Presentation Abstracts:

Keynote: “Living Your Values: How Your Personal and Professional Choices Affect Sustainability”

Dean Cycon

Dean Cycon, founder and owner of Deans Beans Organic and Fair Trade Coffee Company, will describe how he has used business as a vehicle for progressive social change and ecological sustainability in coffeelands around the world. Dean will describe the business model of Dean's Beans, how it uses its purchasing practices, people-centered development projects and legal advocacy to assist coffee communities around the globe in the fight for their own rights and control of their own resources. Dean will also address the real impacts of fair trade and organic practices on the lives of farmers and their families.

Presentations:

“Nature Conservation as a Tool for Stimulating Interest in Declining Farmlands”
Conrad Vispo & Claudia Knab-Vispo

Hawthorne Valley Farm is an organic/biodynamic farm located in Columbia County New York which neighbors Massachusetts. Since 1972, Hawthorne Valley Farm and its sister organizations have combined agricultural production and education. In 2003, the Farm initiated the Farmscape Ecology Program. Farmland is declining and public attitudes towards agriculture are changing as Columbia County suburbanizes. This program has two goals: 1) to help the public appreciate the potential positive links between farming and nature conservation in the region, and 2) to provide interested farmers with information on their integration with the natural surroundings. The program conducts historical research (to understand the evolution of local land use and habitats over time) and on-farm ecological research (to understand the interaction of farm management and natural habitats). The results of this research are being shared with the local public through lectures, participatory research, displays and written articles. Vispo and Knab-Vispo are trying to integrate their results into the agricultural management of Hawthorne Valley Farm. They will describe their motivations, methods, and historical/ecological results. They will also discuss their experiences in sharing this message with the public. Issues include searching for and explaining forms of land tenure that allow farming to be economically viable and socially accepted amidst soaring land prices and an increasingly urbanized public, making sure that a desire for “nature conservation” does not compromise environmental justice as new monies arrive in the county, and trying to re-envision local farming in a way that is satisfying to both farmers and other residents.

“ForesTrade; a Case Study of International Trade in Organic and Fair Trade Products”
Sylvia Blanchet

As a leading international supplier of certified organic and sustainably produced spices, essential oils, and Fair Trade coffee, ForesTrade specializes in the direct sourcing, supply chain management, and marketing of these products worldwide-with the majority of its customers in the US and Europe. The company's business model demonstrates how a for-profit enterprise can effectively integrate sustainable development and environmental conservation into its core business model. ForesTrade works with over 6,400 farmers, (whose family members number around 34,000) among 140 rural farming communities in Indonesia and Guatemala. The farmers and their communities with whom ForesTrade works receive a variety of benefits from this relationship. ForesTrade was the only U.S. Company to receive the “2002 World Summit Award for Sustainable Development Partnerships” in Johannesburg, South Africa from the United Nations Environment Program and the International Chamber of Commerce because of its business model. The challenges and rewards have been many. Co-founder, Sylvia Blanchet, will share some of the benefits of the ForesTrade business model and hopefully prevent others from experiencing many of the challenges that her company has faced along the way.

Panels

“Living Histories, Living Economies: Local Alternatives in in-situ Agrobiodiversity Conservation from New England and the Tropics”
Virginia Nickerson; Ryan Isakson; Elanor Tison; Tatiana Schreiber

This panel will examine the ways that farmers in New England and Latin America are maintaining or relinquishing traditional varieties and/or resisting Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMO's) as a means of preserving agricultural biodiversity. Two of the panel members will discuss these issues based on work in New England, and two will discuss the issues based on their work in the Tropics.

Virginia Nickerson will discuss why commercial vegetable growers from two different generations in central Vermont choose to cultivate heirloom varieties. She will relate their motivations to historical changes in the political geography and social organization of the local food system. This study is based on ethnographic field work with senior growers who grew up on subsistence farms in central Vermont prior to World War II, and younger growers who began to farm in central Vermont after the advent of the alternative agriculture movement in the 1970s. Nickerson found that the “community economy” of diversified farms of the Depression and pre-war years that relied on self-provisioning and communal exchange of labor led to strong associations between particular varieties and regional identity for the elder growers. In contrast, the younger growers' desire to cultivate heirloom and open-pollinated varieties is directly linked to efforts to create alternatives to the industrial food system (such as farmer's markets, local/regional seed companies, and CSA's) and to resist corporate control of genetic resources.

Ryan Isakson will present on the impacts of globalization and economic change on the in situ conservation of crop genetic diversity in the highlands of Guatemala. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in two K'iche' Mayan communities, he will discuss how different forms of market engagement affect traditional agricultural practices, and more specifically, the cultivation of local landrace varieties of maize. He finds that most locally-initiated forms of market participation (e.g. petty commodity production, wage labor in local labor markets, transnational migration) actually facilitate the on-farm conservation of maize diversity. In contrast, diversity is typically undermined by the market activities pushed by foreign NGOs and other “outsiders,” though their impact is minimal since farmers are abandoning such initiatives. Ryan's research suggests that economic development is not inherently antithetical to the cultivation of maize diversity and hints at the possibility of formulating institutions that improve the lives of peasant farmers while fortifying the on-farm conservation of crop genetic diversity.

Eleanor Tison will explore how New England's strong identification with historic preservation and heritage tourism, as well as regional specialty foods, is broadening the scope of growers of traditional varieties beyond farms to institutions such as living history museums. In describing the range of venues in which she has found agricultural biodiversity being maintained (both plant and animal), Eleanor will ask whether the boundary between farm and tourist site is blurring, and what the implications are for sustainable agriculture. Why are these places and products popular and profitable? One interpretation is that older varieties of crops and breeds of animals have come to be seen as artifacts of regional authenticity. Although the motivation and intent of institutions and businesses geared to this market is not primarily in situ conservation, but the creation of tourist attractions and production of “authentic” agricultural products, these can serve as important dynamic repositories of agricultural biodiversity.

Tatiana Schrieber will address the attitudes and values found among small-scale farmers in Chiapas, Mexico toward their own “criollo” varieties of vegetables and other crops, and toward the “transgenicos” or genetically-engineered varieties that they had begun to hear about. While involved with fieldwork concerning organic coffee and cacao production in this region, she encountered deep misgivings among these farmers about not only the long-term impact that proliferation of "transgenicos" might have for their crops and their health, but about the underlying motivations of those who would attempt to disseminate these varieties. Tatiana will discuss these attitudes in the context of the ecological and spiritual world-view expressed by two organic farmer cooperatives-one in the highlands, and one in the lowlands. She will address the third goal of this symposium-the role that sustainable agriculture plays in community-building and land stewardship in New England and the tropics-by considering the ways in which ecological values develop and are perpetuated regionally (in the highland and lowland regions of Chiapas) and how these values may support the protection of habitat and the cultural integrity of communities.

“The Impact of Policy on Sustainable Agriculture in New England and the Tropics.”
Stephanie Demmons; Abby Lindsay; Nana Mensah

Stephanie Demmons of Oxfam International will look at the domestic and global impacts of US agricultural policy. Demmons's presentation will focus on reforming the 2007 Farm Bill so that it better supports family farmers in New England and abroad. For far too long, the federal government has tried to use the Farm Bill as an all-purpose policy solution. But the current Farm Bill does very little to help poor farmers, and even less to assist impoverished rural communities. Instead, it gives large government payments, or subsidies, to a small number of large farmers. Although agricultural subsidies were created to alleviate the hardships caused by the Great Depression, their role is vastly different today. Massive and misguided subsidies for commodities such as corn, cotton and rice fuel the consolidation of land ownership by fewer and bigger producers in the United States. Most American farmers get little or nothing. Meanwhile, subsidies fail to alleviate the biggest problems facing rural communities: lack of medical services, poor schools, population loss, and environmental degradation. In addition to its negative impacts on poor farmers in the US, the Farm Bill additionally harms rural communities around the world. After receiving massive subsidies, US cotton farms produce more than they otherwise would, and sell their surplus at less than the cost of production. These subsidies injure African cotton farmers by reducing the world price of cotton and shrinking their share of the market. This situation is not only unjust; it violates international trade rules set by the World Trade Organization. Demmons's presentation will close with an explanation of Oxfam's agenda for reform that intends to strengthen rural America and curtail dumping of US commodities in developing countries.

Abby Lindsay will discuss the agricultural and environmental effects of Free Trade Agreements in Latin America. Throughout the western hemisphere, free trade is becoming increasingly common and changing many Latin American nations culturally and environmentally. Although there are benefits to these complex Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the agricultural decisions of these complex agreements are often negotiated for primarily political and economic reasons and can have devastating consequences on the less developed country through the change in societal processes, resource depletion, and pollution. Recently the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was signed, following in the footsteps of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). While no two countries respond to FTAs in the same manner, understanding previous trends in agriculture can help improve future agreements. The importance of corn for Latin America cannot be overstated. This presentation will thus focus on corn production in Guatemala in order to illustrate the social and environmental relevance of FTAs. The trends that occurred after NAFTA was implemented serve as a base to apply current trade and production trends depending on the similarities and differences between CAFTA and NAFTA as well as those between Guatemala and Mexico. Changes in trade, the amount of production, and agricultural methods all factor into potential environmental impacts of the agreement. One of the most important variables that arises and will be explored is the role of genetically modified corn. After understanding this, a look at the coffee sector provides a springboard to expand the field of vision to include other agricultural products and other countries. FTAs must be sensitive to the environmental and social impacts that may result from changes in agricultural trade and prices. Therefore, while incorporating various spin-off questions, this presentation will continue to underscore the importance of agricultural policy on the environment.

Nana Mensah, Belize Country Director of the non profit organization, Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) will explore this organization's extension sustainable agricultural growth strategy. Shortly after the 2003 general election in Belize, the government was plunged into turmoil. Those who captured the evacuated ministerial positions of the country made no effort to provide the people of the district of Toledo, Belize with more effective sustainable agriculture participation to reduce the 79% poverty rate of Toledo District, which we can compare to the country, Haiti. Now, SHI prepares to embark upon a program of rapid sustainable agricultural growth to meet the challenges of increasing population and to reduce poverty, deforestation and socio-economic challenges in Belize by emplacing a global network of local partners working toward environmental, economic and social sustainability. In Toledo, tackling poverty while at the same time conserving the environment is a difficult issue. SHI Belize gives practical guidance to communities and shows them how new technologies can contribute to effective natural resource management. Key elements that must be taken into consideration include: market access, organic agriculture intensification, increased income, cultural specificities, decentralization processes, environmental concerns and positive image. This presentation will close with an exploration of each of these key elements in greater detail.

“Reconciling Conservation and the Agricultural Agenda”
Sue Ellen Johnson; Emily Hague; Steve Davis; Tracie Smith

Sue Ellen Johnson brings insights and experience from her work with the New England Small Farm Institute. The impact of agricultural systems on native eco-systems is acknowledged by agriculturists and environmentalists, but are the interactions really understood? Can we objectively assess the impact or importance of particular agricultural production systems? In the tropics, agricultural encroachment on natural systems is a destructive, if cyclical, phenomena. In New England, after along history of habitat disturbance, farms now provide important habitat reserves, corridors and buffers for native species. In both situations, off-site impacts related to agri-chemicals, non-native species and transportation networks disrupt native ecosystems. From the perspective of an agriculturalist, even an eco-agriculturalist, the conservation and environmental communities have a fairly limited perspective on agriculture-that it is negative. At the field level, developing collaborations with (or even agricultural initiatives within) environmental organizations still seems surprisingly difficult, both in the tropics and New England. Eco-agricultural alternatives are evolving on the ground, and rhetorically, human needs are given more weight by the conservation community. Yet, institutionally there remain many misconceptions and minimal collaboration. Along with alternative and organic systems, intensification and systems integration can minimize the land base needed to support human populations.

Emily Hague will present on behalf of the Monadnock Conservancy. She will discuss the connection between sustainable agriculture and land stewardship in southern New Hampshire, which is forged through land conservation. This presentation will explore how the field of land conservation works toward improving and promoting policies, programs and practices designed to enhance the ecological value of agricultural landscapes while also considering the financial challenges faced by responsible farmers. Visual examples will be displayed of farms on which Monadnock Conservancy has helped obtain conservation easements that will perpetuate agricultural uses. Incentives for conservation on agricultural land, including tax benefits, protection and linkage of wildlife habitat, protection of soil quality and water resources, and protection of riparian buffers will also be discussed. Finally, Hague will review existing mechanisms within communities that encourage best agricultural practices and land conservation, such as Best Management Practices and Master Plans, which Monadnock Conservancy draws upon when crafting conservation easements.

Steve Davis (abstract pending)

Tracie Smith (abstract pending)

“Sustainable Agriculture Working in Central America”
Sophie Haines; Phil Bailey; Ashley Mason; Nana Mensah

Sophie Haines from the Human Ecology Research Group at University College London will discuss risk, sustainability and agricultural development in southern Belize where she is doing her graduate research in ecological anthropology. Development projects in southern Belize are being planned and implemented within a complex context of market, political, ecological and moral economies. Interactions of land tenure and agricultural-economic development can create risks as well as providing insurance against them; it is important to consider socio-political factors as well as economic and environmental contexts in order to facilitate socially, economically and ecologically sustainable livelihoods. In order for all stakeholders to benefit, a comprehensive and interactive approach to agricultural development needs to acknowledge local social and technical arrangements, and to ensure that new methods and processes are compatible and desirable. The efficacy of these opportunities will depend on many factors, including institutional and civil society support, technical knowledge and resource availability, seasonal accessibility, community organization, education, market expansion, fair-trade deals, sustainability of land usage, political economies of ethnicity, indigenous land rights, status of subsistence livelihoods and environmental directives.

Phil Bailey, Development Coordinator for the non-profit organiation, Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) will give an overview of the organization's work in Central America. SHI is dedicated to building a global network of local partners working toward environmental, economic and social sustainability. Based in New England, the organization facilitates long-term collaboration among trained local staff, farmers and communities to implement sustainable land-use practices that alleviate poverty throughout Central America by restoring ecological stability. Over the last ten years SHI has helped plant more than 1,200,000 trees, converted thousands of acres of land to sustainable uses, thereby saving tens of thousands of acres from slash-and-burn destruction, improved nutrition through the establishment of more than 200 organic vegetable gardens, increased farm income by over 450%, and built 165 wood-conserving stoves (saving 1,650 trees per year).

Ashley Mason will discuss the importance of monitoring and evaluation of sustainable agriculture programs based on her three month internship with Sustainable Harvest International Belize in 2005. The results obtained from her Monitoring and Evaluation Report will be used to demonstrate strengths and weaknesses in the SHI Belize Program. Ashley will outline some of the challenges inherent in eco-agriculture and agro-forestry programs while demonstrating how identifying and monitoring key indicators as well as conducting evaluations 1) within the organization 2) by participants of the organization's programs, and 3) by an outside party, can help to break cycles of failure and perpetuate cycles of success. Citing a method of participant interviews used in the case of SHI Belize, Ashley introduces a simple, inexpensive and effective way to obtain the information necessary to gauge the success of a program and its various projects. The overriding goal of this presentation is to emphasize the necessity of self-evaluation and progress monitoring as a critical way of keeping our sustainable agriculture organizations truly sustainable.

Nana Mensah, Country Director of Sustainable Harvest International Belize brings firsthand experience working with farmers and local extensionists in a biodiversity hotspot. He faces political, social, cultural and economic challenges daily in his efforts to administer the program. Shortly after the 2003 general election in Belize, the government was plunged into turmoil. Those who captured the evacuated ministerial positions of the country made no effort to provide the people of the district of Toledo, Belize with more effective sustainable agriculture programs and policies to reduce the 79% poverty rate of that district, which is comparable to the country, Haiti. In Toledo, tackling poverty while at the same time conserving the environment is a tough issue. SHI Belize gives practical guidance to communities, helps to promote manageable conservation programs and shows how new technologies can contribute to effective natural resource management. Key elements that should be given further consideration are: market access, organic agriculture intensification, increased family income, cultural specificities, decentralization processes, environmental concerns and a positive image.

“Sustainable Agriculture and Community Building”
Ellen Denny; Tim Wichland; Barb Davis; Roger Doiron

“The Economic Viability of Community Supported Agriculture”
Maryellen Sheehan; Kim Peevy; Frank Hunter; Mary Ann Kristiansen

In a two part panel presentation and round table discussion, we will explore various ways in which sustainable agriculture can serve to strengthen a community and facilitate a greater sense of land stewardship among its members. We will discuss the long term viability of community based farming systems including the economic struggles that often arise and potential ways to overcome these struggles. Additionally, we will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of community land trusts as an approach to making land more accessible and small scale farming more affordable. We will also examine the multitude of ways in which educational and outreach programs can contribute to the success of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in communities that value and participate in sustainable farming. Who chooses to participate in local CSAs and why? What are the factors preventing more communities from establishing CSAs-a closer look into the socio-economic status of those who participate (and those who do not) may provide more insight into this question.

Our panel will be moderated by Becky Grube, the Extension Specialist for UNH, who brings perspective from her work with commercial and small scale farmers across the state of New Hampshire. In addition, she is an educational advocate for agricultural sustainability and will contribute greatly to our discussions of the long term ecological and economic viability of "sustainable agriculture systems." She will introduce our panel with a power point presentation comparing and contrasting her agricultural experiences in California with those here in New Hampshire. The various perspectives and experiences highlighted by our panel members will shed light on the myriad ways in which sustainable agriculture can serve to strengthen community ties and bring about a collective sense of land-stewardship. We seek insight into the future of sustainable agriculture and hope to awaken a new generation of local agricultural activism.

Speaker Abstracts (PDF 37K)
Tentative Symposium Schedule (PDF 138K)