Browse Organic Stories - Page 3

More than 1,000 farmers, gardeners, health advocates and organic food lovers are expected to attend the 2017 Georgia Organics Conference and Expo. This year’s schedule includes farm tours, 10 in-depth workshops, 32 educational sessions, three daylong intensive workshops, two keynote addresses, one-on-one consulting sessions and a trade show. Registration ends on Monday, Feb. 6, for this year’s conference. The two-day annual event, one of the largest sustainable agriculture expos in the South, is set for Feb. 17-18 at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta.

For decades, farmers who have embraced conservation production have seen increased soil health, reduced irrigation demands and lowered economic risk. For the past 17 years, Georgia farmers interested in adopting new conservation practices for their farms – including those looking to swap best practices with other conservation tillers – have gathered at Georgia’s annual Conservation Production Systems Training Conference.

From the miracle of December tomatoes to the marvel of fresh salad greens in space, greenhouses and growth chambers may play an increasing role in creating hyperlocal or hyperportable food systems.

Organic gardening has become quite popular among gardeners, but a considerable confusion exists about what organic gardening is and what it is not.

After nearly two decades helping farmers combat the diseases affecting Georgia’s most prominent fruit crops, Professor Harald Scherm has been appointed head of the University of Georgia’s Department of Plant Pathology following a national search.

University of Georgia organic agriculture experts and economists are teaming up to present the Organic Farming Workshop to provide farmers with new ways to maximize the ecology and economical sustainability of their farm.

The Georgia Urban Ag and Outdoor Expo seeks to educate the public on the roles that urban and traditional farming play in supplying food to a continually growing nation. To that end, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension poultry scientist Claudia Dunkley and UGA Extension agent Steve Pettis will be among the host of presenters at the event.

University of Georgia horticulturist David Knauft will be among the organic agriculture experts presenting at the 2016 Georgia Organics Conference set for Feb. 26-27 in Columbus, Georgia.

Led by increases in forestry and livestock values, Georgia’s agricultural output increased by $484 million in 2014, making agriculture, once again, the largest industry in the state with a value of $14.1 billion. According to the most recent University of Georgia Farmgate Value Report, published earlier this month, the value of Georgia’s livestock and aquaculture industries increased by almost 36 percent from 2013.

A tiny fly is having a huge impact on American fruit farmers. Known as spotted wing drosophila, the insect is costing famers more than $700 million a year in lost produce and prevention costs.