Thursday, February 28, 2013

Women in Agriculture Conference


The 12th Annual Regional Women In Agriculture Conference was held February 25-26, 2013 at the Dover Downs Hotel in Dover, Delaware. This was the first time for me to attend this event. 

 Upon arrival I was greeted by friendly ladies and enjoyed a nice breakfast. 

Julie DeYoung, spokesperson for Perdue Farms spoke on “Putting the Family Back into Farming - A Case Study in Reshaping the Image of Modern Agriculture”. She was joined by a panel of three farmers.

 Dover Downs served a great lunch probably the best I ever had at a conference. The hardest part was choosing which dessert to try. I went with the cheesecake and a slice of chocolate cake. 

There was several workshops to sit in during the day to learn about risk management.

The second day, Dover Downs served us a nice hot breakfast to get us going. More workshops were available to attend. Adams Fruit Market is committed to food safety so without question I chose the Food Safety GAPs workshop. Meredith Melendez from Rutgers, spoke on farm food safety. 

I also attended the workshop titled Attracting Songbirds given by Brent Marsh. He was an entertaining speaker and talked a lot about insects. He said if we want to attract song birds then we need insects for them to eat. I won the book Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy. I can’t wait to read it.

Closing remarks was given by Ed Kee, Delaware Secretary of Agriculture. He talked about the Changing Times of Agriculture. 



This conference was a relaxed learning experience with keynote speakers, formal presentations and the opportunity to network with other farm women like myself.
Hats off to the planning committee for a great job!  I had a wonderful time and I am looking forward to next year’s conference.

Blessings,
The Plant Lady ~ Linda

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