DATE
January 8, 2025
CONTACT
Aba Kiser, Organic Seed Alliance, (360) 386-2030, aba@seedalliance.org
Registration Open for the 12th Organic Seed Growers Conference
The largest organic seed event in the U.S. takes place February 26 – March 1 in Corvallis, OR
Port Townsend, WA – Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), along with partner Oregon State University’s Center for Small Farms and Community Food Systems, will hold the 12th Organic Seed Growers Conference in Corvallis, Oregon, from February 26 – March 1, 2025. The conference is the largest event focused solely on organic seed in North America, bringing together hundreds of seed growers, plant breeders, researchers, students, seed companies, food companies, policy advocates, and others from across the U.S. and around the world.
The biennial conference has been convening the organic seed community for over two decades and includes a packed agenda of presentations, panel discussions, networking events, and time for celebration. Farm tours and short courses will be held prior to the full two-day conference.
This year’s conference gathers participants with the theme Weaving Visions of Organic Seed Communities. The theme serves as an invitation to strengthen the connections that sustain the seed movement while honoring the distinct yet interwoven histories and collective wisdom of seed stewards around the world.
The conference welcomes back Vivien Sansour, artist, researcher, and writer, and founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, to provide one of the event’s keynote addresses. Sansour uses installations, images, sketches, film, soil, seeds, and plants to enliven old cultural tales in contemporary presentations and to advocate for seed conservation and the protection of agrobiodiversity as a cultural and political act. Her address will continue the critical conversations she led with conference goers back in 2020 and 2022.
The event begins with two full days of pre-conference intensives and a tour of seed related facilities in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The main conference features more than 90 speakers presenting on topics surrounding beginning and advanced organic seed production, plant breeding, organic seed policy and advocacy, and seed stories.
A full list of sessions with speakers can be found at www.seedalliance.org/conference-program.
The three pre-conference event offerings have limited space and require pre-registration. Interested participants are encouraged to register early.
- Pre-Conference Seed Intensive *en Español* (Wednesday, February 26th)
The first daylong intensive will bring together speakers from different corners of the Americas who bring invaluable knowledge in agriculture, social organization, migrant defense, and seeds. The cost is $30 for breakfast and lunch, with the intensive itself being offered for free thanks to sponsorship by USDA’s TOPP program. Reach out to ana@seedalliance.org if the cost presents a barrier. - Pre-Conference Intellectual Property Rights on Seed Symposium (Thursday, February 27th)
This daylong symposium will include resource sharing, strategy discussions on alternative intellectual property models, and inform future recommendations to support organic seed growers, plant breeders, and researchers in navigating the complexities of intellectual property used on seed. The cost is $50, which includes breakfast and lunch. - Pre-Conference Farm Tour (Thursday, February 27th)
Tour participants will visit two seed enterprises in the Willamette Valley, as well as a plant breeding facility at Oregon State University, and the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis. The cost is $50 for the tour, breakfast, and lunch.
The two-day main conference agenda runs from Friday, February 28th, through Saturday, March 1st. The main event includes more than 30 timely, practical presentations and panel discussions featuring 90+ presenters from a broad range of practices and experiences. The agenda also includes a scientific research poster session, seed swap, art exhibit, trade show, synergy spaces, and more.
The conference will be held at the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis, Oregon. Area hotels offer reasonable rates for participant lodging. The conference website also includes a Ride and Room Share form that allows participants to connect to share resources.
Additional information regarding registration, full agenda, travel, parking, hotels, and sponsorship opportunities can be found at www.seedalliance.org/conference.
OSA wishes to thank the conference committee members, including Bonnetta Adeeb, Steam Onward & Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance; Daniel Brisebois, Tourne-Sol co-operative farm & the Seed Growers Podcast; Georgina M. Catacora-Vargas, Academic Peasant Unit “Tiahuanacu” – UCB / AGRUCO-UMSS; Daniel Cornelius, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jim Embry, Sustainable Communities Network and Atrus Ballew Farms; Nora Frank-Buckner, Tahoma Peak Solutions; Edward Johnson, Oregon Tilth; Nate Kleinman, Experimental Farm Network; Brigid Meints, Oregon State University; Amirah Mitchell, Sistah Seeds; Nereida Sanchez Rubio, Semillas Colibrí; Lane Selman, Oregon State University and Culinary Breeding Network; Chris Smith, Utopian Seed Project; Gayle Volk, USDA-Agricultural Research Service; Alexis Yamashita, Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance & University of Vermont.
This event is funded in part by the Organic Research and Extension Initiative grant, part of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Award # 2024-51300-43055: 12th Organic Seed Growers Conference: A cross-disciplinary hybrid gathering planting the seeds of the future.
About Organic Seed Alliance: Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) is a non-profit that works nationally to put the power of seed into the hands of growers. Through research, education, and advocacy, OSA promotes an abundant and diverse supply of organic seed, tended in perpetuity by skilled, diverse, and interconnected communities of seed stewards.
