Announcing Sheri Salatin as 2013 AGRItunity Speaker!

The AGRItunity 2013 Conference and Trade Show planning committe is excited to announce the selection of a keynote speaker for the January 26 conference. Sheri Salatin is the marketing director at Polyface Farm and stay-at-home mom of three children. Sheri is passionate about clean food and enjoys working the land along side her husband, Daniel.

Sheri was influential in getting the buying clubs up and running and now oversees 25 drop locations throughout Virginia and Maryland with over 3,000 families. The buying clubs are nurtured under her direct oversight and she is the go-to person for all questions about marketing to metropolitan areas.
Through real life experiences, Sheri has honed her skills and shares some of the best ways to approach and sell to some of the top chefs in the world.
Polyface services more than 4,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey and forestry products through relationship marketing.
Today Sheri spends her days juggling marketing, website maintenance, blogging, motherhood, and farming. At thirty-one, Sheri is married to husband Daniel and has two sons Travis and Andrew and one daughter Lauryn.

Registration is open for AGRItunity at http://sumter.ifas.ufl.edu   We are also seeking vendors for the famous AGRItunity Trade Show.  Mark your calendars for a great day - January 26, 2013!

 

SARE Grants for Producers Available Now

Each year two Producer Grants are offered by Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) to any farmer or group of farmers in the southern United States. The Call for Proposals is available now and proposals are due November 15, 2012. Both grants provide funding to help a producer improve processes on the farm but do not pay a farmer to farm.

 

The On-Farm Research Grant Program is a grant that is applied for by a county extension agent, university researcher, or other agencies that regularly work with farmers.  The proposal is to be written with the producer for a research project on their farm that can last up to two years.  The funding is provided for costs of sampling, materials and supplies, field day expenses, travel, and hired labor and can be provided up to a maximum of $15,000.

 

The Producer Grant is similar but is applied for by the farmer for an innovative sustainable practice that they are not currently doing but would like to try.  The purpose of the grant is to help pay for the risk of trying new practices, and also to provide funding to share the results with other farmers at a field day.  Unlike the On-Farm Research Grant the farmer submits the proposal but an extension agent must still be involved to assist in the project. 

 

The Producer Grant will pay for the same expenses as the On-Farm Research Grant but is limited to $10,000 for an individual farmer or $15,000 for a producer group. Areas of focus for both grants are: Beneficial Insect Habitat, Alternative Crops/Animals, Organic Agriculture, Sustainable Marketing Projects, Sustainable Grazing Systems, Soil Organic Matter Building/Protection Management, Increasing Sustainability of Existing Farming Practices, Appropriate Technology and Agroforestry/Water Quality.

 

Contact the UF/IFAS Sumter County Extension Office at (352) 793-2728 x236 to learn more or go to the Southern SARE website at ssare@uga.edu.