September 2017 | Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture Program | College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences

eOrganic webinars this week: Corn Types and Barcode based data collection

There is still time to register for this week’s webinars!

September 27: 10AM Pacific, 11 Mountain, 12 Central, 1 Eastern: Hybrid, F1, Double Cross, and Open-pollinated Corn: What Does it All Mean? The intended audience is anybody with an interest in different types of corn varieties and their relative merits. In the webinar, corn breeders Margaret Smith of Cornell University and Richard Pratt of New Mexico State University will explain what different types of corn varieties are, how uniform or variable each type is, and highlight the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different variety types. This webinar is part of the NIFA OREI funded research project Breeding Non-Commodity Corn for Organic Production Systems. Register here.

September 28: 11AM Pacific, 12 Mountain, 1 Central, 2 Eastern: Part 3 of Webinar Series on Barcode Based Digital Data collection for Vegetable Breeding Programs: Harvest Data and Final Analysis

Part 3 of this ongoing series will focus on harvest based component of the system with an emphasis on the connected instrumentation for dimensions, weights, photographs and quality instruments and how data is compiled for final analysis. At the conclusion, participants will be able to evaluate whether they will choose to invest in this technology and will have examples of how to get started in assembling their own data collection pipeline. If you haven’t attended any other webinars in this series, register here. The recordings of the first 2 webinars can be found on the Plant Breeding and Genomics YouTube channel!

Still two Land Connection ‘Women who farm’ field days left

I don’t know about you but I am kicking myself that I have missed these.. this weekend sept 24 focuses on fruit and herbs!

http://thelandconnection.org/farmers/field-days-and-workshops/women-who-farm-field-day-series

IOGA-ASAP Field day at U of I tomorrow

Sept 14 Building a farm to fork business

After starting at the Student Sustainable Farm at 9.30 with Matt Turino w

We move to the I Hotel at 10.30.

Agenda and some notes..

10:45 a.m. Dr. Carmen Ugarte and team members will discuss a new Illinois Local Grains Initiative . This includes an on-farm trial and related on-campus work that involves NRES, Crop Science, Food Sciences, ABE, ACE, USDA-ARS and Extension!

11:10 a.m. Brian Jacobson will describe how Food Science and Human Nutrition’s Food Processing Pilot Plant is partnering with U of I’s dining services before Dr. Juan Andrade explains how their research can help optimize processing for local product development— Brian and Dining services are taking all the organic grain from our new organic study that resides on the south farms for use in the dining halls. Juan Andrade will look at how processing influences grain quality. Next year we hope for capacity to look at edamame quality.. not this year.

12:15 p.m. Lunch will feature SSF produce and Chefarmer Ken Myszka of Epiphany Farms who will discuss how to grow a farm to fork business. * http://www.epiphanyfarms.com/kenmyszka/ This is a local farm to table success story you wont want to miss.

1.30. Fred Kolb and Bill Davison will talk about a new wheat variety named Erisman that was developed by the University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station and released in 2017. Erisman is an early maturing soft red winter wheat adapted to Illinois and surrounding states for organic production. The new variety was developed by the small grains breeding program headed by Fred Kolb. The project was spearheaded by Allison Krill, who worked with Fred since 2013. Breeding lines were selected that were disease resistant and moderately tall to provide competition with weeds. Breeding lines were evaluated at multiples locations for several years. The U of I wheat breeding program partnered with local organic farmer Harold Wilkins to evaluate Erisman under organic production on Janie’s Farm in Danforth IL. Harold has been working with others including U of I Extension’s Bill Davison and the Grand Prairie Grain Guild to develop high quality grains for local production. The variety has been named “Erisman,” in honor of Jack Erisman, a long-time leader in Illinois’ sustainable agriculture movement and one of the first organic farmers in the state, who was involved in the formation of the Illinois Organic Crop Improvement Association Chapter, The Illinois Sustainable Agriculture Society and the Council of Food and Agriculture Research. While Jack acknowledges that the variety might be tall, like he is, he isn’t sure he deserves the honor. The new variety is already making waves as grain grown in the 2017-18 growing season on campus’ South Farms will be milled at the Food Processing Pilot Plant for use by campus’ Dining Services.

At 2:30 p.m. Interested folks will go to campus to tour the FSHN Pilot Processing Plant.

Promoting equity in local food systems through Cooperative Extension

When: Wednesday, September 6, 12 – 1 pm Pacific Time/3 – 4 pm Eastern Time

How can we apply equity and anti-racism principles to our food system work? In answer to this question, this webinar provides three examples from the Cooperative Extension System of efforts to promote equity and undo racism in local food systems. These examples from North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania offer a range of experiences and strategies.

Kaitlin Wojciak, from Michigan State University Extension, will describe a recent training and learning group dedicated to exploring issues of power, privilege, and racial equity for the state’s Community Food Systems team. Shorlette Ammons, from North Carolina’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems, will discuss the Center’s efforts to embed an equity lens and practice into all areas of its work. Heather Manzo, from Penn State Extension, will describe work with an urban food policy council to engage diverse community members and positively impact equity issues in the metropolitan food system.

Please join our speakers to discuss how these equity initiatives have evolved, the challenges they have faced, and the supportive factors that contributed to the success of their efforts. This webinar is put on by the working group on Undoing Inequality in the Food System and the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association.

Please register here and be sure to include any questions you have for our speakers about their work.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.