The Organic Grain Conference: Building a Nexus of Collaboration for Organic Farmers, Industry Experts, and Researchers

Project Director

Mallory Krieger


Year Funded

2018


Award Number

2018-51300-28429


Funded Institution

The Land Connection Foundation


Grant Program

OREI (Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative)


USDA NIFA Report

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Project Overview

This OREI award supported the Third Annual Organic Grain Conference held in February 2019 in Champaign, IL, which drew 200 participants and 22 trade show vendors. The Land Connection (TLC) foundation convened an advisory committee and conducted a survey of past conference attendees to expand and improve the conference, facilitate networking, identify priority topics and speakers, and include newly emerging research on organic grain production. The event included a pre-conference training workshop on the organic certification process, a keynote by Francis Thicke, breakout tracks on production, marketing/business, and organic research, and networking opportunities in roundtable discussions and at the trade show, which conference participants found especially valuable.

Farmer Takeaways

(1) Events such as the Organic Grain Conference provide excellent networking and learning opportunities that can help organic producers farm more successfully.
(2) Organic soil health practices can reduce fertilizer rates needed to sustain grain crops.
(3) Corn cultivars better adapted to organic systems are under development.
(4) The Conference Proceedings include valuable practical information shared at the event.

Project Outputs

Krieger, M. & O’Brien, H.T. 2019. “Organic Grain Conference 2019 Proceedings.” The Land Connection.

Read More

Goldstein, W. 2019. “Nitrogen, Microbes, Roots: Breeding Corn for Nitrogen Efficiency and Fixation.” eOrganic.

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Created and maintained by the Organic Farming Research Foundation.