"Two Food Stories: Which Path Will We Take?"
updated
Wed, Feb 8, 2012 12:08 PM
POULTNEY-At heart Fred Kirschenmann is a farmer. He still runs a
2600-acre family farm in North Dakota. Ever since the 1970s, when
he converted the farm to a certified organic operation, he began
thinking deeply about sustainability of agriculture.
Today Kirschenmann is an internationally-known advocate for land
ethics and sustainable agriculture. He is the first scholar in
residence for Green Mountain College's new Master's of Sustainable
Food Systems program and will speak at the Gorge (Withey Hall) at 7
p.m. on Monday, February 13.
The title of his talk is "Two Food Stories: Which Path Will We
Take?" The event is free and open to the public. Vermont Secretary
of Agriculture Chuck Ross will be present to welcome Dr.
Kirschenmann and the new students in the MSFS program.
"We now have essentially two proposals in our culture,"
Kirschenmann says. "The first is the 'industrial story,' which
suggests what we need to do to meet the challenges ahead is to
further intensify the path we have taken for the past
half-century-essentially 'greening up' the green revolution."
The other story, according to Kirschenmann, is that the industrial
farm model is now bankrupt, and we need to fundamentally redesign
our food systems using ecological principles.
Kirschenmann points out that much of what made modern agriculture
possible is based on mild, stable climate conditions and cheap oil.
"Neither of these prerequisites now exist," he says. Most energy
economists expect that oil prices will continue to rise
dramatically in future decades. Meanwhile, freshwater resources are
declining-Kirschenmann says much of the food grown worldwide is
dependent on irrigation instead of direct rainfall.
"Eighty percent of China's grain is dependent on irrigation. The
Chinese are drawing down their groundwater resources at a rate of
about 10 feet per year," he said.
Ultimately, Kirschenmann's message is a hopeful one. Renewable
energy technologies and thoughtful water management policies can
lead to a new age of mid-to large-scale farming that can provide a
healthy and sustainable food systems.
Kirschenmann is a Distinguished Fellow in philosophy and religious
studies in the Leopold Center at Iowa State University department
of religion and philosophy. He was a member of the National
Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production operated by the
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and funded by Pew Charitable
Trusts. He has completed a five-year term on the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's National Organic Standards Board.
Kirschenmann also has been advisor for several environmental
documentaries, including American Meat and Symphony of the Soil,
and was one of the first ten recipients of the James F. Beard
Foundation Leadership awards in 2011. He earned degrees from
Yankton College in South Dakota, Hartford Theological Seminary in
Connecticut, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago,
where he earned numerous awards including a Rockefeller
Fellowship.
Green Mountain College's new master's degree in sustainable food
systems prepares future leaders in the burgeoning food movement
with a graduate level interdisciplinary understanding of
sustainable agricultural production and a deep knowledge of the
economic, ecological, and social forces driving food systems. The
degree program is accredited by the New England Association of
Schools & Colleges and is designed to provide students with the
skills to conduct in-depth interdisciplinary investigations into
the complex arena of their own bioregional food systems.
Tagged:
Fred Kirschenmann, sustainable food
