Farm Compliance

"One of the sessions will focus on using e-marketing and e-commerce to help farmers improve their farm product marketing, including agritourism opportunities," said Roy Ballard, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service educator in Hancock County and workshop coordinator. "We are really going to get into the nuts and bolts of how to start and improve a Web page."

The Agritourism Workshop is held prior to, but considered part of Indiana’s Horticultural Congress and Trade Show. Individuals wanting to attend the Agritourism Workshop should register for the Indiana Horticultural Congress and Trade Show at http://www.inhortcongress.org/, which costs $55 for the first person and $40 for the second person from the same farm or family.  Those without Web access they can register by contacting Tammy Goodale at (765) 494-0391. The $55 fee also allows the individual to attend all of the sessions offered at the Horticulture Congress, which will cover a variety of topics, including vegetable and fruit production, and marketing horticultural products; agritourism information and a wine and grape program also will be provided.

Participants will hear from Extension specialists, educators, farmers and industry representatives. Featured topics and speakers include:

* Using the Internet to improve the bottom line, Gerry Dick, president and managing editor for Grow Indiana Media Ventures and creator and host of Inside INdiana Business.

* Looking to the future-enhancing Web page usability and search optimization, Connie Hancock, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator.

* Creating a virtual storefront, James Paden, owner of Xemion, a company that works with clients to optimize and build e-commerce Web sites to be consumer friendly.

The agritourism preconference workshop also will include a panel of producers, who will discuss how they put the Internet to work on their farm.  Producers include Tim Fitzgerald of Exploration Acres in Lafayette, Tim Burton of Burton’s Maplewood Farm in Medora and Tia Agnew of New Day Meadery in Elwood.

Ballard encourages participants to attend the 6 p.m. agritourism roundtable, which he describes as an open discussion for folks who have an agritourism venue to discuss the challenges they face and the opportunities or trends that they may or may not be noticing.

More information about the Indiana Horticultural Congress is available at http://www.inhortcongress.org. Contact Tammy Goodale at (765) 494-1296 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  for questions and additional information.

The Agritourism Workshop is sponsored by Purdue Extension, Indiana Office of Tourism Development, Indiana Farm Market Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.