The keynote presentation at the ninth annual Iowa Organic Conference this year has special significance for Iowa State University's Organic Program. Featured will be Jerry DeWitt, whose work at ISU helped establish the nation's first organic research program at a land grant university more than a dozen years ago.

DeWitt, who now directs the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, will present "Lessons
from Farmers in the Field," at the program's annual conference, December 4-5, at the Scheman
Building in Ames. His presentation will include photographs he has taken at numerous organic and sustainable farms throughout the world.

Horticulture and agronomy professor Kathleen Delate directs the ISU Organic Program and coordinates the annual conference. She said this year's event will honor DeWitt on his retirement in early 2010 after 37 years with Iowa State University.

Organic experts from Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, California and Canada will present at 17 breakout sessions at the conference covering topics from how to improve farm productivity and
marketing strategies to new techniques and research results.

In 1988, DeWitt took two busloads of ISU Extension staff to three organic farms in Iowa, the first exposure to organic agriculture for many of the participants. As early as 1993, one extension field specialist in the Cedar Rapids area specialized in organic methods. And in 1996, DeWitt arranged a meeting for 15 farmers who asked the ISU administration for faculty support in organic agriculture. Delate was hired in 1997.

The 2009 Iowa Organic Conference is expected to attract several hundred people from Iowa and
neighboring states. Kicking off the event will be a Friday night presentation at the Iowa Organic
Association annual meeting by award-willing journalist and dietitian Melinda Hemmelgarn. Her
speech, "Food System Literacy: Road Map for True Sustainability," will be at 7 p.m. at the ISU
Seasons Café in the Maple-Willow-Larch Dining Complex at Lincoln Way and Beach Avenue.

The schedule on Saturday includes a local lunch featuring honey-roasted ham from Organic Valley and exhibits showcasing organic seeds, fertilizers, equipment, and educational information.

Also during the conference the Leopold Center will present its annual Spencer Award for
Sustainable Agriculture to Francis and Susan Thicke, who own and operate an organic dairy near Fairfield.

For more information and to register, check out
the conference web site:
<http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/organic09/home.html>