The annual meeting of the South Central Chapter of the Sustainable Farming Association will feature a talk on climate change by Julia Olmstead from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Olmstead recently attended the international meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on climate change. As world leaders meet to try to establish new policies related to climate change, many groups from around the world gathered to urge these leaders to do more to deal with these issues.

IATP was one of many groups there that were concerned about the connections between agriculture and climate change. Olmstead will talk about information available from IATP, which covers the potential negative and positive impacts of agriculture on climate change and includes potential positive effects of sustainable agricultural practices on dealing with this situation.

This annual meeting of SCSFA is open to the public. The meeting will be held on Saturday at the First Baptist Church of Clarks Grove with registration beginning at 9 a.m. A noon meal will be available. There is no charge for the meeting. At 9:30 a.m. SCSFA will hold its annual business meeting. The rest of the program will start at 10:30 a.m. with some comments from the new executive director of the Sustainable Farming Association, John Mesko. A noon meal will be served following the morning program, which will include a talk on wind power and breakout sessions on production of food for local markets and on sustainable crop and livestock production. The afternoon will be devoted to the talk by Olmstead. The meeting will end at about 2:30 p.m.

In the morning, following the comments by Mesko, Tom Willette will provide information on a wind power system he is using on his farm. After Willette’s talk participants will divide into two groups for the breakout sessions. The session on local food production will be lead by John Ostgarden, who has several years of experience selling vegetables and other things that he grows on his farm at Clinton Falls. Dean Goette, an agricultural consultant who works out of his office in Hope, will lead the other breakout on crops and livestock. The meal will feature soup, bread, organic milk and other food items supplied by SCSFA members. 

The public is welcome to join at any point in the program. For more, call (507) 256-4876.