Keynote speaker Elaine Ingham and speaker and author David Montgomery

The conference was presented with our partner, The Big Carrot Natural Food Market.  Our sponsors included Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), Pfennings Organic, and New Roots Herbal as well as our media sponsors, Vitality and NOW.   We received additional support from Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and The Institute of Holistic Nutrition.  We are truly grateful for their support.

The keynote address was given by Elaine Ingham, the founder of Soil Foodweb Inc., and focused on what she is a reknown expert on – the soil microbiology and its effect on soil health and resilience.  We also heard from David Montgomery, author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, continuing the theme of the importance of soil by showing its interconnectedness with human societies down through the ages.  We welcomed back Thierry Vrain who gave us a thorough talk on glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide RoundUp, used ubiquitously in agriculture.  He shared concerns about glyphosate being raised by researchers around the world.  You can view a couple of talks by Vrain at our YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/OrganicGrowersVideo.  In all, there were nine breakout sessions covering a range of topics, a description of which can be found in the Conference Agenda.  The biographies of speakers and moderators are found in Conference Speakers.

As with past conferences, we enjoyed a delicious organic buffet lunch, and conference attendees had the opportunity to browse a number of exhibits relating to products and services being provided by local providers and organizations in the organic and sustainable sector.