The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Educational Service (MOSES) and Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) organized a Midwest Organic Research Symposium held in conjunction with the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference Feb. 21-23, 2008, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

Below is a visual summary of the symosium, from Jane Sooby's poster presentation at the SARE 20th Anniversary Conference in March 2008.

Click here or below for a larger image.

Midwest Organic Research Symposium Details
This symposium offered a unique opportunity for students and scientists investigating organic topics to engage with a knowledgeable audience. The symposiuml offered small group discussions between organic practitioners and researchers, providing both with an opportunity to discuss research at a depth rarely achieved at meetings.

The symposium began with a mini-symposium on Day 1 that provided an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students who are conducting research on organic topics to present their work to an informed audience. Days 2 and 3 were devoted to presentation and discussion of work on the following topics:

I: Weed management in organic row crops.
II: Issues in organic vegetable and fruit management.
III: Organic dairy production
IV: Economic and marketing research in organic agriculture.
V: Organic livestock production (other than dairy) and crop-livestock integration in organic systems.
VI: Insect and disease management strategies on organic farms.

Papers and posters were invited for presentation at the symposium. Criteria for papers and posters included:

1. The research must have been conducted in or be relevant to farming in the Upper Midwest (core states include Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana).

2. The research must focus primarily on production, marketing, social, or economic issues in organic agriculture.

3. Presentation of research that is farmer-led or the result of farmer-researcher collaboration was encouraged.

4. Presentations were limited to 5 minutes each followed by small group roundtable discussions of the content.

5. Each presenter was expected to interact with a small group of audience members in a roundtable discussion following their presentation. This opportunity to engage is just as important as the presentation of research findings.