November 23, 2022 - EMBRACING CHANGE!!

Nov 23, 2022

With our FIRST EVER hybrid conference, there is no doubt that the ONTARIO Agricultural CONFERERNCE is Embracing Change. With an amazing lineup of incredible topics and world class speakers, this conference is too good to miss. But attendees will have to Embrace Change as well!

What stays the same? All 50 (yes, FIFTY!) sessions will be recorded and posted for participants to watch on-line until March 31^st. Full virtual attendance remains available, as it has the last 2 years. There are two “Live Days” Jan 4 (all locations) and Jan 5 (Ridgetown only). Feature presentations will be given LIVE and streamed to all locations and virtual attendees. The Production Pundits (session 7) will wrap up the conference on Jan 5, answering questions that have arisen from the amazing content at the conference. And of course, TEC Talk Tuesdays are back, every Tuesday night from 7 pm to 9 pm, January 10^th to Feb 21^st.

What is different? Gone are the days of 8 concurrent sessions and dashing from building to building at Ridgetown. Gone is a totally separate conference in Midwestern and Eastern Ontario on different dates. All the LIVE events happen Jan 4^th, with a second LIVE day only at Ridgetown Jan 5^th. At Kemptville and Waterloo on Jan 4th, feature sessions will be streamed from Ridgetown, with LIVE speakers delivering great content between the feature sessions. At Ridgetown, feature speakers present LIVE to the in-person audience while streaming simultaneously to all other participants. Between the feature presentations at Ridgetown, two concurrent sessions are offered for attendees to choose from, one LIVE and one ON DEMAND session.

Different? Yes. Options? YOU BET!

With this format, there is something for everyone. For those that prefer the in-person opportunity for interaction in the hallways and in the trade show, there is a local option for you. For those that just can’t make in person work, the full virtual experience remains. For virtual attendees, the “Sip n' Social” on Jan 4^th lets you participate virtually with the in-person event. In Embracing Change, #OAgC23 goes the extra mile to offer options and opportunities to make the conference fit your learning style.

Embrace Change and GET REGISTERED! Visit www.OntarioAgConference.ca, personalize your registration, and get ready for Jan 4^th and 5^th. This is one conference you cannot afford to miss. See you there!

Source : Ontario AG Conference

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”

November 23, 2022 - EMBRACING CHANGE!!

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Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

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