How can we make the best choices?  This conference, presented in association with The Big Carrot, was an inspiration on how the organic sector perseveres in producing the healthiest, safest food possible and the challenges it has overcome.  We learned how genetic engineering impacts our health, and how it effects our food.  We celebrated a forward thinking company that is choosing to take GMO’s off its shelves and one man who has fought against the odds.  This was a conference about growing and reforming.  Above all, it was about choosing food with spirit!

Keynote:  Bärbel Höhn, Germany’s first Green Party agricultural minister

The conference program includes a complete schedule and biographies of speakers. 

Canadian Organic Growers Conference Review
By Alex McKenna, Manager, Marketing and Publications
Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors (CAND)
(Originally appeared in the CAND e-Link newsletter, Issue 79, February 2010)

The Honourable Dr. Carolyn Bennett opened the conference with an introduction to keynote speaker, Barbel Hohn.

Hohn in 1995 became the first Green agricultural minister in Germany and continues working diligently to ensure German economic development does not overtake social or ecological principles. The speaker’s address, which lauded Canadian efforts toward achieving effective environmental and social policy, and Hohn’s impressive track record of championing eco-causes as an MP were pure inspiration to delegates.

Panels on organic and environmental policy in Canada, about the challenges facing the organic farming sector, including the ever-encroaching proliferation of GMOs and biotech, and even a session on ethical investing and “slow money” as it relates to small business within the organic sector, comprised the day’s lectures.

Each session offered excellent information and brought forth incisive questions, comments and heartfelt post-session discussions among the audience, an interesting mix of consumers, growers, retailers and physicians.

The conference’s panel experts, which included growers, regulators, retailers and researchers, provided a breadth of specific, first-hand knowledge. The most striking comment, however, was biodynamic farmer Michael Schmidt’s statement that currently less than 2% of Canadians are involved in farming of whom over 80% are over 55 years of age.

However, old ways of thinking and reliable, but forgotten practices often germinate novel ideas. I hope the farming industry will encourage a new generation to discover and connect the importance of (organic) farming to sustaining healthy communities. There exist excellent farming awareness and educational programs highlighted during the conference, such as the Everdale Farm and Environmental Learning Centre and the organic farm tours provided to school kids by the Canadian Association of Physicians of the Environment. Programs such as these educate younger generations about where our food actually comes from, and deserve our support.

Watch for a copy of the CAPE newsletter, which will be delivered with the Spring 2010 issue of the Vital Link journal.

The COG conference is an invaluable vehicle for making important food connections and expanding food sustainability networks. Congratulations on a successful 2010 conference. The CAND is pleased to have taken part in this important initiative and we encourage all NDs and their patients to attend future COG conferences.

Bärbel Höhn and Percy Schmeiser