Session 3 Workshops
Tuesday, May 23, 9:30-10:45am
Tuesday, May 23, 9:30-10:45am
Farm Financial Statements, Standards and Analysis: Part 2
Room: 2B
This workshop will cover intermediate farm financial statement preparation and analysis techniques. Topics will include production based income statements, depreciation, profitability and ratio analysis. The session will also introduce analysis techniques including break-even and sensitivity analysis. This session is designed to familiarize professionals with financial analysis and forecasting methods once accurate financial statements have been prepared.
Mark Cannella, University of Vermont Extension, VT
Program Design Roundtable
Room: CR
Program managers and directors from across the country will share about various aspects of program design and have the chance to ask questions and better understand each others' challenges and accomplishments. What are the pros and cons of various methods of delivering business services? What funding sources do different program models utilize and find most accessible and sustainable? For programs that primarily use consultants, how do you evaluate and manage consultant networks? What metrics do different programs use to evaluate impacts of business assistance, and really get at the changes in business management and work-life balance for farmers and food producers?
Facilitated by Ela Chapin, VT Farm & Forest Viability Program, VT
Community-Based Solutions to Realize Human Rights on Farms
Room: 1B
This session will introduce the audience to different dairy farm workers' organizations and their approaches to bringing human rights to their communities in New York and Vermont. These programs bring together farmworkers, consumers, farmers and corporate buyers in support of dignified wages and humane labor and housing conditions in the dairy industry in the Northeastern United States. The Milk With Dignity campaign is a worker-driven social responsibility initiative inspired by the groundbreaking work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and modeled after their highly acclaimed Fair Food Program.
Rafaela Rodriguez, Milk with Dignity Standards Council, VT
Tom Fritzsche, Milk with Dignity Standards Council, VT
Crispin Hernandez, Workers' Center of Central New York, NY
Rebecca Fuentes, Workers' Center of Central New York, NY
Enrique Balcazar, Migrant Justice, VT
Farm Transfer Planning Part I: A Key to Viability
Room: 2C
Part one of a 2-part workshop on farm transfer planning and its relationship to farm viability. The workshops will leverage the expertise of Land For Good Field and Program staff, and introduce service providers to the importance of careful and comprehensive farm transfer planning to overall, multi-generational farm viability.
Kathy Ruhf, Land For Good, MA
Mike Ghia, Land For Good, VT
Jon Jaffe, Farm Credit East, MA
Resilient Food Systems
Room: 2A
This session will provide framework for discussion on the tensions and realities of resilient food systems for emerging and established farmers based on work in the Shenandoah and Rappahannock River basins of Virginia and the Lake Champlain Basin in Vermont. The moderated panel will outline efforts to strengthen the region’s food system and improve soil and watershed health.
Peter Callan, Virginia Cooperative Extension, VA
Nancy Everhart, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, VT
Tony Kitsos, University of Vermont Extension, VT
Regional Institutional Markets
Room: 1A
In most communities, institutions are the largest food buyers, presenting considerable market potential for local producers. At the same time, institutions often present many barriers to local producers and processors. In this session, attendees will learn from institutional market researchers and specialists about barriers, opportunities, and innovative work underway in New England institutional markets.
Annie Rowell, Sodexo, VT
Maeve McInnis, Sodexo, ME
Nessa Richman, Farm to Institution New England, RI
Beyond Startup: Supporting “Advanced Beginner” Farmers through the Tricky Intermediate Years
Room: 3A
Four experienced service providers share approaches to business assistance and discuss why they have focused programs on advanced beginner farmers. Hear about data collected by the Carrot Project to identify traits that were most important in helping farmers reach their goals. Learn about New Farmer Profit Teams to improve the long-term success of advanced beginning farmers and a wide range of services provided to farm and food businesses by CISA and the Intervale Center – including land access support.
Liz Gleason, VT Farm & Forest Viability Program, VT – facilitator
Dorothy Suput, The Carrot Project, MA
Dan Welch, NY FarmNet, NY
Devon Whitney-Deal, CISA, MA
Maggie Donin, Intervale Center, VT