12th Annual Midwest Value Added Agriculture Conference
and
4th Annual Wisconsin Food Summit
January 2oth-22nd, 2010
Ramada Convention Center, Eau Claire WI
General Session Speakers:
Thursday Morning Speaker: Will Allen
Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded.
Guiding all is his efforts is the recognition that the unhealthy diets of low-income, urban populations, and such related health problems as obesity and diabetes, largely are attributable to limited access to safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Rather than embracing the “back to the land” approach promoted by many within the sustainable agriculture movement, Allen’s holistic farming model incorporates both cultivating foodstuffs and designing food distribution networks in an urban setting.
Over the last decade, Allen has expanded Growing Power’s initiatives through partnerships with local organizations and activities such as the Farm-City Market Basket Program, which provides a weekly basket of fresh produce grown by members of the Rainbow Farmer’s Cooperative to low-income urban residents at a reduced cost.
Will Allen received a B.A. (1971) from the University of Miami. After a brief career in professional basketball and a number of years in corporate marketing at Procter and Gamble, he returned to his roots as a farmer. He has served as the founder and CEO of Growing Power, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1995 and has taught workshops to aspiring urban farmers across the United States and abroad.
Thursday Night Speaker: Michael Perry
Michael Perry is a humorist and author of the memoirs Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting; Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time; and Truck: A Love Story. Perry has written for Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Backpacker, Orion, and Salon, and is a contributing editor to Men’s Health. His essays have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, and he has performed and produced two live audience recordings: I Got It from the Cows and Never Stand Behind a Sneezing Cow. Perry lives in rural Wisconsin, where he remains active as a volunteer emergency medical responder and raises pigs, chickens and one guinea pig with the help of his wife and daughters. He can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com.
Friday Morning Speaker: Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D
Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D. is a registered dietitian, “investigative” nutritionist, and award-winning journalist, with over 25 years’ experience in clinical, academic and public health nutrition.
Prior to her freelance writing and speaking career, Melinda created and for 15 years directed the Nutrition Communications Center at the University of Missouri. Recognizing the role of children's "media diets" in escalating obesity rates, she blazed the trail blending media literacy with nutrition education. In 2004, Melinda received a two-year Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellowship which allowed her to connect the dots between food, health and agriculture.
Her provocative, practical and personal “Food Sleuth” newspaper columns, magazine articles, conference keynotes cable TV and radio shows help people “think beyond their plates.” Her work has appeared in assorted national publications including the American Journal of Nursing, Current Health, the Rodale Institute and Edible Communities. She is the co-author of a children's book on healthy eating, and writes the "Straight from the Plate" column for Organic Valley Family of Farms. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, the American Dietetic Association and serves on the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services Board. In 2007, she received ADA's award for Excellence in Hunger and Environmental Nutrition and in 2009 she received the Missouri Farmers' Union Excellence in Media Award.
Last year Melinda and her photographer husband received the Farmers' Market Champion award from the MO Department of Agriculture for their Farm Hands Calendar: A Tribute to the Hands that Feed Us. www.columbiafarmersmarket.org/calendar/. As a change agent, Melinda believes critical thinking skills can help us better understand and improve our food system.
Photos from the 2009 Value Added Agriculture Conference
 
 
 
Thank you to our 2009 Sponsors and Exhibitors!
Lead Sponsors
Driftless Area Initiative
MN and WI USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Platinum Sponsor
WI Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
Gold Sponsors
Fillmore Soil and Water Conservation District
MN Department of Agriculture
ERC/MN Regional Partnership
Silver Sponsors
AgStar Financial Services
CHS
MN USDA Farm Service Agency
MN Farmers Union
Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES)
Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire
The Cooperative Foundation
WI Farmers Union
WI Milk Marketing Board
Xcel Energy
Bronze Sponsors
Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative
Land Stewardship Project
MN NCR Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education and MN institute of Sustainable Agriculture
Olmsted Soil and Water Conservation District
Peoples Food Cooperative – LaCrosse, WI
Windustry
Thanks to our in-kind donors and local food providers:
Brian Peterson Farm
Chippewa Valley Bean
Da Capo Press
Deutsch Family Farms
Fairview Farm
Fillmore SWCD
Gaylin and Linda Raab
Great Harvest Bread Company
Hammerand Farm
Hoch Orchard
Just Local Food Cooperative
Lambalot Acres
Lori Feyen
Merrill’s
MN Department of Agriculture
Natural Way Mills
Organic Valley and Organic Prairie Family of Farms
Pastureland Cooperative
Peace Coffee
Pepin Heights Orchard
Rice Lake Lions Club
Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau
Sekapp Orchard
The Bullfrog’s Eat My Fish Farm
Thousand Hills Cattle Company
Wallace Hildebrandt
Whitewater Gardens
Whole Farm Cooperative
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
A special thank you to conference caterer Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe Catering, chef Omar of Omar’s Kitchen, and the staff of the Mayo Civic Center.
To become involved with the 2010 Value Added Conference,
Please contact:
River Country RC&D
Council Inc.
(715) 834-9672
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