Upcoming Meetings and Trade Shows

The winter meeting/conference season is almost upon us. For me, it started this past weekend during PMA's annual Fresh Summit. What trade shows are marked on your calendar, and what are to hoping to learn this year?

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Permalink Reply by Greg on October 20, 2011 at 11:54pm

I (we, sometimes also my wife) go to at least one good tradeshow a year. They are the single best education on growing produce that a farmer can achieve. They are also a lot of fun. I will be skipping the tradshows in the U.S. this year, only because we will be out of the States this Winter.

I can only highly recommend any tradeshow, but one I would definitely attend is the show in Grand Rapids, at least once. I have been there three times, spaced out about every three years.

This year we will be in New Zealand most of the winter, attending their farmers markets, fairs, and golfing, fishing, testing many wines, and relaxing.

Go to a trade show, it will be one of your best investments you can make in the future of your farm. We are now a little over 25 years strong, and I attribute some of the success to continuing education which is attainable only at tradeshows, along with kinships made with people I have met there.

Greg & Leslyn

Laurel Farmers Market

Montana

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Permalink Reply by David Eddy on October 28, 2011 at 4:30pm

I couldn't agree more with Greg. I don't farm full-time myself, but I'm a sponge for information, and at no place will you soak up more than a good trade show. I'll never forget being at the Washington Hort. Assn.'s annual show several years ago, when during a break in a fruit marketing discussion, an extremely well-respected grower said something that has proven remarkably true. (I'm paraphrasing from memory here, but this is the gist.) "The problem is that the people who need to hear this most," he said, surveying a room full of progressive growers, "aren't here."

A trade shows isn't necessarily inexpensive to attend, but it's a bargain when you look at it for what it really is: an investment in yourself. It seems to me that the best growers invest in themselves. Besides, what would you rather put your money on?

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Permalink Reply by TALLIM ALLY on November 28, 2011 at 2:50pm

I guess I am late for this topic, but this is the 5th year I have been attending the

FLORIDA AGRICULTURE EXPO IN BALM /FLORIDA. Apart from interesting current Agri.,

topics discussed, I picked up a wealth of interesting/educational booklets/literature .

Indeed it is an investment in yourself.

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Permalink Reply by Art King on December 30, 2011 at 9:27am

One of the best trade shows I have been at in the east is at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference in Hershey, PA. I heard that it is greatly expanded this year too. With one cost for three days of seminars (five concurrent session every day) and the trade show, it is a real bargain.