First Fridays at 9 am Pacific May, Aug, Nov, Feb
These open-sourced calls bring together farmers, seed producers, researchers, advocates, and food system leaders to connect with OSA’s Advocacy, Research, and Educational Initiatives. There will be time within each call for participants to announce their next big event or initiative. We welcome you to share knowledge, build connections, and collaborate on strengthening organic seed networks.
- Policy Corner – Stay updated on key policy issues affecting organic seed systems.
- OSA Project & Partner Feature – Learn about ongoing research, education, and advocacy work with OSA.
- Open Announcements – Share and hear about funding opportunities, events, job postings, and other community news.
- Follow-Up Resources – Receive call recordings, notes, and action steps to stay engaged.
Upcoming Calls:
August 1st, 2025 – Topic TBD (Suggest a speaker or topic area here)
Past Calls:
Speakers: Almendra Cremaschi (Bioleft, University of San Martin), Solveig Hanson (Cornell University / Cover Crop Breeding Network), Jared Zystro (Organic Seed Alliance)
Presentation Topic: Presentation: Participatory Plant Breeding
Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) is growing, but where do we gather to discuss shared challenges and solutions? Join Jared Zystro (Organic Seed Alliance), Almendra Cremasci (Bioleft, University of San Martin) and Solveig Hanson (Cornell University / Cover Crop Breeding Network) for a participatory conversation on the potential for a future PPB Community of Practice—a space to collectively tackle farmer engagement, data collection ethics, funding hurdles, and the tensions between participatory methods and academic publishing. PPB practitioners at OSA’s 2024 Conference voiced a need for structured, ongoing collaboration. How do we design meaningful experiments? Recruit and connect evaluators? Share data and benefits equitably? Move from sharing to doing? Let’s explore these questions together and identify tools, platforms, and next steps.
POLICY CORNER UPDATES:
OSA’s Policy Platform for Seed
The next National Organic Standards Board meeting is scheduled for November 4–6 in Omaha, Nebraska with a virtual stream option. A public comment period will be open in advance of the meeting. Timely NOSB work related to organic seed growers: Risk-based certification, which aims to develop risk-based approaches (e.g. common OSPs) as a way to ease certification burdens for low-risk organic growers, processors, and handlers. Research priorities focused on serving organic seed growers and plant breeders.
Organic seed regulation and guidance Marker Bills of Interest: Organic Science and Research Investment Act (OSRI Act) introduced by Senators Fetterman (PA) and Schiff (CA). The OSRI Act funds critical research that gives farmers innovative organic practices and varieties while ensuring consumers have access to high-quality, sustainably grown food.
The Agriculture Resilience Act, was reintroduced by Representative Chellie Pingree of Maine and Senator Martin Heinrich (D – New Mexico) on Earth Day and focuses on helping farmers build climate resilience and deliver farm-ready cultivars while opening new market opportunities and ensuring long-term food security for consumers.
We’ve also signed on support of the Organic Imports Verification Act, which is a bipartisan bill from Senator Ricketts (R-NE) and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), protects American organic farmers from unfair competition and ensures consumers get the authentic organic products they pay for.
Have you or seed folks you work with been impacted by federal funding freezes and/or contract cancellations? We are collecting these instances and stories to inform our advocacy work. Please reach out to me at cathleen@seedalliance.org if you’d like to share.
RESOURCES SHARED ON THE CALL:
Take the mentimeter poll to express areas of interest within PPB.
Join us on the Participatory Plant Breeding Synergy Space on Organic Seed Commons to continue the conversation.
Next Quarterly Call: August 1st. Suggest a topic or speaker.
Organic Seed Alliance Asynchronous Course – learn online at your own pace!
Organic Seed Alliance Synchronous Course – the 2025 cohort meets mid-May through the fall.
This program is supported by the USDA’s Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP).
