HARTFORD, Conn. — The Harvest New England Association is pleased to announce that Forrest Pritchard will be the Keynote speaker at the Harvest New England Agricultural Marketing Conference and Trade Show on February 24^th.

Forrest Pritchard is a seventh-generation farmer and a New York Times bestselling author, from Berryville, Virginia, holding degrees in English and Geology from William & Mary. Upon returning from college in the mid-90s, he took over his family’s farm—primarily growing GMO corn and soybeans—hoping to make the land profitable for the first time in decades. Following another year on the edge of bankruptcy, he pivoted into direct-marketed grass-fed meat and eggs and opened a commercial kitchen. Today, Smith Meadows is one of the oldest “grass finished” operations in the country and sells at leading farmers’ markets in the Washington DC area. Pritchard’s books have been starred by NPR, The Washington Post, and Publishers’ Weekly.

2020 was an enormous stress-test on producers nationwide and Pritchard’s talk will examine what this past year taught us about our operations, our markets and marketing, and most important, ourselves, (irrespective of what you grow, how you grow it, or where your farm is located). How can we use these lessons to sustainably pivot not only into 2021, but beyond? The talk will focus on diversification, marketing and point-of-sale, social media outreach, and the difficult task of properly pricing products. 

Mark your calendars now for February 24^th to 25^th and join your colleagues for two days of idea laden workshops! Registration is now open!

In 2021, the conference will be offered at no cost to attendees. Harvest New England recognizes that this year has been unprecedented for producers in many ways, and feels strongly that now more than ever, it’s important to provide agricultural businesses throughout the Northeast with the tools to remain viable, cultivate innovators, and foster the next generation of farmers.

Harvest New England (HNE) is a cooperative marketing program created by New England’s state departments of agriculture in 1992. It has sponsored this regional conference since 2007. For more information, contact rebecca.eddy@ct.gov. For more information, go to www.harvestnewengland.org.

–Harvest New England Association

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