Farming’s Perennial Future
Dr. Jerry Glover
Science and Technology Policy Fellow, AAAS
*National Geographic Emerging Explorer
*Named one of the "Five Crop Researchers Who Could Change the World” by Nature
Please join us as we celebrate WWF’s 50th anniversary!
Date: Thursday, April 21st, 2011
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m. (lecture); 5:30-6:30 p.m. (reception)
Admission: FREE
Registration: http://www.worldwildlife.org/
Location: World Wildlife Fund Headquarters
1250 24th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
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What if farm fields hold the keys to saving biodiversity, polluted ecosystems, and starving people? According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment survey, agriculture is now the number one human threat to global biodiversity and ecosystem function. Seventy percent of the Earth’s farmland is planted with annual crops (wheat, corn, rice), which provide nearly seventy percent of the calories that sustain the world’s populations. The problem is that annual crops must be planted from seed every year. According to agroecologist Jerry Glover, “Preparing the farm fields every year for planting requires tremendous amounts of time, effort, and expense. Because they have relatively short growing seasons and tap into only shallow soil layers, annual crops often allow more than half of the nitrogen fertilizer farmers spread over fields to escape below the root zone or run off the soil surface.” Every year the same wear and tear takes place. The result is seriously depleted soil, excess agricultural run-off, and a looming food crisis.
Ecologists also increasingly recognize the off-farm impacts of annual crops. A prime example is the link between the U.S. "corn belt" and the Gulf of Mexico. After the yearly harvest, millions of acres of farmland have no living plant cover. Nitrogen fertilizer from that exposed soil is carried into waterways, creating an annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico more than 1,000 miles downstream. “We cannot cordon off our agricultural fields from cherished areas of biodiversity,” Glover warns. “Focusing more of our conservation attention on farmland could transform our ability to preserve sites we all treasure.”
On April 21st, Glover will take us on a journey from the birth and flowering of agriculture through a global snapshot of today’s stressed agricultural ecosystems, and then look into the not-too-distant future when our finite and depleted soil may become unable to sustain the projected increases in human population. Glover and his team of researchers believe they have the solution to a silent but looming catastrophe—perennial crops, especially perennial grains. These crops would have the power to drastically reduce wear and tear on the lands that sustain them, while providing a more nutrient rich and cost-effective answer to the world’s long term food security.
About the Speaker
Dr. Jerry Glover is a Science and Technology Policy Fellow working with the US Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Food Security in Washington, D.C. Prior to his work with USAID, Jerry directed The Land Institute’s ecosystem research program studying natural ecosystems and no-till, organic, integrated, and conventional agroecosystems with particular emphasis on perennial cropping systems. The cultural and ecological conditions on a High Plains farm in eastern Colorado fueled Jerry’s passion for farming and the environment.
Acknowledging the complex relationship between human behavior and ecological limits, he earned undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Soil Science. Jerry then completed his Ph.D. in Soil Science at Washington State University in 2001. From his dissertation, he published a cover story article in the journal Nature, which subsequently placed the paper on its list of “Classic” science articles.
In 2008, Nature recognized Jerry as one of "Five Crop Researchers Who Could Change the World.” In 2010, the National Geographic Society inducted him into its Emerging Explorers program. He has published articles on perennial cropping systems in Science, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Scientific American and other journals and magazines intended for the general public. Jerry has given more than 100 invited presentations on natural and managed ecosystems, energy use, and sustainability issues to national and international audiences.
Missed a talk? Check out the Science for Nature Summaries to watch interviews with past Fuller Seminar speakers.
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