History
It Started with a Conference
Organics at Guelph has been a grass-roots effort. The effort to bring organics onto campus and into the curriculum dates back 30 years, driven largely by students.
What has become the hugely popular Guelph Organic Conference originated in 1982 with a group of students seeking better coverage of organic farming in their agriculture courses. Led by Ignacio (Nacho) Villa (PIC), Ricardo Ramirez (PIC), Kathy Killinger, Helen Yeomans (PIC), and Henry Koch (PIC), a team of students and faculty offered the first organic conference on 18 March 1982. Speakers included Clay Switzer (Dean OAC), Freeman McEwen (Chair of Environmental Biology and later Dean of the OAC), Michael Gertler (Rural Sociology, Cornell Univ.), and Garry Lean (organic farmer). It was attended by 30 people, and was supported by the Student Federation of the Ontario Agriculture College, the University School of Rural Planning and Development (now amalgamated into SEDRD), the student branch of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists, and the Ontario Public Interest Research Group. Faculty supporting their efforts included Tony Fuller and Mark Lapping in the University School of Rural Planning and Development, and Eric Beauchamp in Land Resource Science.
Attendance at the annual event had grown to 200 by 1987, with the student organizing committee expanding to include Janice Elmhurst, Kathleen Zimmerman, Stella Thueman, Carl Lowenberger, Paul Hagerman and others. Between 1983 and 1989, Guelph Agricultural Alternatives, as the organizing committee came to be known, extended their educational efforts to include guest lectures, farm tours, and film nights throughout southern Ontario. With funding from CUSO and CIDA, they developed 3 booklets and a slide presentation for use in high schools, and in 1989, published a special retrospective volume saluting “the hard-working students of the 1980's who continually raised the vital issues of alternatives and choice within modern conventional agriculture”.
Students and community members notable in sustaining the Guelph Organic Conference between 1988 and 1992 included Jeremy Higham, Ruth Knight, Gaetan Ayotte, Monica Pohlman, Jack Coulson, Keith Brown, Les Brown, Paul Hagerman, Paul Cermak, Nadine Church, Maria Podoin, Pat Shaver, Annette Verhagen, and Tomás Nimmo.
While the University of Guelph continued to be identified as the host for the Guelph Organic
Conference, it’s role changed. By 1992, partners external to the university stepped up to the task
of organizing the ever-larger annual event, including Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and
Rural Affairs, the Canadian Organic Growers, the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario,
and the Society for Biodynamic Farming & Gardening. Membership on the organizing
committee expanded to include the Canadian Health Foods Association, the National Farmers
Union, the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada, the Organic Trade Association, various
organic certifying agencies, and the Organic Program
of the University of Guelph, all under the able leadership of Tomás Nimmo, Conference Manager.
{PIC}
Funding to support organic research began to trickle in, leading to the first evidence that organic
could compete economically with conventional farming (LINK to Stonehouse). As availability of organic research funding began to increase, research symposia became a part of
the Guelph Organic Conference. The first annual Conference in Social Research in Organic
Agriculture was initiated by Jennifer Sumner in 2004 (LINK; PIC). The Organic Agriculture
Centre of Canada sponsored a parallel series now labelled as the Organic Agriculture Research
Symposium also beginning in 2004. LINK The Guelph Organic Conference evolved into a 4-day
opportunity for specialized workshops and training sessions, a Meet the Presenters banquet, a
Public Forum for lively discussion of topical issues, and annual meetings of such diverse groups
as the Organic Trade Association, the Toronto Farmers' Market Network, and Organic Meadow Inc..
Over it’s nearly 30 year history, keynote speakers at the Guelph Organic Conference have included such luminaries as Lawrence Andres of Harmony Organic Dairy in ON (1984), Wes Jackson of the Land Institute in Salina, KS (1989), Fred Kirschenmann of the Leopold Center in IA (1997), Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in VA (1999), Eliot Coleman of Four Season Farm in ME (2000), George Siemon of Organic Valley (2004), John Ikerd (2005), Michael Abelman (2007), and Wayne Roberts (2009).
Some 2000 people now participate in this annual conference, which continues to be held on the last weekend in January each year. And it all started with students.
The First Organic Course
By the late 1990's, students were even more focused on organic agriculture. In 2000, a pair of diploma agriculture students, Les Eccles (PIC) and Thomas Elcome obtained the signatures of 350 students on a petition requesting the addition of an organic course at Guelph. The keynote speaker at the 20th annual Guelph Organic Conference, E. Ann Clark, informed an astounded audience that Guelph would soon be offering a course in organics, and solicited funding to develop Ontario-specific teaching materials. The organic community, and in particular Organic Advocates, responded handsomely. With their support, the first organic course was offered in 2002. Between 2002 and 2008 - and counting - 140 students have completed an introductory organic course at Guelph, thanks to the dream of those two enterprising students. PIC of first year class PIC of Les Eccles.
The Organic Major
In 2002, the arrival of a new OAC Dean, Craig Pearson (PIC of Pearson), further raised the profile of organics at Guelph. With the encouragement of Pearson and the able stewardship of Stew Hilts, Chair in Land Resource Science, a committee of faculty and staff from several OAC departments designed a 4-year academic major in Organic Agriculture within the B.Sc.(Agr) degree program (LINK). Guelph’s B.Sc.(Agr) Organic Agriculture, which opened for enrollment in Fall 2004, was the first of its kind in North America. A total of 6 new degree courses were created in organics, of which one is offered by a Distance Education (DE) format, while the others are all taught at Guelph.
Since then, Guelph’s sister campuses at Alfred, Kemptville, and Ridgetown have each offered 1 or 2 organic courses for diploma students (LINKS).
Certified Organic Dairy Research
In keeping with growing demand for organic dairy products, Alfred College chose to undertake the arduous task of transitioning its entire dairy to organic. The Centre for Organic Dairy Research at Alfred was formally certified in 2008, and is now poised to take a leadership role in the pursuit of organic dairy research in the province. PICS/LINKS
Urban Organic Market Gardening
The grand opening of the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming (GCUOF) was 4 September 2008 (INSERT Helen’s VIDEO CLIP/UTUBE). Attended by both university and municipal dignitaries, organic farmers, and interested parties, the event featured ceremonial horsedrawn plowing by Maybelline and Diamond, accompanied by singing from the children of the CCLC. (Various PICS)
The GCUOF, which is located in the northwest corner of the Arboretum (MAP) just behind East Residence, offers a suite of practical, hands-on learning opportunities to students, to the children of the CCLC, and to the broader community. (LINK) The primary ‘produce’ from the GCUOF is informed consumers, gardeners, and market gardeners, but students and others also benefit from GCUOF produce marketed through the CCLC, the Bullring Café, the HTM Restaurant in the Atrium café and other on-campus venues.
The first full year of planting at the 1 ha site in 2009 featured installation of a new, state-of-the-art passive solar greenhouse (PICS).
An Organic Club
Eco2 is a new agriculture club started at Guelph in the past academic year. The name Eco2 reflects the club focus on agriculture that is both ecologically and economically viable for a sustainable future. The club has drawn members from across campus, allowing students to meet and socialize with peers interested in sustainable agriculture. Speakers have come from many sectors, ranging from professors to farmers, giving students a place to meet interesting people from the industry and examine agricultural alternatives. On the schedule for this fall is a field trip, additional speakers, and possibly, some hands-on projects. The club is also looking for members and organizers. For further information, contact eco2@gmail.com.
Speaker Series
Feb 2009: Carlo Leifert, a professor with the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group (NEFG), Newcastle University, Northumberland, NE43 7XD, UK.
- Effect of dairy production systems on milk quality; potential impacts on health (LINK)
- Why is it essential to focus on resource use efficiency in agriculture? (LINK)
The financial support of organic farmers John Feheley and Marion Byce for the 2009 series is gratefully acknowledged.
Fall 2009: Kathleen Delate, an extension organic horticulturalist from Iowa State University, will be giving a public lecture 1:30-2:20PM on 28 October, in 1307 Thornborough.
For more information, contact E. Ann Clark (eaclark@uoguelph.ca).
