Wayne Caldwell holds a joint appointment between the University of Guelph School of Rural Planning and Development and the County of Huron Department of Planning and Development where he is Senior Planner.

Dr. Caldwell has lectured across Canada on the future of rural communities and has published extensively in the areas of planning, community development, agricultural land preservation, siting livestock facilities, rural land use, and the environment. His primary focus has been in dealing with issues of change in rural and agricultural communities.

Caldwell is a founding member and the current Chair of the Ontario Rural Council. He is also a founding member of the Huron Stewardship Council, and the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation. He holds a Ph.D. in Regional Planning and Resources Development from the University of Waterloo, and is an active member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Conflicts over farming practices have the potential to significantly impact farmers, their families, their future, and the agri-food industry's ability to flourish in the global marketplace. Mr. Caldwell will help farmers understand why agri-conflicts are rising and discuss common approaches to them.

Bernard Belzile has devoted himself to agricultural management for more than 20 years. In his capacity as Secretary General, Bernard Belzile has played an important role in the promotion of agricultural management pools, now called "groupes conseils agricoles" (agricultural advisory groups), in Quebec. In particular, he was the instigator of several initiatives that have contributed to the rapid development and influence of agricultural advisory groups to date.

During his presentation, Mr. Belzile will explain how the agricultural advisory groups function, and in particular, the way they respond to the demands of agricultural production, how they integrate various sectoral concepts, and finally, how they respond to the realities of the business as a whole. He will also outline a few points to consider when establishing an advisory group.

The 2002 US Farm Bill will impact Canadian agriculture and its competitiveness as none of its predecessors. To understand its implications, Al Mussell from the George Morris Centre will outline the basic provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill, and explore its direct impacts on farm prices, Canada-US agri-food trade, and on the prospects for international trade liberalization under WTO. Based on these impacts, observations will be made on the effect on Canadian and US agricultural competitiveness, and what Canadian farmers can do to adjust.

Dr. Al Mussell is Senior Research Associate at the George Morris Centre in Guelph, Ontario. He conducts research in farm management, agricultural marketing, and the economics of contracts. Prior to joining the George Morris Centre, Al was an economist in the Dairy Foods division of Land O'Lakes, Inc. Al holds bachelor's and master's degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Guelph, and a doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of Minnesota.

The George Morris Centre is Canada's independent agri-food think-tank. Its mission is to provoke quality dialogue and to encourage excellence in the Canadian agri-food sector. The George Morris Centre conducts public and private research projects, instructional programs, and market analysis publications related to competitiveness and efficiency in Canadian agriculture.

Everyone knows that innovation and technologies have tremendous impact on farm productivity. However, the decision to invest in a new technology is not an easy one and it requires a careful examination of all aspects involved. This is why we have asked Amy Lemay what are the most important factors to be considered in your decision-making to access a new technology.

Amy has worked in the agrifood sector for 16 years and has been involved in knowledge and technology transfer for the past 10 years. Since 1998, she has been working on a joint pilot project between Brock University and Niagara College to develop a model for helping agrifood organizations to understand and use science & technology to improve efficiency and productivity, manage change and risk, develop and improve products, processes and services and improve profits. In that time, Amy has worked with more than 100 farmers and agrifood organizations to better understand and harness the opportunities of science and technology.

Amy has a B.Sc.Agr. in Environmental Biology and an M.Sc in Entomology from the University of Guelph.

She is currently a participant of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program, Class 9; a member of the Ontario Agriculture Value-Added Innovation Network Steering Committee and the Public Relations Committee of the Ontario Institute of Agrologists and Program Chair for the Niagara Branch Ontario Institute of Agrologists.

She lives in Welland with her husband René and three children.

Agriculture is a very capital-intensive industry. Accessing the necessary capital can be a barrier to expanding or purchasing existing operations. This is a significant challenge facing new entrants to agriculture. Greg Stewart will be discussing access to capital issues including opportunities and strategies to succeed in this challenging environment.

Responsible for Farm Credit Canada's national sales, Greg Stewart has more than 15 years of experience in operations, farm financing, agribusiness and risk management. A professional agrologist, Greg Stewart holds a B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba.

Janine Gibson was trained as a professional Human Ecologist at the University of Manitoba. In her business Creative Health Consulting, she has worked in the organic community as an educator, an inspector of crops, livestock and processing and as an agricultural consultant since 1993. Currently the National President of Canadian Organic Growers, she co-chairs the Manitoba chapter called the Organic Food Council of Manitoba and represents the Pansy Groundwater Committee as part of Hogwatch MB.

She is an accredited member and training coordinator with the Independent Organic Inspectors Association, teaching at international organic training events, and chair of the training committee. Ms Gibson has conducted over 1025 organic inspections across the Great Plains of Canada and the US for 12 different certification agencies. Her work on the prairies strives to promote balance in our ecosystems, our bodies and our communities through organic production. She lives in a solar and wind powered community in southeast Manitoba, Northern Sun Farm Cooperative where 72 ILO's are located within a 10 mile radius of her farm.

Janine's presentation will cover the challenges and opportunities of organic production growing a phenomenal 20 per cent each year throughout the last decade. She will also tell us why organic farming has a huge impact on conventional agriculture and what we can learn from it.

Claude Bourgault was born in Saint-Pamphile Quebec in 1957. His family moved to the US when he was eleven. He moved back to Quebec in 1975 right after finishing High School and took a position at Rothsay Laurenco.

Claude took on responsibilities in production and maintenance supervision. He left the Company in 1987 to pursue new challenges in the Rendering Industry. Claude came back to Rothsay/Laurenco in 1992 and occupied the role of Plant Manager while obtaining a 1st Class License in Power Plant Engineering. He specialized in manufacturing processes, efficiency improvements, cost control and strategy implementation. In 1996, Claude was promoted to the role of Director of Operations and in 1999, took on the responsibilities of Director of Quebec Region & Business Development.

Due to dramatic changes in the Rendering Industry, Claude researched new outlets for traditional Rendering Products, which brought him to develop a new Biodiesel Process. Research and development in this new field is still ongoing. Claude will talk to us about the biobus project where 155 STM BIOBUSES will run on biodiesel in the Montreal city for a one-year period and how we could use agro-industry wastes to produce pure biodiesel.

Bowman Greenhouses Ltd. is owned and operated by Laurie and Glen Bowman. Together they produce over 2,500,000 perennial plugs per year on a five-acre parcel of land located in BC's Okanagan valley. Starting with 300 varieties in 1997, they now grow 1300 varieties and ship their product to over 250 customers throughout North America.

The Bowman's have found harmony in their business and marriage by dividing the numerous responsibilities. Laurie, who has a background in design, is responsible for marketing, broker relations, development of their web-site www.bowmangreenhouses.com, and the creation of a custom computer program that oversees all aspects of crop scheduling, shipping and accounts receivable. Glen has earned a B.Sc., and is responsible for all aspects of growing and production in the greenhouses.

Their greenhouses have a computer controlled environment that operates an evaporative cooling system to control heat in the summer months and a retractable thermal blanket which helps retain heat in the winter months. Three thousand gallons per day of purified reverse osmosis water are produced in order to meet their watering requirements. Rolling metal benches help maximize space efficiency and overhead trolleys are used to increase efficiency when transporting plant material.

Ferme Porc-Saint S.E.N.C. is a certified HACCP (2000) swine enterprise located in St-François-Xavier-de-Brampton, Québec and is owned and operated by Jocelyn St-Laurent and Manon Jolin. Jocelyn's family had a dairy farm and, as of the early age of 13, he helped with the summer work. Later on, he worked as a livestock feed technician, but he remained convinced that one day, he would own a farm.

In 1990, Jocelyn and Manon purchased a 300 sow farrowing operation established on 8.8ha (22 acres) of land. Over the years, they have built up the herd to 2 400 sows with a weaning average of 26 weaned piglets/sow/year, for a total annual production of over 60 000 piglets. Also, they are now custom finishing 40% of their piglet production. In 2002, and with the rented land, they cropped 176ha (440 acres) of tillable land on a property of 206ha (515 acres). To minimize environmental risks and in addition to the property, another 320ha (800 acres) of neighbouring tillable land is used to finish spreading the manure from the herd. Jocelyn's and Manon's operation have weaning space for 6 000 piglets. They also have a custom operator finish 40% of their piglet production. The remaining 60% of the piglets are sold to an independent grower hog operation. The operation has barns on three sites to reduce disease contamination risks.