THE

Kneading Conference

July 24-25, 2025

SKOWHEGAN , MAINE

A ONE-OF-A-KIND EVENT AND GOING STRONG SINCE 2007

The Kneading Conference brings together grainiacs and bread buffs from all over the country. Farmers, professional and home bakers, brewers, chefs, cooks, grain researchers, maltsters, food entrepreneurs, and wood-fired oven enthusiasts gather to educate one another about the art and science of growing and milling grains, baking artisan breads, and brewing delicious beer. Whether you are a professional, or just yearning to know more about the craft, this event is for you.

View the 2024 Schedule (The 2025 Schedule will be available soon)

LEARN ABOUT WORK STUDY

Indulge your passion for baking at The Kneading Conference in DOWNTOWN Skowhegan, Maine!

Ticket Price: $425 plus fees

Immerse yourself in all things local grain! Your ticket includes:

Two light breakfasts on Thursday and Friday
Two lunches from local eateries on Thursday and Friday
A locally sourced dinner on Thursday night.
Admittance to all workshops, demos, lectures, and discussions listed on the schedule

You can choose to add our Welcome and Presenter’s Dinner on Wednesday evening, or even camping to your ticket.

Mark your calendar and secure your spot today to learn and connect with fellow grain aficionados!

Meet Our

2025 Keynote

Food Politics by Marion Nestle

Dr. Nestle's Instagram Page

Marion Nestle - Acclaimed Author & Professor of Nutrition and Public Health

Marion Nestle is a consumer advocate, nutritionist, award-winning author, and academic who specializes in the politics of food and dietary choice. Her research examines scientific, economic, and social influences on food choice and health, with an emphasis on the role of food industry marketing. Her books explore how politics affects food production, dietary intake, food safety, and human and planetary health.

She is the author of the classic Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health which won awards from the Association of American Publishers, the James Beard Foundation, and World Hunger Year. Her second book, Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety, won the Steinhardt School of Education’s Griffiths Research Award.

Dr. Nestle’s book, What to Eat was named as one of Amazon’s top ten books of the year and a “Must Read” by Eating Well magazine; it also won the Better Life Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the James Beard Foundation book award for best food reference. She is currently working on an updated edition titled What to Eat Now (North Point Press, Fall 2025). An excerpt titled The Fish Counter will be published by Picador on June 10, 2025 as part of their “Oceans, Rivers, and Streams” series.

Dr. Nestle’s other books include Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine; Feed Your Pet Right, co-authored with Malden Nesheim; Why Calories Count: from Science to Politics, also with Malden Nesheim, which won book of the year from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP); Eat, Drink, Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, which won an IACP book award; Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning), which won an IACP book award along with the James Beard Award for Writing & Literature; Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat which exposes how the food industry corrupts scientific research for profit and was one of Nature‘s Best Science Books of the Year; and Let’s Ask Marion: What You Need to Know about the Politics of Food, Nutrition, and Health with Kerry Trueman. Dr. Nestle has also written a memoir titled Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics.

Marion Nestle is the emerita Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. She also holds an appointment as visiting professor in the Cornell Division of Nutritional Sciences. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Nestle has received many awards and honors, among them the Bard College Prison Initiative’s John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public Service, the National Public Health Hero award from the UC Berkeley School Of Public Health, the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, the Innovator of the Year Award from the United States Healthful Food Council, she was named Grande Dame by Les Dames d’Escoffier, the International Association of Culinary Professionals Trailblazer Award, the Changemaker Award from the Food Policy Center at Hunter College and Edinburgh Medal. She has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky and from CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College. Dr. Nestle also appears frequently in documentary films, among them SuperSize Me!, A Place at the Table, Fed Up, El Susto, and Code Blue.

Dr. Nestle blogs daily (almost) at www.foodpolitics.com.

“When it comes to the increasingly treacherous landscape of the American supermarket, with its marketing hype and competing health claims, Marion Nestle is an absolutely indispensable guide: knowledgeable, eminently sane – and wonderful company too.“

Michael Pollan

This year we will gather in the heart of downtown skowhegan

We are thrilled to host our 2025 event into downtown Skowhegan. Through collaborating with local businesses that have supported us for many years, attendees will get to experience what makes Skowhegan such a special place!

Our downtown setting opens a whole new set of activities and opportunities that will excite visitors to the conference. Walking, hiking, and biking trails along the river, unique galleries, beautiful parks and more will welcome attendees!

Conference schedule

Join us for dozens of workshops, demos, panels, and discussions led by grain leaders from around the world!

Our keynote, workshops, panels and more will be held across the downtown of Skowhegan, Maine!

Our 2025 Schedule will be annunced soon. Below you can view the offering from our 2024 conference to give you a taste of what is to come!

View the Kneading Conference 2021 schedule & directory.

Explore Accommodations Options

Learn About Our Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor

Frequently Asked Questions

How to create a sched.com account (you have to do this in order to access the Zoom links)

When you registered to the Kneading Conference you were prompted to create a password to sched.com. After saving your password you are able to login to sched.com with the password you created. This will allow you to create your schedule.

How to create your Kneading Conference Schedule

Add any and all sessions/workshops you want to view to your schedule (below you will see where it says “click here to add to my sched).

If attending virtually, ten minutes before each workshop the zoom link will appear in the workshop information portion of the schedule. Below is a screen show of where you will find all the zoom links for the workshops.

Remember, if you are attending virutal workshopsyou have to add the workshops to your schedule to see the zoom links (you will see below in yellow it says “add to your schedule to view video stream” – this is where the zoom links will be 10 minutes before each sessions starts).

Where can I find the conference schedule?

The schedule can be found in two places:

https://kneadingconference.com/2021-kneading-conference/#schedule
Stay tuned

Forgot your sched.com password? Click here.

Questions and troubleshooting?

If you need assistance during the week please feel free to reachout to tristan@mainegrainalliance or [email protected] and we will be sure to help.

Work Study

The Kneading Conference Work Study Program is intended for those who show high interest in the field of baking and/or local grain growing and who need help in meeting the expenses of the July 24-25, 2025 conference. In exchange for a $375 scholarship and ample time attending conference workshops and lectures, work/study applicants will be asked to volunteer on Wednesday, July 23th through Saturday, July 26th (the day of the Maine Artisan Bread Fair). Duties will include helping with set up, clean up and other tasks in the kitchen, assisting presenters and helping around the conference grounds. You may also be asked to distribute posters and flyers in the months leading up to the conference.

Applications are reviewed and filled on a rolling basis. If you are accepted into Work Study a $50 deposit is required on notification. The remaining balance is due before July 1st, 2025.

Apply Online for a Work Study Opportunity

“I have to admit that I was nervous before the weekend began, so many talented bakers and professionals in one place — the accumulated acumen was dizzying and I was prepared to feel a bit out of place. My assumptions, per usual, did not prove to be true. The open, welcoming air put off by every MGA board member immediately put my mind at ease. I was truly afraid of feeling like an outsider, and that wasn’t the case for a moment during the week. The event felt more like a celebration — presenters, board members, and other work study members coming together to educate and rejoice in our shared love of food. While I learned a lot about oven building, pasta rolling, and donut frying — the friends and connections I established left me feeling truly grateful for the opportunity. While I’m incredibly inspired to bake, eat, and write about food, I must admit my biggest takeaway from the week has to be the relationships formed. I made friends for life, and learned how to properly glaze a donut.”

Mike Hicks

2018 Work Study