Whiting - "The hardest thing for any of us to do is to get control. The
easiest thing is to run down and buy the latest genetics, the newest gadget,
or a bag of this," cautions Joel Salatin, a keynote speaker for the upcoming
Heartland Roundup to be held on the Kansas State University campus in
Manhattan on Saturday, December 7. "The hardest thing to do is to get
control: control of our nutrients, our market, and our own desires,"
challenges Salatin, a third generation farmer in Virginia's Shenandoah
Valley.
The Salatin family farm services 400 customers with salad bar beef, pastured
poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits and forestry
products. Joel is a guest writer for Stockman Grass Farmer and has authored
two books about his alternative farming management. The Salatin family has
been featured in Farm Journal and The New Farm. Salatin has gained a national
following through his lively talks, writings, and many visitors to his farm.
You will have a chance to hear his latest ideas on farm management and
marketing at the Heartland Roundup, an annual conference hosted by the
Heartland Network organized by the Kansas Rural Center.
"U.S. agriculture provides a prime example of over-application of the
industrial paradigm. The early gains of appropriate specialization in
agriculture were indeed splendid. But more recent technologies may well have
done more damage to the ecological and social resource base of rural areas
than any societal benefit they created via production efficiency," claims Dr.
John Ikerd, an agricultural economist from
the University of Missouri who will be another keynote speaker at the
Heartland
Roundup.
"The sustainable agriculture paradigm has emerged to solve problems created
by the industrial model, primarily the pollution of our environment and
degradation of our natural resource base," adds Ikerd. The Missouri ag
economist contends that sustainable agriculture has the potential of
stimulating greater human creativity, enhancing dignity of work, and
providing more attention to social equity.
The Heartland Roundup is free to the public due to support from the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation. Registration starts at 9:30 A.M. A dozen workshops will
address cover crop management, relationship marketing, grass-finishing beef,
pastured poultry, clean water farming practices, whole-farm management,
integrated livestock and crop systems, and management intensive grazing. For
more information, call the Kansas Rural Center at (913)-873-3431.
Heartland Roundup
Saturday, December 7, 1996
"Bringing people together around good food, fertile soil,
clean water, and revitalized rural communities"
9:30 Registration
10:00 Creating The Farm Your Children Will Want. Joel Salatin.
11:00 Break
11:15 Concurrent Elective Workshops.
A. Salad Bar Beef. Joel Salatin.
B. A Yearning Get In Touch: Whole Farm Planning. Stan Freyenberger, KSU
Agricultural Ecnonmics; Chuck Otte; Geary County Extension; Laura Fortmeyer,
sheep grazier, Fairview.
C. The Tallgrass Prairie Producers Story. Annie Wilson, Elmdale.
D. Lessons from Nebraska Organizing Farmers Around Sustainable Agriculture.
Chris Carusi and Tom Larson, Nebraska Sustainable Ag Society and Nebraska
Impact Project.
12:10 Break
12:30 Lunch with Kansas grown foods.
1:15 Sustainable Agriculture As A Positive Alternative to Industrialized
Agriculture. John Ikerd.
2:00 Relationship Marketing As An Alternative to Industrialized Agriculture.
Joel Salatin.
2:15 Break
2:30 Concurrent Elective Workshops
A. Linking Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Communities. John Ikerd.
B. Keys to Relationship Farm Marketing. Joel Salatin
C. Pasture Finishing Research. Monica Young, Tallgrass Prairie Producers;
Fred Martz, Forage Systems Research Center, Linneus Missouri.
D. Hairy Vetch and Austrian Winter Pea Cover Crops. Russ Toevs, Whitewater;
Jim French, Partridge; Mark Claassen, Bill Heer, Rhonda Janke; KSU Agronomy.
3:30 Break
3:45 Concurrent Elective Workshops
A. Pastured Poultry Production. Joel Salatin.
B. Management Intensive Grazing. Alan Hubbard, rancher, Olsburg; Paul
Ohlenbusch and Rodney Jones, KSU Cooperative Extension Service.
C. CleanWater Farming Practices. Mary Fund.
D. Innovations with Machinery and Livestock on a Nebraska Farm. Tom Larson,
St. Edward, Nebraska.
4:45 Break
5:00 Tailgate Roundup: What have we learned together? Jerry Jost, Kansas
Rural Center.
5:30 Happy Trails!
For more information, contact Jerry Jost, Kansas Rural Center, 2002 East 1600
Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044 or (913) 841-7044.