“Small Farms, Big Community:” The future of sustainable agriculture in the South
Representatives from the Wallace Center at Winrock International attended the inaugural SOWTH 2025 Conference, focused on the importance of collective impact.
In February, Wallace Center’s Juan Quinonez Zepeda and Susan Lightfoot Schempf attended the inaugural SOWTH conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was billed as a “three-day gathering of more than 1,000 farmers and leaders committed to sowing a strong sustainable agricultural movement across the South.”
Hosted by Georgia Organics and chaired by Wallace Center Advisor Brennan Washington, the conference welcomed farmers, ranchers, and food systems stakeholders from across the Southeast to connect, learn, and work together toward bolder collective impact. Known as the largest producer conference in the Southeast, SOWTH brought together a diverse group of producers that cross industries from horticulture, agriculture, animal production, aquaculture and more.
Attending as a rancher and Wallace Center staff member, Quinonez Zepeda reflected on his time at the conference with excitement and admiration.
“As a first-time attendee, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was amazed by the hosts’ hospitality, the number of attendees and caliber of panel discussions,” he said.
The SOWTH conference featured over 50 educational sessions including tracks on prosperity for producers, production methods and practices, and community food strategies. The conference also included individual sessions for each state located in the Southeast to gather, network and strategize. Quinonez Zepeda said the event afforded him a rare opportunity to gather with other producers, agriculture nonprofit and institution professionals, and leaders from Mississippi.
As for his conference highlight? The people he met.
“I left the conference feeling energized and refreshed. It was an honor to be in the room as they recognized pioneers in agriculture and civil rights Ira Wallace and Shirley Sherrod. I don’t think there were many dry eyes in the building during their speeches; I know mine weren’t!”
Ira Wallace is a coop worker and co-owner of the cooperatively managed Southern Exposure Seed Exchange in Mineral, Virginia. She serves on the board of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming and is a member of Acorn Community, which farms over 60 acres of certified organic land in Central Virginia. Wallace was named a 2019 Great American Gardener by the American Horticultural Society and was a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Finalist. Sherrod Shirley is co-founder and executive director of the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc. and co-founder and vice president for New Communities, Inc., the first Community Land Trust in the U.S.
Wallace Center Co-Director Susan Lightfoot Schempf agreed with Quinonez Zepeda’s assessment of the event.
“It was incredibly uplifting and motivating to be in community with farmers, ranchers, teachers, chefs, artists, and organizers of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities,” she said. “As I looked around the room at the determined faces of participants, I realized that we are indeed our greatest resource.”
Quinonez Zepeda was tapped by Brennan Washington to serve on the planning committee for the next SOWTH conference – to be held in 2027 in Mississippi, Quinonez Zepeda’s home state.
At the closing dinner, Quinonez Zepeda and Eloris Speight, Alcorn State University director of the Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Policy Research Center, announced Jackson, Mississippi as the next host location.
On stage, Quinonez Zepeda spoke about the importance of the SOWTH conference coming to Mississippi.
“Now more than ever we need to come together,” he said. “In states like Mississippi there are many farmers and ranchers doing great work; work that often goes unseen. Mississippi seems to operate in silos and it’s about time to close those silos!”
An earlier version of this story was published previously on WallaceCenter.org.
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