Clark, Sean: Celebrating Scholarship and Creative Works

Sustainable Agriculture-Beyond Organic Farming by Sean Clark (Guest Editor) The current conception of organic farming is the result of nearly a century of intellectual thought and dialogue, field observations and experiences, systematic experimentation, and codification of rules. Debates on the future viability of organic farming often focus on its capacity to produce sufficient food to meet the demands of a growing human population. Yet any thorough examination of the pros and cons of alternative farming approaches should consider much more--for example the side effects on soil, water and air; energy and land-use efficiency; global warming potential; conservation of biodiversity; waste generation and recycling; farmer and community well-being; animal welfare; and the capacity to function and meet demands long into the future. The chapters in this book represent perspectives on organic farming and food systems from widely different academic disciplines and different regions of the world. They include replicated field experiments, modelling, systems analysis, case studies and literature reviews. The findings, interpretations, and ideas shared will likely generate as many questions as answers, but asking the relevant and difficult questions is as critical as finding the right answers. This diverse group of authors makes interesting and useful contributions to our ongoing conversations about food, agriculture and the evolution of organic farming.

Agroecology, Ecosystems, and Sustainability by Noureddine Benkeblia (Editor)

Fields of Learning by Laura Browne Sayre; Sean Clark (Editor); Frederick L. Kirschenmann (Foreword by); Laura Sayre (Editor); Frederick L. L. Kirschenmann (Foreword by) Where will the next generation of farmers come from? What will their farms look like? Fields of Learning: The Student Farm Movement in North America provides a concrete set of answers to these urgent questions, describing how, at a wide range of colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, students, faculty, and staff have joined together to establish on-campus farms as outdoor laboratories for agricultural and cultural education. From one-acre gardens to five-hundred-acre crop and livestock farms, student farms foster hands-on food-system literacy in a world where the shortcomings of input-intensive conventional agriculture have become increasingly apparent. They provide a context in which disciplinary boundaries are bridged, intellectual and manual skills are cultivated together, and abstract ideas about sustainability are put to the test. Editors Laura Sayre and Sean Clark have assembled a volume of essays written by pioneering educators directly involved in the founding and management of fifteen of the most influential student farms in North America. Arranged chronologically, Fields of Learning illustrates how the student farm movement originated in the nineteenth century, gained ground in the 1970s, and is flourishing today -- from the University of California--Davis to Yale University, from Hampshire College to Central Carolina Community College, from the University of Montana to the University of Maine.