Working Group Events at the IPM Symposium

From March 23rd through the 26th pest management professionals from around the globe gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah for the 8th International IPM Symposium. To further the working group’s mission of improving relationships and understanding among organic and IPM communities and identifying and pursuing outcomes that benefit practitioners and the public, the working group organized an in-person meeting of working group members and two Symposium sessions entitled “Synergizing Organic and IPM”.

Eleven working group members attended the in-person meeting at the Symposium held over the lunch period on March 25, 2015. The proceedings began with a brief summary of the history of the working group and a reminder of the current objectives. Then, a brief summary of the ongoing effort to produce the Organic and IPM White Paper was given. Finally, a review of the recent results of a working group-wide priority ranking survey was revealed and discussed. Click here to view a copy of the handout with information on each of these three topics that members received during the meeting. To view the notes from the discussion at the meeting please visit our meeting notes page.

Later that same afternoon, the Organic and IPM Working Group organized two Symposium sessions. Four working group members presented materials on the history and purpose of the working group along with some of the information from the in-progress Organic and IPM White Paper on the market environment for IPM and organic and possible areas for collaboration and cooperation moving forward. The titles of the four presentations were:

• “Setting the groundwork: Similarities, differences, and definitions for Organic and IPM, and rationale for working together to tackle joint priorities” by Thomas Green, IPM Institute of North America, Inc., Madison, WI
• “Market drivers and barriers to Organic adoption” by Grace Gershuny, GAIA Services, Barnet, VT
• “Market drivers and barriers to IPM adoption” by Susan Futrell, Red Tomato, Plainville, MA
• “Organic and IPM priority setting for research, policy and education” by Brian Baker, Independent Consultant, Ithaca, NY

Click through to find copies of the slides they used in their presentations!

Ceres Trust Seeks Applicants for Graduate Student Organic Research Grants Program

The application period for Ceres Trust’s  2015 Graduate Student Organic Research Grants Program is open until March 31. The program awards up to 10 one-year grants of up to $10,000 a piece to support organic research. Applicants must be full-time graduate students in a masters or Ph.D. program at an accredited university in the North Central Region. This region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. These students are encouraged to: develop professional relationships with other organic researchers and graduate students, and organic farmers; attend and participate in university and farm field days; and to give presentations and poster sessions on their organic research at various seminars, research forums and organic conferences.The Request for Applications is online on the Ceres Trust website. The deadline for application is March 31, 2015.

USDA 2014 Organic Producer Survey Underway

The National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) has mailed its 2014 Organic Producer Survey to organic producers nationwide. Participation is mandatory, and the data is crucial to developing agriculture-related programs that directly affect the life and communities of growers. Responses are due by mail by February 13, 2015 or online by April 3, 2015. NASS has a variety of easy-to-use publicity materials at http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/Organic_Survey/.

Here you will find:

• FAQs to help answer questions, use in newsletters, incorporate into tweets, etc.
• Drop-in ads, including a full-page ad that can double as a handout; or ads to post to Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Website buttons and banners to post on your website and link to the Organic Survey page.
• You can also find a sample of the report form in case you are wondering what the final survey looks like!

Stay tuned for additional information as the survey progresses, including news releases and a webinar.