History
In November of 2003, the First Annual Roundtable on Sustainable Agriculture was held at the Tri Societies Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. Just over 100 people participated in the discussion that focused on Sustainable Agriculture funding opportunities and graduate and undergraduate careers in the field of Sustainable Agriculture. Participants also responded to a range of questions aimed at learning how the Tri Societies and CSARE might better serve sustainable agriculture stakeholder interests.
This event was followed by a conference call and many email discussions by a team of leaders from within CSARE and the Societies, including many who participated in the 2003 Roundtable, to reflect on the input gathered from 2003 Roundtable participants.
The input from members and the discussions among the leadership informed the planning for the Second Annual Sustainable and Organic Agriculture Roundtable event, which took place on November 1, 2004 at the annual meeting in Seattle. This event also included organizations and leaders within the Organic Agriculture movement and included presenters from the Congressional Organic Caucus and the Organic Farming Research Foundation.
It was at this Roundtable that then SSSA President Tom Sims unveiled the new Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture (COSA), an ASA-CSSA-SSSA special committee also sponsored by the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education-Center for Rural Affairs (CSARE-CRA) and the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF).
At that time, the Committee was primarily established to develop programming for the annual meetings aimed at members and divisions interested in sustainable and organic agriculture, to obtain input and develop recommendations on ways to better serve members interested in sustainable and organic agriculture beyond the activities of the annual meeting, to identify emerging issues in sustainable and organic agriculture, to identify funding opportunities for research and professional services, and more. To see the full committee description and function, please click here.