ISHS Acta Horticulturae 318: II International Symposium on Specialty and Exotic Vegetable Crops
THE ISHS SECTION FOR VEGETABLES |
| Author: | Carlos M. Portas |
| Abstract:
The Covener and the Organizing Committee of this symposium put me on the programme of the opening ceremony giving this very honorble opportunity to do a short address to this audience for which I am deeply grateful. My first words have to be related to the excellent work of Dr. Donald N. Maynard and his team (particularly Dr. Jean-Yves Peron and Dr. G.H. Welles) that must be strongly congratulated as organizers of this scientific meeting dealing with such an important subject and with participants of so many countries. Most of us know well how much work is involved, how much time is spent, and how many delicate problems have to be solved before a symposium like this one takes place. In the team Prof. Jean-Yves Peron is "our man in Miami" as the very active and imaginative chairperson of the ISHS Working Group "New Vegetables", one of the ten that belong to the Section for Vegetables (SV), which allows me to present some information about this Section that I chair. The SV is one of the five that vertically structure ISHS, with the Sections for Roots and Tubers, Fruits, Ornamentals and Aromatic and medicinal Plants. According to the ISHS's Rules of Procedure, a Chairperson runs the SV-in our case one Chairperson and three Vice-Chairpersons (Dr. David Poland, and Dr. W.J. Greenhalgh from the University of Sidney, Australia) elected for a 4-year term. The chairperson is assisted by the members of the SV, maximum of three per century, appointed by its Council (one of the Council members from USA is here in the room, Prof. Daniel Cantliffe, from your University). But in fact, the work of the SV is done by the ten Working Groups: they have the initiatives, they program the symposia, they find the conveners, and they assist with publication of the Acta Horticulturae. Now let me tell you a personal history. I was born and raised in a small Portuguese town nearby Badajoz (Spain) that is the hometown of Hernando de Soto, the explorer of Florida after the Columbus trip, all following the Algarve sailing school of Portuguese Prince Henry, the Navigator. Actually, the date of your State holiday was celebrated each year in front of the statue of this XVI century celebrity. In some years an | |
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