Request for help
Fred Powledge (fpowledge@igc.apc.org)
Mon, 27 Dec 1993 15:20:37 -0800
TO: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu
FROM: Fred Powledge (fpowledge@igc.org)
SENT: 28 Dec 1993, via EcoNet/Internet
Dear fellow SANET members:
This is a request for help with a project on which I'm working.
Part of a book I am writing (about agriculture and environment,
for HarperCollins) concerns the transition that USDA itself is
making to the new (or maybe not so new) ways of thinking about
using the land: IPM and other efforts to reduce chemical inputs,
innovative tillage methods, the issues of plant and animal
biotech, dealing with animal wastes--in other words, the whole
"sustainability" thing. That segment of the book will also be a
piece for Sierra magazine.
Part of any such assessment, of course, is a look at the
land-grant system and at Cooperative Extension. As for the former,
I'm quite interested in the statement last February (by a group
from the Western Council of Administrative Heads of Colleges of
Agriculture) that if the land grants "ignore public concern for
new issues and listen only to their traditional client groups,
they will find themselves increasingly at odds with the people
land grant universities are supposed to serve", and thus "will
become irrelevant." As for the latter, I'm equally interested in
the fact that CES people I meet across the nation and around my
home (in rural Maryland) fall all along the spectrum of
sensitivity to sustainability. A frequent speaker at ag field
days around here has the subject, "Alternatives to Pesticides,"
but what he pushes is not beneficial insects, pheromones, and
the like, but other pesticides! Others are just as attuned to
sustainability as any of the environmentalists I've interviewed.
I'm requesting comments from any of you about these issues. These
can be e-mail or otherwise (send me a message and I'll phone at
your convenience); on or off the record (as a good journalist, I
know that on is always better); general thoughts or specific
suggestions. I'm very interested in examples of USDA's and CES's
leadership in the transition to environmentally sensitive
agriculture. (I just returned from a long trip to California,
where I saw several such examples. But I also listened to farmers
who said they had written off the land-grant system as a source of
useful information on sustainability--because of its long-time
close association with mega-agriculture and the chemical industry.)
Are researchers who want to perfect low-input methods getting
grant money? How do the amounts they get stack up against those
for "conventional" research? Is the impetus for a transition
coming from the South Building (or Beltsville), or from the
university campus, or perhaps from the farmers themselves? To
what extent do environmental organizations push agriculture and
USDA toward sustainability? (I see very little.) Are agricultural
curricula being rewritten so that future farmers can learn
techniques of IPM and conservation tillage? (I was impressed
several weeks ago when someone on the net asked about
environmental education and received a lengthy reply that showed
it's alive and thriving.) How are the chemical companies reacting
to the clamor for sustainability? Can a farmer who walks into a
county agent's (oops: advisor's) office and asks about
biological controls get information? (I tried that at a couple
offices in Ohio and got blank stares, but maybe I didn't look like
a farmer.) Who's the leader in this particular revolution, or
maybe evolution? If one judged the situation by the traffic on
this network, one would conclude that the system, from South
Building to campus, is playing an enormous role in making American
agriculture environmentally friendly. But how much of the whole
chorus do the voices on this network represent?
You get the picture. I'd appreciate any help you'd care to
provide. Thanks. --Fred Powledge.
- - -
Fred Powledge. EcoNet/Internet address: fpowledge@igc.org
Address: Route 3, Box 549, Hollywood, Maryland, 20636, U.S.A.
Telephone: (301) 373-5466. Facsimile: (301) 373-3788.