Special attractions this year include the Friday evening Farmer Panel: Wholesale Lessons from the Field and the Saturday keynote with Fred Kirschenmann of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. You'll also have the opportunity for one-on-one business coaching with Entrepreneur Coaching Roundtables on Saturday.

Friday sessions include pre-conference tours to a creamery, a winery and an urban greenhouse farm and afternoon workshops on financing, agricultural education and pastured rabbit and poultry. Saturday breakout sessions will follow five tracks: Sustainable Fruits and Vegetables, Grass-based Systems, Value-Added/Profitability, Urban Agriculture, and Sustainable Communities.

And don't miss the membership meeting, networking reception and opening and closing gatherings, all great events for building our sustainable agriculture community while working and having fun together.

Two-day registration, including all meals, for Future Harvest-CASA members is just $149. Be sure to renew your membership when you register in order to qualify for the member price (unless you joined or renewed AFTER than April 2010). There are a limited number of scholarships available for active farmers - see the conference page for details on how to apply and submit your application by December 5.

The Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Reisterstown, Maryland, provides the perfect backdrop for the 2011 Annual Conference. The Pearlstone Center promotes environmental awareness by modeling bio-sustainable business practices and facilities management, and features Kayam Organic Farm, a working educational farm. Meals throughout the weekend will feature sustainable, kosher cuisine, sourced extensively from local farms and producers. YOU MUST BOOK LODGING SEPARATELY FROM YOUR CONFERENCE REGISTRATION: Click here for the link to the lodging page.

The Future Harvest-CASA 2011 Annual Conference is made possible through the support of our generous sponsors. Please help us thank them!

Keynote
Chesapeake Bay Foundation-Maryland Grazers Network

Platinum
Maryland Agriculture and Resource-Based Industries Development Corporation (MARBIDCO) • Food Alliance/Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) • Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) • University of Maryland Extension-Maryland Rural Enterprise Development Center (MREDC) • Purple Mountain Organics • University of Maryland Extension-Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) • FRESHFARM Markets

Gold
Alternative Farming Systems Information Service (USDA) • Forestry for the Bay • National Capital Farms • National Resource Conservation Service (USDA) • Small Farm Central 

Silver
Animal Welfare Approved • Baltimore County Center for Maryland Agriculture • Center for a Livable Future • Common Market • Harry Hughes Center for AgroEcology • Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation (MAEF) • Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment • Maryland Plants and Supplies • National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service-ATTRA • One Straw Farm • Sustainable Maryland

Supporter
Maryland Vegetable Growers

Future Harvest- A Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (Future Harvest-CASA) is a nonprofit organization representing a regional network of farmers, agricultural professionals, landowners and consumers living and working in the Chesapeake region. Future Harvest-CASA promotes profitable, environmentally sound and socially acceptable food and farming systems that work to sustain communities.