwy 9 and 77 on East Avenue.

 

Registration is $10 per person and will cover lunch, snacks, and materials.  Reservations are needed in advance to ensure a meal ticket. Contact Diane Dysart at the KRC Whiting office at 785-873-3431 or ddysart@rainbowtel. net; or go to the KRC website at www.kansasruralcenter.org for a brochure with registration form.