Event

Friday
2017-10-13
Henry F. Building Entrance Hall
Auditorium H-110
Saturday
2017-10-14
Auditorium H-110
Sunday
2017-10-15
Henry F. Building Entrance Hall
Breakout session rooms
Auditorium H-110
Henry F. Building Entrance Hall
Auditorium H-110
Auditorium H-110
Henry F. Building Entrance Hall
Breakout session rooms
Auditorium H-110
17:00 - 18:15
Welcome & Registration

Get your e-ticket scanned, receive your name tag as well as your simultaneous translation headset, if applicable.

18:15 - 20:45
Global Context

Can we reverse global warming while feeding the planet? Can we restore billions of hectares of depleted grasslands? Can we replenish and purify water tables? Can we leave our planet for our children far better than we inherited it? The answers are: Yes! And the key to all of that is through regenerating soil health. This first evening will be an overview of the multiple solutions brought by living soils. 

MC: Larry Kopald, President and Co-Founder, The Carbon Underground

Gabrielle Bastien
Introduction of the Symposium: Soil as a Solution
Stephen Silverbear McComber
Opening Ceremony, Blessing of Space
Ronnie Cummins
How Consumer Education and Marketplace Pressure Campaigns Can Help Drive the Transition to Regenerative Food and Farming
Tim Lasalle
Farmers Can Be our Climate Change Heroes
Michael Warren
Agriculture’s Next Inflection Point: Putting Soil First
Andre Leu
Scaling up Regenerative Organic Agriculture can Reverse Climate Change and Improve Human Health
Stéphane Le Foll
The 4 per 1000 Initiative: Background and Significance
08:00 - 09:00
Welcome & Registration

Get your e-ticket scanned, receive your name tag as well as your simultaneous translation headset, if applicable.

09:00
Introduction to Living Soils

A brief overview of the four pillar ecosystem services and functions of healthy soils.

MC: Graham Calder,  Chief Designer, P3 Permaculture

Vivian Kaloxilos
Introduction to Soil Food Web- Ecological Services and Functions of Living Soils
09:30
SECTION 1: Food

Presentation of practical applications of living soil sciences for food production as well as the resulting benefits, such as increased productivity, replacement of chemical inputs, as well as pest and disease suppression. Overview of different agricultural techniques to promote living soils as well as innovative case studies.

MC: Graham Calder, Chief Designer, P3 Permaculture

Elaine Ingham
Soil Food Web Science: Practical Case Studies
Odette Ménard
Improving Soil Health for Food Production in Quebec
Jean-Martin Fortier
Minimal Soil Disturbance and Organic Management for Vegetable Farming
François Mulet
The Secret of Plants: They Grow on Their Own! (Part 1)
Konrad Schreiber
The Secret of Plants: They Grow on Their Own! (Part 2)
12:30
Lunch Break
13:40
SECTION 2: Water

Restoring soils and restoring the water cycle go hand in hand. Learn how promoting living soils also helps lowering irrigation needs, increasing water retention, enhancing resistance to drought and flood, and replenishing and purifying freshwater reserves.

MC: Seth Itzkan, Co-founder of Soil4Climate

Zach Weiss
Water Retention Landscapes
Judith Schwartz
Climate Opportunities in Plain Sight: The Role of Water
Jesse McDougall
Vermont's Regeneration Legislation: Restoring Water Quality by Rebuilding Soil
15:25
SECTION 3: Health

Brief section on the relationship between soil health and human health, including the increased nutrient density of foods grown in healthy soils and the relationship between soil health and the human microbiome.

MC: Liza Charbel, Permaculture and Community Development, Gardens without borders

Dan Kittredge
Regenerating Soils to Improve Nutrient Density of Foods
Didi Pershouse
The Ecology of Care: Shifting from a Sterile to a Fertile Paradigm
16:10 - 17:30
PANEL A: Field Crops and Soil Health

How can we integrate living soils techniques into the reality of large scale field crop producers?

Introduction by: Simon Bégin, Spokesperson, Institut Jean Garon

Marc Lucotte
Moderator
Éric Lapierre
Perennial plants to feed animals and economic viability
Louis Pérusse
Ecological Intensification: No-Till, Permanent Soil Cover and Cover Crops
Simon Marmen
Perspective from the Agricultural Producers Union on the regeneration of field crops in Quebec
Sylvie Thibaudeau
08:00 - 09:00
Welcome & Registration

Get your e-ticket scanned, receive your name tag as well as your simultaneous translation headset, if applicable.

09:00
SECTION 4: Climate

Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on earth; however, most agricultural soils have lost 50 to 70% of their original soil organic carbon stocks, which has been a major contributor to man-made climate change. Regenerative land management techniques can reverse this cycle and help sequester billions of tons of carbon annually in soils worldwide, effectively reversing human caused amplification of climate change. Living soils also have the capacity to remove other man-made greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This section will discuss these processes and will highlight certain techniques that particularly enhance soil carbon stocks. The carbon market as well as the role of businesses in regenerating soils will also be addressed.

MC: Antoine Rauzy, Science and Higher Education Attaché, French Embassy in Canada

Barron Joseph Orr
Can Land Degradation Neutrality Help Put Carbon Back Where it Belongs - in the Soil - and Fight Climate Change?
Mariana Hill
Uruguayan Policy for Healthy Soils
Mamta Mehra
Regenerative Land Use and Food Production Solutions
Derek Lynch
Soil Carbon and Soil Health as Influenced by Farming Systems
Michelle Garneau
Conservation of Peatlands Carbon Stocks for Climate Change Mitigation
Blain Hjertaas
Regenerative Livestock Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration on Hjertaas Farm, Saskatchewan
Jimmy Sinton
Carbon Sequestration in Soils – The Protocols, Credits, Costs, Benefits & Potentials
Larry Kopald
Business and Market Opportunities of Soil Regeneration
12:45
Lunch Break
13:55
PANEL B: Regenerative Entrepreneurship

Businesses play an important role in driving forces that impact our environment. In this panel, we will showcase different business models that encourage the regeneration of soil health.

Introduction by: Cameron Stiff, Director of Finance and Development, Compost Montreal

Philippe Choinière
Moderator
Harry Greene
Market Driven Agroforestry on Working Farms
Gregory Landua
From Supply Chain to Producer Web, Supporting the Transition to Regenerative Agriculture Through Supply
Ananda Fitzsimmons
Microbial Based Agricultural Inputs to Reduce or Replace Conventional Chemical Inputs
David Bernard-Perron
Living Soil Benefits to Medicinal Cannabis Production
15:20
Community Action to Drive Change
Satoshi Ikeda
Community Action to Drive Change
15:55
Breakout sessions

Here, participants will have the opportunity to submit themes for discussion groups they would like to lead and to vote for themes they would like to discuss. The audience will separate into six different rooms according to which topic they would like to address.

17:00 - 17:15
Conclusion & Future Directions

Closing speeches and notes on the future avenues to explore in order to promote living soils.

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