The Kitsap Community Food Co-op and Grassroots Volunteers are sponsoring GMO expert Howard Vlieger for a free public lecture at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at Olympic College in the Bremer Student Center, 1600 Chester Ave., Bremerton.

Vlieger will share his expertise and research regarding genetically modified crops and how one can become involved in this important movement.

Vlieger is a third generation family farmer who has been a “student of the soil,” studying why and how the soil works as it does, since 1989. He lives on the family farm where he was born and raised in northwest Iowa.

Since 1992, he has been a crop nutrition advisor and has founded two companies to help family farmers reduce their dependency on chemical-based farming. His appearance and speech is also in support of Washington State Initiative 522 for labeling of genetically engineered food.