Missouri Organic Association Conference

Reader Contribution by Crystal Stevens
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The Missouri Organic Association (MOA), a non-profit all volunteer organization, is gearing up for its 2015 Annual Conference on February 5th, 6th and 7th at the University Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, Springfield, Missouri. This educational conference will be the 6th annual regional conference hosted by the Missouri Organic Association with participants gathering primarily from the four-state region. According to Baird, the conference has evolved into a regional conference with approximately 60 percent of attendees from Missouri and the remaining 40 percent of attendees residing in Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Oklahoma and other states. Participants are comprised of farmers, ranchers, scientists, health officials, and consumers who want to learn more about the foods they produce and eat.

Sue Baird, Executive Director of the MOA welcomes everyone to attend. “This conference is not just for farmers and producers… Anyone concerned about independent food sources, the rising health issues in our children, supporting sustainable family farms, environmental issues and solution-based philosophies of biological and organic growing practices will have something to gain from this conference,” Baird says. The Missouri Organic Association was just named in the 2014 Good Food Org Guide presented by Food Tank and The James Beard Foundation. According to Food Tank, The Good Food Org Guide is a definitive Guide which highlights nonprofit organizations that are doing exemplary work in the United States in the areas of food and agriculture, nutrition and health, hunger and obesity, and food justice.

Baird has been involved with the organization for 15 years and has served as the Executive Director for the past 5 years. Under her leadership, the MOA has been a conduit for educating thousands throughout the region on food related topics, and growing and producing organic, natural and sustainably produced crops. Baird says, “The mission of the MOA will always be to provide local, organic and sustainable family farms with the tools they need to run successful farming businesses; and secondly to educate the general public about why they should support local farmers.”

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