This year's theme is Women Changing the Landscape, featuring keynote speaker Debra Eschmeyer, an organic farmer and co-founder and program director of FoodCorps, the first national volunteer service program for young people working for food security in limited resource communities. She is a former Kellogg Food & Society Fellow and has worked as outreach director at the National Farm to School Network and as project director at the National Family Farm Coalition. Her 20-acre farm, Harvest Sun Farm, is in Ohio.
The conference begings with a local food-focused progressive dinner in Des Moines' East Village and Court Avenue districts, ending at Jasper Winery, owned by a woman, with a wine and cohoclate receptions. Workshops on Saturday will cover topics from farm startups to community organizations.
This event is receiving a grant from the Leopold Center's Competitive Educational Support Program (CESP) to cover travel cost for the keynote speaker and to provide registration scholarships.
Early registration deadline is January 13, 2012.
Event flier [PDF]