Progress 09/01/11 to 03/31/13
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The grant funded a symposium which was successfully held June 18-21, 2012, in Leavenworth, Washington. Its purpose was dissemination of the most current research on organic fruit production around the world, and to develop new research collaborations. There were 120 participants who attended in person and 74 people who attended one or more of the on-line webinar presentations of the symposium. The symposium consisted of 3 plenary sessions with keynote speakers, 8 breakout sessions on specific topics, a poster session, and an all-day field tour of organic farms and organic fruit packing. There were 57 oral presentations given and 33 posters displayed. Abstracts for all the presenters were put into a booklet that was provided to participants as well as being made available on line at http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu/pages/organicfruit2012/ , the website created for the symposium. The website will be maintained into the future for archival purposes. eOrganic offered 33 presentations as free live webinars over the internet. The remaining 24 oral presentations were electronically captured (voice plus powerpoint). 55 of the 57 oral presentations were put on-line at eOrganic http://www.extension.org/pages/64359/2nd-international-organic-fruit- research-symposium which is available free to the public. The experience is similar to attended the meeting and listening to the talk. Presenters (both oral and poster) have submitted 50 manuscripts for peer review for inclusion in the Acta Horticulturae volume that will result from this symposium. All manuscripts are going through final editing by the editor now and will be formatted for publication as an Acta Hort volume. Acta Hort is available to ISHS members, on line for a fee, and free through many university libraries. ISHS member participants voted during the business meeting to form a Work Group on organic fruit that will be starting up. The group agreed to hold the next symposium in June 2015, and a convenor and location (Avignon, France) have been confirmed. ISHS executive committe has approved this. PARTICIPANTS: Participants. Collab, training/prof dev grad student PIs. David Granatstein, Preston Andrews. Cindy Kahn, Projects Assistant, paid with project funds. David Granatstein and Preston Andrews, Washington State University, and Harold Ostenson, private consultant, were the symposium conveners. They collaborated with the International Society for Horticultural Science to host the event. Other partners included USDA-ARS, Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, and the members of the Scientific Committee: Preston Andrews, Washington State University Deirdre Birmingham, orchardist (Wisconsin) and Board President, Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) Jay Brunner, Washington State University Steve Ela, orchardist (Colorado) and former OFRF Board member David Granatstein, Washington State University Chuck Ingels, University of California Cooperative Extension Wojciech Janisiewicz, USDA Agricultural Research Service, West Virginia Karen Lewis, Washington State University Jim McFerson, Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission Harold Ostenson, organic orchard consultant, Washington, and former Director, Stemilt Growers Organic Program Greg Peck, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Bob Prange, former Agriculture Canada, and ISHS representative, Nova Scotia Curt Rom, University of Arkansas Franco Weibel, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland Chang-Lin Xiao, USDA Agricultural Research Service, California We also had financial sponsorship from various industry entities, including Stemilt Growers, Columbia Valley Fruit Co., Zirkle Fruit Co., CF Fresh, Earthbound Farm, GS Long Co., Wilson Orchard and Vineyard Supply, Dow AgroSciences, and CrunchPak. The symposium provided a professional development opportunity for 12 graduate students, 26 Extension workers, and 27 private agricultural professionals. Since the last report, we have worked with Stephanie Bishop who is doing the professional editing of the Acta Hort manuscripts. TARGET AUDIENCES: The symposium was targeted to individuals working in the organic fruit sector, particularly those with or seeking new knowledge on organic fruit production. Total in-person attendance was 120 people. This included: research 45; extension 26; graduate student 12; ag professional 27; grower 10. In addition, we had 74 people attend some portion via the live webinar presentations through eOrganic. These were the target audiences we hoped to attract and the diversity of audiences led to the type of discussion and interaction we were seeking. Our efforts included offering the symposium to deliver science-based knowledge, and making parts of it more widely available through the eOrganic webinar format. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The only project modification was a no-cost extension for 6 months to allow for processing and payment of various expenses to be billed to the project. The initial end date was not adequate to accomodate this.
Impacts
Based on the evaluation data collected, the symposium did successfully stimulate further collaboration for research on organic fruit production, and did stimulate participants to pursue more organic fruit research efforts. 92% of respondents rated the symposium as "Much" or "Very Much" in terms of the amount they learned at the event as well as their plans to utilize this knowledge in the work they do related to organic fruit. Two issues had particularly strong impact, based on the evaluation responses and the feedback during discussions - the important role that soil quality and biology play and how little we understand this; and, the potential to expand organic fruit production in difficult humid climates when a close collaboration of research-extension-growers is formed and focuses on a specific goal. In the medium to long term, this symposium will help expand the using of organic practices in fruit production, and expected benefits (based on published literature) from this include decreased environmental loading from toxic materials, decreased pesticide residues on food, decreased farmworker exposure to potentially dangerous pesticides, improved soil organic matter, reduced energy use, improved water quality, and increased profitability for growers. Since the presentations went on line, there have been over 5,500 views as of March 15, 2013, showing the power of this on-line presence to reach many more people than may ever attend a conference in person. This format is sharing the same information, minus the in-person interaction at the meeting, with little added cost and almost no carbon footprint for travel.
Publications
- 2nd International Organic Fruit Symposium. 2012. On-line archive of oral presentations. eOrganic. http://www.extension.org/pages/64359/2nd-international-organic-fruit- research-symposium
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The grant funded a symposium which was successfully held June 18-21, 2012, in Leavenworth, Washington. Its purpose was dissemination of the most current research on organic fruit production around the world, and to develop new research collaborations. There were 120 participants who attended in person and 74 people who attended one or more of the on-line webinar presentations of the symposium. The symposium consisted of 3 plenary sessions with keynote speakers, 8 breakout sessions on specific topics, a poster session, and an all-day field tour of organic farms and organic fruit packing. There were 57 oral presentations given and 33 posters displayed. Abstracts for all the presenters were put into a booklet that was provided to participants as well as being made available on line at http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu/pages/organicfruit2012/ , the website created for the symposium. The website will be maintained into the future for archival purposes. eOrganic offered 33 presentations as free live webinars over the internet. The remaining 24 oral presentations were electronically captured (voice plus powerpoint). These 57 oral presentations will be made available to the public, if author permission is granted, via the eOrganic website and will provide an experience similar to attending the meeting and listening to the talk. Presenters (both oral and poster) have submitted 50 manuscripts for peer review for inclusion in the Acta Horticulturae volume that will result from this symposium. Acta Hort is available to ISHS members, on line for a fee, and free through many university libraries. ISHS member participants voted during the business meeting to form a Work Group on organic fruit that will be starting up. PARTICIPANTS: PIs. David Granatstein, Preston Andrews. Cindy Kahn, Projects Assistant, paid with project funds. David Granatstein and Preston Andrews, Washington State University, and Harold Ostenson, private consultant, were the symposium conveners. They collaborated with the International Society for Horticultural Science to host the event. Other partners included USDA-ARS, Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, and the members of the Scientific Committee: Preston Andrews, Washington State University Deirdre Birmingham, orchardist (Wisconsin) and Board President, Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) Jay Brunner, Washington State University Steve Ela, orchardist (Colorado) and former OFRF Board member David Granatstein, Washington State University Chuck Ingels, University of California Cooperative Extension Wojciech Janisiewicz, USDA Agricultural Research Service, West Virginia Karen Lewis, Washington State University Jim McFerson, Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission Harold Ostenson, organic orchard consultant, Washington, and former Director, Stemilt Growers Organic Program Greg Peck, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Bob Prange, former Agriculture Canada, and ISHS representative, Nova Scotia Curt Rom, University of Arkansas Franco Weibel, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland Chang-Lin Xiao, USDA Agricultural Research Service, California We also had financial sponsorship from various industry entities, including Stemilt Growers, Columbia Valley Fruit Co., Zirkle Fruit Co., CF Fresh, Earthbound Farm, GS Long Co., Wilson Orchard and Vineyard Supply, Dow AgroSciences, and CrunchPak. The symposium provided a professional development opportunity for 12 graduate students, 26 Extension workers, and 27 private agricultural professionals. TARGET AUDIENCES: The symposium was targeted to individuals working in the organic fruit sector, particularly those with or seeking new knowledge on organic fruit production. Total in-person attendance was 120 people. This included: research 45; extension 26; graduate student 12; ag professional 27; grower 10. In addition, we had 74 people attend some portion via the live webinar presentations through eOrganic. These were the target audiences we hoped to attract and the diversity of audiences led to the type of discussion and interaction we were seeking. Our efforts included offering the symposium to deliver science-based knowledge, and making parts of it more widely available through the eOrganic webinar format. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Based on the evaluation data collected, the symposium did successfully stimulate further collaboration for research on organic fruit production, and did stimulate participants to pursue more organic fruit research efforts. 92% of respondents rated the symposium as "Much" or "Very Much" in terms of the amount they learned at the event as well as their plans to utilize this knowledge in the work they do related to organic fruit. Two issues had particularly strong impact, based on the evaluation responses and the feedback during discussions - the important role that soil quality and biology play and how little we understand this; and, the potential to expand organic fruit production in difficult humid climates when a close collaboration of research-extension-growers is formed and focuses on a specific goal. In the medium to long term, this symposium will help expand the using of organic practices in fruit production, and expected benefits (based on published literature) from this include decreased environmental loading from toxic materials, decreased pesticide residues on food, decreased farmworker exposure to potentially dangerous pesticides, improved soil organic matter, reduced energy use, improved water quality, and increased profitability for growers.
Publications
- Granatstein, D., Andrews, P., and Ostenson, H. 2012. Program and Abstract Book. Second International Organic Fruit Symposium. Intl. Soc. Hort. Sci. and Washington State University, Leavenworth, Washington, USA, June 18021, 2012. 28 pp.
- Acta Horticulturae volume. 2013.47 manuscripts have been submitted to the scientific committee for peer review. Those accepted will be published in Acta Horticulturae.
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