The Iowa Organic Association (IOA) will host the Midwest Organic Pork Conference (MOPC) in Waterloo, Iowa on March 8-9, 2019. This will be the first conference ever organized in the United States dedicated to presenting the best resources and information available to help expand opportunities for organic and natural pork production and distribution. More information and registration is available at MidwestOrganicPorkConference.org.

Conference topics include Herd Health, Feed & Nutrition, Housing Options, Soil Health, Transitioning to Organic, Genetics & Breeding, Marketing and Economics.

This unique conference begins on Friday afternoon, March 8, with two workshops; one for the beginning or transitioning to organic farmer and one for the advanced farmer.  Iowa-based organic pork producer and consultant Jude Becker of Becker Lane Organic will lead the Advanced Farmer Workshop. Jude has run a certified organic pork and crop farm since graduating from Iowa State University in 1999 and now works with farmers across the world on organic systems.

The second day of the conference on Saturday, March 9, includes a terrific line-up of national and local experts. The conference keynote is Bertel Hestbjerg of Holstebro, Denmark who runs an organic sow herd of 1,500 sows and produces 25,000 finishers and sells 4.500 weaners every year. Organic farming and organic food consumption are significant in Denmark. Ten percent of the farmland is grown organically, and eleven percent of total retail sale of food and beverage is organic.

The conference is supported by a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) grant. (Grant #2018-51300-28427/Project Accession #1016579.) IOA was one of only 24 organizations across the country to receive an OREI grant in 2018.

The Midwest Organic Pork Conference will be held at the Waterloo Center for the Arts in Waterloo,Iowa on Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9, 2019  More information is available at MidwestOrganicPorkConference.org.