2019 Organic Confluences Conference: Moving the Dial on Climate Change
This year’s Organic Confluences Conference took place in tandem with the Natural Foods Expo East on September 11th 2019, in Baltimore, Maryland.
In August 2020, the Organic Trade Association released the report "Advancing Organic to Mitigate Climate Change", identifying policy opportunities to help elevate the role of organic in the climate change discussion, support organic farmers and encourage transition to organic farming. The report incorporated science and policy guidance from the Organic Confluences Conference.
About the Conference
The Organic Confluences Summit brought together farmers, scientists, extension agents, industry members and key policy influencers to address large-scale challenges that the organic sector is facing.
The 2019 Organic Confluences conference addressed the current impacts of climate change and best practices within the organic sector for mitigation and adaptation, while examining methods for encouraging the adoption of strategies for fighting climate change.
The Summit challenged the current thinking on climate mitigation with the understanding that multiple sectors and food system pathways must come together to make headway on this global issue. We heard from stakeholders with diverse food system experience, from scientists to farmers to industry members, to provoke a better understanding of how large-scale, inter-disciplinary collaborations are needed address climate change and its impact on our food security. We included cutting-edge innovations from the organic industry, which has been focusing its resources on climate mitigation and adaptation, to understand how these experiences and lessons can be used as a learning tool to advance climate-friendly techniques across sectors.
Funding
Funding for these conferences were provided by the USDA NIFA Organic Research and Extension Initiative grant in 2016, 2017, 2020, and 2021.
