Spring Break
Agricultural issues at a crossroads with social justice
Teach-in to address agricultural issues such as supporting small, local farms
By: Chris Hokanson
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: News
When students sit down to lunch, they probably don't consider where their food came from. The fruit probably came from Georgia or Florida, the vegetables from California and the fish from China. The fact that those foods came from so far away has major implications on the environment and on the livelihood of local farmers, said Elliott Hall, project coordinator for the Association for Social Entrepreneurship.
ASE is having the second of this semester's group of "teach-ins," events which allow students and community members to discuss social issues with experts. Thursday's teach-in will present issues in agriculture - eating locally and organically, rising food costs and the impact of climate change.
Bruce McCarl, a professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M, said he wants to stress the importance of social justice in relation to climate change. McCarl, a leading expert in the field of climate change mitigation and climate change policy, is a member of the International Panel on Climate Change, a group that won a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. McCarl is one of the panelists for Thursday's agriculture teach-in.
"I want to stress how some of our actions impose costs on people in different countries and different income strata," McCarl said. "For example, much of our corn ethanol boom is done in the name of greenhouse gas mitigation. It's causing great incentives overseas to cut down rainforests. And yet we want to say to these folks, 'You can't do that. We're interested in the carbon that forest is storing, so you can't use your land in that way.' "
McCarl will be joined on the panel by James Richardson, a regents professor of agricultural economics and the director of A&M's Agriculture and Food Policy Center, and Brad Stufflebeam, owner of Home Sweet Farm in Brenham, Texas and the president of Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
Hall, who helped found ASE in August, said social entrepreneurship is nothing new, and that the concepts it teaches apply to agriculture, now more than ever. Social entrepreneurship, the idea that people in the business world can give back to the community and the environment, grows in popularity and has at its root ideas of social justice. It entails using entrepreneurial concepts, which are fundamental to business, in order to move for social change.
ASE is having the second of this semester's group of "teach-ins," events which allow students and community members to discuss social issues with experts. Thursday's teach-in will present issues in agriculture - eating locally and organically, rising food costs and the impact of climate change.
Bruce McCarl, a professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M, said he wants to stress the importance of social justice in relation to climate change. McCarl, a leading expert in the field of climate change mitigation and climate change policy, is a member of the International Panel on Climate Change, a group that won a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. McCarl is one of the panelists for Thursday's agriculture teach-in.
"I want to stress how some of our actions impose costs on people in different countries and different income strata," McCarl said. "For example, much of our corn ethanol boom is done in the name of greenhouse gas mitigation. It's causing great incentives overseas to cut down rainforests. And yet we want to say to these folks, 'You can't do that. We're interested in the carbon that forest is storing, so you can't use your land in that way.' "
McCarl will be joined on the panel by James Richardson, a regents professor of agricultural economics and the director of A&M's Agriculture and Food Policy Center, and Brad Stufflebeam, owner of Home Sweet Farm in Brenham, Texas and the president of Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
Hall, who helped found ASE in August, said social entrepreneurship is nothing new, and that the concepts it teaches apply to agriculture, now more than ever. Social entrepreneurship, the idea that people in the business world can give back to the community and the environment, grows in popularity and has at its root ideas of social justice. It entails using entrepreneurial concepts, which are fundamental to business, in order to move for social change.
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