Organic Seed Growers Conference February 4–11, 2022

Agenda

We’re looking forward to seeing you for an incredible gathering of 70+ sessions led by 150 presenters from across the world. Use the button below to hop on over and see what we have planned for the big event.

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About the Organic Seed Growers Conference 

The Organic Seed Growers Conference is a biennial gathering by and for agroecological seed communities in the U.S. and across the world. The event creates spaces where experienced and emerging seed stewards can convene timely conversations, educational trainings, and strategy sessions. The gathering serves as a conduit for making new connections and catching up with old friends, networking across organic seed communities, sharing knowledge with other participants, and celebrating the growing movement. Organizers curate a conference agenda that reflects the multifaceted needs of seed growers and advocates, no matter the ease or discomfort of the topics. The goal of the Organic Seed Growers Conference is to inspire individuals, communities, organizations, and businesses to take actions that support and improve the integrity of the philosophical and practical systems that make up the organic seed movement and trade. 

The 2022 conference will be held virtually on the Organic Seed Commons platform and include both live and pre-recorded content, and plenty of opportunities for participants to network and skill-share with one another. The conference is the largest organic seed event in the U.S. and will be an all-virtual event for the first time, providing an eight-day agenda of demonstrations, farm tours, lightning talks, art, regional meetups, regional/topical/affinity synergy spaces, keynote presentations, and celebration.

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2022 Conference Theme and Priority Topic Areas

Theme

This year’s conference will be held virtually on a new and emerging platform called Organic Seed Commons. As such, the 11th Organic Seed Growers Conference theme is Organic Seed Commons to reflect a desire to broaden organic seed communities both in virtual and physical spaces. We see the 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

Topics reflecting 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 that reflect ongoing 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. 

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Session Types

Peer-Reviewed Sessions

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Open Sessions

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A Note About Organic

Our vision for organic seed systems includes all seed growers committed to agroecological practices and principles that align with equity and justice. We believe in organic certification and the benefits to growers, consumers, and the planet. We also recognize that organic certification is not the right fit for every grower and that barriers to certification and the organic marketplace exist. 

Additionally, we recognize that the term “organic agriculture” was formulated in response to conventional agricultural practiced by largely white colonial societies, and that agriculture was used as a tool to dispossess and displace Indigenous peoples from their land on this continent and elsewhere. Agriculture has been and continues to be a means to resist colonization and maintain a cultural identity for Indigenous, Black, People of Color, and immigrant communities in North America and around the world. Organic certification enables transparency and trust of production practices in a distanced and transactional society, but we recognize that many seed-keepers, plant breeders, farmers and gardeners who do not use organic certification are expressing values that encompass the values of the organic community. 

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About the Organic Seed Commons Virtual Platform

Organic Seed Commons, hosted by OSA and an advisory committee, is an online space for seed people to learn, connect, and grow together. The network was developed in its BETA phase in February 2021 as a virtual event space to deliver educational material and connect people working with seed through educational resource sharing, networking, and collaborative working groups. Organic Seed Commons was built with the intention of being an open space that will evolve and morph to fit the needs of the larger seed community.

Conference attendees will gain access to a dedicated space that will allow them to network and share with other attendees in real time. In addition to conference content the network is home to a vibrant community that includes active educational courses, regional seed groups and initiatives.

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Conference Tanks, Tees, and Sweatshirts

Grab your 2022 Organic Seed Growers Conference gear featuring the 2022 logo today!

We’re thankful to have a community space to gather but pretty bummed to not be meeting, learning, and celebrating in person. Grab your conference garb to help brighten your screen! More styles and colors available.

Proceeds from shirt sales support the event, in particular our ability to keep registration costs affordable. Artwork by the incredibly talented Carmen Kelly IG @california_dirt

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Many thanks to our generous 2022 sponsors!

Gold Level Sponsors

Botanical Interests is a garden seed company in Broomfield, Colorado specializing in organic, non-GMO herb, flower, and vegetable varieties for the home gardener. Their goal is to inspire and educate the gardeners to create beautiful and prolific gardens wherever they are. Not only is the seed inside their packets the highest quality available, their packets are designed to give gardening information that helps to make gardeners more successful!

Johnny’s Selected Seeds is a privately held, employee-owned seed producer and merchant headquartered in Winslow, Maine, USA. Our mission is to help families, friends, and communities feed one another by providing superior seeds, tools, information, and service. Johanna Willingham is the Regional Sales Rep living in Olympia, WA, 207-238-5320 or cell: 360-463-1786, email: jwillingham@johnnyseeds.com.

Organically Grown Company Founded in 1978, perpetual purpose trust-owned Organically Grown Company (OCG), is the largest organic produce distributor in the Pacific Northwest. For the past 40-years, the company’s progressive and entrepreneurial spirit has fueled its mission and growth, meeting the demand for organics in the marketplace while supporting its community of farmers. OGC has been recognized as a leader in sustainable business practices including sourcing 100% renewable energy in facilities, support for fair trade and charitable giving. When people in the Northwest purchase organic fruits and vegetables at their grocery store, there is a very good chance that it’s there because of OGC.

Silver Level Sponsors

Bejo Seeds is a leading company in breeding, production and sales of vegetable seeds. With operations in more than thirty countries, we are an internationally oriented family business. Our 1,900 employees are dedicated to developing the best vegetable varieties for the present and the future. We’ve expanded over the years in an organic, ongoing process, shaped by interaction between growers, dealers, supply chain partners and our own employees. All our partners have the freedom, within their own local market, to get the most out of our products. Exploring nature never stops.

Fedco Seeds a cooperative garden supply company focused on cold-hardy selections and dedicated to organic/sustainable agriculture, offers untreated vegetable, herb and flower seeds, soil amendments, cover crops, garden supplies, fruit trees, berries, ornamentals, seed potatoes, garlic, flower bulbs and more.

Gaia Herbs is the leading herbal brand in North America, with more than 200 patented Liquid Phyto-Caps™, liquid extracts, functional powders and herbal teas to help support and maintain optimal health. From seed to shelf, Gaia is deeply committed to the purity, integrity and potency of each product. The company uses only organic methods to cultivate more than 6.5 million plants each year (representing 21 varieties in 2017) on its farms in the US and Costa Rica, and that same organic approach continues through manufacturing, using patented technology to achieve the highest efficacy of each herb, validated by Gaia’s scientists throughout the process.

High Mowing Organic Seeds is an independently owned, farm-based seed company offering 700+ varieties of USDA Certified Organic and Non-GMO Project Verified seeds for farmers, gardeners and homesteaders. We specialize in providing professional grade organic seeds that are selected to thrive in organic conditions and varieties that are widely adapted to perform in all regions of the U.S. and Canada.

Oregon Tilth In 1974, Oregon Tilth was founded on the idea that food and agriculture should be equitable and sustainable. Each day, we work with a community of changemakers to transform the food marketplace. We provide certification services that sustain organic agriculture and the people who support it. But we don’t stop there. From education to technical assistance, Oregon Tilth designs strategies and tools that address the challenges faced by farmers and food producers. Visit: tilth.org

Riega Foods is passionate about bringing sustainable and quality foods to your kitchen. We are a family-owned business based in America’s heartland, Kansas City. Our family farming roots taught us that quality food starts in the field. We have grown our business from these roots by partnering with farmers to find real, organic ingredients for the foundation of our products. We are proud to supply quality foods that have been grown with generations of knowledge.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange offers 700+ heirloom, organic, and open-pollinated vegetable, herb, and flower varieties, plus garlic, perennial onions and seed saving supplies. Our mission is to ensure that people retain control of their food supply, conserve genetic resources and offer gardeners the option of saving their own seeds.

Vitalis Organic Seeds Founded in 1994 in The Netherlands, Vitalis Organic Seeds is a global leader in organic seed production and breeding. All Vitalis varieties are certified organic for the US, Canada, Mexico and the EU. We believe in building organic production systems with organically produced seed.

Bronze Level Sponsors

Is your company or organization interested in sponsoring the 11th Organic Seed Growers Conference? Contact Cara Loriz for more information.