ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) presents the 20th annual Business of Farming Conference on Saturday, February 11, at the A-B Tech Conference Center. The conference offers financial, legal, operational and marketing tools for beginner and advanced farmers as well as the opportunity to make professional connections. “ASAP has a strong system of internal evaluations and surveys for all of our programs, so we have a really robust feedback loop from farmers about what their challenges are, what topics they want to learn more about and what’s been most useful to them in developing their farm businesses,” says David Smiley, local food campaign program manager for ASAP. “That feedback is a big part of how we shape the Business of Farming Conference each year and how we decide which workshops to bring back and what new subjects and speakers we want to bring in. Land access, rising costs of supplies and inputs, and planning for weather events, like flooding, are all big challenges for farmers, particularly in the past several years.”
Photo by Katharine Galpin
Workshops will be held in three blocks over the course of the day. There will be many new topics this year including “Intro to Land Access,” providing guidance for new or expanding farm businesses on buying or leasing land; “Planning for Long-term Farm Success,” covering strategies for improving quality of life as a farmer and plan for retirement; and “Farm Resiliency,” exploring how to prepare for and recover from adverse weather events.
The “Farm Resiliency” workshop will be led by Danielle Hutchison of TendWell Farm and Craig Mauney of NC Cooperative Extension. “Small and medium size farms in Western North Carolina are an important component of the regional food supply and the economy,” says Mauney. “These farms are continually threatened by a range of extreme events and seemingly rapid changes to their economic environment. These include things like increased fuel costs, flooding, urban encroachment, land access, flooding, extreme environment changes and other aspects of climate change.”
The Conference will also feature its ever-popular Grower-Buyer Meeting, in which farmers meet at lunchtime with chefs, grocers, wholesalers and other buyers to discuss their products and potential business relationships. Other networking opportunities include one-on-one sessions and an exhibitor hall. Embedded within the conference is the Farmers Market Summit, a chance for farmers market managers from across the region to come together for peer-sharing, technical assistance support and annual planning.
Registration is now open at ASAPConnections.org. The cost is $95, with a discount for farm partners registering together. Scholarships are available for limited-resource and BIPOC farmers. The registration price includes a locally sourced breakfast and lunch. Lunch is sponsored by Farm Burger.
