Wedoany.com Report-Mar 14, For the first time in five years, organic seed growers from across the U.S. and beyond gathered to exchange ideas, hear of industry concerns and network. The occasion was the biennial conference of the Organic Seed Alliance (OSA), which was held recently in Corvallis, Ore., the organization’s first in-person conference since 2020 and its first ever hybrid conference.
Organic Seed Alliance (OSA) Executive Director Laura Lewis at the biennial conference, Feb. 28 at the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis, said OSA members can expect more opportunities for convening in the future.
“It is really exciting to be here,” said Jared Zystro, director of research and education for OSA. “This event has been an important part of building the organic seed movement and community systems that support it. This is the place where people can make connections, find opportunities to contract for seed production and share new varieties and breeding projects with one another. It feels like just having this space again for everyone to be able to connect and scheme and dream and learn from each other is wonderful, and I feel really lucky that we are able to pull it off.”
The conference, the organization’s 12th, drew 400 to the Oregon State University campus and another 200 to 300 participated virtually on Feb. 28 and March 1.
“It’s been really great to have a hybrid event where we have people participating both virtually and in-person,” Executive Director Laura Lewis said. “Trying to figure out a way to do both is a challenge, but something that we wanted to do.”
The event included pre-conference tours of organic seed farms and other organic farming operations, as well as two days of educational sessions and seminars. Equally valuable, according to Lewis, particularly for the 400 attending in person, were the personal interactions.
“As much as it is great to hear from experts in different areas of organic seed and seed in general, this conference is really about the sort of personal connection, the networking that happens, the business opportunities,” Lewis said.
“You have seed producers here. You have seed companies here. You have the opportunity to potentially get new contracts, to learn about licensing, to learn about intellectual property laws, to learn about trademarking, to make sure that our organic seed growers are knowledgeable about laws and policies that pertain to them,” Lewis said.
Adding features
OSA, which was formed in 2002 in parallel with the start of the USDA’s National Organic Program, is adding features for its members in the near future, according to Lewis, including more opportunities for discussion. “We are going to be doing quarterly calls with our partners nationally, so convening folks outside of this conference framework.”
OSA also is looking to support regional seed summits with more frequency than in the past, Lewis said.
“In the years that we do the conference, we’ll do the conference,” Lewis said. “In the years that we don’t do the conference, we’re looking at supporting regional seed summits around the country, so people can get together and have a more regional approach to addressing their needs, and then also convening everyone every quarter to kind of get the pulse of what’s going on across the organic food system.”
OSA also plans to rotate the biennial conference to different regions of the country, beginning with the 2027 event, rather than holding the event solely in the Pacific Northwest, as it has done for the past 12 events.
“We’ve had a lot of our partners around the country be critical of the fact that we only hold the conference in the Pacific Northwest,” Lewis said. “So, we are going to be moving on and we are looking for folks to co-host the conference with us.”
“So, this is kind of a swan song for us as far as hosting here,” Lewis said.
Organic seed production occurs throughout the U.S., but is mostly concentrated in the Western U.S., according to Zystro. “Because of our Mediterranean climates, our dry summers and relatively dry falls, the West Coast in general is a good seed-production region,” said Zystro, who holds a Ph.D. in plant breeding and is based in Arcata, Calif.
Total value of the U.S. organic seed industry tops $700 million, according to market reports, while the global organic seed market tops $3 billion.
