97th ESA Annual Meeting (August 5 -- 10, 2012)

SYMP 14 - The New Grand Challenge for Ecology: Sustaining Agriculture While Promoting Environmental Justice

Wednesday, August 8, 2012: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Portland Blrm 252, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Richard G. Smith
Co-organizer:
Ivette Perfecto
Moderator:
Richard G. Smith
This symposium is a joint effort by the Agroecology and Environmental Justice Sections. The membership of our sections recognizes the fact that agriculture, environmental justice, and the preservation, utilization, and sustainability of the planet’s ecosystems are intricately linked. This symposium will highlight the role that ecology and ecologists must play in current and future agricultural decision making and practice. Leading researchers from the agroecology and socio-environmental science fields will present a compelling case for why ecologists MUST engage in agricultural issues both domestically and internationally if the goals of preserving and sustaining the world’s ecosystems are to be realized. The symposium will feature state-of-the-discipline research covering the major “agricultural biomes” of the world, including the US Corn Belt and the agriculturally diverse Northeast, Southeast Africa, and the coffee producing regions of Central America. Talks will be 30 minutes in length. The culmination of the symposium will be a roundtable discussion involving the presenters and the audience as we attempt to reach a consensus on the most effective strategies for increasing the engagement of the broader ecological community in agricultural and environmental justice issues. We anticipate that these strategies will then be articulated in a review article to be submitted to Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The symposium will be accompanied by other events that integrate ecology and agriculture being planned by the Environmental Justice and Agroecology sections (an urban food workshop, a field trip to a local garden project in Portland, and an Agroecology Section information and recruitment booth).
Endorsement:
Human Ecology, Applied Ecology, Environmental Justice
1:30 PM
Reinventing agriculture to harmonize people and nature
Gretchen C. Daily, Stanford University
2:00 PM
Farming for services in Africa: Ecology and justice are the foundation for a greener revolution
Sieglinde Snapp, Michigan State University; Rachel Bezner Kerr, Cornell University; Krista Isaacs, Michigan State University
3:00 PM
3:10 PM
Using biodiversity to link agricultural productivity and profitability with environmental quality: Results from three field experiments in Iowa
Matt Liebman, Iowa State University; Craig A. Chase, Iowa State University; Ranae Dietzel, Iowa State University; Sarah M. Hirsh, Iowa State University; Matthew J. Helmers, Iowa State University; Meghann E. Jarchow, University of South Dakota; Lisa A. Schulte, Iowa State University
3:40 PM
Potential agroecological implications of second generation herbicide resistant GM crops
David Mortensen, The Pennsylvania State University; J. Franklin Egan, USDA ARS; Richard G. Smith, University of New Hampshire; Matthew R. Ryan, The Pennsylvania State University; Bruce Maxwell, Montana State University
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