Standing-Room-Only Spring Lectures
Science of sustainable agriculture series 'Measuring the Immeasurable' continues in fall
The series opened with a standing room only crowd of over 100 faculty, students, and community members gathered to hear William B. Lacy, UC Davis’ own Vice Provost for University Outreach and International Programs, and professor in the Department of Human and Community Development speak on “The Science of Sustainable Agriculture in a Context of Disciplinary and Private Knowledge.” Lacey provided an overview of what sustainable agriculture is and how the university provides a challenging context within which to address it, due to disciplinary boundaries and reduced public funding.
Kenneth G. Cassman, professor and chair of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln spoke on “Intensive Cereal Production Systems for Global Food Security and Protection of Natural Resources.” Cassman suggested ways to increase global production with nutrients, crop choice, and irrigation through developed-world technologies and approaches. He suggested we do not have a global food shortage or crisis of under-production, but could have one within 20 years based on projections of population growth. William H. Friedland, professor emeritus from the Departments of Community Studies and Sociology at UC Santa Cruz addressed “Globalization and Its Impact on California Agriculture.” Friedland suggested that California agriculture has been “globalized” for a long time, and exporting commodity overproduction is only a partial economic solution to agricultural sustainability that comes with environmental and social costs. He said sustainability should be measured in terms of capital, labor, natural resources, and the scientific knowledge base.
Two European speakers followed, beginning with Floor Brouwer, head of Management of Natural Resources, Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI), The Hague, Netherlands. He talked about “Strategies for Sustainability in Agriculture: A European Perspective,” and discussed the Common Agricultural Policy and the way European farm payments are changing from direct commodity payments to agri-environmental payments. He predicted that intensified export-oriented production systems located near shipping ports would continue to co-exist with extensive farming systems that preserve the countryside like Alpine Swiss dairies. Simon Bell addressed “Measuring Sustainability: Learning by Doing.” Bell is a senior lecturer in Information Systems, Center for Complexity and Change, Technology Faculty, The Open University in the United Kingdom. He focused on the process involved in the development and use of indicators that can be used to measure sustainability. He uses an analytical approach that involves a continuous cycle of reflection, connection, modeling, and doing. He stressed the need to involve stakeholders, and the importance of the process as well as the end goal, in measuring sustainability.
The series then turned to the food system and the key role that civil society can play in changing it with Thomas Lyson’s discussion of “Civic Agriculture and Food Citizenship: Sustaining Local Food Systems in a Globalizing Environment.” Lyson is the Liberty Hyde Bailey professor in the Department of Rural Sociology at Cornell University. Cynthia Rosenzweig discussed global warming trends and various models used to predict impacts of different scenarios on agriculture and food production in “Agricultural Production and Climate Changes.” She is a research scientist at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Richard Howitt presented information on the key natural resource in California—water—and presented his research on “Economic Policies to Encourage Sustainable Agriculture—Some Examples from Irrigated Crop Production.” Howitt is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UCD. The final spring speaker was anthropologist Glenn Davis Stone, who gave an excellent overview of the crisis of overproduction of food that confronts much of the world including India where he conducts research. In “Intensive Agriculture and the New Malthus: A Perspective from India,” Stone discussed research that finds Malthus was wrong in his predictions about population growth outstripping food production thus leading to famines and population reductions through starvation. Stone noted that technological improvements alone would do little to reduce poverty and hunger. Stone is an associate professor, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis. His talk was especially timely as the USDA Ministerial Conference on Ag Biotechnology took place in Sacramento two weeks later.
| Fall 2003 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE Series |
|
October 3
- Natural Resource Scarcity and Sustainable Agriculture October 10
- Managing Rangelands to Conserve Biodiversity October 17
- Integrated Farming Systems: Soil and Plant Indices of Sustainability October 24
- How Do We Know the Impact of Sustainable Agriculture on Quality
of Life? October 31
- Land and Water Management in Arid Regions: Historical and
Contemporary Perspectives November 7
- Why You Should Eat Food and Other Nutritional Heresies November 14
- Developing a Curriculum for a Sustainable Agriculture: Educating
the Researchers and Farmers of the Future November 21
- Unfolding a Sustainable Agriculture for the 21st Century:
Some Challenges for Education and Extension November 26
- The Science Behind Organic and Biodynamic Farming December 5
- Past, Present, and Future of Sustainable Agriculture at UC
Davis |
See the SAREP Web site for more details and video archives http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/seminar/, or contact Jenny Broome at 530-754-8547 or sarep@ucdavis.edu.
There will be an undergraduate
and graduate seminar course linked to the speaker series.
Contact Mark Van Horn for more information at 530-752-7645 or mxvanhorn@ucdavis.edu
