HMI's Beginning Women Farmer Conference A Success

The Beginning Women Conference: Exploring Whole Farm Planning was a huge success. Over 200 participants, including those traveling from as far away as Washington State, converged at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) in Amherst, Massachusetts on March 22

-23

. Besides keynotes from

Tracy Favre

, HMI’s COO,

Tricia Park

, Beginning Women Farmer Program participant and mentor, and

Mary Peabody

, University of Vermont Extension and founder of Women’s Agricultural Network, there were 28 breakout sessions covering a range of topic including a Holistic Management track. Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) was the conference coordinator for this event and did a great job of sourcing local food for the menu and coordinating childcare as well as keeping things running smoothly at the conference.

HMI, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Beginning Farmerand Rancher Development Program (USDA/NIFA BFRDP), and UMASS College of Natural Sciences and the Center for Agriculture co-sponsored this event as part of HMI’s USDA/NIFA BFRDP grant. Thanks to all our sponsors, presenters, and participants for making this a great event! WGGB, the ABC affiliate in Springfield Massachusetts covered the event, while they got a few of the facts wrong.... Whole Farm Planting versus Whole Farm PLANNING, it's worth a look. Please stay tuned to our blog in the days and weeks to come. We'll be posting more information about the conference.