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There are two spiritual
dangers in not owning a
farm. One is the danger of
supposing that breakfast
comes from the grocery,
and the other that heat
comes from the furnace.

~Aldo Leopold, 1949





A good part of agriculture
is to learn how to adapt one’s
work to nature… To live in
right relation with his natural
conditions is one of the first
lessons that a wise farmer or
any other wise man learns.

~Liberty Hyde Bailey, 1915





I begin with the proposition
that eating is an agricultural
act. Eating ends the annual
drama of the food economy that
begins with planting and birth...
Most eaters, however, are no
longer aware that this is true.
They think of food as an
agricultural product, perhaps,
but they do not think of
themselves as participants in
agriculture.

~Wendell Berry, 1989 		AGSC 415: ETHICAL ISSUES IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Dr. Michael Seipel
3082 Magruder Hall  
785-4316 (Office), 627-5840 (Home)
mseipel@truman.edu


COURSE OVERVIEW

This course examines the sustainability of agricultural production, processing, and marketing systems, including their ethical, economic, social, and ecological dimensions.

PREREQUISITES

Junior standing and AGSC 100, or completion of most AGSC core classes

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
  • To familiarize students with important historical and contemporary thought, writing, and practice on sustainable agriculture,
  • To evaluate alternative (and often competing) definitions of agricultural sustainability,
  • To consider farming, food processing, and consumption technologies and policies that may promote long-term viability of natural resources, and
  • To actively engage in promoting awareness of sustainable agriculture through a service-learning project
REQUIRED TEXTS
  • Dana L. Jackson and Laura L. Jackson. The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems with Ecosystems. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 2002.
  • Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1949. (Any edition will work for this class.)
  • Other required readings are available online or will be made available through two-hour reserve at Pickler Library or as handouts. Readings assigned for a particular day should be done before class that day, because this is the material that will be discussed in class that day. Comprehension of reading material will occasionally be aided and assessed through the use of readings quizzes and/or take-home questions.
COURSE OUTLINE

WEEK TOPIC READING
    1 What is sustainable agriculture? ATTRA, SARE
    2 History of the sustainable agriculture movement Leopold, TBABerry (Unsettling), Wes Jackson
    3 The current state of Midwestern agriculture Kurtz, Jackson Chapter 1, 2
    4 Conservation, preservation, and agriculture Jackson Chapter 3
    5 Restoring nature on farms Jackson Chapter 4-6
    6 Restoring nature on farms Jackson Chapter 7-8
    7 Farming in harmony with nature? Jackson Chapter 9-10
    8 Farming in harmony with nature? Jackson Chapter 11-13
    9 Economic and marketing issues  
   10 Social/community/relationship issues Berry (Pleasures)
   11 Sustainable animal/livestock production  
   12 Sustainable crop and forage production  
   13 Sustaining through biotechnology?  
   14 Presentations None
   15 Agroecological restoration Jackson Chapter 14-18 (selections)

COURSEINFO WEB SITE

There is a Blackboard/CourseInfo web site for the course. Since this course is new to me, the web site does not currently contain much information! However, due to the tremendous amount of online sources on sustainable agriculture, we will add information and links as the semester progresses.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

As members of an academic community, we share responsibility for conforming to the highest standards of academic integrity and helping ensure that others also conform to those standards. This includes doing our own work and taking responsibility for our intellectual output and properly recognizing the incorporation of others’ ideas and words into our own work. This semester we will experiment with an online service designed to improve writing and prevent plagiarism. The service, called TurnItIn, provides citation guidelines and “peer reviewing” and “plagiarism detection” features. We will talk about how we can use this service during the semester. You can also go to the website www.turnitin.com to read more about the services offered.

EXPECTATIONS OF THE STUDENTS
  • Mid-term exam (100 points)
  • Final exam (100 points)
  • Service learning project (FoodFest, 100 points), to include
    1. Registration and analysis of information
    2. OR Display on sustainable agriculture
    3. AND (everyone): publicity and signage
  • Paper on sustainable agriculture technique or issue (100 points)
  • Group presentation and leading of discussion pertaining to paper (50 points)
  • Peer review of another student’s paper (50 points)
  • Short papers on field trip topics, guest speakers, and reflective journaling
    1. Agroforestry Field Day, New Franklin, MO, Sat. Oct. 4
    2. Small Farm Conference, Columbia, MO, Th. Nov. 6 or Fri. Nov. 7
    3. Farm observation & reflection
    4. Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage?
    5. SandHill Farm?
    6. Grass Hedges tour
  • Readings questions and quizzes (50 points)
  • Attendance and participation (50 points)
All deadlines and examination dates must be met unless you make prior arrangements with the instructor. Material covered during class discussion periods is integral to the content of the course. Therefore, attendance at and participation in class sessions is expected and required. Final grades will be calculated on a straight scale (A= 90%+, B=80-89.9%, C=70-79.9%, D=60-69.9%, F=Below 60%).

ATTENDENCE

Each unexcused absence after the first one will result in a 5-point deduction from the student’s attendance/participation score.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES FOR READINGS
  • Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. 1997. Chapters 1, 4, and 8.
  • Berry, Wendell. The Art of the Common Place. Washington, D.C.: CounterPoint. 2002. P. 321-327 “The Pleasures of Eating”.
  • Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. 1962. Selections.
  • DeGregori, Thomas R. Bountiful Harvest: Technology, Food Safety, and the Environment. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute. 2002.
  • Freyfogle, Eric T. (editor) The New Agrarianism: Land, Culture, and the Community of Life. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 2001. Kittredge (Ch. 10 “Owning it All”); Kline (Ch. 12 “Great Possessions”);
  • Jackson, Wes. Altars of Unhewn Stone: Science and the Earth. New York: North Point Press. 1987. Pp. 119-158.
  • Kurtz, Don. South of the Big Four. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 1995. Pp. 23-37.
  • Leopold, Aldo. The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 1991. Pp. 219-223 (Coon Valley); 255-265 (Farmer as Conservationist); 306-309 (What is a Weed?)
  • Logsdon, Gene. The Contrary Farmer. Post Mills, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. 1993. Ch. 1, 2, 3.
  • National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) Web Site. http://attra.ncat.org/. Various Articles.
  • USDA, Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). Online.