Two Specialty Crop Conferences in 2015 including Jacksonville and Apopka
GAINESVILLE, Florida. May, 2015 – The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Extension Team is pleased to announce five Regional Small Farms & Alternative Enterprises Conferences throughout Florida in 2015 and 2016.
The annual statewide Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Conference has been a signature event in the Florida farming community since 2009. In the past six years (2009-2014), more than 4,000 attendees have benefited from educational programs and networking opportunities at these events. Year after year it has been a tremendously rewarding and successful event.
Building on this foundation, the conference planning team has evolved into regional events to better serve the needs of local farmers across Florida. These events will continue to offer the same quality of programming as past statewide conferences, but they will also meet the needs of targeted specialty crop industries at a local level. Each regional event will be led by a local team composed of extension faculty, farmers and local industry stakeholders, as well as statewide partners.
Regional Events Planned in Northeast and Central Florida
A regional Conference is planned for northeast Florida. This event will take place on August 14 & 15, 2015 at the University of North Florida (UNF) Student Union in Jacksonville. Online Registration for this event will open on June 1st, 2015.
Another regional conference is planned for Central Florida at the Mid-Florida Research and Education Center, Apopka; on November 6, 2015.
About the Conferences
The goals of the Florida Small Farms and Alternative Enterprises Conferences are to provide farmers with up-to-date, research-based and in-depth educational information they can immediately apply to their operation to facilitate solutions-based collaboration by encouraging networking and an open dialog among members of Florida’s small farms community, and to increase awareness of Florida’s small farms industry among decision-makers, community organizations and agricultural professionals The conferences are supported in part by a competitive grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.
For more information please contact Jose Perez at 352-294-1692 or joseperezoro@ufl.edu. Visit us online at http://www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/smallfarms. For updates on these conferences please sign in to receive email updates, or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FL.SFAEC ###
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