Submit a session proposal - Pasa Sustainable Agriculture

The deadline to submit session proposals for our 2025 Sustainable Agriculture Conference has passed.

If you’re still interested in submitting a session proposal, contact our Events Coordinator Ben Wetzel at ben@pasafarming.org or 814-349-9856 x751 to find out if your session topic(s) might be a good fit for our 2025 Conference.

Our annual conference, entering its 34th 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 5–7, 2025

Lancaster County Convention Center | Lancaster, PA

The conference will have one keynote, two plenaries, over 70 one-hour sessions, plus multiple social, and networking events.

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 and 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 Wetzel at 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
Proposal submission thoroughness (we cannot accept sessions with TBD speakers)

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 speaker guidelines and expectations, and 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: June 1, 2024
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.

Notification of proposal status: July 14, 2024
You will be notified whether your proposal will be reviewed by the full committee. At this time you may also be asked to adjust your proposal.

Proposal status update: August 14, 2024
We will notify you of your proposal status based on the review by the full committee.

Final notice of proposal status: September 29, 2024
You will be notified of your selection status on or before this date.

About our attendees

Farmers and aspiring farmers

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 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 diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the food system.

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.

Intensive Sessions (3 hours) – We will offer a limited number of intensive sessions. Please plan to have one 15-minute break at the midpoint. These sessions will be scheduled on Wednesday morning.

Standard Sessions (60 minutes) – We strongly recommend you allot a minimum of 20 minutes to Q&A or discussion.

You may submit multiple proposals for standard sessions that are intended to build on each other. Please keep in mind:

Attendees may only attend part of the series, so please design each session to accommodate newcomers as well as those who are following the series
The title should indicate that this is part of a series as well as the distinction between each part of the series (e.g. Tomatoes Part 1: Soil & Nutrient Management and Tomatoes Part 2: Pests & Disease)

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 with your proposal. Pasa may not be able to meet requests made after a session is selected and scheduled.
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 ticket or airfare, vehicle rental and gas, and miscellaneous costs like taxi, 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: Pasa is unable to reimburse for materials, samples, handouts, or other expenses that may be associated with your proposal. Consider these types of session costs when you determine if you are requesting a speaker stipend.