sust-mar: Corner Post for those of you who may not have seen it...

From: <anne.rogal@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca>
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 21:15:08 -0500
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>
Original-Recipient: rfc822;"| (cd /csuite/info/lists/sust-mar; /csuite/lib/arch2html)"

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects


Tip: Your message to SUST-MAR must be html-free.  So, BEFORE you hit SEND, please go to your "Format" pull-down menu and select "Plain text."  Thanks!
____________________________________________________________________________
Hi there sust-mar folks.
I find this newsletter on farming interesting and thought some of you might also find it useful. It comes about once a week.
Cheers,
Anne
The Garden Connection -- Garden Nova Scotia
growing our garden community -- sharing our gardens'abundance
anne.rogal@ns.sympatico.ca

============================================================
From: "Elbert van Donkersgoed" <evd@christianfarmers.org>
Date: 2004/02/06 Fri PM 01:59:56 EST
To: "CP List \(E-mail\)" <evd@christianfarmers.org>
Subject: The Purpose of Research: Understanding or Winning?

Corner Post #320
Farm & Countryside Commentary by Elbert van Donkersgoed

There's talk in Ontario about changing our approach to the research that
drives change in our food system. Stakeholder input on strategic research
options is being sought by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario.

The options under consideration hint at major long-term changes:
1. Focusing research on two outcomes: improved health and enhanced
competitiveness;
2. Structuring research in value chains. Two chains -- primary production
systems and the bio-economy - to enhance competitiveness and three value
chains -- food, public health and environment - to improve health;
3. An emphasis on collaboration among researchers and building large
interdisciplinary teams for coordination and integration of research; and
4. Ensuring that research leads to innovation.

I'm encouraged but also cautious.

It is urgent that scientists come out of their silos - out of their narrow
scientific specialties. One cow with mad cow disease is not just a matter of
understanding prions - those folded over proteins that result in sponge-like
brains - it's also about markets and trade policy and what it takes to
maintain consumer confidence in the food system. A move towards
collaboration, interdisciplinary teams, coordination and integration is a
big plus.

Linking research to innovation is the greater challenge. Consider organic
agriculture -- one of the significant innovations in the food system of the
past quarter century - this innovation developed on farms, in the
marketplace and as a consumer preferences long before science sat up and
took notice. It emerged almost in spite of the research establishment. While
science can lead to innovation, it is just as important that science gets on
side with innovations driven by farmers, markets and consumer preferences. A
research strategy that assumes that science and innovation have a
cause-and-effect relationship - with science needing to come first -- will
continue to fail us. Even today, our science is ignoring the next major
innovation already emerging in food markets and consumer preferences - the
re-localization of food.

The focus on competitiveness as primary outcome is troubling. At a simple
level, the new strategy's emphasis on competitiveness -- generally
understood as global competitiveness -- risks squandering our research
dollars on a continuation of the misguided effort to industrialize Ontario
agriculture and make it the lowest cost producer of bulk commodities. There
is no long-term economic sustainability nor entrepreneurial satisfaction in
this treadmill to ever lower prices. At a deeper level, science has a more
noble purpose than winning marketers. Science can get at complexity and help
us understand the creation of which we are a part.

It is more important to understand how the world works than to win.
__________
For more information on the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario's
development of strategic research options, visit:
http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAF/english/research/ario/index.html.

Elbert van Donkersgoed is the Strategic Policy Advisor of the Christian
Farmers Federation of Ontario, Canada. Corner Post has been heard weekly on
CFCO Radio, Chatham and CKNX Radio, Wingham, Ontario since 1997. Corner Post
has an email subscriber list of more than 3,000 and appears regularly on @g
Worldwide Correspondents at
www.agriculture.com/worldwide/correspondents/index.html. Corner Post is
archived at www.christianfarmers.org/commentary/Corner-Post.htm. To be added
to the electronic distribution list of Corner Post send email to
evd@christianfarmers.org with SUBSCRIBE as the message. To remove your name,
send email with UNSUBSCRIBE as the message.

============================================================


____________________________________________________________________________
Did a friend forward this to you?  Join sust-mar yourself!
Just send 'subscribe sust-mar' to mailto:majordomo@chebucto.ca

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects