Attendees at the 2024 ASAC Annual Conference November 3 – 5 will participate in three tours in the greater Fort Myers, Florida, area.
On Tuesday afternoon, the group will start out at the ECHO Farms, which is anything but typical. It is an opportunity to experience farming at its most creative, with unique demonstrations, plants, and techniques being used to help farmers and urban gardeners in developing countries. There are seven different settings on the farm, with crops, techniques, and animals from around the world. ECHO is home to one of the largest collections of tropical food plants in the United States. The Urban Garden includes some unconventional but effective ways to grow crops where there’s little to no soil.
The second tour, the Anderson Appropriate Technology Center, is also at the ECHO Farm location. This unique working space focuses on demonstrating, researching, and building tools/techniques that solve problems for small-scale farmers around the world. This includes simple technologies that can improve food, water, and shelter for millions of people. Examples include transforming sand into water filters, manure into energy, and bicycles into power tools.
The final tour will take attendees to Fruitscapes on Pine Island, just off the coast of Fort Myers. A member of the Rare Fruit Council, this nursery has dozens of varieties of mangos, offering the largest selection of the fruit in Southwest Florida. The tour will include a presentation on mangos and other tropical fruits, a history of the tropical fruit industry on Pine Island, and the opportunity to experience the associated retail business.
The bus will return to the conference hotel, the Crowne Plaza Gulf Coast, at approximately 6 p.m.
The full schedule for the conference and the registration link can be found at: https://www.agconsultants.org/2024_annual_conference.php
The deadline for the early registration discount as well as for the room block is October 12.
About the American Society of Agricultural Consultants (ASAC)
The American Society of Agriculture Consultants (ASAC) is a non-profit organization whose members represent a diverse range of disciplines in the agriculture industry. ASAC’s membership is comprised primarily of experienced consultants boasting a wide array of expertise. Their business models range from sole proprietorships to leadership roles in larger, multi-consultant organizations, which cover a wide geographical area. To learn more about how ASAC can help you grow your agricultural consulting business, go to www.agconsultants.org.
