2016 Proceedings and Recordings

Organic Agriculture Research Symposium 2016: Proceedings and Recordings

Introduction

The 2016 Organic Agriculture Research Symposium (OARS) was held in Pacific Grove, California on January 20 before the Ecological Farming Conference. The OARS featured researchers from all over the United States who presented their work on organic agriculture systems. The program consisted of 9 workshops and 29 speakers, and a poster session.

Many of the workshops and the keynote presentations were also live-streamed online as eOrganic webinars.

The recordings are are available as a playlist on the eOrganic YouTube channel.

Presenters were given the option to publish summaries and results of their presentations in these proceedings. I am pleased to present the articles that are linked below.

The event was co-sponsored by the University of California’s Kearney Agriculture Research and Extension Center and the Organic Farming Research Foundation. Financial support was received from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture Organic Research and Extension Initiative and the Gaia Fund.

Brian Baker, Ph.D., Editor

Opening Keynote and Thematic Presentations

• André Leu, IFOAM / Organics International President. The Vital Role of Research to Advance Organic Agriculture Worldwide.
• Mathieu Ngouajio, USDA/NIFA National Program Leader in Cropping Systems. USDA- NIFA support for Organic Agriculture Research, Education and Extension.

Soil Health

• Moderator: Heather Darby, University of Vermont.
• Anthony Yannarell, University of Illinois. Management affects the weed suppression potential of soil microorganisms and green manures.
• James Stapleton, UC-ANR-KARE. Advances in Biosolarization Technology to Improve Soil Health and Organic Control of Soilborne Pests.
• Doug O’Brien, Doug O’Brien Agricultural Consulting. Trends in soilborne disease on two long-term organic vegetable farms in the west.

Seeds and Plant Breeding

• Moderator: Jeff Dahlberg, UCANR-KARE.
• Adrienne Shelton, University of Wisconsin. Current state of public plant breeding in the United States.
• Charles Brummer, University of California Davis. A public plant breeding program to develop organic cultivars and train new plant breeders.
• Jared, Zystro, Organic Seed Alliance. The State of Organic Seed.

Biological Control

• Moderator: Ruth Dahlquist Willard, UC Cooperative Extension, Fresno County.
• Adrian Lu, University of California Berkeley. Pest and natural enemy abundance and biological pest control ecosystem services in organic strawberry fields across gradients of local and landscape diversity,
• Brian Baker, Belcairn Concerns. Organic and Integrated Pest Management: Opportunities for collaboration.
• Raul Villanueva, Texas A&M. Field and laboratory studies of plant bugs on tomato and Brassicas using organic insecticides

Long-term and Strategic Research

• Moderator: Mark Lipson, UC Santa Cruz
• Amélie Gaudin, UC Davis, Long-term research in organic system at Russell Ranch: Results and opportunities to build sustainable and resilient systems.
• Randy Jackson, University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial: 26 years of research in agricultural sustainability.
• Diana Jerkins, Organic Farming Research Foundation. Assessment of Future Organic Research Needs.

Biodiversity

• Moderator: Jessica Shade, The Organic Center.
• John Quinn, Furman University. The Healthy Farm Index Biodiversity Calculator.
• Joshua Arnold, UC Berkeley An agroecological survey of urban agriculture in the East Bay Area of California.
• Sarah Leon Guerrero, UC Berkeley. Farming for Native Bees.

Economics of Organic Agriculture

• Moderator: Brian Baker, Belcairn Concerns.
• William McBride, USDA ERS. Certified organic field crop profitability.
  • A handout of the slides is here.
  • An audio recording of the same presentation given at EcoFarm is available at minute 33:14 here.
• Timothy Delbridge Cal-Poly, San Luis Obispo. Farm performance during the transition to organic production.
  • A handout of the slides is here. 
  • An audio recording of the same presentation given at EcoFarm is at minute 10:29 here.
• Kathleen Delate, Iowa State University. Encouraging the transition to organic grain production: linking research and extension to address knowledge gaps and practical solutions.

Innovative Educational Systems

• Moderator: Mark Van Horn, UC Davis.
• Damien Parr, UC Santa Cruz. Integrating undergraduate interns in organic farming research and beginner farmer programming at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
• John Hendrickson, University of Wisconsin—Madison. Coordinating a Three-Ring Circus with Lions and Cubs: Beginning Grower Training Programs at the University of Wisconsin.
• Raul Villanueva, Texas A&M. Linking Organic Farmers and Students On Organic Production through Small Projects in South Texas.

Organic Livestock Systems

• Moderator: Sarah Greene Lopez, Fiesta Farm, Watsonville, CA.
• Kelsey Juntwait , University of New Hampshire. Feeding annual forage crops to organic dairy cows during
• spring and summer seasons in Northeast United States.
• Heather Darby, University of Vermont. Improving soil and forage quality to maximize organic dairy systems.
  • Research reports can be found here.
• Cynthia Daley, CSU-Chico. Holistic animal health and nutrition, grazing and pasture management systems.

Farming Systems Research

• Moderator: Kathleen Delate, Iowa State University
• Amber Sciligo, UC Berkeley Assessing benefits, costs and trade-offs of biologically diversified farming systems in California's Central Coast growing region.
• Carol Shennan, UC Santa Cruz. CAL CORE collaborative organic research and extension network: on-farm research to improve strawberry/vegetable rotation systems in coastal California.
• Eric Brennan, USDA -ARS. Can organic or conventional vegetables be produced sustainably without cover crops?

 Posters

• Robina Bhatti, CSU Monterey Bay, Mapping organic Monterey.
• Julie Guthman, Organic strawberry transitions in a changing regulatory climate for soil fumigants.
• Naomi Dailey, UC Davis, Improving our knowledge of pastured poultry systems.
• Julie Dawson, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Participatory evaluation of vegetable quality and implications for breeding for organic systems.
• Gwendolyn Ellen, Oregon State University, Banking on beetles for biological pest management.
• Caren Ghedini, University of New Hampshire, Replacing corn meal with incremental amounts of liquid molasses reduced intake and milk yield linearly in organic Jersey cows.
• David Gonthier, UC Berkeley, Diversifying farmlands supports bird conservation and reduces bird pest damage.
• John Hendrickson, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Principles for transitioning to organic farming: e-Learning materials and decision case studies for educators
• Joanna Ory, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Reducing water pollution from herbicides through sustainable agriculture.
• Laura Patterson, UC Davis, Evaluating the persistence of Escherichia coli in the soil of an organic mixed crop-livestock farm that integrates sheep grazing within vegetable fields.
• Caitlin Peterson, UC Davis, Irrigation strategies to optimize soil functions and resource use efficiency in organic tomato and corn.
• Jessica Shade, The Organic Center, Manure safety challenges and future research.
• James Galloway, University of Virginia. Nitrogen footprints affected by consumption of organic products.
• Andreas Westphal, UC Riverside, Organic soil amendment for mitigating damage caused by plant-parasitic nematodes.
• Jared Zystro, Organic Seed Alliance, Efficient methods to develop new sweet corn cultivars for organic systems.