Day1: Blogging from SARE Conference

It’s Day One at the 2008 SARE Conference and what a start! The Opening Plenary was a great start to the conference with a welcoming address and keynote that was both motivating and informative.

(PHOTO: Jerry Dewitt, Opening Plenary Speaker at 2008 SARE Conference)

Jerry DeWitt with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture had some very powerful points to his presentation. Dewitt stated that one thing that we have learned over the past 10 years is a new ag vocabulary that now includes words like locavore, food miles, slow food, grass fed). He went on to state that some of the next steps we must take are to re-define agriculture (as it’s alive and changing), we must bring new voices to the table, research and document the economic components of sustainable agriculture and concentrate on the food-health and agriculture relationship.

The rest of the afternoon will be spent at breakout sessions and then at dinner we will hear from Judy Gifford and Karl Kupers on Advancing the Frontier of Sustainable Agriculture in the Field: Innovations for Farm, Ranch and Market.

View a complete schedule of the SARE Conference or learn more about the speakers.