A preview of exhibits, workshops, and seminars on everything organic
From Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, the Organic Conference & Expo will run Guelph for its 34th year. With an estimated 1,800 attendees, hundreds of booths, and many workshops, the expo is considered to be kind of a big deal – and deservedly so.
34 years ago, this conference was a tiny, half-day seminar, organized by a few grad students. Now, the expo is an internationally-recognized annual event that draws people in from all over Canada and the United States. With the growing movement for local, sustainable food, the conference has definitely hit its growth spurt.
This year, the focus is on Organic By Design. It features organic innovators and businesses known for pushing the industry forward. The conference is half workshops and seminars and half exhibition. The workshops require a fee to participate, but the expo itself is essentially free.
The expo will consist of hundreds of booths and tables set up in the University Centre, all advertising and promoting organic products and businesses. Several companies are set to make an appearance, from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, a specialized seed company that offers a wide variety of non-GM, organic, and heirloom seeds; to Fromagerie L’Ancêtre, a dairy company based out of Quebec that offers organic cheeses and butters; to The Big Carrot, a natural foods market based in Toronto; to the Organic Cotton Company, a company which manufactures certified organic clothing and accessories.
For Thursday, Jan. 29, attendees can look forward to a symposium titled “Organic Foods, Holistic Health – Connecting the Dots, Communicating the Benefits.” The symposium is set to feature a panel of three women: Dr Harmonie Eleveld, a naturopathic doctor & birth doula; Laura Baer, an organic farmer and holistic practitioner; and Elisabeth Leslie, a senior instructor at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.
For Friday, Jan. 30, anticipate a wide variety of workshops, offered in 3 hour intensive sessions. On Friday evening in the Thornborough Auditorium, participants can look forward to the “Community Forum on National Organic Farming Issues – State of the Nation,” during which three experts on the organic industry in Canada will speak on organic foods and the farming business.
Saturday, Jan. 31 is set to be the busiest day of the conference, with five planned workshop streams in Organic Crops, Organic Livestock, Urban Agriculture, Pollination, Horticulture, and BioDiversity, and Permaculture and Restoration Agriculture. The day is set to host 20 workshops, covering everything from farming with horses to organic inspections, social justice, and food production.
The final day of the expo is set to offer 15 different workshops, ranging from Heirloom Garlic to Organic Fruit Orchards, as well as covering many more topics.
The workshops and seminars take place in various halls around campus, and many of the workshops are offered at a discounted student rate, in recognition of the cost of being a student. Prospective participants can register online on the Guelph Organic Conference website.