This week, Wolfe’s Neck Center staff attended the 2025 Pasa Sustainable Agriculture Conference. Pasa is a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit whose mission is to cultivate environmentally sound, economically viable, community-focused farms and food systems resonates deeply with our own work. Dwight Hobbs, Wolfe’s Neck Center fruit and vegetable manager, reflects on his experience today.
Today’s keynote address came from Pasa’s Executive Director Hannah Smith-Brubaker, who spoke about Pasa’s continuing work of providing direct support for farmers.
This includes 9 years of the ongoing Soil Health Benchmark Study (of which Wolfe’s Neck Center is a collaborating farm) which she attributed to having direct impact in contributing to the health of the Susquehanna River and greater Chesapeake Bay watershed through reduced runoff from Pennsylvania farms. She also reflected on Pasa’s role in facilitating part of the Farm & Food Workers Relief Program, which distributed over $23 million in $600 funds to farm workers regardless of immigration status in the wake of the pandemic. She called for the sustainable agriculture community to continue to be a source of unity, community and resilience as we navigate uncertainty around federal funding and programming.
As a first time attendee to the Pasa Conference it was really striking to see Pasa’s impact and commitment to climate resilience and support of all farmers and farm workers.
In his work, Dwight Hobbs demonstrates regenerative agriculture techniques on our campus in Freeport, Maine, creating a space for research and innovation in production. Other Wolfe’s Neck Center attendees were Ben Weinberg, OpenTEAM Project Manager for Agricultural Data Infrastructure, who facilitates open source agricultural technology development by an international collaborative community of farmers, scientists and researchers, engineers, farm service providers, and food companies. Kate Turcotte, Senior Manager of Farmer Education, oversees our work providing training and resources to farmers and ranchers, including the New England Grazing Network and our Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship.
