Published May 22, 2025

2025 Annual Conference Photo Recap
By Practical Farmers of Iowa

Thank you to 100-plus speakers, 95 exhibitors and nearly 1,200 attendees who joined us at the 2025 PFI Annual Conference! Every one of you contributes to making the conference a success. The PFI spirit of curiosity, creativity and community was evident from the first cowbell to the final goodbye. See you again in 2026!

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From left: Sara Chavira, Soid Torres, Marcela Hurtado and Victoria Chavira pose for a photo on their way out of a session.
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Wade Dooley gets a chuckle out of exhibitors and longtime PFI members Alix and Mary Jane Paez, who run Genetic Enterprises International.
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Morgan (left) and Tyler Bruck share a laugh with Sarah Garst between sessions.
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Attendees pack the main concourse of the exhibit hall, which featured 95 exhibitor booths.
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Rubyana Neely (left) and Jason Johnson (right) of USDA-NRCS, chat with Srini Reddy and Sree Nilakanta.
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PFI’s grants manager, Bria Holthe, gets Kent Boucher from Hoskey Native Seeds set up with his name tag.
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Friday Dinner and Cocktails
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Attendees pack the ballroom for the PFI Dinner on Friday evening, with live music by Matt Woods.
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Jennie Erwin discusses how vegetable growers can cover their acres with cover crops.
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Barney Bahrenfuse (left) and Suzanne Castello (second from right) pose for a photo with their son, Gabe, and longtime mentor John Gilbert Sr. after receiving PFI’s 2025 Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award.
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Eric Lee-Mäder delivers his keynote address Saturday morning.
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Longtime PFI members Tim Landgraf and Jan Libbey enjoy the conference. Tim and Jan received PFI’s Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award in 2022.
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Friday’s program ended with Storytelling featuring stories based on the theme “The Edge.” Here, Christine Ross tells her story of life on the edge when her village in South Sudan was demolished by rebels. Christine went on to found Refugee Women Farmers of Nebraska (RWON) and encouraged attendees to support refugees and their access to agriculture.
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Ben Hartman, author of “The Lean Farm” and farmer at Clay Bottom Farm, presents about “Lean Composting.”
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essa Parks presents on Friday afternoon, discussing how she and her partner, Wyatt, have scaled their direct-to-consumer beef operation as first-generation farmers at W.T. Farms.
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James Holtz shares financial details of grazing cover crops on his farm.
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Lee Tesdell (facing the camera) chats during a conference break.
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Willie (left) and Sawyer Van Der Molen pause for a photo.
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Chelsea Craigmile, Grace Clark and Isobel Hogg pause for a photo on their way through the exhibit hall.