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Asia Center Event Focuses on Sustainable Agriculture
By
Terri McLean
LEXINGTON, Ky., (Nov. 1, 2006) – Despite an 8,000-year history
of cultivating food crops, the countries of East Asia face
severe challenges to sustaining their agricultural systems,
raising questions about how their people – more than 1.5 billion
of them – will be fed in the future.
That was the topic of a two-day symposium that brought prominent
scholars from across the country to the University of Kentucky
Oct. 30 and 31. The event, hosted by the Asia Center at UK and
co-sponsored by the College of Agriculture and the Gaines
Center, was aimed at facilitating dialogue on agricultural
sustainability issues in East Asia and, at the same time,
helping Kentuckians reflect on similar issues facing its
agricultural system.
“Some of the challenges are similar to those we are facing in
the United States and some are unique to the region,” said Larry
Burmeister, conference organizer and professor in the UK College
of Agriculture Community and Leadership Development department.
“I believe there is a lot we can learn from each other.”
The East Asia region is defined to include the “rich three”
countries of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and poorer but
rapidly developing China. The discussion of agriculture-related
sustainability issues in the region focused on the challenges of
integration into the global trade system, changes in consumption
patterns, environmental problems and the social challenge of
recruiting a new generation of farmers.
Juha Uitto, of the United Nations Development Programme’s
Evaluation Office in New York, said environmental factors in
particular are greatly influencing the sustainability of
agriculture in East Asia. Land transformation, including
deforestation and land degradation, is having a major impact, as
is pollution, including waste from animal production and
contamination from pesticides and fertilizers.
But the “wild card” issue is climate change. “It’s the great
unknown,” Uitto said. “Climate change is a reality and it has
many potential outcomes.”
Further, Uitto added, “The uncertainty increases as we move from
global to regional to local.”
Other speakers included John Dyck, of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Economic Research Service East Asia Desk. Dyck,
who has watched the agricultural imports and exports of Asian
countries since 1979, focused on the political-economic
challenge facing the region’s agricultural sustainability.
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s
Department of Anthropology, addressed the consumption challenge
resulting from shifting dietary preferences in East Asian
countries. She is the author of “Rice as Self: Japanese
Identities through Time.”
Raymond Jussaume, professor and chair of the Department of
Community and Rural Sociology at Washington State University,
tackled the social challenge, including raising the question,
“Who will farm in the future?”
Despite the focus on the faraway countries of East Asia, the
presentations struck a familiar chord with those in attendance,
Burmeister said.
“You’ll note that the issues faced in the East Asia region
relating to environmental concerns, economic adjustment,
adaptation to changes in patterns of food consumption and
questions about farm successors strike a familiar chord as
issues that agriculture faces in Kentucky,” said Burmeister, who
currently is a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo in
Japan.
UK’s multidisciplinary Asia Center annually sponsors a symposium
of this nature. The College of Agriculture joined forces with
the center to co-sponsor this year’s event because of the
topic’s relevance, said Mike Mullen, associate dean for academic
programs at the college.
“Agriculture is global in nature, and we must recognize and
embrace that,” Mullen said.
Mullen also announced the college’s new Sustainable Agriculture
Program, which will be available to students as an
individualized program in the fall of 2007.
“Sustainabililty seems to be an issue that resonates not only on
this campus but throughout the country and the world,” Mullen
told conference participants.
The conference concluded with speakers sharing their thoughts
with UK students in agricultural economics, Japan studies,
geography and sociology classes. |
Contact: Larry Burmeister, 859-257-7588
Mike Mullen, 859-257-3430 |
|
The UK College
of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
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