By René Hardwick, National Onion Association Director of Public and Industry Relations
If you haven’t been to a National Onion Association (NOA) convention in recent years, this may be the year for you.
You might want to contemplate a bit on this one word: Maui.
And one more: retirement.
This year, the annual winter convention will usher in the tropics at the Grand Wailea Waldorf Astoria Resort. Here, you can get away from it all. You can stroll through the beauty and grandeur of Hawaii, from its lush grounds to its amazing beaches — and experience some great camaraderie and education that comes with an NOA convention.
Let’s backtrack a minute. We just finished our annual summer convention in Bakersfield, California, where we raised more than $25,000 for the promotions program through our auction. We toured facilities with Gills Onions, saw a great plant tape demonstration from Tanimura & Antle at Rio Farms, and we heard from some great speakers about transportation, insurance and food safety regulations affecting the industry. If you couldn’t attend, you’ll see some great coverage in this issue of Onion World and on the NOA’s Facebook page to get you up to speed.
But this coming conference? We’re talking Maui, people. It is definitely time to turn your attention to the Pacific, where we are lining up some amazing speakers and activities for members and their spouses.
First, this will be a special meeting, indeed. It will be Executive Vice President Wayne Mininger’s last convention before his retirement after more than 32 years at the helm here. Additionally, members Snap Keene and Randy Clark are queuing up a great golf tournament at the Wailea Golf Club, and spouses and friends can participate in a fun island art painting session during some of the membership sessions.
Two speakers are sure to entice, each from opposite ends of the spectrum.
- Vincent Kimura, founder and CEO of Smart Yields, a Hawaii-based technology company that has harnessed real-time monitoring, data analytics and digital agronomy into a mobile app, has been invited to speak at the conference. This is a technology we learned about in May when Kimura attended a water tour with the FDA in Brighton, Colorado. Kimura is engaging and knowledgeable about this technology that puts technology in the fields to help growers manage their crops.
- Michelle Payn, author of “Food Truths: 25 Surprising Ways to Shop and Eat Without Guilt” will be on hand to discuss her advocacy of agriculture as she attempts to connect the dots between consumer and farmer. Food Truths was a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon. She will help us understand the need to tell the story of what happens on today’s farms and ranches, offering tips to distill technical issues with GMOs, food safety and pesticides into simpler conversations. She also will offer tips to translate the complex business of growing food, feed and fiber in real-life communications. Third, she will enlighten us on advanced methods to communicate why food is grown the right way by the right people for the right reasons, and she will offer ways to integrate these communications via social media. Read more about her at www.causematters.com.
A lot more is in the works, including a tour of an Upcountry onion farm and plenty of on-your-own activities including Surfing Goat Dairy, a lavender farm, ziplining, a botanical garden and other interesting places to visit.
If you’ve been holding off on attending, this Maui visit will surely be worth it. Register at www.onions-usa.org/members/noaconventions.