[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

3rd North American Workshop of the Farming Systems, Research and Extension Association

Please forward this message to interested persons.
A return form requesting registration and site information is provided below. 

WORKSHOP/CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

Food & Natural Resource Systems:  Integrating Diversity, Inquiry, & Action

3rd North American Workshop of
Farming Systems Research & Extension Association
November 2-6, 1997

Resort at the Mountain
Welches (Mt. Hood), OR

Diverse citizens including farmers, ranchers, natural resource managers,
bird and river advocates, urban dwellers, wildlife biologists, ecologists,
educators, researchers, agency representatives, and others interested in
inquiry within complex and interdependent natural resource, human, and
community systems are invited to participate in this workshop. 

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES:

1. To analyze and share information about agriculture, forestry, fisheries,
watersheds, urban ecologies, and people trying to balance diverse needs and
perspectives.

2. To understand the process of inquiry and integral learning among diverse
participants and among people with diverse backgrounds and interests.

3. To explore and experience systems thinking and other learning or research
approaches.

4.  To provide time for participants to interact while focused on complex
natural resource and urban ecological issues.

5.  To savor the great Pacific Northwest cuisine, environment, and people.

The workshop site is near Mt. Hood about 45-minutes from Portland at the
Resort at the Mountain.  It is surrounded by natural resources and nearby
farms, cities, ranches, forests, and watersheds. Participants will enjoy
opportunities to learn interactively, experientially and pragmatically
within numerous contexts such as commodities, urban sites, and natural
resource settings.  Tantalize your senses with foods and learning designed
to be remembered and synthesized into new applications in your home state or
province.

REQUEST FOR REGISTRATION AND SITE INFORMATION

Please return attached request form to gain more information about the North
American FSRE Association and registration for the annual
conference/workshop or training events.

............................................................................
....................................................................
Please send me more information about the North American FRE Association
workshop

Name:  _____________________________   Organization: ______________________

Address: __________________________________________________ Zip: _________

Phone: ___________________  FAX: ________________________________________

E-mail: _________________________________________________________________

Please include your mailing address so we may send you a diagram of the
agenda showing relationships between topics and within the entire workshop.
Please distibute among interested colleagues.
............................................................................
....................................................................

Return your request by mail to:
Ray William
Department of Horticulture
Oregon State University
ALS 4017
Corvallis, OR 97331

You may also return your request by  Email to
 
Ray William: williamr@bcc.orst.edu   
or
Stefan Seiter:  seiters@bcc.orst.edu

WORKSHOP AGENDA

LEARNING BAZAAR AND RECEPTION:

Sunday, 2-9pm: Create an awareness of natural resource complexity and
diverse ways people are learning or doing inquiry by exploring a smorgasbord
of delectable foods from the Pacific Northwest along with an array of
learning approaches that include farmers telling stories, mind mapping,
posters, photos, casual coffees, hallway exchanges, presentations, personal
discoveries, and much more.  This session is designed to be informal, fun,
and interesting with the flavor of a reception and gala introduction to the
workshop.  

FOCUS SESSIONS; SYSTEMS LEARNING:

Monday: Explore topics within a systems framework of inquiry, learning, and
diversity.  Concurrent sessions will focus on integrated production systems,
community food systems, enterprise diversity, and watershed/ecosystem
analysis.  Technical, social, environmental, and economic perspectives will
be explored along with reflections on ways people are researching these
complex and interactive food and natural resource systems.  Paper and poster
sessions may be concurrent if interest exceeds available time on Wednesday.

FIELD AND SITE TOURS:

Tuesday:   Participants will explore how people in the Pacific Northwest are
inquiring about natural resources that include watersheds, horticultural and
livestock/forestry commodities, precision ag systems, and urban ecology/food
systems.  Five (5) tours will be arranged to visit eastern Oregon (desert),
Willamette Valley, Hood River orchards, and the Salmon River Watershed
(includes collaboration between Forest Service, several groups, and The
Resort at the Mountain golf course).

EXPERIENCING HUMAN INQUIRY & ACTION:

Wednesday:  Small groups will summarize their insights and discoveries from
the site and field tours in various formats (stories, lists, posters, etc.)
for presentation during a working breakfast.  This event is entitled
"Going-to-the-Fair" and involves a fun way to present lots of information
among a large group of participants.  

Following the working breakfast, concurrent sessions will focus on topics
designed to integrate learning approaches and information within a systems
framework of watersheds, food systems, soil systems, ecosystems, social
systems, whole-farm systems, etc. Reflection includes a systemic feedback
loop asking the question "whether this learning might change the way we do
component research?"  Brief  "reports" will be shared among all attendees
for closure.  At the same time, papers and posters will be presented
concurrently.

Organizers are considering a cap-stone topic and discussion by agency and
natural resource leaders focusing on "CONNECTING PEOPLE, THE ENVIRONMENT &
ECONOMY, AND SYSTEMIC ACTIONS".   Evening activities will wrap-up the
workshop with a galla barbeque, music, stories, and fair-wells.


INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMS/COMMODITY EVENTS:

Thursday:  Working Groups from the Pacific Northwest involved with
commodities, watershed councils, and agencies are being invited to organize
workshops or training events that compliment and coincide with the theme and
learning of the conference.  The purpose is for interested persons to
participate in both events.  Local/regional participants can gain from
experience shared from other regions of  North America while people from
other regions may learn something from citizens of the Pacific Northwest.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF WORKSHOP/CONFERENCE:

Participants of this workshop will improve their knowledge and information
about numerous commodities, natural resource sites, watersheds, ecosystems,
component technologies, and ways to integrate learning and action within a
systems framework. Because the Farming Systems Research & Extension
Association has fostered interdisciplinary inquiry, this workshop will
explore these topics from multiple perspectives including social, economic,
environmental, and technical views.  Participants will do a "walk-about" in
systems thinking that highlights input/output, transformation, feedback,
emergent properties and hierarchy.  


CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Participants and contributors will have ample time and opportunity to share
learning informally within a workshop setting, and in concurrent paper
presentations and poster sessions.  The workshop is designed with the
expectations that everyone will contribute to learning and action, yet
information and concrete details will be recorded and synthesized as
take-home messages and discoveries.  Attendees are encouraged to bring
photos, questions, issues, published papers, posters, facts, stories,
descriptions of successess and failures, books, references, videos,
experiences, web sites, and other ways to contribute knowledge and insights
in the way we might improve inquiry and learning associated with complex
natural resource and urban ecosystems.



Co-sponsored and organized by:


Oregon State University
Washington State University
Alberta Agriculture Food & Rural Development
Mike Naylor, California Orchardist
Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI)
others





Stefan Seiter
Department of Horticulture
ALS 4007, Oregon State University
Corvallis,OR 97331
phone: 541-7373-5442
fax:      541-737-3479
email: seiters@bcc.orst.edu