Is it possible to make a living on the family farm anymore? Can adopting organic or sustainable production systems improve the farm's bottom line? What are the market opportunities for organic produce, eggs, dairy, meat, or row crops? With farm commodity prices falling to historic lows, more and more farmers are asking these questions. In planning this year's Virginia Biological Farming Conference, co-sponsors Virginia Association for Biological Farming (VABF) and Virginia Cooperative Extension sought to help growers find answers and explore alternatives.

VABF has historically been an organization of market gardeners, small-scale farmers, homesteaders and health-conscious consumers. The group now recognizes a need to reach out to larger-scale conventional farmers struggling to make a living on livestock, grains and row crops. Thus our conference coordinator Andy Hankins, who is a VABF Board member and an Extension Specialist in Sustainable Agriculture, recommended that we hold this year's event in the Tidewater area of southeast Virginia, where grain, cotton and peanut growers have been hard-hit by low commodity prices. Our aim was to introduce growers to opportunities for larger-scale sustainable enterprises that could improve financial returns while enhancing soil and environmental health.

Dr. Kathleen Delate, Extension Organic Crop Specialist at Iowa State University, opened the conference with an encouraging report on Iowa farmers switching to organic methods. Other speakers shared valuable information on production and marketing of certified organic grains; organic cotton and sweet corn; pastured beef, poultry and pork; small fruit; and production of worm castings from hog waste. David Stern, director of the Garlic Seed Foundation, gave a pre-conference workshop on organic garlic production on Friday morning, as well as an excellent session on weed control without herbicides. Friday evening featured a panel discussion on Sustaining Family Farms. About 130 people attended the conference, including a number of conventional growers from this area, who asked many good questions in the grain, cotton and livestock sessions as they sought to adapt the information to their farms.

The Conference also included a Youth Program, a Trade Show with seven vendors, a VABF fund-raising raffle, and the annual VABF Membership Business Meeting. On Saturday morning, several local chapters of VABF met over breakfast to discuss possible events during the coming season. The local chapters host many of VABF's farm field days, workshops, and consumer education events; and will also set up and staff a VABF display at several agricultural fairs around the state in the coming year.

Following are some highlights of Conference sessions, including some practical information, based on notes taken by Mark Schonbeck and others who attended the Conference. Session summaries are grouped by subject matter, not chronologically as they took place.