Friday (January 29)

(advanced)

9.00am – 12.00pm

Organics/Social Research

Seminar B
(advanced)
9.00am – 12.00pm
Blueprints for Farm-based Breeding and Seed Systems
“The Future of Seed carries with it the Future of Humanity”
from Manifestos on the Future of Food & Seed, 2007, edited by Vandana Shiva

Organic agriculture and local food systems need seeds that are bred, grown, and saved on sustainable farms, for local ecological, economic and cultural realities. In this workshop participants will explore the practical opportunities and challenges for re-building bioregional seed systems in Canada by:

1) Developing a coast to coast national snap shot of regional farm-based seed and breeding efforts, with video presentations from Patrick Steiner of Stellar Seeds in BC (www.stellarseeds.com)/BC Seeds (www.bcseeds.org), Andrea Berry of Hope Seeds in New Brunswick (www.hopeseed.com) /the Eastern Canadian Organic Seed Growers Network (www.seeds.ca/en.php?n=ecosgn_home), and questions and input from workshop attendees. Patrick and Andrea will discuss the challenges and successes they have had building local organic seed companies in British Columbia and New Brunswick, the progress being made on seed system development on the West Coast and in Atlantic Canada, and the dynamics of working with farmers to breed and grow high quality seeds for their bioregions.

2) Following Chris Wooding of Ironwood Gardens (www.ironwoodgardens.ca) through an in-depth visual and statistical tour of his Eastern Ontario efforts to grow, test, and rehabilitate selections from 70 heritage wheat varieties developed in the 1870s-1945. His presentation will explore elements of his farm-based research program, such as breeding techniques for horizontal resistance, the use of GIS satellite data to correlate variety performance against soil, climate, weather, latitude/day length, and his system for tracking adaptation over sequential years of growing trials and seed saving. He will also give us a glimpse of his number crunching on the profitability of growing wheat for sale as seed, grain, or for on-farm milling.

3) Exploring the history of the erosion of regional and public breeding and seed systems, and the challenges presented by the consolidation of the seed industry and its recent shift toward biotechnology. This 20th Century process went hand in hand with the industrialization of agriculture and the Green Revolution. Most recently, the biotech industry is using both legal (intellectual property rights) and biological (hybrid and, maybe soon, terminator seeds) approaches to increasing privatization and profiteering.

Criticism of corporate industrial control over our seeds is not enough. Concrete changes are required that help diversified farmers, seed growers and breeders become economically viable. We will summarize and discuss desired changes in terms of plant varieties and traditional knowledge; on-farm seed saving and selecting technologies and skills; breeding and research capacities (local plant breeding clubs and how to get scientists on farms helping farmers); local seed markets and seed profitability; required policy and legal reforms; and the interdependence of bioregional seed systems with developing local farm and food systems and regional ecologies, using Canadian and international examples.

4 Providing input on the future of regional seed and breeding systems in Canada. An audience driven review of stregths, weaknesses, challenges, opportunities on the ground and the implications for federal policy development/the People’s Seed Policy Project. Input will be gathered by Sarah Martin from the People’s Seed Policy Project (www.forumonpublicdomain.ca/node/257) a national consultation process currently underway as part of Food Secure Canada’s (foodsecurecanada.org) national People’s Food Policy Project (peoplesfoodpolicy.ca)

Presenter Bios:
Andrea Berry is the owner and operator of Hope Seeds in Knowlesville , New Brunswick . She is the former coordinator of Organic Agriculture at the Falls Brooke Centre (www.fallsbrookcentre.ca/agriculture/index.htm), where she started the New Brunswick Organic Farm Apprenticeship program (www.fallsbrookcentre.ca/agriculture/apprenticeships.htm). She now grows seeds for her own company and works with other regional farmers to develop varieties and supply Hope Seeds. She has worked with other seed grower-sellers to found the Eastern Canadian Organic Seed Growers Network.

Andrew McCann, the workshop coordinator, is a farm and food activist from Kingston , Ontario . He has market gardened; volunteered at the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary (www.providence.ca/seeds/); co-initiated and co-coordinated Food Down the Road: Toward a Sustainable Local Food System for Kingston and Countryside (fooddowntheroad.ca); started and taught the online certificate program, Sustainable Local Food for All Canadians (www.sl.on.ca/parttime/OnlineCredit-SustFood.htm) and is currently working with Urban Agriculture Kingston and Kingston area farmers to found a wholesale local food distribution cooperative with on-site mill and bakery. He is turning his agroecology masters thesis into a book entitled Gauguin’s Potatoes: Local Food, Biotechnology and the Future of Seed.

Chris Wooding is an organic farmer and farm-based heritage wheat researcher at Ironwood Gardens, near Gananoque , Ontario . He has meticulously researched the history of wheat growing in Canada, obtained 70 varieties of seed stock and is in his third year of growing, observing, selecting, measuring and recording data in an effort to rehabilitate these heritage varieties for his bioregion. His presentation will be a progress report on this intensive effort, and it will include data not just on the wheat’s life cycle, but on the economics of production, processing and marketing his harvest for seed and for milling.

Patrick Steiner owns and operates Stellar Seeds in Salmon Arm, BC. He is well-known for his high-quality seeds as well as his involvement in seed growing education. He has worked for the last several years on seed security issues in Canada and abroad, including helping to found BC Seeds, and serving on the board of USC Canada (www.usc-canada.org) and writing a book entitled Small-Scale Organic Seed Production (www.bcseeds.org/seed-manual.php).

Sarah Martin is a food and seed systems researcher and activist based in Ottawa , Ontario . She is a researcher and writer for the People’s Seed Policy Project, and is working on a masters in Political Economy at Carleton University . Her undergraduate honours thesis is entitled From efficiency to authenticity: the contradictions of institutional foodservice and local food sourcing.

Seminar C

(advanced)

1.15pm – 4.15pm

Paid registration via PayPal for the 2010 Conference is now open.

Seminar D: SOLD OUT

(advanced)

1.15pm – 4.15pm

Paid registration via PayPal for the 2010 Conference is now open.

Expert market gardening

The whole 9 yards for organic market gardeners: season extension, year-round sales, storage crops, greenhouse issues, CSA sales, farmer’s market sales, farm sales stand, selling to 50+ restaurants, labour issues. Pete Johnson and farming partner Meg Gardner will explain their complete production & marketing program in northern Vermont in this modular Q & A program. Highlights: an overview of the operation; key equipment used; harvesting efficiency; marketing to multiple markets; dealing with farm workers. All this from a NOFA-certified producer.

MEET THE PRESENTERS ORGANIC FOOD & WINE DINNER: SOLD OUT

Paid registration via PayPal for the 2010 Conference is now open.

4.10 PM – 6.50 PM •• Very Important Note: All Organic Dinner guests must be in Peter Clark Hall, Lower Level of the Guelph U.C. and seated by 5.15 pm (WITHOUT EXCEPTION).

(limit: 200 tickets)

The Annual Guelph Public Forum

Organic values & ethics vs. goals of a competitive

market-place

Moderator: Stephen Scharper, U of Toronto

$10/person

Paid registration via PayPal for the 2010 Conference is now open.

7.00 PM – 9.30 PM