Future Farms 2004: Digging Deeper
by Wylie Harris - Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture Wednesday, Dec 8 2004, 1:50am
oklahoma (state news) /
food & agriculture /
feature
The future of sustainable farming was the primary topic at "Future Farms 2004: Digging Deeper," a conference held on November 6 and hosted by Oklahoma's Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture, with assistance from the USDA Risk Management Agency.
Farmers convene in Oklahoma City to work towards a sustainable food system.
One hundred eighty farmers, ranchers and agriculture agency personnel from Oklahoma and neighboring states converged on Oklahoma City last month to gain a deeper understanding of the future of sustainable farming. The conference, "Future Farms 2004: Digging Deeper," was held on November 6 at the Clarion Meridian Conference Center. Oklahoma's Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture hosted the event, with assistance from the USDA Risk Management Agency.
The conference, the third in the "Future Farms" series, offered a variety of in-depth, three-hour workshops oriented toward helping farmers and ranchers increase the value and diversity of their operations. Some surveyed alternative farm enterprise possibilities, such as growing fresh-cut herbs and hosting agritourism operations. Several focused on specific organic products, including cut flowers and beef, as well as tools for organic production in the Oklahoma climate. Still other workshops explored higher-value marketing avenues, such as farmers markets, subscription farming or community supported agriculture (CSA), and online sales.
Farmers and ranchers made up the majority of the audience, highlighting agricultural producers' strong interest in enhancing their own financial viability by adopting more ecologically oriented modes of farming. One key strategy for accomplishing that, as noted in several workshops, is to strengthen local markets for food. Customers shopping locally can obtain not only fresher produce for themselves, but also healthier economies – agricultural and otherwise in their own immediate communities and regions.
Such local food networks are one important aspect of the larger concept of community food security, addressing problems as diverse as hunger, obesity, and farm failure as symptoms of a larger disorder in the way communities feed themselves. For more on the Kerr Center's ongoing assessment of community food security in Oklahoma, see their website at www.kerrcenter.com.
http://www.kerrcenter.com
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