Market Farming

[Steve Diver <steved AT ipa.net>]

For those interested in the New England - Small Grains connection, I'll 
forward
this from Sanet.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Call for Presenters: NE Grain Conference, UMass - 
July 14
Date:     Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:04:08 -0800
From:     Elisheva Kaufman <growseed AT YAHOO.COM>

We invite interested farmers, researchers, food anthropologists, artisan 
bakers
and artists to share their work at the NE Grain Conference, July 14 at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Please submit a summary of your work and
ideas to Eli Rogosa: growseed AT yahoo.com. Thank you.

Breeding Wheat for Organic Farms and Community Vitality

In the past century wheat breeding has focused on increasing uniformity, 
yield,
disease resistance and quality, while reducing height, root systems and time 
to
maturity. Some organic farmers have observed that the older, genetically 
diverse
landrace wheats that evolved over generations in traditional farming systems 
may
be more suitable to organic production. Varieties best adapted to organic
production may be taller to better with weeds, with good early emergence and
robustness to produce stable yields under fluctuating weather extremes.

This conference will build the foundation to develop a local organic wheat
breeding program in the Northeast, and provide guidelines to breed modern and
historic varieties under organic management, using selection criteria of
performance in mixtures, weed competition, height and tillering capacity,
different seeding rates and capacity to adapt to climate change weather
extremes. We will explore how to strengthen the values and community systems
that best foster a dynamic, approach to plant evolution for a sustainable
future.As we face unprecedented climate change, we are coming together to
reinvigorate our skills and relationships to create a local wheat-to-bread
community.  Funded by NESARE.