187-6
Committee On Organic and Sustainable Agriculture (COSA), Accomplishments 2003 – 2013.

Poster Number 1001

Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Tampa Convention Center, East Hall, Third Floor

Joseph R. Heckman, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Kathleen Delate, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, Patrick M. Carr, North Dakota State University, Dickinson, ND, Cynthia A. Cambardella, USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Ames, IA, Kim Leval, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, Eugene, OR, Jane Sooby, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Santa Cruz, CA and Ann-Marie Fortuna, Soil Science Department, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
COSA was unveiled by SSSA President Tom Sims as a special ASA-CSSA-SSSA committee.  K. Leval served as the inaugural chair.  COSA had support of the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, Center for Rural Affairs and the Organic Farming Research Foundation.  COSA’s main objectives; 1) develop programming for annual meetings aimed at members and divisions interested in sustainable and organic agriculture, 2) develop recommendations on ways to better serve membership, and 3) identify emerging issues.  One of the ways COSA has fulfilled its mission is in organizing an annual roundtable for the Tri-Society meetings.  These gatherings attract well over 100 participants annually and stimulate discussion on organic and sustainable agriculture.  Throughout the year ten members meet by way of conference calls and email discussions.   COSA has sometimes sponsored special symposium.  With an increasing number of oral and poster presentations on organic agriculture members began discussing the need for a stand-alone organic section within ASA.  K. Delate presented the idea of the Organic Management Systems (OMS) division to the A-8 (Integrated Ag Systems) division of ASA in 2007, after which she conducted a survey of A-8 members on the need for OMS. She next presented the case for OMS to the ASA Board of Directors in 2008 where it was voted in as a new division (A-12) in 2009. P. Carr, who had helped gather support for the OMS, led the transition from OMS Division structure to Community structure as its first Chair in 2010. K. Delate served as ASA Board Rep for A-12 November 2009-2010. C. Cambardella was Chair of the OMS Community in 2011 and 2012. J. Heckman is current Chair in 2013.  The annual OMS symposium and general secessions have been very well attended.  As OMS displaces some COSA functions, the role of COSA needs reassessment.
See more from this Division: ASA Section: Agronomic Production Systems
See more from this Session: General Organic Management Systems: I (includes graduate student competition)

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