Illinois SARE Program

April 15

9:00 am

Welcome, Cynthia Haskins, Illinois Farm Bureau

9:10 am

Jorie Porter, Start2Farm.gov

9:20 am

Dr. Lisa Hightower, American Farm Bureau Federation

9:35 am

Lilia McFarland, USDA, New & Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program Coordinator

10:15 am

Break

10:30 am

Debi Kelly, University of Missouri - Missouri Beginning Farmers

11:00 am

Breakout Session Overview, Rick Weinzierl, University of Illinois

11:15 am

Breakouts:

• Scaling up/Aggregation (Auditorium)
  (Facilitator: Deborah Cavanaugh Grant, University of Illinois)
• Minority/Underserved Groups (Training Room A)
  (Facilitator: Leigh Adcock, Women, Food and Agriculture Network)
• Recruitment (Training Room D)
  (Facilitator: Mary Hosier, University of Illinois)

12:15 pm

Lunch

1:15 pm

Breakout Wrap-up Reports - Session Facillitators

1:45 pm

Leigh Adcock, Women, Food and Agriculture Network

2:15 pm

Breakout Round 2, Rick Weinzierl, University of Illinois

2:30 pm

Breakouts:

• Land Acquisition & Financing (Training Room A)
  (Facilitator: Terra Brockman, The Land Connection)
• Connecting the Puzzle Pieces / Growers & Buyers (Auditorium)
  (Facilitator: Steve Arnold, Kane County Farm Bureau)
• USDA Services and Economic Development (Training Room D)
  (Facilitator: Jorie Porter, National Agricultural Library)

3:30 pm

Break

3:45 pm

Breakout Wrap-up Reports - Session Facilitators

4:15 pm

Barbara Stille, Farm Credit Services

4:45 pm

Adjourn

6:30 pm

Dinner Pairings (optional) Join others in sharing a meal and talking about your state specific as we pair our participants for dinner at one of our main fine dining venues. Meet your group in the Chateau Lobby at 6:30.

April 16

8:00 am

Welcome, Kendra Schilling, Illinois Department of Agriculture

8:15 am

Rick Weinzierl, University of Illinois - Preparing a New Generation of Illinois Fruit and Vegetable Farmers

8:45 am

Breakout Round 3, Karen Lehman, Fresh Taste

9:00 am

Breakouts:

• Advanced Learning Opportunities for Skilled and Successful Farmers (in order to further improve or scale up operations)(Training Room A)
  (Facilitator: Karen Lehman, Fresh Taste)
• Food Product Processing and Aggregation (in order to increase product value and marketing opportunites, and increase food system impact (Training Room D)
  (Facilitator: Eva Agùdelo, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project)
• Food Safety (Auditorium)
  (Facilitator: Debi Kelly, University of Missouri)

10:00 am

Break

10:30 am

Breakout Wrap-up Reports - Session Facilitators

11:00 am

Dave Alwan, Guest, Reality Show The Shark Tank

11:45 am

Lunch

12:45 am

Eva Agùdelo, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project & National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI)

1:15 pm

Breakout Round 4, Rick Weinzierl, University of Illinois

1:30 pm

Breakouts:

• Action Steps: How can we increase support for Beginning Farmer programs? (Auditorium)
  (Facilitator: Jim Fraley, Illinois Farm Bureau)
• Moving Forward: What are we NOT doin well enough? What are NEW things we should be doing? (Training Room D)
  (Facilitator: Karen Lehman, Fresh Taste)

2:30 pm

Breakout Wrap-up Reports - Session Facilitators

3:00 pm

Conference Wrap-up Conversation

3:30 pm

Adjourn