Upcoming Meetings


COSA Meetings

 

Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture (COSA) -ASA-CSSA-SSSA
2009 International Annual Meetings, November 1st – 5th
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • David L. Lawrence Convention Center
www.acsmeetings.org
 
Footprints in the Landscape: Sustainability through Plant and Soil Sciences
ASA-CSSA-SSSA-COSA Annual Roundtable event
 
Schedule of events:
 
Monday, November 2, 2009
 
COSA Business Meeting
12:30 PM-2:30 PM
Convention Center, Room 331, Third Floor
Organizers: Joseph Heckman and Stacey Phelps
 
Roundtable discussion
6:30 PM-8:00 PM
Convention Center, Room 414-415, Fourth Floor
Organizer: Joseph Heckman

 

Wednesday, November 4, 2009
 
COSA Poster Session on Organic Farming
4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Convention Center, Exhibit Hall BC, Second Floor
Organizer: Joseph Heckman

 

Networking Reception with cash bar and appetizers.                                                                         
6:30 PM
Introductory Remarks
6:45 PM
Organic Agriculture in New Zealand - A Model for Sustainability.
Hugh R. Campbell, Univ. of Otago, New Zealand
New Zealand offers a good model for organic production and marketing, focusing on long-term sustainability and economic progress. Dr. Hugh Campbell will present a short overview of organic production in New Zealand, the breakdown of gender in organic agriculture, how certification is managed, and sustainability metrics related to organic agriculture in New Zealand.
 
7:00 PM
Discussion Break-out sessions following the talk will discuss how U.S. farms can adopt sustainability metrics to further organic agriculture in the U.S.
7:15 PM
Adjourn
 
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
 9:55 AM-5:15 PM
Convention Center, Room 318, Third Floor
Organizer: Joseph Heckman
9:55 AM
Introductory Remarks
10:00 AM
Perspectives on History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Organic Farming.
Joseph Heckman, Rutgers State Univ.
10:40 AM
Engaging Across the Organic/Conventional Binary: Preliminary Results from the ARGOS Programme in New Zealand.
Hugh R. Campbell, Univ. of Otago
11:20 AM
USDA-Accredited Certifiers Work with Universities to Improve Implementation and Integrity of the National Organic Program Standards.
Liz Sarno, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln
12:00 PM
Break
1:00 PM
Ecology in Organic Farming: New Book from American Society of Agronomy.
Laurie Drinkwater, Cornell Univ.; Charles Francis, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln; Martin Entz, Univ. of Manitoba; E. Anne Clark, Univ. of Guelph; Kathleen M. Delate, Iowa State Univ.; Joseph Heckman, Rutgers State Univ.; Matt Liebman, Iowa State Univ.; Rhonda R. Janke, Kansas State Univ.; Patricia Allen, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz; Nancy G. Creamer, North Carolina State Univ.
1:40 PM
Nutrition Science and the Early Organic Movement, 1930-1960.
Martin Renner, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
2:20 PM
Mainstreaming Organic Agriculture in the Land Grant System.
Kathleen M. Delate, Iowa State Univ.; Jerald DeWitt, Iowa State Univ.
3:00 PM
Break
3:15 PM
Organic Agriculture: A Model for Commitment and Change.
Paul Hepperly, Rodale Inst.
3:55 PM
The Uses of History: Pioneering Organic Farmers and Old Agricultural Books.
Laura B. Sayre, Yale Univ.
4:35 PM
You Say You Want A Revolution? Organic Consumers and the Local Farmers They Support Are Forcing A Paradigm Shift in the Way Our Food Is Produced and Consumed.
David G. Cox, General Counsel, Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
5:15 PM
Adjourn
 
 
This symposium is being cosponsored by the
Council on History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Soil Science
 
The symposium will highlight how organic farming, both in tradition and practice, functions differently than the dominant conventional model of agriculture. Organic is both a system of farming, and a social movement. Sometimes the organic traditions, which have become codified into certification standards, seem rigid and inflexible in the face of modern science, but at the same time they lend character, personality, and definition to a system of farming that produces food for people that care deeply about how it is produced.
This consumer choice/social movement is providing incentives to transition land to organic/sustainable production practices that encourage nutrient cycling and crop rotations for building soil fertility, controlling erosion, and breaking pest cycles. While it is valuable for soil and crop scientists to share the latest in agronomic production practices amongst themselves, this special symposium will include presentations by historians and social scientists to provide new perspectives on the social/political forces that are influencing agriculture and our professional world. Although the organic movement has gained the attention sociologists, this phenomenon has not been widely discussed at the Crops, Soils, and Agronomy meetings since 1981. The proceedings /Organic Farming: Current Technology and Its Role in a Sustainable Agriculture/ of that symposium were published in 1984.
 
This current symposium will also highlight and announce a new book, /Ecology in Organic Farming Systems/, that is being published in 2009. 
Organic Farming: New Book from American Society of Agronomy C.A. Francis, L.E. Drinkwater, M. Entz, A.E. Clark, K. Delate, J. Heckman, M. Liebman, H.H. Peterson, P. Allen, and N.G. Creamer.
 
Organic agriculture is one of the fastest growing sectors of the farming and food system in North America. Increasing concerns about environmental impacts of agriculture have led to the current quest to learn more about the ecological interactions in farming and how knowledge of natural systems can help inform the design of agroecosystems. Research on organic practices and systems design have moved from the farm to the experiment station, with a number of land grant universities now doing studies on land certified to organic standards. Productivity, economics, environmental impact, and social viability o organic agriculture are explored in a new book from ASA that includes fifteen chapters written by people working with organic methods and systems. Details on the history or organic farming, certification standards, soil fertility and pest management practices, crop rotations, integrated crop/animal systems, economics and marketing are included as major topics. Comprehensive state programs that combine research and education are included, as well as continuing initiatives in the non-profit sector. Substantial research and many farmer innovations have occurred in the twenty-five years since publication of the last book from ASA on organic farming, and the organic approach to agriculture and food is receiving more attention in classroom and Extension education.
 
Ecology in Organic Farming provides a contemporary update in this dynamic field. Additional authors include J. Van Wart, P. Moyer, R.R. Janke, H. Melcarek, J.P. Mueller, J. O’Sullivan, C. Reberg-Horton, M. Schroeder-Moreno, S. Washburn, L. Hodges, G.W. Bird, and F. Kirschenmann.
 
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Convention Center, Exhibit Hall BC, Second Floor
Organizer: Joseph Heckman
 
Productivity and Quality of Basmati Rice (Oryza sativa) Under Organic Farming of Rice-Based Cropping Systems.
Mohammadreza Davari, Indian Agricultural Res. Inst.; Shri niwas Sharma, Indian Agricultural Res. Inst.
 
Organic Farming History and Certification.
Justin Van Wart, Univ. of Nebraska; Charles Francis, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln
 
Illustrating the Nitrogen Cycle in Organic Farming.
Joseph Heckman, Rutgers State Univ.; Ray R. Weil, Univ. of Maryland; Frederick Magdoff, Univ. of Vermont
 
Crop Rotations on Three Certified Organic Farms in Minnesota.
Paul Porter, Univ. of Minnesota
 
The Healthy Farm Index.
John E. Quinn IV, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln; Liz Sarno, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln; James Brandle, Univ. of Nebraska; Ron Johnson, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln
 
Transitional Assistance in Organic Farming.
Diana L. Kobus, Duquesne Univ.
 
For more information about the conference contact Joseph Heckman - heckman@aesop.rutgers.edu
 

To register for the conference: https://www.acsmeetings.org

 


Other Meetings


Building Sustainable Ecosystems through Organic Agricultural Research and Practice

The Integrated Agricultural Systems Division (A-8) would like to announce a symposium to be held during the 2007 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meetings in New Orleans, LA, November 4-8, 2007, that will address the role that organic farming practices and research can have on shaping sustainable agriculture. Themes to be discussed will include the history of organic agriculture; transitioning to organic status; long-term organic experiments; agroecosystem management; public plant breeding for organic systems; economics and policy influencing organic research; building farmer participation into organic research; and hearing from organic farmers who have worked with Division A-8 researchers and successfully converted their farms to organic. The symposium will address the challenges of organic research and methods to increase support at University, state and national levels. The Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture is co-sponsoring this symposium. Symposium organizers are Kathleen Delate (kdelate@iastate.edu) and Erin Silva (emsilva@wis.edu). Look for more information on this symposium in the April issue of CSA News, or by contacting the symposium organizers or Division A-8 chair Pat Carr (Patrick.Carr@ndsu.edu; 701-483-2348 ext 143).

Confirmed Speakers:

  1. Mark Lipson and Jane Sooby (Organic Farming Research Foundation), "Organic Transitions: The Evolution of Organic Research, Theory, and Practice."
  2. Kathleen Delate (Iowa State University), Cynthia Cambardella, and Ron Rosmann: "Environmental and Economic Outcomes of Long Term Participatory Organic Research in Iowa."
  3. Jeff Moyer (The Rodale Institute): "Cover Crop Management with Specialty Equipment for No-Till."
  4. Paul Porter (University of Minnesota): "Designing Crop Rotations and Spatial Diversity."
  5. Linda Pollak (Iowa State University) and Patrick Carr (North Dakota State University): "Developing and Choosing Annual Grain Crops for Organic Farming."
  6. Julie Dawson (Washington State University), Kevin Murphy, and Stephen Jones: "Plant Breeding for Organic Systems: Wheat in the Inland Pacific Northwest."
  7. Cathy Greene (USDA-ERS), Bill McBride, Tim Payne, and Stan Daberkow: "Organic Farming Practices, Costs, and Profitability: New USDA Survey Data."
  8. Laurie Drinkwater (Cornell University): "Sustainable nutrient management in organic agriculture."
  9. Michelle Wander (University of Illinois), D. Cavanaugh, L. Cooperband, A. Davis, D. Eastburn, J. Masiunas, C. Ugarte, and E. Zaborski: "Windsor Organic Research in Transition: A System of Soil Management."
  10. Karen Klonsky (UC Davis): " The Size, Growth, and Profitability of Organic Agriculture in California."
  11. Dawn Thilmany (Colorado State University and USDA-CSREES): "Organic Agriculture in the USDA: Increasing Partnerships within USDA and among land grant and other CSREES Partners."
  12. Michael Cavigelli (USDA-ARS), and John Teasdale: "Long Term Agronomic Performance of Organic Conventional Field Crops in the Mid-Atlantic Region."
  13. Tim Griffin (USDA-ARS), Richard Kersbergen, Heather Darby, Sidney Bowsworth, and Charles Schwab: "Building a Research Base for Organic Dairy in New England."
  14. Robert Gallagher (Penn State University), Dennis Pittman, Amanda Synder, Rich Koenig, Kathleen Painter, Herbert Hinman, E. Patrick Fuerst, and Ian Burke: "Transitioning to Direct-Seeded Organic Dryland Grain Production in Eastern Washington."
  15. Andrew Corbin (Michigan State University), Kurt D. Thelen, Richard H. Leep, G.P. Robertson, and Stephen K. Hamilton: "Transitional Dynamics in Converting Conventional Cropping Systems to Certified Organic: A Study on Michigan Field Crops"
  16. Chris Reberg Horton (North Carolina State University), J.P. Mueller, and N.G. Creamer: "Combining Short-Term and Long-Term Research on Organic Farming Systems at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems"