Seminars & Events
Current Seminars & Events
Master's Seminar 2008
| Wednesday, August 13 1 p.m 270 Soils Building |
Life-cycle Analysis of Corn Ethanol in the Wisconsin Agricultural
Context
Presenter: Julie Sinistore, MSc CandidateDownload this seminar flyer (PDF)"Carbon neutral", "carbon negative", "energy efficient", "net energy gain", "low-carbon fuel"... How well does corn ethanol measure up by these metrics? This research delved into assumptions made in the life-cycle analysis of corn ethanol and tailored the evaluation to fit the key agricultural factors that make Wisconsin unique from other corn-producing states. |
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| Tuesday, August 19 1 p.m 270 Soils Building |
Contextualizing Rural Development: Stories from Honduras through
the Lens of Agroecology
Presenter: Andrew Barrett, MSc CandidateDownload this seminar flyer (PDF)Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores a history of rural development projects and agricultural change in two Honduran villages using the holon approach to agroecology. The stories of these communities highlight the problems of oversimplified approaches to development, which often do not effectively address the contextuality of human decision-making with respect to project participation and technology adoption. |
| Friday, August 22 2 p.m. Buttel Conference Room, 354 Agricultural Hall |
Learning As You Go: Farmers, Scientists, and the Creation of Knowledge
for Management Intensive Grazing
Presenter: Alexandra Lyon, MSc CandidateDownload this seminar flyer (PDF)Management intensive grazing has become increasingly popular in the Midwest, but university research about it has lagged until recently. At the same time, communities of farmers have come to articulate and apply their own knowledge about grazing based on personal and shared experience. Noting the growing institutional support for this and other alternative agricultures, my project considers how university research efforts can best engage with the grazing community. Based on experiences from a collaborative research effort with graziers in Southern Wisconsin and an interdisciplinary group of scientists at UW-Madison, I address two questions: first, how to handle the complex dynamics of participatory research; and second, how to relate science’s pursuit of broadly-applicable, general knowledge to the place-specific, experience-based knowledge of graziers. |
Past Seminars & Events
Agroecology Spring 2008 Lecture Event
Download the event flyer (PDF)
Topic: Partnership with Nature
Presenter: Dr. Carolyn Merchant, Professor of Environmental Science, Policy,
and Management at University of California, Berkeley.
Carolyn Merchant conducts research on Environmental History, Philosophy, and Ethics and the interrelationships of these three topics. Her lecture will propose a new kind of environmental ethic -- a partnership ethic, based on the idea that people and nature are equally important.
When: Wednesday, April 23 at 4:30 p.m.
Where: Room 132 Noland Zoology Building
Agroecology Fall 2007 Seminar & Speaker Series:
Topic: Peak Water-- The Future of Food in a Thirsty World
Download the event flyer (PDF)
Estimates are that we must nearly double the quantity of water used in food production by the year 2050 to adequately meet the needs of all humans. How can this be accomplished in the face of increasing urban and industrial demand, and our growing appreciation of the imperative of maintaining ecological flows for the survival of other species? What combinations of technology, infrastructure and social change might meet these competing goals? This speaker series will explore diverse facets of this great challenge.
(Note: For 1 credit related to this series, enroll in Agroecology 710)
When: Thursdays @ 4 pm
Where: 351 Moore Hall, Department of Agronomy
| Sep. 6 | Water Enough for the Food Supply? Outlining the Challenge Bill Bland, Professor of Soil Science and of Environmental Studies, UW-Madison |
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| Sep. 13 | Sustainability of Irrigated Agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley:
A Historical and Future Perspective with Climate Change Jan Hopmans, Professor of Soil Science, UC-Davis |
| Sep. 20 | Plants and Water: Why They Use What They Do Tom Sharkey, Professor of Botany and John Norman, Professor of Soil Science, UW-Madison |
| Sep. 27 | The Most Vulnerable: Water, Poverty, and Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan
Africa Dennis Wichelns, Professor of Economics, Hanover College, Indiana |
| Oct. 4 | Acknowledging and Quantifying Ecosystem Water Needs Steve Loheide, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW-Madison |
| Oct. 11 | Global Trends in Irrigated Lands Mutlu Ozdogon, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, UW-Madison |
Seminar in Agroecology (Agroecology 710)
The Agroecology Seminar runs every semester of the academic year. In Spring 2007, the seminar operates as an informal "brown-bag" seminar where participants and guests present works-in-progress or we discuss topical issues of concern to agroecologists. Anyone, from anywhere, is cordially invited to participate.
When: Thursdays @ 3:30pm
Where: 462 Moore Hall, Department of Agronomy
Agroecology Spring 2007 Lecture Event:
Growing Green -- Ecological strategies for Sustaining High-Production Agriculture in the American Midwest
Download the event flyer (PDF)
Dr. Liebman from the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University will speak to themes of considerable interest to many students and researchers on our campus: how to understand ecological relations as an opportunity for agricultural productivity, and not an unfortunate constrain on it. The hope for devising forms of agriculture that achieve this integration of ecology and productivity –so essential for sustainability – is one that has attracted considerable popular and academic interest, especially here in Madison.
