US (LA): Seasoned growers to gather at 2018 ASCFG meeting

The ASCFG presents a meeting designed specifically for cut flower growers well established in their careers: those considering expansion or retirement, farm transition, and long-term planning. This intensive two-day event is limited to 50 attendees; registration will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

Presenters
Lynn Byczynski founded Growing for Market, a national periodical for market farmers, in 1992 and operated it for 25 years until she sold the business in 2016. Throughout that time, she and her husband, Dan Nagengast, ran a small organic vegetable and flower farm near Lawrence, Kansas, and sold through a cooperative CSA, at farmers’ markets, to chefs, florists, and natural food stores. Her farming experiences provided constant fodder for her writing career, which included her books The Flower Farmer and Market Farming Success, both still in print. She recently assumed the role of head honcho at Seeds from Italy, a garden seed import business she and Dan bought in 2011 and are planning to pass on soon to their two adult children, Will and Laurel. It’s a difficult job that requires her to grow Italian vegetables in her home garden, go to Italy every other year, and dine at Italian restaurants. Once she has transferred her business knowledge to the next generation, she plans to retire back into her true calling of writing about horticulture and the people who are passionate about it.

Mark Cain, co-owner of Dripping Springs Farm in Huntsville, Arkansas, came to organic market gardening through his interest in all things biological, with a degree in biology from the University of Illinois and subsequent study in organic horticulture at the Farm and Garden Project of the University of California Santa Cruz in 1978. Mark is an active member of the Fayetteville Farmers Market Board of Directors, and often an invited speaker at local and regional sustainable agriculture conferences.

Mimo and Miranda Davis-Duschack carved a one-acre urban flower farm into the middle of a St. Louis neighborhood. Now in its sixth year, their intensive, almost year-round operation produces more than 85 kinds of cut flowers, sold at farmers’ markets, and for weddings and events. They have also been awarded several grants that have helped have helped them expand their business dramatically.

Poppy Davis teaches and advises on agricultural business and policy issues affecting family-scale farms and ranchers and community interests in healthy food and farming systems. She regularly provides formal and informal training and technical assistance to beginning farmers and ranchers on a variety of agricultural business issues including business formation, land tenure, credit, cash flow, taxation, legal liability, including regulatory compliance, and marketing. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Arkansas Law School teaching a course in agricultural taxation. Recent projects include providing workshops and technical assistance under the University of California at Berkeley’s BFRDP project “Growing Roots”, developing and presenting a special curriculum on food safety and inventory accounting for niche meat producers at the NC Choices Women in Meat Conference (funded by the Wallace Center), and ongoing affiliations with the University of California at Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems Farm Apprentice Program, the Center for Land Based Learning’s California Farm Academy, The National Farmers Union Beginning Farmer Institute, and California Farm Link. She worked eight years at the USDA from 2004-2011, most recently as the National Program Leader for Small Farms and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. Previously she was a California CPA with an emphasis in agricultural enterprises and non-profits. She holds a Juris Doctor from Drake University Law School, a Masters in Journalism from Georgetown, and a BS in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Davis.

Alex Hitt has been farming outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina for 36 years with his wife Betsy. An extremely diversified operation, they produce cut flowers, small fruits, and vegetables. The majority of their income is from a two day a week farmers' market and the rest in direct sales to a number of restaurants. They have also marketed crops by pick-your-own and roadside stands, and to grocery stores, florists, and floral wholesalers. They have both been full time on the farm since 1990 and make their entire living off of 2 ½ acres in production. Alex graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s degree in soils. He is on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Environmental Farming Systems in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is also the Board Chair of the Rural Advancement Foundation International—USA. Alex is the past Chair of the Administrative Council of the Southern Region on the USDA’s Sustainable Agricultural Research and Education program. Betsy and Alex were named 1995 Small Farmers of the Year by N.C. State A & T Univ.; 1995 Farm Stewards of the Year by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association; and in 2006 awarded the Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture. In 2008 they were inducted as Fellows in the Fellowship of Southern Farmers, Artisans, and Chefs. Peregrine Farm was included in the National Academy of Sciences report “Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century” in 2010.

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