Food & Farming Conference Grows, Moves to Fargo

Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society will hold its 40th annual winter conference at the Holiday Inn, Fargo, ND on January 24-27, 2019.

NPSAS moved its winter conference from Aberdeen SD to Fargo to accommodate its increasing numbers of attendees. Held each January, this educational conference is highly regarded for its valuable content and annual networking opportunities.

This year’s conference program places a strong emphasis on the relationships between crop diversity and soil health, nutrient dense food and human health, and between sustainable agriculture and resilient, rural communities.

The conference kicks off on Thursday with pre-conference workshops on regenerative agriculture, tools to build soil health, and biodynamic practices. Thursday night will feature a brand-new event designed to bring farmers and consumers together called A Taste of Agri-CULTURE. Attendees at this social event will enjoy tastings by local food businesses, appetizers, and artistic displays inspired by agriculture. This event is open to the public but requires the purchase of an entrance ticket

Conference workshops run all day Friday and Saturday and cover a wide range of topics including healthy livestock management, raw milk, direct marketing, organic weed control, soil health, reducing inflammation, medicinal plants, and managing for pollinators. The conference will also offer youth workshops (18 and under always attend free), evening entertainment, and much more.

Keynote speaker Dan Barber observed “In the rush to industrialize farming, we’ve lost the understanding, implicit since the beginning of agriculture, that food is a process, a web of relationships, not an individual ingredient or commodity.”

Dan Barber can be seen on Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” and the film “Wasted!: The Story of Food Waste”, screening at The Fargo Theatre on January 13th at 2pm.  

Rachel and Steffen Schneider of Hawthorne Valley Farm will offer a pre-conference workshop and give a keynote on regenerative ag. The mission of their Institute for Mindful Agriculture “is to connect our current food and farming systems to a future of health and well-being for all. Because agriculture is so fundamental, we think that by mindfully evolving the foodshed, many other of Earth and society's illnesses will heal along the way.”

Join like-minded individuals and a resource-packed exhibitor hall to gain access to valuable tools, innovative solutions, and perspectives on regenerative practices and food systems that are developing across the Northern Plains.