IOA Annual Organic Conference and AGM
IOA is hosting its annual organic conference on Sunday November 20th at the Wineport Lodge, Glasson, Co Westmeath.
The event kicks off with the keynote speaker Minister McEntee (Minister of State with responsibility for the organic sector) opening the conference at 10.30am. He is followed by a host of female speakers;
Gundala Azeez from the UK will speak about her research on “Climate Change mitigation and organic farming”. Gundula has a specific interest in soil carbon sequestration and the potentials that organic soils have for sequestration. This information is very useful in the context of increasing concerns over climate change and food production.
Dr. Kim Reilly is a researcher with Teagasc and she has been instrumental in conducting research on organic vegetables in Kinsealy. Various plots of organic vegetables and non organic vegetables were grown and then analysed with some very interesting results.
Finally Deirdre Hillard from the Just Food company, will give an account of marketing their organic products. Established in 2004 Deirdre initially had a stall at the Middleton Farmers Market selling products such as their home made liver pate. From there they have grown to supply speciality shops and supermarkets while also maintaining a presence at farmers markets.
The conference will be chaired by Trevor Sargent himself no stranger to organic food production! The conference is free to attend and open to all it will be followed by an organic lunch (which costs 10 euro, this must be prebooked with IOFGA). This will be followed by the IOA AGM at 2.30pm which is open to IOA members only.