Register Now for 2022 S.D. Local Foods Conference
The annual South Dakota Local Foods Conference (SDLFC) will take place Nov. 17-19, 2022 at the Sturgis Community Center (1401 Lazelle St., Sturgis, SD 57785).
This year’s conference will kick off Thursday evening with a mixer at the Sturgis Brewing Company, followed by a weekend of presentations by agricultural experts in our region.
Conference attendees will enjoy locally-sourced breakfasts & lunches catered by Chef Travis Bartels of the north Black Hills area and Chef Jordan Taylor, Chef and Co-Owner of Bread and Circus, Pizza Cheeks, En Place Catering, and Boathouse Bar and Grill in Sioux Falls.
Participants can connect with businesses & organizations involved in local foods during vendor times to converse on products and opportunities to improve their business.
The conference will wrap up with an opportunity to tour multiple farms committed to organic and regenerative practices around the Sturgis area, including Bear Butte Gardens, Belle Valley Ancient Grains, and Moonrise Mountain Ranch.
Producers, buyers, and other supporters of local foods are invited to attend presentations on specialty crop production, industry challenges, new technologies & opportunities, and local food projects happening in South Dakota.
Speakers
Kicking off the event is keynote speaker Natalie Stites Means, an organizer and social entrepreneur. She founded the HeSapa Voter Initiative, a civic engagement effort for urban Indians in South Dakota and co-founded Wotakuye Mutual Aid Society, the community pandemic response for urban Indians in Rapid City. She was appointed to the S.D. Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, was a part of the Rapid City cohort of the Creative Community Leadership Institute, and is a My Sisters Are Warriors Ambassador for Thrive Unltd. She will speak to the pressing issues in our state, examining hunger, food justice and sovereignty that continue to define our shared quality of life in South Dakota.
Keynote speaker Hannah Breckbill of Humble Hands Harvest in Decorah, IA is now in her tenth season of production. She has experienced community building from the intimacy of a household or business partnership, to the spiritedness of a weekend gathering, to the complexity of a local food web. Breckbill will share stories and insights in her presentation: ‘Relying on Each Other: The Practice of Community.’ She will also host a breakout session on ‘Adding Livestock to a Vegetable Farm.’
Along with several panel presentations, including a Chef Panel, Farm to School Panel, SARE Farmers Forum, and Seed Saving panel, other breakout sessions include:
-
Automation for High Tunnels, Watering Systems, and Monitoring Coolers – Peggy Martin & Bud Manke, Cedar Creek Gardens
-
SNAP and Incentive programs at Farmers Markets – Barbara Cromwell, Black Hills Farmers Market
-
Growing and Marketing Unique Vegetable Varieties – Jeremy Nelson, Tillford Rye Farm
-
Cover Crop Strategies – Shawn Freeland, Dry Creek Farm & Ranch
-
A Mechanical Engineer’s Approach to Gardening – Darin Waldner, Waldner Farms
-
Soil Health & Cover Crop Management for Vegetable Production – Rhoda Burrows, Professor & SDSU Extension Horticulture Specialist, and Kristine Lang, Assistant Professor & SDSU Extension Consumer Horticulture Specialist
-
Lamb & Wool: Adding Value to Your Operation – Lisa Surber, LM Livestock Services, and Jaelyn Quintana, SDSU Extension Sheep Field Specialist
-
Regenerating a local food system on the Pine Ridge Reservation – Nick Hernandez, Makoce Agriculture Development
-
Controlled Environment Agriculture at Western Dakota Technical College – Kelsey Murray, Western Dakota Tech
Registration
For more information and to register for this year’s conference, please visit the South Dakota Local Foods website. Registration closes Nov. 11, 2022.
Registration is also open for an optional Agritourism Pre-Conference Workshop, coordinated by Peggy Schlechter, SDSU Extension and Jacey Ellsworth, South Dakota Department of Tourism.
This event will address topics such as visitor expectations, collaborations, developing a tour, communications with visitors, and other important action steps. Visit SDSU Extension’s event page for more information and to register.
Partners & Sponsors
The SDLFC is hosted annually by the S.D. Local Foods Coalition, a collaboration of partners including Dakota Rural Action, South Dakota Specialty Producers Association, SDSU Extension, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service of South Dakota, and Bear Butte Gardens.
Event sponsors include USDA-NRCS, NCR-SARE, City of Sturgis, Breadroot Natural Foods Co-Op, How to Grow, Audubon Dakota, Practical Farmers of Iowa and through support by the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Questions
Direct any conference questions to katie@dakotarural.org or 605-697-5204. For more information and to register for this year’s conference, visit our website or Facebook event.