Conferences
Farming conferences offer a wealth of information and allows for farmer to farmer networking. Led by boots on the ground farmers as well as educational institutions from around the country, conferences can be a good way to gain knowledge about a host of different farming topics. Meeting, connecting, and learning from fellow farmers from all walks of life and experiences to discuss ideas, successes, and struggles without judgement is also an invaluable benefit. Often scheduled during the off season, these conferences are sources of inspiration and encouragement for the season ahead. Here are a couple of currently running coferences:
- The EcoFarm Conference one of the largest and longest-running organic farming conferences with a mostly broad range of topics and (note some topics specific to California like water issues or funding sources).
- There’s also Marbleseed’s Organic Farming Conference which is a long-running, organic farming conference located in the midwest.
Online Farming Communities
The Market Gardening Success group on Facebook is a useful resource for asking specific questions to over 180,000 farmers. Even though many of them grow in very different regions, there seem to be solid answers for every question, and not too many trolls.
Food Safety Training
There are several great options for free food safety trainings and resources in the state:
- The NM Farmers’ Marketing Association offers free, online food safety training to producers. Completion of this training enables producers to apply to be part of the Approved Supplier Program which facilitates sales to schools and institutions.
- La Semilla in southern NM offers in-person Seeds of Safety training which can also enable producers to participate in the Approved Supplier Program.
- American Friends Service Committee has created a food safety manual for small NM producers.
Online Farmer Training Courses
If you’re someone that needs more step-by-step training, there are a number of online training courses with varying levels of cost and time commitment. Do note know that these courses are not region specific, and as you know, NM has very specific growing challenges, so there may be some things in these courses that don’t apply in NM.
The Market Gardener offers a variety of online courses : https://themarketgardener.com/courses/
New Entry Sustainable Farming Project is out of Tufts University and has a variety of different online courses. https://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/farmer-training.
Cornell University has a variety of 6-8 online courses, many of which can be taken in Spanish. https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/online-courses/#browse
The Organic Farming Research Farming Foundation offers free online beginning farmer training for organic specialty crop farmers & a free online course about the principles of soil health; Plus other resources in video and print.
Podcasts
There are a number of great podcasts that cover issues of relevance for farmers.
- Podcast: Pathways to Resilience by the Quivira Coalition
- Podcast: Farm Small Farm Smart
- Podcast: The Urban Farm Podcast
- Podcast: Farmer to Farmer w/ Chris Blanchard
Written Resources
- ATTRA’s Sustainable Agriculture website has a ton of written resources on a wide variety of sustainable agriculture topics.
- Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (Western SARE) has a ton of publications on various sustainable agriculture topics. Note: to get a topic list you can browse, hover over the “Resources and Learning” Tab.
- Sustainable Agriculture Education Association site with links to other sites offering job positions/apprenticeships/internships in sustainable ag.
- Beginning Farmer Tutorials
- NMSU Extension gardening webinar series
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