Farmer’s Forum is a monthly roundtable discussion held every third Wednesday of the month, November through February. These discussions are an opportunity to take a retrospective look at the year we’ve had with an eye toward planning for future resiliency and long-term viability. Each week’s discussion will be centered around a topic with discussion prompts provided to get things moving. The meat of the discussion will be provided by you! We hope to learn from each other, identifying the changes that worked and brainstorming the strategies that will support success in the future.

Schedule

All events will take place 1:00pm – 2:00pm CT on Zoom.

November 18 — 2020, what happened?
    → Taking stock of 2020: pandemic, bad weather…did anything good come of it?

December 16 — Pivoting or walking in circles?
    → Concerns that prompted change and how those changes played out.
    → Have you assessed the health of your revenue streams?
    → Shifting markets, demand spikes, and lulls, oh my!

January 20 — What lessons will we keep moving forward?
    → CSA growth and maintenance.
    → Market channel expansion and sustainability.
    → Employee management in a pandemic.

February 17 — What’s next? Needs for farmers and the food system.
    → How can we ensure a strong, resilient local food system that feeds our communities?
    → What is needed to better prepare for the next big disruption?