Welcoming Chuck Benbrook to CSANR

I am extremely excited to announce that Dr. Chuck Benbrook will be joining WSU CSANR as a research faculty member in August of 2012. Chuck is well-known in organic food and farming circles nationally and internationally and brings a tremendous amount of capacity to the Center and to WSU’s overall organic and sustainable agriculture efforts.

Chuck’s prior appointments include serving as Chief Science Consultant for The Organic Center, Executive Director for the Board on Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences, and Executive Director of the Subcommittee of the House Committee on Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He is widely known for his foundational work in pesticide issues, public health, agricultural technology and environment.

Chuck will be establishing a new CSANR Program entitled: Measure to Manage (M2M): Farm and Food Diagnostics for Sustainability and Health. The goal of this program is to develop, refine, validate, and apply analytical systems quantifying the impacts of farming systems, technology, and policy on food nutritional quality, food safety, agricultural productivity, economic performance along food value chains, rural communities, and on natural resources and the environment.

Chuck has recently been working on analyses relevant to farm and food sustainability in Washington State and has recently presented on results of his Dietary Risk Index for Pesticides that will be published this year. Articles on this work have recently been published in both Puget Consumer Cooperative’s Sound Consumer and the Good Fruit Grower. I’m looking forward to reading a great deal more new ideas and analysis on the state of our food and agriculture system from Chuck.

Please join me in welcoming Chuck to WSU!

Go Cougs!