Virginia Biological Farming Conference and Trade Show

January 30-31, 2004

Airfield Conference Center
Wakefield, VA

• What this Conference is About ...
• About our Speakers ...
• Program Schedule ...
• Youth Program ...

What this Conference is About ...

This year's theme...

Healthy Soil, Healthy Farms, Healthy People

Two days of education and networking about:
producing field crops, horticultural crops and livestock in both organic and sustainable, low-input systems
selling field crops, locally-grown fruit and vegetables and livestock products that are ecologically produced

We are back in this lovely Southeast Virginia setting amidst the tea-colored waters and calling birds for the fantastic fifth annual Virginia Biological Farming Conference. Presentations will include organic certification, soil management, livestock management, horticultural production, agronomic production and biological controls. Marketing and financial information will be included.

Livestock producers will learn how to raise hogs on dirt, out in pastures, rather than in confined buildings. Participants will learn how to sell certified organic pork. Cattle farmers can learn about management of pasture soils and the importance of forage diversity in ruminant nutrition. Speakers will also discuss alternative methods for feeding livestock and for maintaining herd health without antibiotics.

Representatives from several of Virginia's most successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms will explain how they operate their marketing programs. In other horticulture topics, growers may discover how to increase crop growth and reduce diseases with applications of compost tea. Growers can learn about winter production of blackberries and raspberries in high tunnels (unheated greenhouses). Small farmers can learn how to maximize their soil fertility through vermi-composting. There will be an incredible presentation on raising and selling cut flowers by two excellent growers from North Carolina.

Scientists are making great strides in understanding the relationships between the insects that feed on crops and the predators and parasites that can be used to keep them under control. Growers of both horticulture crops and agronomic crops may learn how to plant the kind of habitat plants that attract and maintain populations of beneficial insects for affordable biological control.

The thread that runs through the VABF Conference is community. The conference is an opportunity for collaboration among growers and consumers and wholesale buyers and suppliers and university researchers and government officials. We have an entire program for young people at this conference to make sure they know how much we need their help to keep agriculture alive in Virginia.

Who Should Attend?

Any interested farmer or farm manager
Livestock producers
Market gardeners
Extension educators and teachers
Government agricultural professionals
Homeowners with an interest in pesticide-free gardening
Youth who like to garden and learn about the environment

About Our Speakers

Elizabeth Henderson farms at Peacework Organic Farm in Wayne County, New York, and has produced organically grown vegetables for the fresh market for 22 years. A SARE Farmer Educator, she is a founder of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) in Massachusetts and helped author their certification program. On the Governing Council of NOFA-NY, she also chairs the Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board in Wayne County. Her writings include Sharing the Harvest: A Guide to Community Supported Agriculture and The Real Dirt: Farmers Tell About Organic and Low-Input Practices in the Northeast. She helped write A Food Book for a Sustainable Harvest for the Genesee Valley Organic Community Supported Agriculture Project.

Alex and Betsy Hitt have owned and operated Peregrine Farm outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina for 22 years. Both are 1980 graduates of Utah State University, Alex with a B.S. in soils. An extremely diversified urban edge horticultural operation, they produce cut flowers, small fruits, and over 100 vegetable varieties. They are both full time on the farm and make their entire living off 3-5 acres in production. Of their income, 85% is from a two-day-a-week farmers' market and the rest is from direct sales to one natural foods grocery store and a few restaurants. They have also marketed crops by pick-your-own, roadside stand, and florists and floral wholesalers.

Emile DeFelice has been farming and direct marketing for ten years in the midlands of South Carolina. He began as a commercial herb grower, added vegetables and flowers, and now exclusively grows pastured pork and certified organic grains. He is a three-term board member of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and a heart pine salvage fanatic.

Cricket Rakitta, general manager of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, is dedicated to supporting growers with high quality organic seed selection. With 18 years organic gardening experience, he has also run a CSA.

Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is a steward as she trains farmers in the craft of saving organic seed. Outreach from a SARE grant with Carolina Farm Stewardship, is providing a free-to-all seed saving workshop at the Conference just prior to registration.

Jerry Brunetti is managing director of Agri-Dynamics, a 25-year-old company engaged in ecological systems approaches to livestock, crop and horticultural programs. Agri-Dynamics produces ecologically friendly pesticides and bio-stimulants, natural feed additives and herbal nutraceuticals for livestock, horses and pets. Services include soil, tissue and water testing.

Jerry was also co-founder of Earthworks, a company instituting biological practices in the golf course and landscape industries. Majoring in animal science at North Carolina State University, he ran a cow/calf operation for two years. He serves on the steering committees of the Eastern PA Chapter of the Weston Price Foundation, the Lower Mt. Bethel Environmental Advisory Council, and The Foodshed Alliance of the Ridge Valley.

Jim and Genny Jacobs served as organic inspectors for Virginia from 1999-2002. They have been growing organically since 1972 and became VA certified organic in 1996. With a 140-tree Asian pear orchard and a 40x100 greenhouse, they raise tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers during the summer, then spinach and other cut greens for the winter. Jim and Genny also operate The Natural Living Warehouse, an online organic and natural foods grocery business.

Dr. Jerzy Nowak is a professor and Head of the Department of Horticulture, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Blacksburg, VA. Coming from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, his research focuses on the enhancement of plants' tolerance to environmental stresses using beneficial bacteria and on rhizosphere management as a key component of soil and plant health. In August 2003 he successfully offered a short course on "Principles of Organic Horticulture", the first at Virginia Tech.

Mark Schonbeck has been involved in sustainable agriculture over the past 17 years. Participating in research projects in cover cropping, mulching and organic soil management, he has experience in organic vegetable gardening, and has co-managed a Community Supported Agriculture program at Seven Springs Farm in Floyd County, VA. He participated in some of the early experiments with organic no-till cover crops systems in 1988-90 at Cape Cod's New Alchemy Institute. Mark is our VABF newsletter editor, a member of the VABF Board of Directors, and works with the Agricultural Policy Committee of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. Mark lives in an intentional community near Floyd, VA.

Dr. Lori Marsh is an Associate Professor and Extension Engineer in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. She is responsible for research and outreach programs related to the environmentally-responsible handling and use of the byproducts of animal agriculture, including aquacultural wastes. She also serves as coordinator of the Virginia Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Professional Development Program.

Kathy Demchak, Senior Extension Associate at Penn State University has a background in vegetable and tree fruit nutrition with a M.S. in Horticulture from VPI. She is now studying cultural effects on growth and ericoid mycorrhizal infection of blueberry, cultivar trials of fall-bearing red raspberry and gooseberry, pruning studies with red raspberry, and screening of thornless black raspberry selections.

Steve Diver, NCAT Agricultural Specialist, has worked with the ATTRA program for the past 15 years, developing educational materials in the areas of horticulture and agronomy. With a MS in horticulture from Oklahoma State University, he was Extension Horticulturist as well as Agriculture Agent in Cooperative Extension before later managing an organic blueberry farm. He has traveled and studied organic farming systems in the U.S., Bermuda, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, and India. He owns a 12-acre farm out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and is raising a quarter acre organic research and demonstration garden trying ideas like acetic acid herbicides, organic fertilizers, mulching systems, market gardening tools, and alternative crops.

Dr. Ron Morse was raised on a Utah dairy. He has a M.S. from Utah State and a Ph. D. in Horticulture from Michigan State. He teaches a graduate course, Nutrition of Horticultural crops and is converting six acres at VPI to organic. His research of 24 years focuses on development of sustainable production systems, with emphasis in no-tillage and cover-crop residue management to conserve soil and water and minimize use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Research also includes plant spacing for head-size manipulation and weed suppression in cole crops, and canopy topping and no-tillage/residue-management systems for yield enhancement of potatoes.

Dr. Richard McDonald operates a consulting business, Symbiont Biological Pest Management, in North Carolina. He assists farmers in the development of habitat for beneficial predatory and parasitic insects that match the insect pests most common to their specific crops. "Dr. McBug" also provides guidance for farmers who want to use other biological controls in commercial crop production. His recommendations, based on scientific research, are focused on making biological control of insects practical.

Steve Hickman and DeLaura Padovan live and work on their 57-acre homestead, Biota, deep in the woods of King George, VA. They are biointensive farming 65 fruits and vegetables on one acre, as well as raising goats and chickens. They have grown for the Fredericksburg CSA five seasons; they recently started a small CSA in King George. Bringing people and food together locally, they do their best to promote harmonious living between all living creatures at Biota.

Marty Mesh is the Executive Director of Florida Organic Growers (FOG). He has been highly involved in development of a regional organic certification program with Quality Certification Services (QCS) in the Southeastern U.S. Most of Virginia's certified organic growers are certified with QCS through FOG. Marty Mesh has been involved with organic farming in Florida for the past 20 years. He has served for many years on the leadership committee for the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG) and has been especially active in planning the Southern SAWG Conference for the past 12 years.