Planning for Sustainable Agriculture in the Central Valley of California
This project will develop and test a computer-based resource and land
use decision making tool for use by local governments, and distribute it
with
appropriate training. Collaborators: The Regents of the University of
California, Davis, CA,California Cattlemen's Association; American Farmland
Trust; Local Government Commission; California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection - $300,000
Contact: Bob Sams (916) 754-8539 Program Contact: Robert Johnston
(916)
752-3015
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Damman <edamman@iastate.edu>
To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu <sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu>
Date: Thursday, September 17, 1998 12:25 AM
Subject: Request for information from recent subscriber
>I’m Ed Damman, a graduate student from Iowa State University, and last week
I
>subscribed to this listserv as a resource for a graduate class in Agronomy
>entitled Advanced Issues in Sustainable Agriculture. I have thoroughly
>enjoyed
>the vast array of topics covered in the past 50 or so posts.
>
>Each year, the students in the Agronomy 550 course create a class project.
>Last year's class created a research article (which they are still putting
the
>finishing touches on) that will be submitted for publication.
>
>This year's class would like to develop a computer model for determining
the
>sustainability of a farm or farming practice. We plan to create the model
>in a
>spreadsheet, see if the formula is workable, then create a web based system
>which would query the users for input, and provide a calculated analysis.
>
>We realize there is no magic formula, and that this task may be both
ambitious
>and naive, but we are excited in using this goal as a learning experience
>as we
>research issues in sustainable agriculture. Some (perhaps many) may see
this
>as foolhardy, but we would like to explore many possibilities before we
draw
>the conclusion that this is an unattainable goal. We will probably limit
our
>selves to a Midwestern based farming system in an effort to narrow our
focus.
>
>I have two basic questions of the subscribers of this listserv.
>
>First: Has someone else already done something similar on the web, thereby
>reducing our contribution to the body of knowledge?
>
>I’m relatively knowledgeable in utilizing search engines, plus have a fair
>amount of intuition in searching related sites, and in several hours of
>work, I
>turned up absolutely nothing.
>
>Secondly: On the advise of our professor (Dr. Ricardo Salvador), I began
to
>search for basic spreadsheet based tools, which we could utilize at the
ground
>level of our model building. Although this search was not as exhaustive as
>the
>first, I still was unable to find any resources, however I suspect there
are
>some in existence.
>
>Could anyone point me (and our class) to any resources involving computer
>modeling in sustainable agriculture?
>
>I would not ask a question such as this without first doing some research,
>so I
>have checked obvious sources like the WWW Virtual Library in Sustainable
>Agriculture, the SARE.ORG site and the SA-NET archives. I did get a few
>glimmers of hope in the SA-NET archives, but I have not been able to follow
>them through to any productive information yet.
>
>On behalf of the Agronomy 550 class (Advanced Issues in Sustainable
>Agriculture) at Iowa State University, thank you for any help you can
provide!
>
>
>
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>
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