To all those naysayers out there who say it can't be done with sustainable agriculture alone, I say "nuh-uh"! I know it can be done with people like this at the helm. The theme of the SARE 20th anniversary conference is "how sustainable farming is rapidly changing the face of American agriculture." 800 people convened from all across the country to see what's going on. Here are just some of the highlights:
Karl Kupers of Shepherd's Grain, an alliance of progressive grain growers in and around Reardon, Washington, clearly has marketing in his blood and knows it. "Create sustainable envy," he said during his speech. Back in 2002 he saw a way to connect directly with the end user of his product: bakers. Once a traditional grain farmer, today Karl says that his farming methods are "a complete reversal of conventional farming." And the surprise - it's profitable. "Sustainable to me equals covering the true cost of production," says Karl. "Commodity markets don't look at the true cost of production."
Bryant Terry got the crowd riled up and actually had them chanting "Eat Grub" or healthy, local, sustainable food for all. An eco-chef and food activist, Terry is now a Food & Society Policy Fellow and working currently on the Southern Organic Kitchen Project, to educate primarily African-Americans living in the Southern United States about the connections between diet and health. He is also ambassador for the People's Grocery in West Oakland, California, a town that he says has 53 liquor stores and no grocery stores. He announced their soon-to-be-open brick and mortar store in 2009.
LaRhea Pepper was there to accept her 2008 Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture. In 1991, she and her husband Terry took a risk and planted their first organic cotton, contracting with a single buyer to take all of their crop that year. They never looked back. They co-founded the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative, which established Texas as an international leader in organic cotton production and then launched their own product line, Organic Essentials. Sadly, her husband recently passed away due to cancer. But today she is on the move to promote organic cotton production worldwide. "It's important today to be the catalyst."
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