Sustainable agro-ecology is topic of colloquium lecture

The School of Science and Engineering Paltz will continue its colloquium series with a lecture, titled "Sustainable Agroecology: Feeding the World with Minimal Environmental Impact," at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 17, in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium.

The speaker, Dr. Valerie T. Eviner, assistant scientist at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, will discuss how the new field of agro-ecology is providing tools to naturally manage farms to enhance and sustain fertility, soil stability, water availability and to decrease pests.

According to Eviner, "There are many environmental problems associated with conventional agricultural practices, including erosion, habitat loss, biodiversity loss and pollution of water by sediments, nutrients and pesticides." Eviner will show how agro-ecologists have documented the negative impacts of conventional agriculture, how they have developed natural tools to avoid these negative impacts, and how our social and economic systems must shift in order to support a transition to sustainable agriculture.

Eviner received her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at the University of California (Berkeley). She is widely published on issues of ecology and participates on a number of boards including the Brook Farm Project, an organic farm in New Paltz that serves as a sustainable agriculture research and education center.

The colloquia are free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture. For more information or directions, call x3728 or visit www.newpaltz.edu/sse.

MARCH 14, 2005
Volume 3, Issue 5

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