How Your Food is Produced Does Matter!
Our annual Grain Place Foundation Field Day on July 18 gives guests an opportunity to tour the farm and grain processing plant and to hear a keynote from Brise Tencer of the Organic Farming Research Foundation; this year, the whole Field Day is going online. This makes it even easier for us to welcome more farmers, supporters of regenerative agriculture, and curious people who want to know more.
For the interactive panel discussion and Q&A after this video, registered participants can join us on Zoom and anyone can watch on via Facebook Live.
Q&A after this video, registered participants can join us on Zoom and anyone can watch on via Facebook Live.
Our 10am (Central) Field Day Tour gives you a chance to a first-hand view of the Vetter family’s long-term experiment in organic farming at The Grain Place. See our 9-year field rotation up close, including crop rotation and grazing. We are excited to share some new experiments we are working on, including new permaculture work and the pasturing of some of our pigs. We are eager to show and share what we have been learning about farming for the health of the soil. Whether it’s your introduction to organic farming or a chance to look with a lifetime of experience, we are eager to have you as a part of our farm tour. The tour also includes Grain Place Foods, the on-site organic grain processing facility. For the first time ever at our Field Day, we are able to invite you in to see the plant while it’s operating!
For the interactive panel discussion and Q&A after this video, registered participants can join us on Zoom and anyone can watch on via Facebook Live.
At 11am (Central) we will welcome Brise Tencer as our keynote speaker. Brise is Executive Director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). Under her leadership, OFRF fosters the improvement and widespread adoption of organic farming systems. For more than 30 years, OFRF has cultivated organic research, education, and federal policies that bring more farmers and acreage into organic production. Brise Tencer has decades of leadership experience working on organic food policy, farming, and research issues, working with OFRF and in past work with the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), where she managed the government affairs and grower education program, coordinated their regional chapters of members, and ran a grant-making program. Prior to that, she served as lead lobbyist on food and agriculture issues for the Union of Concerned Scientists. There she developed legislative campaigns on a range of agriculture issues, including organic (focusing on the connection between organic practices and climate change), USDA research priorities, and food safety.
Ms Tencer will offer insights about the future of organics in the US. Her talk will be followed by a panel discussion with local leaders, looking at the local application and impact of these changes, as well as the work of OFRF.
Participating in the panel conversation will be David Vetter of Grain Place Foods, Bill Whitney of the Prairie Plains Resource Institute and Graham Christensen of GC Resolve.
In addition, we are pleased to be able to show and share art from local photographer Sarah Bailey during our Field Day.
Sarah is the Naturalist Educator and Greenhouse Manager at Prairie Plains Resource Institute. In the greenhouse she grows 90+ native plant species to enhance prairie and wetland restoration work in Nebraska and has been developing an educational prototype to actively engage high school students and educators in ecological restoration work. Sarah is the creator and coordinator of the Youth Naturalist Program and Young Nebraska Ecologists at Prairie Plains. These programs, for middle school and high school students, are designed to get youth outdoors to explore prairie and Platte River ecosystems, while gaining valuable knowledge about the natural world.
Sarah is a Nebraska native with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. During her college years, she discovered Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center and fell in love with the prairie. Hiking through the tallgrass and wildflowers and photographing landscapes, plants and insect life there left a lasting impression. Time spent at Cedar Point Biological Station with an undergraduate research program furthered her interests in prairie ecology and plant communities. Through her current work at Prairie Plains, Sarah has developed a passion for restoring and managing prairie and educating others about prairie ecosystems and ecological restoration. Sarah is an avid photographer, capturing life on the prairie and landscapes across Nebraska. She works with digital and medium format film photography. Sarah is passionate about using photography as a tool to help others connect to the natural world. S
Register Now for Field Day 2020
Field Day brings together farmers, local people interested in organics, industry leaders and much more. When you choose to be a part of Field Day, you become a part of the farm community, even as we gather virtually. Registration is FREE, and gives you access to live participation in the Field Day, including Q&A opportunities.
Thank you to our 2020 Field Day Sponsors!
Harvest Sponsors
Tilth Sponsors
Roots Sponsors
Planter Sponsors
Allison Vetter & Will Cone
Seed Sponsors
We are currently seeking additional Sponsors for Field Day 2020. Your donations support not only the Field Day event, but enable the ongoing work of the Grain Place Foundation.
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