January 22, 2003 Feature
Story
Sustainable
Agriculture: Not Business as Usual
"What’s the best way to preserve soil for future
generations?" Utah State University Professor Philip Rasmussen
asked a crowd during his speech on sustainable agriculture in
the west. "Answer: three feet of concrete."
Even though it probably is the best way to ensure proper soil
for future generations, it's obviously not practical to cover
it with concrete for protection. In addition, it reduces productivity
to zero. But Rasmussen said the nation has to do something to
protect this critical resource on which the nation ultimately
depends for its food source.
"We want to produce as much in 2050 as we are producing
now with the same natural resource base," Rasmussen said.
 Rasmussen,
regional director of Sustainable Agriculture Research Education
(SARE), said SARE is taking great strides to expand knowledge
about and adoption of sustainable agriculture practices that
are environmentally sound and socially acceptable.
Utah State operates the Western region of SARE, including 13
states and U.S. trust territories in the Pacific. In fact, SARE
distributes over $4.2 million to the region each year in grants
for research and education, and for experimentation and development
by farmers and ranchers.
"We thought it would be easy," Rasmussen said. But
obviously it’s a big job with many responsibilities.
Over $20 million has been distributed since SARE was headquartered
at Utah State in 1994 and roughly 599 projects have been administered
in order to sustain agriculture and protect the environment.
 SARE
is not typical among organizations either. Its reputation is
"Not Business as Usual." According to Rasmussen, it
is more open to innovative research programs and welcomes new
ideas and inventive ways of doing things.
SARE's key to success: being productive while conserving. It
is striving to make the most efficient use of nonrenewable and
on-farm resources and, when possible, integrate natural biological
cycle controls.
Additional program information can be found at www.ag.usu.edu.
Writer: Shalee Sucher, 797-1350; shalee@cc.usu.edu
Contact: Philip Rasmussen, 797-3394; philip.rasmussen@cc.usu.edu
utah
state today/archives/January
2003/archives
prior to Sept 2002/
Brought
to you by Utah State University Public Relations and Marketing
|