Southwest Wisconsin Local Food Summit

Keynote Speakers

Ron Doetch is the Executive Director at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, the second-largest non-profit organization in the country, researching and disseminating sustainable agriculture alternatives. His staff harvests and researches 1,000 acres of biodynamic terrain as well as maintaining greenhouses, a mill, bakery, dormitories, wind turbines, solar panels, water filtration, a retail store, and a spot at the year-round Milwaukee Public Market.

Richard (Dick) L. Cates, Jr., Ph.D., and his wife, Kim, co-own and operate the Cates Family Farm near Spring Green, Wisconsin, a managed grazing farm in the family since 1967. The Cates family raises grass-fed beef and sells directly to restaurants, stores and households. Dick holds a senior lecturer position in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is director of the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers, a program for training and mentoring start-up farmers which he helped create in 1995.