Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

This mobile symposium will venture around Portland and Corvallis, Oregon to key sites up and down the valley.  Join fellow leaders as we wrestle with today’s sustainability challenges in agriculture and food systems from all perspectives – economic, environmental, social – and review real-world solutions. More than half of this program will take place in the field.

The Program

The 2009 program offers five intensive days for both professionals and top graduate students. The curriculum offers university and CEU credit options and integrates a mix of learning opportunities:

  • Site visits, including industry-leading farms, ranches, processors, distributors, retailers and restaurants, following the value chain from seed to consumption.
  • Guest speakers, including successful growers, producers, processors, marketing experts, policy makers, and academic researchers.
  • Workshops and projects, providing an opportunity for participants to work with program leaders and each other to get hands-on experience working with real-world challenges.
  • Classroom time, used sparingly, allowing coverage of innovative solutions in sustainable agriculture, and enabling a dynamic exchange between the participants and leaders.

What you’ll do:

  • Learn from innovators in four critical sectors: business, university, government, and not-for-profit.
  • Examine leading-edge sustainability practices at work throughout the food system.
  • Join other leaders in dynamic case-study discussions of these examples and their application to your own opportunities and challenges.

What you’ll take home:

  • The latest approaches to implementing sustainable strategies and techniques in agriculture and food systems.
  • Direct input on situations you're facing in your operations, work, and community. (The last day will feature a multi-disciplined team of experts assembled to address your challenges.)
  • Powerful technologies and models, with strategies to apply them to your efforts.
  • Connections with a network of fellow thought-leaders, including the presenters and program participants, facilitated by on-going online resources.

The result: You will leave better equipped – with examples, tools, knowledge, and connections – to address the sustainability challenges in your own work.

Engage the Topic through In-depth Coverage:

  • Energy input and resource cycling on the farm and beyond
  • Domestic and international marketing including issues of scale
  • Water, land, and conservation initiatives
  • Labor, training and equity
  • Certification program comparisons and analysis
  • Food culture and building the movement
  • Food safety and regulatory issues
  • Innovative technologies and practices

Join a Diverse Group of Committed Professionals:

  • Farmers
  • Ranchers
  • Food processors
  • Food retailers
  • Market organizers
  • Restaurateurs
  • Equipment providers
  • Environmental experts
  • Researchers & professors
  • Policy leaders