Friday, March 10, 2006
Winchester, Virginia
Presentations
Dr.
Sharron Quisenberry, Dean of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Virginia
Tech. The College of
Agricultural and Life Sciences’ Role in Fostering Innovative Agriculture (24
minutes)
Steve Bogash, Commercial Horticulture Educator, Penn State
Cooperative Extension. Innovative
Horticulture Production Systems (55 minutes)
Bernadine Prince, Founder and Co-Director of
FRESHFARM Markets. Effective
Farmers Markets Promotions (32 minutes)
Dr.
David S. Redwine, DVM, Co-founder of Scott County
Hair Sheep Association. Livestock
Marketing – From Hobby to Big Business
(37 minutes)
Dr.
Jerzy Nowak, Professor and Head of Department of Horticulture, Virginia
Tech.
High
Value Horticultural and Forestry Crops Program (36 minutes)
Kate Zurschmeide, Great Country Farms, Bluemont, VA.
Innovative
Marketing and Agritourism Approaches
(34 minutes)
Wallace
E. Reed, Jr., Managing Director & Grower,
Endless Summer
Harvest, and associated with the U.S. Botanic Garden
specializing in
Tropical Plants. Endless Summer
Harvest: A New Way of Making GREEN (41 minutes)
Dr.
Fumioni Takeda, Research Scientist, USDA / ARS,
Kearneysville, WV. Off
Season Strawberry Production in Unheated Greenhouses (33
minutes)
Louis
Nichols, Bellwether Farm, Purcellville,
VA.
Container Production
of Trees (34 minutes)
Dr. Sharron Quisenberry The College of Agricultural & Life
Sciences’ Role in Fostering Innovative Agriculture
sharronq@vt.edu
(540) 231-4152
Dr. Quisenberry is the first woman to serve as Dean of the College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, Virginia.
Before becoming dean at VA Tech, Dr. Quisenberry had been dean of agriculture
and director of experiment station at Montana
State and before that headed the
Department of Entomology at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln for
four years. A professor of entomology and a Fellow of the Entomological Society
of America, she taught at the University
of Nebraska, University
of Idaho, Louisiana State
University, and Iowa
State University.
Dr. Quisenberry’s own research focuses on plant/insect interactions and
plant resistance to insects, and she is recognized both nationally and
internationally as an expert in those areas. Her projects have concentrated on
insects related to wheat, rice, Bermuda grass, tall fescue, alfalfa, and
lifestock. She has published more than 165 professional papers including books
and book chapters and has lectured at numerous international, national, and
regional professional meetings. Her grants have come from the National Science
Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Murdock Trust, Ford Foundation,
and industry. She has held a U.S.
patent and insect resistant germplasm registrations with colleagues.
Dr. Quisenberry holds four degrees, including two master’s degrees. She
received a PhD and Master of Science,
both in entomology, from the University of Missouri-Columbia; a Master of Arts
in environmental biology from Hood College, and a BS Ed in biology from Truman State
University.
Steve Bogash Innovative Horticulture Production Systems
smb13@psu.edu
(717) 263-9226
Mr. Bogash is currently the Commercial Horticulture Agent serving Adams, Cumberland and Franklin
counties in Pennsylvania.
He covers vegetable, small fruit, cut flower, pond management, greenhouse
vegetables, and marketing as his primary areas of responsibility. Marketing
high-value agricultural products and services is an area that Steve considers
integral to any production session.
Until joining Penn State in 1997, Mr. Bogash was the Non-Traditional
Crops Consultant and Western Maryland Sea Grant area agent for University of Maryland Cooperative Extension. He
operated a commercial landscape, nursery and greenhouse business for 12 years.
During that same period he also operated a small commercial winegrape vineyard
and produced sweet corn and strawberries for fresh market.
Mr. Bogash received a BS in Horticulture / Agronomy from the University of Maryland. He and wife Roberta have one
son, Joe, and live in Newville,
PA.
Bernadine Prince Effective
Farmers Markets Promotions
bernie@freshfarmmarkets.org (202) 546-1491
Bernadine (Bernie) Prince is a Founder, Co-Director and Treasurer of the
FRESHFARM Markets, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, dedicated to educating the
public about food and farming issues, providing vital economic opportunities
for farmers, and celebrating the Chesapeake Bay watershed region’s agricultural
heritage and bounty. In 2005, FRESHFARM Markets operated six producer-only
farmers’ markets in the District of Columbia
and Maryland
and provided educational programs in three public schools in the District.
Ms. Prince has written articles for Farmland Magazine and the Mid-Atlantic
Restaurant Digest. She has been a guest speaker at direct marketing conferences
throughout the USA.
In November 2002, she was the keynote speaker at the inaugural conference for
farmers’ markets in Australia,
where she helped to set that country’s charter for producer-only farmers’
markets. She serves on the Board of Directors of the H Street Community Market.
She is a member of Slow Food and the Capitol Hill Restoration Society.
Ms. Prince lives in Washington,
D.C. where she and her husband
also operate the Doolittle Guest House (www.doolittlehouse.com)
where fresh foods and flowers grown by local farmers are always featured. Ms.
Prince is a graduate of Ohio
University where she
organized a food cooperative that purchased directly from local farmers, a
bakery and dairy. She completed graduate work in anthropology at Penn State University, spent a summer doing field work at Monticello near Charlottesville,
VA and directed field archaeology projects in Virginia.
Dr. David S. Redwine Livestock Marketing – From
Hobby to Big Business
cowdoc@mounet.com
(276) 386-6101
Dr. David Redwine was born in Scott
County, Virginia
(30 miles west of Bristol).
He received a BS in Animal Science from Virginia Tech, and after obtaining
his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from
Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg,
he returned to Scott
County where he opened a
mixed animal practice.
Dr. Redwine co-founded the Scott County Hair Sheep Association in 2000. In 2005
he received the Virginia Sheep Producer’s Outstanding Shepherd award. Dr.
Redwine runs a flock of 200 Dorper-Katahdin crossbred ewes. He serves as
Chairman of the Scott County Board of Supervisors, and lives in Gate City
with his wife Jodi, and their two children, Lindsey, 13 and Lendon, 4.
Dr. Jerzy Nowak High
Value Horticultural and Forestry Crops Program
jenowak@vt.edu
(540) 231-9836
Dr. Jerzy Nowak is Professor and Head of the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Virginia.
Dr. Nowak joined Virginia Tech in August 2000, coming from the Nova Scotia
Agricultural College (NSAC), Truro,
Nova Scotia, Canada,
where he worked for 16 years as Professor of Plant Biotechnology and Head of
the Department of Plant Science between 1997 and 2000.
Dr. Nowak was raised on a family farm with a mixed production profile, and
educated both in Poland and West Germany.
His MS (in plant and food biochemistry) and PhD (in plant physiology and
biochemistry) are from the Agricultural-Technical
University in Olsztyn, Poland.
During his professional career he conducted postdoctoral research in West Germany, at the Max-Planck-Institute for
Experimental Medicine in Goettingen and the German Institute of Biotechnology
in Braunschweig-Stoekheim, and Canada,
at the Department of Plant Science, University
of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.
Since 2002, Dr. Nowak has been involved in organizing research, education and
outreach missions at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville, VA
(http://www.ialr.org/). The goal of this Institute is to diversify
the economy of Southside Virginia
via development of high value crops and products, without changing the
rural character of this region.
Dr. Nowak has
authored or co-authored 90 research articles and over 100 other publications.
As researcher, educator and administrator he seeks opportunities to integrate
advanced technologies and innovation into production agriculture and
agro-ecosystem management as intrinsic elements of rural sustainability.
Kate Zurschmeide Innovative Marketing and Agritourism
Approaches
farmer@greatcoountryfarms.com (540) 554-2073
Kate and husband Mark purchased
Great Country Farms in 1993 to develop a Community Supported Agriculture
business plan and are now entering their 13th year of CSA. The goal of Great
Country Farms is to offer a way for everyone to experience farm life and enjoy
the benefits of its bounty.
Great Country Farms is a 200 acre working farm offering produce as well as
the farm experience to its customers. Although the Zurschmeides have been
farming in Loudoun
County for over 25 years
on leased land, Great Country Farms is the long sought site for their farm and
the foundation for expanding into new farm ventures such as Christmas Tree
growing and Group Tours to complement their Community Supported Agriculture
operation.
In 1996, the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce voted Great Country Farms
"Agribusiness of the Year" for its unique way of farming in a
difficult environment through the use of innovation. Through its Community
Supported Agriculture program, Great Country Farms provides fresh local produce
to over 800 families in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax and Loudoun County.
After working at Verizon for 12 years in marketing and sales, Ms.
Zurschmeide joined the farm operation full time in 1999 and currently handles
marketing, sales and events. She has four children and is thrilled to be able
to raise them in the family farm environment.
Wallace E. Reed, Jr. Endless Summer Harvest:
A New Way of
Making GREEN
info@esharvest.com
(540) 751-0900
Wallace E. Reed Jr. is a third generation horticulturist. Wally has been
working in greenhouses for 45 years. In addition to being the Managing Director
and Grower at Endless Summer Harvest, Wally is the Curator of the Tropical
Plant Collection at The United States Botanic Garden, Washington DC. He is
currently the President of AFSCME Local 66 representing Capitol Hill workers.
In the 70's & 80's Wally and his family owned and operated Reed’s
Greenhouse in Suitland, MD. There he specialized in growing
flowering plants. Wally graduated in 1974 from Salem
College, Salem, WV
with a teaching certificate in Special Education. He is a long term member of
The Association of Educators and Research Greenhouse Curators, The American
Fern Society, The American Philatelic Society and Society of American Baseball
Research. He is also the varsity hockey coach for Richard
Montgomery High
School in Rockville, MD and Assistant Coach for the Northern Virginia Cool
Cats, a hockey team for autistic children, sponsored by The Washington
Capitals, in Ashburn, Virginia. Wally now resides in Purcellville, VA.
Dr. Fumiomi Takeda Off Season Strawberry
Production in Unheated Greenhouses
ftakeda@afrs.ars.usda.gov (304) 725-3451 x212
Dr. Takeda has been a Research Horticulturist with the USDA-ARS in Kearneysville, WV
since 1982. Dr. Takeda’s current research projects include the development of a
year-round culture for strawberries, utilizing controlled environment,
protective covers, and soil-less substrates; optimizing the production of
stolons/plantlets in soil-less substrates and enhance out-of-season fruit
production; and studying the resource storage/allocation and environmental
factors affecting reproductive organ development in strawberry (Fragaria) and
blackberry (Rubus).
Dr. Takeda received his PhD in Plant Physiology from the University of California,
Davis in 1980, an MS in Agriculture (1977) and a BS in Agricultural Science
(1973) from California State University,
Fresno. He was
Plant Science Lecturer at California State University,
Fresno 1973-1975; Pomology Research Assistant at
University of California,
Davis 1975-1979; and Assistant Professor
Viticultural Science at Florida A&M University,
Tallahassee
1980-1982.
Louis Nichols Container Production of Trees
Loudounag@aol.com
(703) 777-0426
Louis S. Nichols
is the Senior Agricultural-Rural Economy Manager. Currently the Ag Development Officer of Loudoun County, he serves as principal advisor
to the Board of Supervisors and senior county staff for rural issues. Mr.
Nichols has more than 11 years of management and agricultural economic
development work experience in dealing with rural and agricultural issues,
programs and legislation. He operated, and continues to operate, a tree growing
business in the county prior to joining the department, and operated a small
civil engineering firm before that. Mr.
Nichols holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Virginia Military Institute
and an M.B.A from Shenandoah
University. In addition, he served on the Virginia Board
of Agriculture, was president of the Virginia Christmas Tree Growers
Association and Chairman of the Loudoun Agricultural Advisory Committee.
