Gus Speth: The Big Lesson from Four Decades of Federal Climate Failure

Dave Chapman: Why a Scrappy Bunch of Farmers Decided They Could Do It Better Than the USDA

In 2017 a small group of Vermont organic farmers met to decide the next steps after years of failed attempts to reform the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP).  The very foundations of organic were threatened as industry joined and then overwhelmed the NOP. Deciding that it couldn't go on, the farmers began the Real Organic Project. This quickly became a national movement that attracted many of the pioneers of the American organic movement.  Dave will describe the failures that drove the farmers to this action and what progress has been made. Currently, there are over 850 farms across the country certified by the Real Organic Project, which is recognized internationally as the authentic voice of the organic movement in the US. Dave Chapman is a lifelong organic farmer. He runs Long Wind Farm in East Thetford, Vermont. He is a co-founder of the Vermont Organic Farmers and was among those initially certified by the USDA's National Organic Program. He is co-founder, co-director, and Board Chair of the Real Organic Project. He serves on the Policy Committee of the Organic Farmers Association. He has worked for years as an advocate for reform of the USDA. He has helped to organize 17 rallies across the country to protect organic. Now he works to bring together the organic movement and regain the lost integrity of the organic brand. He has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR's Morning Edition, The New Yorker, BBC World, and many other media outlets. Dave has interviewed many farmers, authors, chefs, activists, politicians, journalists, scientists, and eaters for the Real Organic Podcast. Excerpts of these interviews have appeared in the Real Organic Symposia. Chapman spoke with UVM on February 18th, 2022. Read more about Dave: https://www.realorganicproject.org/board-members/executive-board/executive-board-dave-chapman/ The Real Organic Project: https://www.realorganicproject.org/ The Real Organic Podcast: https://www.realorganicproject.org/real-organic-podcast/ The Real Organic Symposium: https://www.realorganicsymposium.org/ Learn more about the Gund Institute: www.uvm.edu/gund Explore Gund events: www.uvm.edu/gund/events

Deb Neher: Biological Indicators and Compost for Managing Plant Disease

Compost is a controlled aerobic biological process that follows a trajectory of ecological succession and offers ecosystem services beyond fertility and carbon sequestration. As a living entity, compost is a substrate to disseminate consortia of microbes to soil that can promote plant growth by tipping the balance between pathogens and natural antagonists. Not all composts are created equal. Both recipe and compost process are manageable factors that affect the community ecology and can make the difference between reducing or exacerbating disease. Development of consistent products with disease suppressive properties demands a better understanding of ecology and mechanisms, so we get the right players and mechanisms. With a better understanding, we can learn the pivotal points where compost can be managed to enhance disease suppressiveness. Deborah (“Deb”) Neher, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. She is a soil ecologist, and her recent research focuses on biological communities in compost and their role in disease suppression by natural mechanisms. Dr. Neher has 30+ years of experience as a researcher, educator, and graduate student mentor. She has published more than 95 peer-reviewed articles and 24 book chapters on biological indicators of soil, ecotoxicology, and biotechnology risk assessment, climate change and soil biological crusts, and plant pathology and sustainable agriculture. Prior to the University of Vermont, she held faculty positions at the University of Toledo and North Carolina State University. Deb spoke with UVM on February 4th, 2022. Read more about Deb: https://www.uvm.edu/cals/pss/profiles/professor-deborah-neher Learn more about the Gund Institute: www.uvm.edu/gund Explore Gund events: www.uvm.edu/gund/events

Gus Speth: The Big Lesson from Four Decades of Federal Climate Failure

Listen in as Gus Speth speaks about insights from his book, _They Knew_. As early as the Carter Administration, in which Speth served, experts in and out of government argued for climate action, urgings well-covered in the media at the time. Six administrations followed, with next to nothing being done to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and much being done to sustain them. There are lessons to be learned for the future, especially one big lesson. Gus Speth: In 2009, he completed his decade-long tenure as Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  From 1993 to 1999, Gus Speth was Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and chair of the U.N. Development Group.  Prior to his service at the U.N., he was founder and president of the World Resources Institute; professor of law at Georgetown University; chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality (Carter Administration); and senior attorney and cofounder of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Among his awards are the National Wildlife Federation’s Resources Defense Award, the Natural Resources Council of America’s Barbara Swain Award of Honor, a 1997 Special Recognition Award from the Society for International Development, Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Environmental Law Institute and the League of Conservation Voters, the Blue Planet Prize, the Thomas Berry Great Work Award of the Environmental Consortium of Colleges and Universities, and the Thomas Berry Award of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Speth spoke with UVM on January 28th, 2022. Read more about Gus: https://www.uvm.edu/gund/profiles/gus-speth Learn more about the Gund Institute: www.uvm.edu/gund Explore Gund events: www.uvm.edu/gund/events

Eric Bishop-von Wettberg, Travis Reynolds, Dan Tobin: The Consortium for Crop Genetic Heritage

Speakers: Eric Bishop-von Wettberg (he/him), Travis Reynolds (he/him), and Dan Tobin (he/him) We are launching the Consortium on Crop Genetic Heritage, a group of researchers and practitioners who view the maintenance and promotion of crop diversity as critical to building resilient agricultural systems positioned to address climate change, increase access to culturally meaningful crops, and promote empowerment and self-determination. Through our work, we conduct basic and applied research, collaborate with domestic and international partners, build networks and capacity, facilitate convenings, offer training, train students, and publish report and peer-reviewed publications. We value diversity, equity, inclusion, participatory processes, community engagement, and action-oriented scholarship based on the principle that crop diversity must be viewed and supported as a public good. Our partners include non-profit organizations, farmer collectives, BIPOC communities, smallholder farmers, international research institutions, and seed libraries, among others. Eric Eric von Wettberg is a Gund fellow, an associate professor of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont, director of UVM’s Graduate Program in Food Systems, and a member of UVM’s Consortium for Crop Genetic Heritage. As a conservation geneticist working to preserve the genetic diversity of legume crops, his research uses a combination of laboratory, greenhouse, and field approaches. Working in the legacy of the great crop geneticist, Nikolai Vavilov, many of Eric’s recent projects have supported international crop genebanks by exploring and adding to the genetic diversity held in their collections. Travis Travis Reynolds is a Gund fellow and an assistant professor in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont. Dr. Reynolds’ has studied the relationships between farm management, economic development, and ecosystem services – with an emphasis on poverty alleviation – for the past ten years. His work has been published in top interdisciplinary and agricultural development journals including World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Agricultural Economics, and Food Security. Dan Daniel Tobin is a rural sociologist who is an assistant professor in Community Development and Applied Economics, a Gund Fellow, and graduate faculty in Food Systems. His research focuses on how small- and medium-scale farmers respond to external influences like market forces, policy mechanisms, and environmental changes. Particular interests include sociology of agriculture, development sociology, the political economy of agricultural development, crop diversity conservation, and seed systems. Eric, Travis, and Dan spoke at UVM on December 10th, 2021. Read more about their work: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/calsfac/190 Learn more about the Gund Institute: https://www.uvm.edu/gund Explore Gund events: https://www.uvm.edu/gund/events ​​​​

Yolanda Chen: How People Shape Evolutionary Processes in Agroecosystems

Although agroecosystems now dominate the terrestrial world, we have a limited understanding of how their origin and culture shape agrobiodiversity and its functioning. By studying these processes in Mexico, a major center of crop origin, we have been focused on understanding how people shape agrobiodiversity and the implications for sustainable agriculture. Since seed systems structure how people acquire seeds, changes in social context influence evolutionary processes within agroecosystems. Since the middle of the 20th century, major changes have occurred that have effectively limited farmer selection for locally-adapted crops. We propose that smallholder farmers play a central but underappreciated role in the management of eco-evolutionary processes in agroecosystems, which form the basis for sustainable agriculture under changing climates. Yolanda grew up in Illinois and New Jersey, where she developed a concern about human impacts on the natural world. As an undergraduate student, she majored in Natural Resource Management at Cook College, which was the Agricultural and Environmental School of Rutgers University. She helped start the two-acre Cook College Student Organic Farm, where she co-managed a group of student volunteers. After realizing that she was particularly interested in agroecology and insect-plant interactions, she did a Ph. D. in insect ecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. After her Ph. D., she switched fields and did a postdoc in population genetics. In order to understand the role of science in sustainable development, she ran a research lab studying host plant resistance at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines for four years. She returned to the US to start a position at the University of Vermont, where she has held the position of Associate Professor since 2015. Chen spoke at UVM on December 3rd, 2021. Read more about Yolanda: https://www.uvm.edu/cals/pss/profiles/associate-professor-yolanda-fanslow-chen Learn more about the Gund Institute: https://www.uvm.edu/gund Explore Gund events: https://www.uvm.edu/gund/events ​​​​