Conference session proposals

Submitting session proposals for our annual conference

Our Sustainable Agriculture Conference, entering its 36th year, draws a diverse audience of rural and urban farmers, educators, advocates, entrepreneurs, community groups, artisans, researchers, policymakers, home cooks and gardeners, youth, and others for four days of learning on sustainable agriculture and food system topics.

Conference dates

February 10–12, 2027

Lancaster County Convention Center | Lancaster, PA 

Conference goals

Our overarching goals for the conference are to:

• Provide training and education that promote the environmental, economic, and social wellbeing of farms, food systems, communities, and the environment
• Serve as an outlet for sharing cutting-edge research and science-based solutions, as well as preserving and passing on traditional food and farming knowledge and heritage
• Be a venue where people, businesses, and organizations from across the sustainable agriculture movement make meaningful connections
• Embrace an inclusive definition of sustainability, which accepts a diversity of methods and philosophies of production
• Highlight peer-to-peer learning, center farmers as teachers, and showcase sustainable ag success stories
• Advance an equitable community-based food system

Proposal selection

We welcome and encourage you to contact us for feedback on your ideas prior to submission. Please contact ben@pasafarming.org or 814-349-9856 x751.

We work with a volunteer committee to assemble conference programming that meets the needs of our diverse audiences. We evaluate proposals using the following criteria:

• Consistency with our organizational mission to cultivate environmentally sound, economically viable, community-focused farms and food systems
• Alignment with our conference goals
• Relevant experience of presenter(s)
• Relevance of topic to our audience

If your session is accepted, we’ll work with you to refine the content to align with our conference goals and audience expectations as needed. We’ll also help you prepare for presenting at the conference. You’ll be required to read documents regarding our speakers’ guidelines and expectations, and you may be asked to attend one to two meetings with Pasa staff. You’ll need to provide additional session and speaker details, register for the conference and book lodging or travel as needed, and submit your slideshow via Google Slides prior to the conference.

Proposal evaluation and selection timeline:

Deadline to submit proposals: July 1, 2026

After this date, we may accept proposals on a case-by-case basis if the proposed topic(s) complement existing programming. At this time, a team of Pasa staff will review all proposals to select which sessions will be reviewed by the full committee.

Final notice of proposal status: Aug 31, 2026

You will be notified of your selection status on or before this date.

About our attendees

Farmers: From aspiring to retiring

Approximately 50% of conference attendees are current farmers—over half of whom have farmed for eight or more years. Another 15% of attendees plan to start farming in the next three years. Our farmers and food producers range in scale (from less than an acre to hundreds) and location (urban to rural).

Food system professionals and changemakers

Our conference also seeks to build bridges between farmers, food system professionals, and communities through a shared love of food and craft, as well as a shared commitment to environmental conservation and food justice. In fact, nearly all of our non-farmer attendees also produce agricultural products in some way. Our attendees include value-added producers, agriculture and food system professionals, educators and researchers, policy makers and advocates, and youth. 

Program focus

Our conference provides programming relevant to farmers at all stages of their careers–including aspiring, beginning, and experienced farmers, as well as farmers transitioning into retirement.

We also seek to cover a broad range of topics relevant to the sustainable agriculture movement and the full breadth of a healthy and just food system. We especially welcome sessions that address our mid-level and advanced growers as well as from farmers within the Pasa community.

We will organize our programming under the following categories:

• Agroforestry (e.g. alley cropping, forest farming, silvopasture, riparian buffers)
• Animal husbandry (e.g. dairy, meat, fiber)
• Annual crop production (e.g. vegetables, herbs, flowers)
• Business, finances, and entrepreneurship
• Farmer and community health and well-being
• Farm and food system policy and advocacy
• Farm skills (e.g. management, maintenance, repair, safety)
• Food culture and skills (e.g. value-added, seed saving)
• Markets and marketing
• Perennial crop production (e.g. fruits, berries nuts, medicinals, mushrooms)
• Row crop production (e.g. grains, fiber, forage, legumes)
• Soil and ecosystem health

In addition to the categories listed above, we seek to address several important themes, including certified organic production and practices; climate change adaptation and mitigation; and anti-oppression in the food system.

Note: Our sessions are for educational content only. Businesses and organizations looking to promote products or services should visit our business opportunities page.

Session formats and length

All individual sessions, regardless of format and length, can include up to four presenters. For most topics, we strongly encourage including a farmer or food system practitioner as part of the speaker lineup.

60-minute sessions (stand-alone): We strongly recommend you allot a minimum of 20 minutes to Q&A or discussion.

60-minute session (series): a group of two or three sessions that are designed in succession, where content and information build on each other. Please submit a proposal for each 60-min session in the series

Intensive session: We will offer a limited number of intensive sessions. These sessions will be three or four hours long and will need to have a 15-minute break at the midpoint.

Standard speaker support

We value the knowledge, experience, and opinions that our speakers bring to the conference. As a thank you for presenting and sharing, we offer a standard speaking package to all speakers.

• Registration for the full conference
• Lunch the day(s) you speak
• Free parking the day(s) you speak

Guidelines for requesting additional support

As a nonprofit education organization, we try to stretch our budget as far as possible to maximize the impact of our program. We also understand that some speakers may need additional support to participate in our conference.

When you fill out the proposal form, you will have the opportunity to request additional support. Please be specific in your requests, and we will do our best to meet them. Please note that we cannot provide this support for speakers who represent a company that is sponsoring or exhibiting at our conference.

• All requests for all potential speakers must be submitted before a proposal can be accepted. Be prepared to provide exact requests during the proposal review process.
• Travel expenses: If you will travel more than 50 miles one way, we will consider requests to cover travel costs. Please include the total request in your proposal and describe what it would cover. We will consider requests for mileage at the federal rate, train tickets or airfare, vehicle rental and gas, and miscellaneous costs such as taxis, parking, and tolls. Pasa will work with selected speakers to determine a travel stipend prior to the conference.
• Lodging requests: If you will travel more than 50 miles one way, we may be able to cover lodging, and generally, we are able to offer one night of lodging per day of speaking.
• Speaking stipend: Limited funding is available to cover speaker fees. We are willing to consider non-traditional requests. Waived speaker costs can be included as part of in-kind support.
• Other session expenses: Limited funding is available to cover session expenses like hands-on builds and activity materials.

Submit a session proposal

Click the button below to submit your proposal using our online form. To submit multiple proposals, you will need to complete the form once for each submission.

You will be able to save your progress. After submission, the primary contact you list will receive a copy of the responses.

For any questions or feedback on ideas, please contact ben@pasafarming.org or 814-349-9856 ext. 751.

Don’t want to submit a proposal? Or do you have an idea for conference content that doesn’t fit in our session programming? We want to hear from you! Let us know who you’d like to see and/or what topics you want to learn about at our 2027 conference. Suggest a speaker or topic here.