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Faith, Ethics & Vocation Project
My dissertation investigated the extension of agroecology through California's agroecological partnerships, and it is now available from MIT Press as Agroecology in Action: Extending Alternative Agriculture Through Social Networks. You can order it from MIT Press or Amazon.com, as you like! Several other publications resulted from this work (below). I serve as a member of the Light Brown Apple Moth Environmental Advisory Task Force for the California Department of Food & Agriculture's LBAM eradication program. Social science research into biological control practice and policyBiological control is the action of parasites, predators, and pathogens in maintaining another organism’s density at a lower average than would occur in their absence. Thus, biological control is a natural phenomenon, a field of study, and a deliberate pest control strategy. It is a keystone to ecologically rational and integrated pest management (IPM) in agriculture.My research in this field investigates the social, economic, ethical, and policy factors shaping, driving and constraining this sceintific research field and its institutions. From 2004-present, I have been collaborating with Christy Getz and the UC Center for Biological Control to create a research project titled “Biological Control of Arthropod Pests in California Agriculture: Current Status and Future Potential,” funded by the California Department of Food & Agriculture. Some reports from this can be found here. Christy and I are conducting the social science component of the research. We are investigating the economics, scientific practice, extension sociology, and policy context shaping biocontrol in California. Our first paper on this it titled A socio-economic analysis of the North American commercial natural enemy industry and implications for augmentative biological control, and it appeared in the journal Biological Control. In the same journal, I contributed to Economics and adoption of conservation biological control with some chaps from Lincoln University in New Zealand. More are in review. In March of 2007 I received a National Science Foundation grant for my study "Managing Risk in the Public Interest: How Ethics and Values Shape Biological Control Practice and Policy" from the Program Ethics & Values in Science, Engineering & Technology. I am conducting a comparative analysis of the ethics and policy debates clouding biological control introductions in the US, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Light Brown Apple Moth Environmental Advisory Task ForceI serve on this task force and I have concerns about the social consequences of the eradication attempts, and I addressed these in an open letter to Robert Leavitt, the EATF Executive Secretary. You can read my CSTS blog on LBAM.
Research in agroecologyYou can read the intro and chapter 1 from my book here. Here's a nifty flyer to share with your friends. Here is the methods section from my dissertation. The following journal articles report additional details and findings. I contributed to a policy forum article addressing the problems of the biofuel gold rush recommending instead the "Sustainable Development of the Agricultural Bio-Economy," published in the journal Science June 15, 2007. I am collaborating on several projects with the lead author, Nick Jordan, of the University of Minnesota. The quality of sustainability: Agroecological partnerships and the geographic branding of California winegrapes. Journal of Rural Studies. 23, 142–155. 2007 Extending agroecology: Grower participation in partnerships is key to social learning. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 21(2); 84–94. 2006 Integrated Farming Systems and Pollution Prevention Initiatives Stimulate Co-Learning Extension Strategies. Journal of Extension 44 (5) October 2006 Agroecology in Action: How USEPA Links Policy with Practice by Supporting the Extension of Integrated Farming Systems. Proceedings from the Conference on the Future of Agriculture, Sacramento, California. 87-100. August 2006.
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For information regarding this website please contact Keith Douglass Warner OFM |