Join us for the 2021 Virtual Healthy Farms Conference with the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society on ZOOM kicking off on February 6th, 2021.
Your conference registration is also your Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society membership for 2021! Alternatively, by becoming an NSAS Member you are registered for the conference this year :)
The 2021 Virtual Healthy Farms Conference will be here before you know it. We will have a great lineup of speakers & a new online venue which will create an atmosphere of learning, growing, and appreciating good food and sustainable farming in Nebraska.
#2021HFC
Our 10 am-12 pm Saturday Farminar Series Transition Theme topics:
- Theme 1: Direct Marketing in a Pandemic
Please consider sharing & engaging with our conference materials and online conversation!
When you share our event and materials, please include the official hashtag #HFC2021. This will help get the word out and see our collective activity as a community.
All Member Educational Sessions :
The complete list of scheduled speakers will be available on our
SustainableNebraska.org website in January 2021 and will be updated as they are confirmed!
February 6th, 2021: Direct Marketing in a Pandemic
Daniel Brisebois
T ourne-Sol Co-operative Farm
Dan is a founding member and seed production
manager for Tourne-Sol Co-operative Farm in Les Cèdres, Quebec, about 45
minutes west of Montreal. Dan is co-author of Crop Planning for Organic
Vegetable Growers and blogs about farming and seeds at https://goingtoseed.wordpress.com/ . In 2019, Dan launched the Farmer Spreadsheet Academy to focus on solid farm
planning and management.
Dan has a B.Sc. in agricultural engineering
from McGill University. He is a past president of Canadian Organic Growers, a
USC Canada board member, and serves on the Eastern Canadian Organic Seed
Growers Network’s steering committee.
Charlotte Smith
3 Cow
Marketing
Charlotte Smith is a farmer in Oregon who runs
3 Cow Marketing, an online marketing training company helping farmers in the
U.S., Canada, and around the world, learn the most current online marketing
techniques to grow a successful, profitable business. Charlotte has created a
sustainable farm-to-consumer business selling premium meats, poultry, eggs and
milk. After witnessing one too many small business owners close up shop after
being run ragged and still not being able to pay the bills with their sales,
she founded 3 Cow Marketing to help others transform their marketing skills and
begin to live the life they always dreamed of. She is a sought after speaker and
has been named a food rebel, pioneer and
visionary by PBS’s Food Forward TV, and a “Pioneering Leader in Raw Milk
Production” by Mark McAfee, CEO Organic Pastures Dairy, and Food Tank named her
one of the 25 “World’s Most Influential Women in Food and Ag''.
Chloe Diegel
Robinette
Farms
Chloe and her husband Alex, along with their skilled and dedicated farm crew, grow Certified Organic baby greens and micro greens year-round at Robinette Farms 15 minutes outside Lincoln, Nebraska. Robinette Farms has been growing produce, growing soil, and growing their capacity to provide healthy food to their community since 2010.
Most recently Robinette Farms has narrowed its farm production to focus solely on baby greens and micro greens, and partners with several other local produce farmers and local food businesses to provide the Lincoln area with fully customizable local food boxes 40 weeks of the year. Chloe is passionate about building regional food systems, strengthening the small farming community in Nebraska, and finding ways to make local food easy and accessible for all.
Lainey Johnson
Bright Hope Farm
Lainey owns and operates Bright Hope Farm in
Firth, Nebraska. Bright Hope Farm strives to provide produce and cut flowers
grown with ecological integrity for their community using no-till farming
practices. Lainey, with the help and support of her family, works hard to
improve the soil and environment, and her passion is farming for future
generations.
Lainey is also the co-founder of Women in
Local Food and Farming (WLFF) and is currently raising funds to establish WLFF
as a non-profit organization. The group's mission statement is: Women
supporting women to improve our local food systems and sustainable farms.
Currently, WLFF services include networking events, book discussions, farm
tours, work days, and markets. They hope to provide additional services, host
events, and offer support in the future when they become a non-profit
organization. Visit https://gofund.me/e5c00836
February 13th, 2021: How Nebraska’s Agriculture Fits into the Global Dynamic
Charles Francis
University of Nebraska- Lincoln
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture
Charles Francis, the panel moderator, is a Professor of Agronomy and Horticulture at UNL. His background is in farming, plant breeding, agronomy, agroecology, and food systems, with long-term teaching and research in the Philippines, Colombia, and Norway and short-term consulting in many other countries. He teaches courses at UNL in Agroecology, Organic Farming, and Land Use in the Midwest and in Lower-income Countries, and Agroecology in Norway each fall semester. His current research is on long-term crop rotations and the transformation of teaching to a co-learning model.
Darci Vetter
Edelman Public Affairs
Global Lead, Public Affairs & Vice Chair, Agriculture, Food at Edelman
Darci is General Manager and Vice Chair for Food, Agriculture and Trade at Edelman, a global communications firm. She previously served as an international trade consultant and Diplomat in Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In July 2014, she was appointed as the Chief Agricultural Negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative; she held the position until January 2017. From 2010 to 2014, she served as Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services and, from 2007 to 2010, she was an International Trade Advisor on the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.
Prior to working in the Senate, Ms. Vetter held numerous roles at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, including Director for Agricultural Affairs from 2005 to 2007.
Ms. Vetter received a B.A. from Drake University and an M.P.A. and Certificate in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her experience in international trade and agriculture brings significant value to the conference.
Stan Garbacz
International Trade Consultant, Nebraska Secretary of State
Stan served 40 years in the Nebraska Department of Agriculture as Nebraska’s Agricultural Trade Representative, a position that emphasizes international market development for agricultural products grown in Nebraska. Garbacz graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance and marketing. He is a 1971 graduate of Lincoln’s Pius X High School. In 1989, he was a member of the Nebraska Leadership, Education, Action Development Program (LEAD), a two-year program involving both national and international travel studies. LEAD has helped develop future agricultural leaders, such as Garbacz. He was drawn to international events because his parents emigrated from Poland in 1949.
Garbacz has received multiple honors like the James A. Graham Award for Outstanding Service to Agriculture from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in 2014; the Lifetime Service Award from the Nebraska Cattlemen in 2018; and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Pius X High School in 2019. He was most recently awarded the Silver Eagle Award in 2020 by the Nebraska Farm Bureau. Stan and his wife, Mary, live in Lincoln.
Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel often wears two hats – one with the University of Nebraska as an Extension Rural Prosperity Nebraska Specialist and the other as an active partner in a family agri-business. Cheryl, and her husband Leon, own and operate Kriesel Certified Seed, a small grain certified seed business, located near Gurley.
Cheryl is a former LEAD Alumni and has served as the President of the Nebraska Wheat Growers Association, Vice-Chair of the South Platte Natural Resources Board, and is a member of several state organizations including UNL Ag Builders and the Nebraska Hall of Ag Achievement.
February 20th, 2021: Local Meat Processing
Paula Sandberg
Heritage Acres
Paula and Chris Sandberg along with their family raise beef in Stratton, NE in the southwest part of the state. The Sandbergs raise grain-finished beef and implement intensive rotational grazing and cover crops to rebuild soil and pasture health. In addition to cattle, they also grow wheat and forage as well as pastured laying hens.
Like many farmers in Nebraska and nationally, finding a processing facility has been a challenge for their business during the pandemic. In light of COVID-19, Paula has also uniquely collaborated with local farmers to bring local food to their community. The goal is to connect local southwest Nebraska farmers and consumers with easy online ordering and convenient delivery methods.
Patty Plugge
Burt County Economic Development Executive Director
Burt County Economic Development Corporation was formed in 2005 as a nonprofit economic development organization. The governments of Burt County, Tekamah, Oakland and Lyons invested to develop a professional office to coordinate all economic development activities for the county. Private businesses also contribute to these efforts. BCEDC works with both prospective and existing businesses to stimulate new jobs and capital investment to the county. Housing, leadership development and tourism are also areas that BCEDC concentrates.
Patty has been a longtime supporter of rural matters and rural economic development. Patty was awarded the Center for Rural Affairs 2019 Rural Enterprise Assistance Project (REAP) Friend Award. The REAP Friend Award is presented annually to an individual, organization, or institution that provides invaluable service to entrepreneurs by assisting REAP staff in offering technical assistance, business training, loans, and networking across rural Nebraska. Patty has recently been involved with the Oakland Meat Processing Plant in Oakland, NE and the planned conversion from a custom exempt to USDA inspected facility.
Straight Arrow Bison
Marty and Karen Bredthauer started raising bison on their Broken Bow ranch in the 90's after a family vacation to Ft. Robinson peaked their interest in bison, their meat, and their place in the grassland ecosystem of the great plains. The family had suffered through the farm crisis of the 1980's and were ready for a new start. Though initially started as a way to make supplemental income, over the past two decades their methods have been refined, and their customers have expanded. Today they have a herd of over 100 animals including cows, bulls, young calves, yearlings and 2 year-olds and sell their bison meat regularly to grocery stores, individuals, restaurants, and schools. Not only are they producing healthy and regional meat, but they are also doing it together as a family, and through the past twenty-odd years that is the most important part of their business.
Straight Arrow Bison uses an on-farm processing facility that is state inspected and Custom Pack in Hastings, NE where the bison is cut and wrapped meets HACCP requirements (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system). Because Bison is classed as a “Wild” meat, USDA inspection is not required.
All local meat processing speaker bios, profiles, and descriptions will be updated by January 23rd.
February 27th, 2021: Land Access: Connecting the Generations via NSAS
Allan Vyhnalek
Extension Educator, Farm Succession Nebraska Extension
Allan Vyhnalek has spent over 33 years in Extension working in both Iowa and Nebraska. He is a native of Saline County, Nebraska. Vyhnalek received his Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in Agricultural Education. He taught in high school and post-secondary classrooms for 8 ½ years prior to joining Extension.
His current role is as Extension Educator for Farm/Ranch Succession and Transition – state-wide. For the past 13 years, he has helped lead the Extension education effort on Ag leasing for Nebraska. He works from Ag Economics Department at UNL.
