Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

Faculty of Agriculture

Organic Friends' E‑zine: May 2017

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OACC is a collaborator within Organic Eprints, an international open access archive for papers and projects related to research in organic food and farming.

Photo of the Month, by Rebecca Veenhuis
The OACC's Director, Andy Hammermeister, was delighted to host a brief meeting with Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard while the Senator was on the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus to participate in the convocation ceremony last week. Senator Bernard serves on the Senate Standing Committee for Agriculture and Forestry, which is currently doing a study on the effects of climate change on agriculture.

OACC Director's Message
As Organic Science Cluster II (OSCII) enters its final year, we are turning our minds towards preparing for Organic Science Cluster III (OSCIII). In February, the Call for Letters of Intent for Organic Science Cluster III was announced. Like OSCII, OSCIII is a joint initiative led by the Organic Federation of Canada in collaboration with the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Dalhousie University. We are delighted to have received 80 Letters of Intent for OSCIII, and were excited to see the broad scope of interest from researchers right across Canada. The total combined budget of the Letter of Intent submissions was more than double the targeted budget for OSCIII. This meant that the LOI Review Committee, made up of 20 leading organic sector professionals and stakeholders who assessed the strategic priority and potential impact of the proposed activities, had many difficult decisions to make. The researchers have now been notified of the Review Committee decisions, and are now busily preparing proposals for a wide range of research activities that span the breadth of organic production and the country. We at the OACC and OFC now turn our minds to developing the overarching proposal and communications plan. To help guide our communications activity, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in our 7-Minute Survey: Ensuring Research in Organic Agriculture has Impact. I end with a word of thanks for the hard work of the LOI Review Committee, and also to the many researchers and industry partners who have expressed interest in OSCIII. We are looking forward to another five years of impactful organic research in Canada! Sincerely, Andy Hammermeister, Ph.D., P.Ag. Director, OACC Assistant Professor, Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture

OACC Director's Message

As Organic Science Cluster II (OSCII) enters its final year, we are turning our minds towards preparing for Organic Science Cluster III (OSCIII). In February, the Call for Letters of Intent for Organic Science Cluster III was announced. Like OSCII, OSCIII is a joint initiative led by the Organic Federation of Canada in collaboration with the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Dalhousie University.

We are delighted to have received 80 Letters of Intent for OSCIII, and were excited to see the broad scope of interest from researchers right across Canada. The total combined budget of the Letter of Intent submissions was more than double the targeted budget for OSCIII. This meant that the LOI Review Committee, made up of 20 leading organic sector professionals and stakeholders who assessed the strategic priority and potential impact of the proposed activities, had many difficult decisions to make. The researchers have now been notified of the Review Committee decisions, and are now busily preparing proposals for a wide range of research activities that span the breadth of organic production and the country. We at the OACC and OFC now turn our minds to developing the overarching proposal and communications plan. To help guide our communications activity, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to participate in our 7-Minute Survey: Ensuring Research in Organic Agriculture has Impact.

I end with a word of thanks for the hard work of the LOI Review Committee, and also to the many researchers and industry partners who have expressed interest in OSCIII. We are looking forward to another five years of impactful organic research in Canada!

Sincerely,
Andy Hammermeister, Ph.D., P.Ag.
Director, OACC
Assistant Professor, Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture

The Organic Federation of Canada and Dalhousie University's Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada invite you to participate in a 7-minute survey to help guide how research underway in organic agriculture in Canada makes its way back to you, the people who can put the research findings in practice. With your help, we can make sure that organic agriculture research has impact!