Event Recap: Oklahoma Local Agriculture Summit 2025
The ONIE Project partners annually with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry to host the Oklahoma Local Agriculture Summit (OKLAS). The 2025 Summit was held at the end of January in Edmond, Oklahoma and saw over 600 attendees. OKLAS is a gathering place for agricultural entrepreneurs, agritourism producers, farmers market managers, and support organizations. It is a 3-day event with various opportunities for education and information on sustainable production, farmers market management, funding opportunities, and hands-on demonstrations.
The 2025 Oklahoma Local Ag Summit kicked off on Wednesday, January 29, with the OKLAS Workshops. There were three workshop tracks – marketing, business, and production. The producer track was hosted by Langston University and included sessions related to seed germination, growing in high tunnels, effective pesticide use, beekeeping, and technology in agriculture. The marketing room held sessions for beginners in marketing taught by experts in the field, with courses related to leveraging your digital profiles, the basics of branding, and auditing your communications efforts. The business room kicked off with a session on business planning, followed by one-on-one business consultations with agricultural business managers. The workshop day had over 300 attendees and concluded with a farm-to-table dinner at the historic Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market. The meal was locally-sourced by farm-to-table chef, Carolyn Piguet, and paired with a local wine menu.
The main Summit Day was Thursday, January 30 and attendance increased to almost 600 attendees. Before the official Summit started, Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell spoke to the diverse audience about the state of Oklahoma’s local agriculture, and shared his personal investment in the industry. Attendees enjoyed breakfast and coffee while networking and visiting over 30 exhibitors from different agricultural organizations. The Summit day is divided into tracks specifically tailored to Producers, Market Managers, Agritourism, and Support Organizations. Each track has 4 hour-long sessions and this year we were able to add a second room for producers, so this audience had 8 sessions to choose from throughout the day. Altogether, there were 25 sessions with expert guest speakers, panels, and demonstrations. All attendees gathered for lunch to listen to our keynote speaker, Jill Ragan of Whispering Willow Farm in Arkansas. Jill shared an inspirational presentation relating to her personal story of managing the difficult times that come with farming. After the keynote session, attendees were able to purchase one of Jill’s books, __, and have it signed by her. The day wrapped up with the 2025 Oklahoma Local Agriculture Collaborative Awards. See the list of 2025 winners below:
Inspiring Agritourism Award: Chester Hocker, Chester’s Party Barn
Outstanding Support Organization: Jenna Moore, OKC Food Hub
Inspiring Farmers Market Manager: Emily Harmon, Edmond Farmers Market
Inspiring Beginning Producer: Katelyn John, 4J Meats
Inspiring Producer: Kevin Marshall, Indigo Acres
Oklahoma Local Agriculture Advocate: Jona Kay Squires, Mid-America Tech Center
Key Collaborator of 2025: Josh Campbell, OSU Extension
Advisory Board Member of 2025: Katie Plohocky, RG Foods
Partner of the Year: Justin Whitmore, Oklahoma Farm Bureau
The final day of the Summit, January 31, the Department of Agriculture and Oklahoma Local Ag Collaborative (OLAC) hosted separate tours of farms and agritourism venues in Central Oklahoma. OLAC’s innovative farm tour focused on farms that have adopted or developed new techniques for production, harvesting, and marketing that help them increase production and sales. OLAC visited Ruzycki Farms in Jones, Indigo Acres in Edmond, and Phocas Farms in Edmond. The Department of Ag, led by the state agritourism coordinators, Micaela Halverson and Whitney Wilkinson, visited 4 agritourism venues to learn directly from the hosts on how to make the most of your agritourism operation. They visited Ralph’s Ranch, Cross Timbers Christmas Tree & Pumpkin Patch, Valley View Pecan Company, and Sunshine Shelly’s Pumpkin Patch. Both tours were a great conclusion to a week full of agricultural knowledge and skills being shared.
Overall, the 2025 Oklahoma Local Ag Summit was a huge success! We have collected feedback from attendees on each session, track, and tour throughout the week. We are excited to use this feedback to guide our next Summit in 2026, and are open to exploring partnerships to improve this event for our target population in any way. If you are interested in partnering with us for future events like OKLAS, please submit a request to our Outreach Form.
