Farming with Values that Last Conference

Posted by on January 13, 2006

[posted from Community Food Security listserv]

3rd annual Farming with Values that Last Conference: Models for the Journey
Feb. 24-26, 2006

David Kline, celebrated Amish author, naturalist and organic dairy farmer, keynotes a weekend of practical workshops, inspiring singing, solid worship and warm fellowship for people of faith interested in sustainable farming and healthy food. A local food meal, commercial and ministry exhibits, time for outside fun and stories of God?s surprising and sustaining work in agriculture.

Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, Mount Pleasant PA
http://www.laurelville.org
Registration: Cheryl Paulovich, cheryl@laurelville.org 800-839-1021 or 724-423-2056 x2423.
Exhibits: Greg Bowman, gbowman@fast.net 610-845-2426
Brochure: http://www.laurelville.org/pdfs/06%20SF%20web.pdf

EXPANDED PRE-COVERAGE
Save the Date: Feb. 24-26, 2006
Renowned farmer/author David Kline to keynote faith-farming event

Mount Pleasant, PA — Continuing to explore the Biblical roots of authentic and sustainable agriculture, ?Farming with Values that Last 2006: Models for the Journey? will be held Feb. 24-26 at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center (LMCC) in western Pennsylvania.

The weekend features worship, singing, workshops practical and inspirational, local food and lots of relationship building for farmers and their supporters.

Speaking Friday evening on his personal story and Saturday morning on farming as creation care will be David Kline, a dairy farmer, frequent speaker at sustainable farming events and author two books: Great Possessions: An Amish Farmer?s Journal and Scratching the Woodchuck: Nature on an Amish Farm . Kline, and Elsie, his wife, and their family milk 35 Jerseys on a 120-acre organic farm in Holmes County, Ohio.

Frequently quoted and often visited by students, farmers and scholars, Kline is best known for his careful stewardship of all the life on the farm that he observes with a keen and sensitive eye. The integrated farming practices he follows allow him to tend his 35 intensively grazed Jerseys with kindness, farm-produced grass and crops, and virtually nothing else ? profitably.

Yale historian Scott Stoller wrote: ?David Kline’s land thinking is traditional without being nostalgic, practical without nodding to technology.? Another academic has said: ?Kline?s essays explore the rich beauties of rural life and the threats to its survival, while they provide gentle, probing cultural criticism.”

Workshops: meat marketing to the city, on-farm pizza baking, composting, soil health, growing raspberries, sustainable woodlots, faith shaping policy, and more.

? Worship leader: rural pastor S. Roy Kaufman (Freeman, S.D.), long-time advocate for sustainable, viable rural communities.
? Song leader: Erin Clymer (Pittsburgh, PA), musician, singer and development director for LMCC.
? Workshop coordinator: Ron Meyer (Fresno, Ohio).
? Commercial/non-profit exhibits coordinator: Greg Bowman (Bally, PA).

Child-care available. The event opens with supper Friday evening and closes with lunch Sunday. LMCC is a 250-acre camp and retreat center at the foot of the Laurel Mountains, located about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh. http://www.laurelville.org

Registration: Cheryl Paulovich, cheryl@laurelville.org 800-839-1021 or 724-423-2056 x2423.
Exhibits: Greg Bowman, gbowman@fast.net 610-845-2426
For a brochure: http://www.laurelville.org/pdfs/06%20SF%20web.pdf