Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Organic Seed Growers Conference is a biennial gathering by and for agroecological seed communities in the U.S. and across the world. The event creates spaces where experienced and emerging seed stewards can convene timely conversations, educational training, and strategy sessions. The gathering serves as a conduit for making new connections and catching up with old friends, networking across organic seed communities, sharing knowledge with other participants, and celebrating the growing movement. Organizers curate a conference agenda that reflects the multifaceted needs of seed growers and advocates, no matter the ease or discomfort of the topics. The goal of the Organic Seed Growers Conference is to inspire individuals, communities, organizations, and businesses to take actions that support and improve the integrity of the philosophical and practical systems that make up the organic seed movement and trade.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
40%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
The program of the Organic Seed Growers' Conference addresses the following legislatively prioritized goals through conference workshops, posters, proceedings, facilitated panel discussions, an intellectual property symposia, and field tour: 1. Facilitating the development and improvement of organic agriculture production, breeding, and processing methods;2. Evaluating the potential economic benefits of organic agricultural production and methods to producers, processors, and rural communities;4. Identifying marketing and policy constraints on the expansion of organic agriculture; and 8. Developing new and improved seed varieties that are particularly suited for organic agriculture.The long-term goals of this conference are to: 1) increase the production and use of quality organic seed; 2) build and bolster regional and national seed systems and policies to support them; 3) foster the development of organic breeding projects; and 4) facilitate the outreach and dissemination of scientific findings and work specific to organic seed and breeding. The overarching goal of the Organic Seed Growers Conference (OSGC) is to convene diverse stakeholders to build relationships and exchange ideas to foster a national network of thriving regional, national and international seed systems that respond to the needs of organic farmers and the markets they serve. This project advances these goals in timely ways by expanding accessibility and participation in this conference, continuing to build a virtual organic seed network, reporting out on organic research including the 2022 State of Organic Seed Report (www.stateoforganicseed.org) and developing collective action to implement the Organic Seed Policy Platform (https://seedalliance.org/publications/a-policy-platform-for-seed/). The event will also address timely threats to organic seed integrity, diversity, and farmers' access by hosting a pre-conference symposium on intellectual property to provide resources and facilitate stakeholder input on challenges, needs and future strategies.?
Project Methods
Conference planning: Conference logistics are managed by OSA's staff. Agenda development will be led by the Conference Planning Committee (4 members from past event for continuity and 4 new members) which represents a diversity of disciplines, sectors, scales, geographies, races, identities, genders, and experience in seed. The Call for Proposals and Input will draw on State of Organic Seed priorities and prior program evaluations. Promotion materials and the Call for Proposals and Input will be translated into Spanish and promoted through Committee networks. Interpretation will be available for a selection of sessions as identified by the Committee. We are working to secure various funding streams through sponsorships, donations, and foundation support. Funding from OREI will offset additional expenses of hybrid hosting, ensure robust programing and equitable compensation for committee members and translators, and allow us to provide a sliding scale to ensure affordable access for farmers, students and socially disadvantaged participants in need of support.Virtual event network development/optimization: The Organic Seed Commons platform will be used for delivery of the virtual conference. The Commons includes 2,500+ members to date and is accessible both through computers and mobile devices. The conference-specific framework allows us to host live presentations, provides easy access to digital resources from presenters, enables polling and other forms of real-time participant feedback, enables analytic tools, and provides community engagement functionality after the workshops. Community guidelines are in place to ensure safe and constructive attendee engagement on the network.Symposium on intellectual property used on seed: The symposium agenda will be informed by the Call for Proposals and Input, OSA's existing IP toolkit, the State of Organic Seed project, and USDA Agricultural Marketing Service's More and Better Choices for Farmers: Promoting Fair Competition and Innovation in Seeds and Other Agricultural Inputs (2023). It will be developed by a sub-committee composed of IP experts and stakeholders from the public and private sectors and stakeholders engaged in developing alternative models from a diversity of communities and demographics. A report of presentations, resources and strategies identified at Symposium will inform recommendations for organic seed growers, plant breeders, researchers, and policy specialists to navigate and develop alternatives to the current IP regime.Delivery: The dates are set February 26 to March 2nd at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. eOrganic staff are on-site providing ease of hosting simultaneous delivery of workshops. All facilitators (online and in-person) will complete a virtual facilitator training session prior to the event and have access to OSA's existing guide of best practices. Spanish interpretation will be available for the IP symposium and all workshops.