Keynote Speaker

Meet our Keynote Speaker Forrest Pritchard: Lessons from 2020, Opportunities for 2021
Wednesday, February 24 from 8:45 am – 10:15 am

Irrespective of what you grow, how you grow it, or where your farm is located, 2020 was an enormous stress-test on producers nationwide. With hindsight as our guide, what has the past year taught us about our operations, our markets and marketing, and most importantly, ourselves? And how can we use these lessons to sustainably pivot not only into 2021, but beyond? The talk will focus on diversification, marketing and point-of-sale, social media outreach, and the difficult task of properly pricing our products.

Forrest Pritchard is a seventh-generation farmer and a New York Times bestselling author, holding degrees in English and Geology from William & Mary. Upon returning from college in the mid 90s, he took over his family’s farm—primarily growing GMO corn and soybeans—hoping to make the land profitable for the first time in decades. Following another year on the edge of bankruptcy, he pivoted into direct-marketed grass-fed meat and eggs and opened a commercial kitchen. Today, Smith Meadows is one of the oldest “grass finished” operations in the country and sells at leading farmers’ markets in the Washington DC area. Pritchard’s books have been starred by NPR, The Washington Post, and Publishers’ Weekly.