We are forming a new Internet discussion group and invite your
participation. 'Ag-Impact' will be a forum for discussing issues, problems
and progress in developing methods for assessing environmental impacts of
agriculture. It is intended as an international forum for the growing body
of multi-disciplinary researchers and practitioners working to develop
environmental impact assessment systems and assessment tools, or involved
with the application of environmental impact assessment methods.
With a large portion of the recent National Integrated Pest
Management Symposium (USA) devoted to assessing IPM activities, with
growing interest among producer and consumer groups in "Green Labeling"
products for the marketplace, and with ongoing interest in assessing
natural resource sustainability and the role of agriculture in
pollution-generation, we expect that discussion of assessment methods will
be thrust more centrally into the debate on agriculture and the
environment. Increased interest in this field is being shown by growers,
researchers, consumer groups, businesses and regulatory agencies which are
searching for information on applying assessment systems to particular
production scenarios and products.
=8CAg-Impact=B9 will be a forum for open discussion on topics such as:
~ Descriptions of objectives and methods of systems (models/tools)
which assess environmental impacts (EI) of agriculture
~ Critiques of EI assessment systems, methods and approaches
~ Identifying target audiences/perceived uses for different EI
assessment tools
~ Encouraging application of appropriate EI assessment methods
~ Presenting and interpreting results of EI assessments
~ Methods for adapting existing EI assessment tools to additional
agricultural scenarios and site conditions
~ Data and databases for EI assessments of agriculture: sources,
availability, quality, methods for filling gaps, etc.
~ Appropriate environmental indicators, test endpoints and decision
endpoints
~ Relevant conference and seminar announcements, calls for papers and
research/extension proposals, job announcements, abstracts and reviews of
articles and reports, and interim research reports are all appropriate and
welcome postings
~ Announcement of research plans, to encourage collaboration and/or
reduce overlap in effort.
'Ag-Impact' will be an automated, unmoderated e-mail discussion group
administered by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) in
Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) and hosted by Dr. Lois Levitan, Department of
=46ruit and Vegetable Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY (USA)
(e-mail: LCL3@cornell.edu).
To post a message to the entire discussion group, send to:
<Ag-Impact@mtn.org>.
IATP will also host a library list, 'Ag-Impact-lib', which will be
a repository for bibliographic listings and documents pertaining to
environmental assessment tools and methodologies, including reports,
statistics, fact sheets, press releases, statements or other pertinent
documents. IATP staff will administer this list. To post a document to
the entire list, send it via e-mail to <Ag-Impact-lib@mtn.org>. Please
name documents appropriately. Only subscribers may post to the list, and
all postings to the library list will be reviewed by IATP staff previous to
posting. This list will be accessible via IATP's watershed home page at
http://www.mtn.org/water [Note: Name not confirmed 2/25/96.]
To subscribe to Ag-Impact or Ag-Impact-lib:
1. send e-mail to listproc@mtn.org
2. leave subject line blank
3. In the body of the message say: =B3subscribe Ag-Impact [or]
Ag-Impact-lib [your name]"
4. If you wish to subscribe to both lists, give subscribe command for each
list on separate lines of the message.
For example: subscribe Ag-Impact Mary Black
subscribe Ag-Impact-lib Mary Black
If you questions about administration of either list, please contact Emily
Green <egreen@iatp.org> or Jim Kleinschmit <water@mtn.org>.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Lois Levitan
Department of Fruit and Vegetable Science
162 Plant Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
Phone: (607) 255-3033
=46AX: (607) 255-0599
e-mail: LCL3@Cornell.Edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~