Webinar: Growing Edible Organic Beans

Join Ben Cullen, owner of Canada’s only Canadian grown organic canned beans company, Cullen’s foods, and a Panel of Farmers and experts on the challenges, and opportunities of growing organic edible beans. From farmers looking to hone their techniques to farmers looking into diversifying with organic edible beans this panel is informative and educational for all levels of experience with organic edible beans.

Ben Cullen: Ben is the Founder of Cullen’s Foods, an organic food company that promotes Canadian organics by working directly with Canadian farmers and offering full traceability from the consumer to the farm. Ben shares a weekly column in the Toronto Star with his dad Mark Cullen, where they write about a range of environmental topics from gardening to agriculture, and recently co-authored a book together, Escape to Reality: how the world is changing gardening, and gardening is changing the world. Ben holds a Diploma in Agriculture from the University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus and a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University. Ben believes in the potential of organic agriculture to address the dual climate and biodiversity crises while feeding the world. Ben is also the President of the Organic Council of Ontario.

Mary–Howell Martens: She and her family farm 2000 acres of certified organic grain, forage and dairy in upstate New York. They have been certified organic since 1992. Additionally, she owns and operates Lakeview Organic Grain, an organic seed and animal feed operation serving dairy, poultry and vegetable farmers throughout the Northeast. She served on the USDA Advisory Committee for Agricultural Biotechnology, the Cornell University Dean’s Advisory committee, and the NOFA-NY Board of Directors. In earlier years, she worked in the grape breeding program at Cornell University and taught biology and plant physiology at Finger Lakes Community College. She has a BS in Horticultural Science from North Carolina State University, and a MS in Plant Breeding/Vegetable Crops from Cornell University. She also loves to bake with home-grown, home-ground grains!

Phil Oegema: Phil is an organic farmer in St. Thomas Ontario. Him and his father grow corn, soybeans, wheat, spelt, and dry edible beans for the organic market. They started transitioning their farm to organic in 2013 after a long history of conventional crop farming. They are now fully certified on all of their 1100 acres.

Andrew St Jean: Andres is an organic farmer from St Mary’s, Ontario and the organic manager for a local elevator dealing exclusively in organic grains.

Klaas Martens: Klaas grew up farming intensively with chemicals; now he and his wife Mary-Howell are organic devotees operating a thriving farm and grain mill helping boost the regional economy in upstate New York.

Tyler Robertson: Tyler is a 6th generation farmer outside Ridgetown, Ontario. As the youngest among Cullen’s growers, Tyler is a recent graduate from the University of Guelph with an innovative approach to farming – including home-built equipment to deal with the constant weed pressure of organic farming.

Rob Nurse: Rob is a Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada focused on the development of sustainable, economical, environmentally safe weed management strategies using integrated weed management principles in field and horticultural crops.

Jamie Larsen: Jamie is a Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada focused on dry bean disease screening and development of germplasm with disease resistance and emerging threats for Ontario dry beans.