North American Strawberry Growers 

 Meet in Ontario 



The North American Strawberry Growers 

 Association held its seventeenth annual meet- 

 ing February 13-16, 1994 in Niagara Falls, 

 Ontario. Over three hundred and fifty members 

 firom the United States, Canada, and England 

 gathered to learn the latest information on 

 strawberry production and marketing. 



Dave Whittamore of Markham, Ontario 

 was elected President and Susan Butler of 

 Germantown, MD was elected Vice President. 

 Two new directors were elected to the Board: 

 John Dzen of S. Windsor, CT and Mike Reilly of 

 Pittsburg, PA. 



The annual meeting followed a one-day pro- 

 gram emphasizing bramble culture sponsored 

 by the Ontario Berry Growers Association 

 (OBGA). NASGA's opening session was pre- 

 ceded by a delightful wine and cheese reception 

 hosted by OBGA. The evening program was 

 highlighted by Dr. Tim Ball, Winnipeg, 

 Manitoba, who entertained the crowd with his 

 delightful talk "Whatever Happened to Global 

 Warming?", a factual and fictional discussion of 

 long-term environmental changes. 



NASGA was started by growers in 1977 and 

 is run by growers today with over 400 members. 

 Highly committed to improving strawberry pro- 

 duction through research, more than 25% of 

 membership dues is allocated to research each 

 year. In 1992, the NASGA Research Founda- 



tion was formed to increase fimding. This year 

 NASGA received 24 proposals requesting more 

 than $95,000 for strawberry research. The Re- 

 search Committee recommended funding 17 

 projects with a total of $34,000. Approximately 

 55% of the grants were for plant breeding im- 

 provements and 40% for pest management 

 studies. NASGA publishes the research journal 

 Advances in Strawberry Research. 



A 10-day tour to study agriculture and small 

 fi-uit growing in Eiux)pe has been arranged by 

 NASGA. The tour will depart August 21, 1994 

 for stops in England, Holland, Belgium, Ger- 

 many, and Switzerland. Reservations are on a 

 first-come first-serve basis and non-NASGA 

 growers/researchers are invited to participate. 

 For information contact Linda Struye, tele- 

 phone/FAX (414) 921-4784. 



The next annual meeting is scheduled for 

 February 12-15, 1995 at the Sheraton Plaza 

 Hotel at the Florida Mall in Orlando, Florida. 

 The North American Bramble Growers will 

 meet February 11-12, and immediately follow- 

 ing NASGA, the Fourth National Strawberry 

 Research Conference will be held, which 

 NASGA is pleased to help cosponsor. 



For more information about NASGA and its 

 publications, write to Bill & Treva Courter, P.O. 

 Box 160, West Paducah, KY 42086, telephone/ 

 FAX (502) 488-2116. 



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12 



Fruit Notes, Spring, 1994 



