We’re excited to announce that the 11th Organic Seed Growers Conference will be held virtually from February 4 – 11, 2022, on a new platform called Organic Seed Commons!
As such, the conference theme is “Organic Seed Commons” to reflect a desire to broaden organic seed communities both in virtual and physical spaces. We see this virtual gathering as an opportunity to deepen community interactions beyond the conference cycle by supporting participants to leverage this new online network to meet their needs both at the event and beyond.
Priority Topic Areas for the Conference:
Topics reflecting the 2022 theme: Organic Seed Commons
- Building equity and justice in organic seed communities
- Policy and advocacy focused on seed equity and justice
- Methods for building community and access beyond the conference cycle in the new Organic Seed Commons virtual platform
- Nuts and bolts of growing seed, conducting variety trials, and/or plant breeding (e.g. field practices, seed cleaning, and/or processing, packing, and sales)
- Emergent topics related to current events (e.g. COVID lessons and stories)
Topics reflecting conference priorities with an emphasis on outcomes for seed growers and communities
- Advancements in organic plant breeding
- Breeding for resiliency and biodiversity, including to mitigate the impacts of climate change
- Grower-led and participatory breeding projects
- New models for organic seed production, quality assurance, enterprise development, and commercializing new varieties (e.g., alternative approaches to intellectual property)
- Understanding the economics of seed production
- Timely and emerging policy and advocacy topics that are essential to expanding organic seed systems and that are in need of more clarity, strategy, and discussion
- First-person seed stories from a diversity of perspectives and communities, especially encouraged from growers of historical and contemporary culturally significant crops and/or varieties.
Past Proceedings
Past proceedings are available here.
Request for Proposals and Invitation to Participate
The conference organizers invite you to help shape the 11th Organic Seed Growers Conference by providing input for the agenda. We welcome your proposals and suggestions. This is an opportunity to share important skills and research, and ask timely questions related to organic seed. This year the conference planning committee has expanded the types of sessions and ways to contribute to the event and are welcoming both a traditional Request for Proposals of Peer-Reviewed Sessions as well as an Invitation for Open Proposals. See below for descriptions of session types and additional details.
Deadlines
All Peer-Reviewed and Open Submission proposals are due by December 1, 2021. Media and pre-recorded content for confirmed submissions are due by January 1, 2022.
Conference Commitment to Equity and Inclusion
We are particularly interested in proposals that include growers from Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and LGBTQIA+ seed communities. While we welcome a diversity of proposals, those that include the following are encouraged:
- Seed grower presenter or seed grower included on panel
- Racial diversity among presenter(s) or panelists
- Presenters from a diversity of agricultural backgrounds/approaches
- Opportunities for audience interaction
Session Type Descriptions and Expectations
Peer-Reviewed Sessions
Proposals for Peer-Reviewed Sessions will be evaluated and chosen by a review committee with diverse representation from organic seed communities. There are four types of sessions in this category: 1) Panel Discussion, 2) Roundtable, 3) Presentation of Research, and 4) Virtual Research Poster.
Invitation for Open Proposals
The conference committee is also inviting Open Submissions to be included in the conference. All submissions that fall within the Organic Seed Commons Community Guidelines will be accepted and some Open Submissions may be selected by the conference committee to be featured as part of the conference agenda and programming. There are four types of sessions in this category: 1) Demonstration, 2) Farm Tour, 3) Lightning Talk, and 4) Works of Art.
