Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Director of the Purdue University Climate Change Research Center, Dr. Otto Doering, recently gave a keynote speech where he highlighted his definition of Wicked Problems facing the globe and the…
17 species cover crop blend. Photo: A. McGuire. In a recent post, I argued that we should cast aside the ideas of "balance of nature" and "nature knows best" in designing farming systems. If nature…
Behind many efforts to make agriculture more sustainable is the idea that our farming systems need to be more like nature. According to agroecologist Miguel Altieri, “By designing farming systems that mimic nature, optimal use…
In the 1970s, I was part of the “back to the land” movement and very interested in organic farming as the solution to sustainability problems in agriculture. At that time, organic was close to invisible…
Full disclosure: I come from a livestock-producing family tradition and I eat meat. And I like it. A lot. In his latest provocative post, my colleague Andy McGuire reflects on a new paper that assesses the potential to feed a growing global population by shifting from meat consumption to a vegetarian diet. The paper presents […]
[row layout=”side-right”]While most consumers may choose organic foods for their potential health characteristics (e.g., lower chance of pesticide residue and potentially greater nutrient value), these same consumers generally believe that organic farming is “good” for the environment and thus worth supporting. But is the assumption of environmental benefit correct? And is there a cost? Let’s […]
I know that many residents of Washington were extremely concerned to learn about the discovery of glyphosate-tolerant wheat in an Oregon farm field this spring. WSU’s Agricultural Research Center released a news update today indicating that the glyphosate-tolerant gene was NOT discovered in any of the WSU breeding lines (commercialized or in development) nor in other […]
In the comment string of my original post Reflections on Savory, reader Rondi Lightmark asked a very legitimate set of questions: How much closer are we going to get to catastrophes far worse than the Dust…
Soil is often called the “living skin” of planet Earth; an essential but fragile part of the biosphere. Attention to soil health (or soil quality) has waxed and waned over the years, but it appears to be making a comeback. In the past few months I have been to two exceptional meetings on soil health […]
As several CSANR faculty members have agreed to do, including Andy McGuire and David Granatstein, I am responding to the question posed by Center Director Chad Kruger on September 18: Achieving farm and food system…