Date: 26-27 February, 1999
Venue: University of Michigan
Hard copies of the proceedings can be ordered by contacting the Center for Sustainable Systems (former NPPC). E-mail css.info@umich.edu.
This event was affiliated with the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America being held in Detroit, Michigan from May 2nd through the 5th, 1999. The National Town Meeting, together with its Affiliated Events, including a series of Journey to Detroit events that have been held over the last year, is drawing together thousands of people from across the country to recognize and focus attention on a national movement towards a Sustainable America, focusing on sustainable solutions that are available today and ways to take advantage of them. The National Town Meeting will mainstream sustainability and communicate a message that we can meet our environmental and social goals while achieving economic vitality. Hosted by City of Detroit, the National Town Meeting is being co-sponsored by the President's Council on Sustainable Development and the Global Environment & Technology Foundation.
NPPC is beginning the next phase of its pollution prevention education program in 1999 by initiating a series of workshops based on the completed compendia. The Sustainability in Agriculture Workshop to take place in February is the first in this series. The NPPC workshops will bring together key stakeholders to discuss the critical issues facing pollution prevention in each field. Each workshop will be a forum to begin developing life cycle indicators to measure progress towards sustainability in each field.
Objectives
The Sustainable Agriculture workshop aims to:
1. Introduce the concept of life cycle assessment as it applies to agriculture and enhance the use of NPPC's "Pollution Prevention Educational Resource Compendium: Sustainable Agriculture" as a tool for incorporating the principles of sustainable development into US agricultural programs;
2. Initiate a dialog among resource professionals, active farmers and faculty members in the Great Lakes/ North Central Region to begin to form a comprehensive, interdisciplinary understanding of sustainable agriculture;
3.Develop an initial set of indicators to gauge the environmental, economic, and social impacts of all stages of the agricultural life cycle.
Participants from the Great Lakes and North Central
Region
will include:
Framework for Indicator Development
Production of food, fiber, and other agricultural products are activities
essential for meeting
human needs. Agricultural activities affect natural ecosystems in various
ways, and many
processes interact to produce a combined impact on the ecosystem. For
this reason,
measuring only one aspect of environmental impact (i.e. chemical inputs)
is not sufficient
to gauge the overall well-being of the surrounding ecosystem and society.
In order to
encourage a holistic approach to sustainable agriculture, NPPC's workshop
participants
will work together to develop a set of environmental, economic, and social
performance
indicators that measure the sustainability of agricultural activities
throughout the life cycle.
The framework to be used for indicator development divides the agricultural life cycle into five general stages (plus transportation) and identifies five impact categories. Workshop participants will break into working groups according to agricultural production and adapt this overarching indicator matrix (below) to specific agricultural processes. Each group will work with the framework to define specific sustainability goals relevant to each life cycle stage and impact category. In addition, each group will generate a list of concrete actions to meet the goal of reducing negative impacts both on a local and a regional level.
Proposed Working Groups:
The completed indicator list, which will be compiled and distributed to participants after the workshop, will serve as an initial standard against which farms and agricultural institutions throughout the country can begin to evaluate their overall progress towards sustainability. In addition, the indicators will help faculty members and academics develop educational programs that will promote sustainability in agriculture.
|
||||||
| Life Cycle Stages/
Impact Categories |
Resource Origin (type of breeding/ genetic engineering of seeds and livestock) | Agricultural Production and Growing (nutrient and chemical inputs, animal feed; tilling, harvesting) | Agricultural Processing: (food and product processing, packaging) | Use of Agricultural Product | End of Life: (waste production, utilization) | Transportation: (at all stages) |
| Environmental: Resource Use and Quality (energy, land, water, biota, minerals) | ||||||
| Environmental Impacts and Burdens (water, air, biota, soil contamination) | ||||||
| Economic: Productivity, Externalities, Profitability | ||||||
| Social: Employment and Quality of Life of Primary Stakeholders, Laborers | ||||||
| Social: Employment and Quality of Life of Broader Community | ||||||
Guntra Aistars
Sustainable Agriculture Workshop Coordinator
National Pollution Prevention Center
School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan
Dana Bldg. 430 E. University
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1115 U.S.A
PHONE: 734-764-1412
FAX: 734-647-5841
guntra@umich.edu
Back to the top
8.00 Registration and breakfast
Background: LCA and Agriculture
9:00 Welcome and Introduction to the NPPC - Dr. Jonathan
Bulkley, NPPC
9.20 Overview of Life Cycle Assessment and Its Application to
Sustainable Agriculture - Dr. Greg Keoleian, NPPC
9.45 Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture Compendium; Overview
of Problems of Sustainability - Dr. David Pimentel, Cornell University
Future Vision: Dimensions of Agricultural Sustainability
10.30 Economic - Dr. Mike Duffy, Iowa State University
11.00 Social - Dr. Gerry Campbell, University of
Wisconsin
11.30 Environmental - Dr. Dennis Keeney, Iowa State
University
12.00 Lunch
Sustainability Indicators: Economic and Social
1.00 Presentation of indicator framework and working definition of sustainable agriculture. Outline process to be used in indicator development.
1.30-5.00 Four parallel break out groups. Each group will conduct an analysis of one specific farm as a case study and develop indicators based on that farm as well as participants' knowledge of similar farms in the region.
1.30 Introduction to case studies
2.00 Discuss current trends and
challenges to sustainability at similar farms
3.00 Brainstorm and discuss Social Indicators:
4.00 Brainstorm and discuss Economic Indicators
5.00 Plenary: Reports from Groups
6.00 Conclusion
SATURDAY, 27 FEBRUARY
8.00 Continental Breakfast
Sustainability Indicators: Environmental
8.30 Panel Discussion: Environmental Sustainability
Potential discussion topics:
- methods of pest control (biotechnology, pesticides, organic)
- soil erosion, depletion
- nutrient balance in agricultural life cycle
- non-point source water pollution
10.00 Parallel Working Groups: Environmental Indicators
11.30 Parallel Working Groups: Review and confirm all
indicators
12.00 Lunch
1.00 Plenary: Reports form Groups. Discussion and questions on all indicators
Next Steps: Actions Towards Sustainability
2.30 Plenary Discussion: Actions Towards Sustainability
Identify changes in practices/ technologies to be implemented by each
stakeholder group in order to progress towards sustainability
3.30 Feedback, Future Meetings
4.00 Conclusion
Title:_________________ Name:________________________________________
Organization:________________________________________________________
Address:____________________________________________________________
Tel:________________________________________________________________
Fax:_______________________________________________________________
Email:______________________________________________________________
Agricultural Area of Expertise:__________________________________________
A limited number of hotel rooms have been reserved for participants for February 25th and 26th in the Michigan League and the Campus Inn. Participants will be asked to pay at the hotel upon arrival.
The Inn at Michigan League (workshop venue)
911 North University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1265
Tel: (734) 764-3177, Fax: (734) 763-6844
Single: $99 plus tax; add $10 for each additional person
Campus Inn
615 E.Huron Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Tel: (734) 769-2200; (800) 666-8693, Fax: (734) 769-6222
Single= $104 plus tax; double= $119 plus tax
Hotel preference:________________ Dates:___________________
Would you like to be paired with another participant?__________
PLEASE NOTE: After January 29, 1999, please contact the hotels
directly to make
reservations. The above rates are not guaranteed after this
date.
Return to the NPPC Homepage
E-mail:nppc@umich.edu
last revised: May 7, 1999.