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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

M. Jahi Chappell, BSE, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, 830 N. University, 2077 Kraus Natural Science Building, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048, 734-764-1446, mjahi@umich.edu

Questions of how to provide food for the growing human population are increasingly coming up against similar questions of how to conserve the world's imperiled biodiversity. Granting that the basic human right of food security is a vital component of development, food security and conservation may be viewed simultaneously in a context of “sustainable development” However, providing food security while avoiding long-term degradation of the ecosystems upon which all life on earth depends poses a significant challenge to any sustainable development approach. This presentation will examine the ecological connections between alleviating hunger, environmental degradation and conservation. The following areas will be covered: 1) Recent work done by the presenting author and colleagues analyzing the production potential of alternative agriculture in relation to current “conventional” agriculture, using data from over 150 examples from the pertinent literature, 2) Review of the literature regarding the normative benefits of alternative agriculture to biodiversity and environmental health, and 3) Preliminary results from case studies of the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers' Movement, the country-wide conversion to organic agriculture in Cuba, and the author's present work with the Municipal Secretariat of Food Security in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Results of the presented work support the conclusion that appropriate alternative agricultural practices and food security institutions may simultaneously support food security and biodiversity preservation through sustainable rural livelihoods, and the provision of regional food security. If borne out by future work, such results may represent a major breakthrough in sustainable development.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of food security policies in terms of five basic compenents.
• Participants will be able to articulate and describe three tentative cases and extensive supporting literature where food security and biodiversity conservation can act to reinforce one another.
• Participants will have a better comprehension of the potential capacity of organic/alternative agriculture to produce enough food to sustain the world according to current literature.
• Participants will be better able to analyze the potential to reconcile conservation and human rights in the context of sustainable development.

Keywords: Food Security, Sustainability

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation