Saturday, August 4, 2007: 8:30 AM-5:00 PM
Blossom Hill I, San Jose Marriott
WK 1 - Ecosystems as templates for sustainable communities
Agricultural production and related activities are fundamental to human communities. Current extractive operations and methods of industrial agriculture are dependent upon inexpensive and readily available energy sources that occupy a position of expanding vulnerability. In recent years crop yields have flattened, reaching diminishing returns for each added unit of input. On a global scale, industrial agricultural continues to exacerbate soil erosion, water pollution, and climate change. Restoration and incorporation of internal ecosystem control within agricultural production methods and processes provides a conceptual and practical framework for mitigating global resource degradation. A substantial body of agroecological methodology exists (e.g., organic agriculture, permaculture, bio-intensive), but integration and implementation of these sustainable practices on a large scale is lacking. This workshop will explore and identify guidelines for the identification of the underlying ecological principles of sustainable practices, as well as methods for expanding their acceptance, insemination, and accessibility. These guidelines will be generated by consensus and will represent the convergent effort of educational, research, social, political, and conceptual perspectives of workshop participants. Pathways for restoring internal control to agriculture systems to be discussed include 1) design and construction of sustainable agroecosystem; 2) tended wild areas and community succession; 3) retrofitting suburbs to promote urban agriculture; 4) restoration of public health through redesign of urban and suburban ecosystems; and 5) developing sustainable agriculture curricula for teaching youth the concepts of land stewardship and participation in the community government. Specifically, pathways for restoring internal control to agriculture systems will be explored using five (5) distinct topics: 1) design and construction of sustainable agroecosystem prototypes based upon fundamental ecological principles (e.g., nutrient cycling, trophic level interaction, symbiotic relationships, etc.); 2) extending the concept of agroecosystems to include tended wild areas, community succession, etc., 3) retrofitting suburbs to promote urban agriculture and restore local food production and exploration of the ‘rhizome’ organizing concept as a model for re-establishing human communities as autonomous, ecologically sustainable entities; 4) restoration of public health through redesign of urban and suburban ecosystems (e.g., community gardens, trees, parks, walkways, etc.); and 5) educating K-12: developing sustainable agriculture curricula and methods for instilling youth with the concept of land stewardship and gaining acceptance from school districts, the importance of local political will as well as community involvement, leadership, and guidance. Official endorsements were obtained from the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, The Land Stewardship Project, and the Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture.
Organizer:	Gar House, San Pasquel Agroecosystems Research Center
Co-organizer:	Ann-Marie Fortuna, USDA-ARS
Moderator:	Gar House, San Pasquel Agroecosystems Research Center
Speakers:	Deborah Stinner, Ohio State University Ernest Lowe, Industrial Ecology Gar House, San Pasquel Agroecosystems Research Center Jennifer House, Coco Ranch Jerry Glover, The Land Institute Joseph Fail Jr., Johnson C. Smith University Kurt Cobb, Resources Insights Mary Kimball, Center for Land Based Learning Patrick Bohlen, MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center Peggy Strand, Best Best & Krieger, LLP Robert Bugg, University of California, Davis Scott Murray, California Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils Stephen Gliessman, UC Santa Cruz

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See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)