Volunteer with RTC and get a FREE ticket to the MN State Fair!

For 20 years, Renewing the Countryside has curated an interactive, educational food & farming exhibit at the MN State Fair's Eco Experience Building. The award-winning sustainability expo draws over 250,000 people during the twelve days of the fair. Our exhibit includes kids activities, three daily cooking demonstrations, and local food sampling, as well as a poster display on our theme of the year (more on that below)! However, we could not do any of this without the support of our volunteers!

2025 Theme: Plant Protein Power!

With help from our sponsors—the Plant Based Foods Association, the UMN Plant Protein Innovation Center, The Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, SunOpta, and the North Harvest Bean Growers—RTC's 2025 Eco Experience Exhibit is centered on the power of sustainable plant based proteins and the farmers that grow them.

Proteins are an essential building block for everyday life. Finding and identifying sustainable meat based proteins can be as simple as looking for labels like "100% grass fed", but how many of us know how our black beans or edamame are grown? And once we identify sustainably grown, local plant-based proteins, how do we incorporate them into our daily recipes? 

Renewing the Countryside's Plant Protein Power! interactive exhibit will offer a special look at some of Minnesota’s bounty: beans, specialty grains and seeds, tree nuts, mushrooms, and their role in the ever-more-inventive landscape of plant-based food. Stories, photography, hands-on demonstrations, and, of course, delicious samples, will get visitors of all ages interested to learn: How can soybeans turn into a silky block of tofu, oats make for a smooth and creamy latte, or peas become the secret behind those uncannily meaty plant-based burgers? 

Discover how Minnesota is bridging agricultural tradition with the future of sustainable, plant-rich eating.

Daily Schedule Overview

• 8 a.m.-8 p.m. — Plant Protein Power! exhibit, local food-themed kids activities and more!
• 11 a.m.-3 p.m. — RTC’s FEAST! farmers and food-makers will sample their newest and most celebrated plant-based protein products
• 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. — Celebrated chefs, food-makers and cooks from across Minnesota will demonstrate how to make their favorite protein dense recipes using Minnesotan ingredients, sharing samples and stories

2025 Schedule of Sampler Partners: COMING SOON!

2024 Theme: Agroforestry

With the help of our sponsors, HeathPartners and the Savanna Institute, our 2024 exhibit centered on the theme of Agroforestry. 

As climate change continues to pose a threat to our food systems, sustainable agricultural practices have the power to mitigate and even reverse those threats. Agroforestry is a particularly effective practice as it integrates trees, perennials, pasture, and even native species into more traditional farming practices. Renewing the Countryside’s Agroforestry exhibit showed how these systems create resilient food production and explored ways we can all contribute to these sustainable systems

RTC's Past Eco Experience Exhibits

2024 Summary Report and Agroforestry Display

2023 Summary Report and Food & Farming Display

2021 Summary Report and Climate Change display

2019 Summary Report and Artisan Grain Exhibition display

2018 Summary Report and Best If Used exhibit display

2017 Summary Report and Organic exhibit display

2016 Summary Report and Forever Green exhibit display

2015 Summary Report and AGRIculture exhibit display

2014 Summary Report and Grow A Farmer Overview

2013 Summary Report

Gallery of past exhibits: see photos of the 2015 and 2016 Local Food Exhibits here 

Favorite fair recipes from our Chef Demonstrations here