Sustainable Agriculture Conference Set for Feb. 5 to 7 in Mandan

Nationally known speakers and experts on sustainable agriculture will be featured during the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society’s 25th Annual Winter Conference Thursday, Feb. 5 to Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Seven Seas Inn and Conference Center in Mandan.

Keynote speakers for the event are Wendell Berry and David Kline. The North Dakota State University Extension Service also sponsors the conference. Registration opens at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 5 and continues with full-day sessions on Friday and Saturday.

Berry is the author of more than 40 books of essays, poetry and novels. His most recent work is a book of essays entitled Citizen Papers. He has worked a farm in Kentucky since 1965. He is a former professor of English at the University of Kentucky and has received numerous awards for his work. “He has been called one of the great moral essayists of our time,” according to Brad Brummond, NDSU Extension Service Agent for Walsh County and an organic contact.

Kline is a farmer, naturalist, author and member of an Old Order Amish community. He farms 70 acres using traditional Amish methods. “He is known for the wide diversity of wildlife his farm attracts, as well as the appreciation and understanding with which he observes the natural world,” Brummond says. “His farm also serves as a model that blends older traditional methods with newer technologies.”

NDSU specialists scheduled to speak at the conference include:

Other speakers include producers, experts from private industry and university specialists.

For more information on the conference and a registration form go to www.npsas.org or call the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society at (701) 883-4304.

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Source: Brad Brummond, (701) 284-6248, bradley.brummond@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, richard.mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu