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ORGANIC RESEARCH FORUM*

The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) is pleased to announce the second Organic Research Forum to be held as part of the Organic Farming Conference Feb. 25-27, 2010, in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The Organic Research Forum offers a unique opportunity for students, scientists and farmer researchers investigating topics related to organic agriculture to engage and share their work with the conference audience. The forum will offer a unique opportunity to learn about and discuss current research in organics.

The Forum will begin on Thursday at 1:00 pm with two afternoon sessions of interest to educators and researchers. These workshops will be followed by the opening of the poster session, held in conjunction with a mixer for all involved. The poster session will continue throughout Friday and Saturday.

The Forum will continue on Friday and Saturday with six workshops held simultaneously with the general session workshops at the Organic Farming Conference. The workshops will be focused on sharing current research results with organic growers. All conference attendees are encouraged to come and learn about organic agricultural research.

Thursday sessions are included in registration. Contact MOSES Outreach Coordinator Jeff Gunderson at jeff@mosesorganic.org with questions.

*Thursday sessions are included in your conference registration fee,
but will mainly be of interest to educators and researchers.

Building a Sustainable Agriculture Educational Program at Your Institution
Are you involved in curriculum development around sustainable agriculture at your institution? Do you want to be and don't know where to start? The Sustainable Agriculture Education Association would like to remind you that you don't have to reinvent the wheel! Students, faculty, staff and community stakeholders all have a role in developing the educational programs that will shape the next generation of agricultural professionals. Come join us to learn about effective existing programs and the resources and networks available for building new programs from the ground up. The SAEA's resources include an online database of curricula, directories of student farms and official sustainable agriculture educational programs, national participatory conferences for educators and learners and a lively online discussion group.

Panel Discussion: Building a Research Program in Organic Agriculture:
Strategies and Considerations for Faculty, Staff and Students
Join panelists Kathleen Delate (Iowa State University), Deborah Stinner (Ohio State University), Matthew Grieshop (Michigan State University), Anusuya Rangarajan (Cornell University) and John Biernbaum (Michigan State University), as well as PhD. candidate Allison Jack (Cornell University) for a participatory discussion on how to effectively build a research program centered on organic agriculture. Are you unsure about where to obtain funding, or how to increase the level of support for organic research within your institution? This discussion is focused on strategies pre-tenure faculty, as well as staff and tenured faculty, can use to acquire financial and inter- and intra-departmental support, as well as how to effectively build partnerships with colleagues not currently working in organics. Graduate students will benefit from learning what they can do in their current positions to facilitate successful program building. Other topics that will be covered include accessing land for organic certification and the issues of parallel production, as well as methods for effectively getting results into the hands of growers.