It’s the final countdown for the biggest event on the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association calendar.
The MFGA will return to Brandon Nov. 13-15 for its sixth annual conference spotlighting all things regenerative ag.
“As in the past, our conference will offer both national and international keynote speakers along with local producer panels, and a vibrant and varied tradeshow,” the association said on its website.
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The theme this year is “Building the Legacy.”
Keynote speakers include Brendon Rockey, a Colorado-based seed and specialty potato producer who will speak on his biotic, carbon cycle-based farming system, and South Dakota’s Jonathan Lundgren, director of regenerative agriculture research organization the EcDysis Foundation.
“Science is necessary to make regenerative food systems a reality, but we need to rethink how we apply science in order to get there,” reads the foundation’s mission statement. “Producers require independent, practical scientific support to ensure that concepts, practices, and systems are scalable and transferable to other operations and regions.”
Pollinators and their relationship to the Prairies will also get their moment in the spotlight, with University of Calgary researcher Paul Galpern taking the stage.
Other keynote speakers come from closer to home, among them central Manitoba beekeeper and frequent apiary presenter Ian Steppler and Saskatchewan farmers Derek and Tanis Axten.
Others in the lineup include Korb Whale of Ontario-based Mapleton Organic Dairy, North Dakota nutrition consultant Kalie Rider and Steven Frey, who has helped realize the MFGA’s Aquanty hydrological modelling project.
Regenerative agriculture will also be on the silver screen at the event. The conference will feature a showing of “Common Ground,” a follow to the “Kiss the Ground” Netflix documentary that debuted in 2020, narrated by Woody Harrelson.
The movie “explores how regenerative agriculture can help heal the soil, our health and the planet and provides hope for future generations with concrete ways to fix a broken planetary system,” says a summary posted on the draft schedule. The showing is scheduled on the evening of Nov. 14.
