Teresa Oppheim, Director of Practical Farmers of Iowa, spoke to the Iowa Great Lakes Rotary Club on Wednesday, June 3. Teresa shared information about PFI and its 700 family members, three-fourths of which are Iowa farmers.
 

The primary goal of the group is to facilitate networking among farmers and people interested in farming in Iowa. Teresa shared some tidbits about specific members of the group before sharing the following information about PFI.

  • PFI employs 6 staff members
  • In 2008, the group held over 90 events that included field days, on-farm research and demos, "cluster" networking and financial support)
  • 130 young members interested in farming have joined over the past two years

Teresa closed the program by sharing the five trends she is seeing now:

  • Increased understanding/interest in nutrition and personal health
  • Growing desire to be connected to the food that we eat
  • Young people want to farm, especially raise food (12% rise in # of farms with sales under $10,000)
  • Unease about our future, concerns about our resiliency in a volatile environment
  • Expanded understanding of benefits farmers provide