For Immediate Release
February 1, 2022
Contact
Cathleen McCluskey, Organic Seed Alliance, (360) 472-0247, cathleen@seedalliance.org
Registration Open for the 11th Organic Seed Growers Conference
The biennial event will be held virtually for the first time
Port Townsend, WA – Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) is proud to announce that registration is open for the 11th Organic Seed Growers Conference from February 4 – 11, 2022. The Organic Seed Growers Conference is the largest event focused solely on organic seed in North America, bringing together hundreds of organic and agroecological seed growers and other stakeholders from across the U.S. and around the world.
This year’s event will be held virtually on a new and emerging platform called Organic Seed Commons. As such, the conference theme is Organic Seed Commons to reflect the conference committee’s desire to broaden organic seed communities both in virtual and physical spaces. The conference committee views 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.
The conference features more than 60 events and 170 presenters. A portion of the conference sessions will be live translated in Spanish and French, including opening and closing keynote presentations. View the full agenda here.
The conference committee is thrilled to welcome Jim Embry and Vivien Sansour as the opening and closing ceremony keynotes. Embry has worked to connect social justice, food justice, and environmental justice for the past 50 years. With a focus on youth, Embry has organized the Youth Green Corps, Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council, and other environmental efforts that engage young people in community sustainability projects, and now serves as director of the Sustainable Communities Network. Vivien Sansour is the founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and a trained anthropologist who works with farmers worldwide on issues relating to agriculture and independence. She is a writer, artist, and conservationist who is also a recent Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative Fellow at Harvard University where she worked to document her work on seeds in Palestine and around the world.
On the main stage participants will enjoy presentations and panel discussions on various topics, including “Protecting Seed’s Diversity: Maize, Mexico, and the Future of Biodiversity,” “Race, Equity, and the Organic Movement,” “The Heirloom Collard Project: A Model for Collaborative Seed Work,” and “Seed Production for Market Growers.” On the agenda are dozens of additional roundtable discussions, lightning talks, research presentations, synergy space meetups, and a trade show.
Conference registration is offered on a sliding scale. Learn more and register at: www.seedalliance.org/conference.
OSA wishes to thank the conference committee members, including Bonnetta Adeeb, Steam Onward & Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance; Jay Bost, GoFarm Hawaii; Alice Formiga, eOrganic; Rue Genger, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Nate Kleinman, Experimental Farm Network; Natalia Pinzón Jiménez, Farmer Campus; Petra Page-Mann, Fruition Seeds; Karl Sutton, Fresh Roots Farm; Alexis Yamashita, Ujamaa Farming Cooperative & Southern Exposure Seed Exchange; and Michael Lordon, Cara Loriz, Cathleen McCluskey, and Rebekah Korenowsky Woods, Organic Seed Alliance.
Conference sponsors include: Botanical Interests, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Organically Grown Company, Bejo Seeds, Fedco Seeds, Gaia Herbs, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Oregon Tilth, Riega Foods, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Vitalis Organic Seeds, Acres U.S.A., Albert Lea Seed, Hummingbird Wholesale, Kamut International, Meadowlark Hearth, Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Services (MOSES), Native Seeds/SEARCH, PCC Community Markets, Seed Savers Exchange, Territorial Seed Company, Tilth Alliance, Turtle Tree Seed
About Organic Seed Alliance: Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) is a non-profit that works nationally to advance ethical seed solutions to meet food and farming needs in a changing world. Through research, education, and advocacy, OSA fosters organic seed systems that are democratic and just, support human and environmental health, and deliver genetically diverse and regionally adapted seed to farmers everywhere.
