In the last issue of “Stories,” a publication produced by Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, there were four articles by students on the topic, “What Green Means to Me.” It behooves us to study the opinions and perceptions of the current generation of college students, and these articles provided that opportunity.
Granted, the four young people featured wouldn’t be your “typical” student. Three have an emphasis on agronomy and the fourth has a major in global resource systems. They understand the importance of agriculture and the role technology plays in feeding the world, yet they also are aware of the challenges being faced in other parts of the world.
Nate Looker was a World Food Prize Borlaug-Ruan Intern in the village of Colpar, located in the Andean highlands of Peru. The experience had a profound impact on this articulate young man: “…I saw how the diversification of crops and varieties allows farmers to minimize losses to pests, while safeguarding genetic resources. To maintain soil fertility and moisture in communal fields, farmers rotate 118 varieties of potato with a six-year fallow.
“Although this system has sustained Andean farmers for generations, hunger prevails,” he continues. “Changing economic models, population growth and climate change all underscore the need for development, a word itself as nebulous as “green.”
Emily Eggleston spent last summer co-managing an organic, community-supported agriculture farm in Atlantic, Iowa. She feels there are three essential steps to green living: 1) Be aware of every choice you make; 2) Know the environmental impact of each choice and; 3) Decide which choice is best by using “land ethic” as a guide. She notes: “Environmental philosopher Aldo Leopold wrote that society’s ethical guidelines encourage us to cooperate with our human community but, he argued, by ecological necessity we must also live cooperatively with soils, water, plants and animals. Leopold coined the term ‘land ethic’ to describe the new ethical boundaries for decision-making and I consider the ideal essential for making environmentally sound choices.”
Danika Schaaf spent two months in India, where she observed the effects of food scarcity on India’s people. The experience highlighted the necessity for conserving food and water as wisely as possible, “and being aware of how one’s actions affect others,” she writes.
Richard Kann feels precision farming technology is an important tool in improving soil quality: “By taking soil samples, grid mapping and using variable rate technology we can apply nutrients at crop removal rates, allowing for more efficient, economic and environmentally friendly application of nutrients.”
It is clear these students see agriculture in a more holistic way by considering its affect on the environment and people in the world community – not just U.S. citizens. For them, it’s about responsible production, not just maximizing yields. Sustainability is the recurring theme, as it should be for all of us.
“Ultimately, nations’ paths to development will be immensely complex…,” points out Looker. “This complexity begs collaboration: while a technological transfer could increase food security for a farmer abroad, indigenous adaptation to the land could teach us a valuable lesson when devising green technologies that are appropriate for our population size and needs.”
That’s a “living green” philosophy we can all adopt.
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