I want first to thank Gabriel Hegyes, the first SAN Coordinator, for his
contributions to sustainable agriculture in general, and to SAN and its
mission, in particular. I would also like to publicly thank Gabriel for
the three days he spent training me. Jayne MacLean, who has been involved
with SAN from its inception, spent two days working with me, and I'm
grateful to her for her help, and for her many contributions to SAN. I'm
still trying to digest everything we covered about the many duties of the
SAN Coordinator.
When I decided to begin graduate studies in agriculture (Agronomy),
I did so with the conviction that change was needed in the way we
farmed. I had been influenced by Rodale and others in the organic
farming community, by Rachel Carson, and by my own experiences as
the owner of a small, residential landscape company. Too often, it
seemed, the solution to any problem was more fertilizer, more
pesticides. I was disappointed to hear, from those I came to know
in Agriculture, that we could not change these methods.
I studied Plant Breeding, while keeping my finger on the pulse of
the fledgling sustainable/organic/low-input community. As a
technician in the Agronomy Department at the University of
Maryland, I became involved in cover crop research with Dr. A.
Morris Decker, and following completion of my M.S. in 1988, he
agreed to work with me on a Ph.D project, designed to answer cover
crop management questions resulting from his research and that of
many other researchers.
We were fortunate to obtain a grant from the Northeast Region of
the LISA program, and embarked on a large project, which included
small plots and on-farm studies. We later applied for and received
a second, smaller grant from the SARE (Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education) program, in which we again cooperated with
Maryland farmers in field-scale demonstration plots incorporating
aspects of cover crop management from my small plot research.
I completed my Ph.D in 1993, then stayed on the staff at the
University of Maryland, running the small grain breeding program
while I looked for the right job, and the department looked for a
new breeder. I did a one-year postdoc at the USDA/ARS in
Beltsville, MD, studying heavy metals in wheat, and when funding
for environmental research started drying up in late 1994, I was
again looking for the right job, just when the position of SAN
Coordinator came open.
I am very pleased to be in a position where I can not only keep
abreast of developments in sustainable agriculture, but also where
I am responsible for helping all interested parties stay informed
as well. Throughout my graduate work, I was involved in
dissemination of information, particularly to producers. I am
excited to again be in a position of information dissemination. As
advances in information technology continue to accelerate, I hope
that all members of the Sustainable Agriculture Network continue to
contribute to that technology, and that we are all able to use the
technology to contribute to the sustainability of agriculture
worldwide.
Because the membership of sanet-mg continues to grow, with new
members every day (750 at last count), I want to refresh the memory
of 'founding members', and inform our new members, of the mission,
objectives and services of SAN. Particularly for members who have
found their way to sanet-mg without any idea of what SAN is, I
reiterate that sanet-mg is only one facet of a very large network
with an incredible amount of expertise in all areas of sustainable
agriculture. We welcome your input to the network, for all of us
have some unique perspective or expertise to contribute!
I will follow this posting with two additional postings describing
SAN. I credit Gabriel Hegyes with senior authorship of these
documents, since I have only updated them.
I look forward to corresponding with many of you, and hope to meet
and work with many of you in the future. Again, please contact me
with ideas and comments, as well as for further information or
assistance.
Andy Clark
SAN Coordinator
c/o AFSIC, Room 304
USDA/ARS/National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Blvd.
Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
san@nalusda.gov
PH : (301) 504-6425
FAX: (301) 504-6409