The farm conference program includes over 40 seminars, workshops, short courses and tours, on topics including: Specialty Crops and Products, Crop and Livestock production, Sustainable Farming Practices, Farmers’ Markets, Farm and Food Policy, and Education about Family Farms and Food Systems.

Program features include:
• Tours in Sonoma County, focusing on sustainable agricultural techniques, innovative marketing and nurseries.
• Short Courses on Agri-Nature Tourism, Sustainable Grape Production, Improving the Farmer-Retailer relationship, and Biotechnology.
• Speakers from throughout the Bay Area and California.
• The Shone Farm, SRJC Demonstration Farm, including organic vineyards.
• Regional Wine & Food Tasting, featuring the bounty of the North Bay.

California Farm Conference is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the long-term viability of California's family farms. The 1999 Farm Conference, held in Berkeley, attracted over 700 participants.

"The California Farm Conference is really focusing on family farmers and what it is going to take to have (them) stay out there and keep farming," says David Visher, who has coordinated the conference in the past. "Part of keeping small and family farmers in the business is giving them the tools to survive in an industry that is increasingly going corporate and global," according to Tom Haller, this year’s conference coordinator, and former executive director of the California-based CAFF, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. A lot of small farmers have been brainwashed to think that they’re merely unsuccessful or incomplete big farmers,” Haller says.

In reality, family farmers give more to their communities economically and socially than corporate businesses. In an article published in the summer 2000 edition of Yes! magazine, US Senator Byron Dorgan stated, "A family-based enterprise such as a farm produces more than corn or wheat. It also produces a community. One might say it has a social product as well as a material product, and this social product is especially significant in a country that has more stuff than it knows what to do with, but less community and social cohesion than it needs."

Smaller farmers can also cultivate better connections to the communities they serve with smaller, more direct marketing efforts. "People want to buy more organic, or at least (healthful) local foods," explains Haller. "You find the people to whom this issue is important and you try to involve those people. You have to use your imagination and reach out to them."

Reaching out has always been a recurring theme of the California Farm Conference. Started in 1982, the conference became an instant success, providing much-needed information and networking to the state’s small and specialty crop farmers and direct marketing marketing leaders. Growers have used the conference to innovate their operations with new crops and varieties, value-added products and marketing ideas. "Getting your stuff to the place where it’s going to be valued... is really important," Haller says.

Consumers have also been embracing the same philosophy in California, where the number of farmers’ markets and CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs has been growing almost exponentially.

"When I started (managing markets) there were about 40 to 50 markets in the state," said Lynn Bagley, who runs the Golden Gate Farmers’ Market Association and has helped coordinate different aspects of the farm conference since the late 1980s. “Now there’s more than 100 in the Bay Area alone. You can see the change in the conference, where interest in direct marketing has been growing tremendously," adds Bagley.

Those farmers’ markets have been an inspiration to farmers across the nation, including Sidney Talley, a vegetable grower in Ripley, Tennessee. After attending the farm conference in 1999, Talley went back to the Memphis area and started a string of markets - which the locals are quickly embracing. "My markets last week were 300 to 400 percent better than they were the week before," says Talley. "It’s just bigger and better each time." Upon gathering information about CSAs at last year’s conference in Berkeley, California, Talley also decided to start a similar "gourmet box" program. "I think it’s the way of the future," he says.

While catering primarily to farmers and members of the agricultural industry, the California Farm Conference has also opened its doors to community and environmental leaders, politicians and the general public. A dinner or tasting is usually the highlight of the conference - giving the host city an opportunity to show off its produce. Last year’s Farm-City Dinner fed a sell-out crowd of over 430 people. This year, a Regional Wine & Food Tasting, featuring the bounty of the Bay Area, is scheduled. “It’s a tradition that lets farmers know what they’re doing is important - not only to them, but to the locals as well,” Bagley says. As local foods also receive more recognition, so do the growers. Fine restaurants have shown increasing interest in giving credit to local growers by using their names on menus.

For information & registration for the 16th Annual California Farm Conference: Phone: (530) 888-9206. E-mail: fullcircle@jps.net www.CaliforniaFarmConference.com