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Convergence=Sustainability Conference at Agricultural Trades Show January 13

January 7, 2010

Contact: Commissioner Seth Bradstreet
207-287-3419

AUGUSTA—One of the highlights of the 69th Agricultural Trades Show will be “Convergence=Sustainability,” a conference that focuses on bringing together Maine’s diverse farm community to work on common problems.

“Farmers can be organic or conventional, large or small. But we all face similar stresses—weather, high costs, and low prices. We all have to work together,” said Agriculture Commissioner Seth H. Bradstreet III. “We have our differences. The stakes are too high to let them divide us. We have to stand together. And this conference is designed to help with that.”

The Commissioner emphasizes that all Maine farmers share the same family values, and face the same production and marketing challenges. The mini-conference is an opportunity for organic, permaculture, biodynamic, and conventional farmers to hear from a variety of speakers on one of the big issues of the day—the co-existence of organic farming and production with genetic engineering. Experts from Minnesota, New York, and California will talk about how new farming practices must be developed that will improve the environment and feed the growing population.

The mini-conference, 12:45 pm–4:45 pm, Wednesday, January 13, at the Augusta Civic Center, will feature:

• Jon Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, where his work focuses on the behavior of complex global environmental systems and their interactions with human societies.
• Pamela Ronald, Chair of the Plant Genomics Program at the University of California, Davis, where she studies the role that genes play in a plant’s response to its environment.
• Raoul Adamchack is the Market Garden Coordinator at the UC Davis student farm, which provides experiential learning opportunities for students interested in organic agriculture.
• Margaret Smith serves half-time as the Associate Director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and half-time in research and extension related to plant breeding.
• Leonard Gianessi is the Director of the Crop Protection Research Institute and has published widely on pesticide use and agricultural biotechnology.

One of the outcomes for the mini-conference will be the development of a working group sponsored by the Maine Farm Bureau to address the issues raised at the conference. Relatedly, the Maine Department of Agriculture will be holding a strategic planning session for the farm community later this year.

Contact: Commissioner Seth Bradstreet, 207-287-3419.