Leopold Center - January 17 seminar to explore feedback loops, public policy

NOTE: In honor of the national holiday for Martin Luther King, Smith also will discuss the values and struggles of the civil rights leader and how they relate to economic issues in agriculture and the need for structural change.

AMES, Iowa -- It can be a never-ending cycle: farmers specialize and farm more acres to increase production and improve their economic situation, while policymakers respond by trying to support them with policies that reward production.

A University of Maine economist and national leader in sustainable agriculture will look at ways to break the existing cycle and examine the role that public policy can play in reintegrating crops and livestock. Stewart Smith will present "Science, policy and feedback loops: Applying ecological principles to sustainable agriculture policy" at a January 17 seminar on the Iowa State University campus in Ames.

The seminar will begin at noon in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union. The public is invited to a reception following the seminar.

"Despite firmly held values about natural and human communities, farmer decisions are substantially constrained by economic realities, which have been associated with industrial farming systems throughout most of U.S. agricultural history," said Smith, who operated a potato farm for 16 years. "Both policy makers and researchers have responded to farmer preferences for those systems, creating a positive feedback loop in which policy favors industrial systems, research increases their productivity, and farmers call for enhanced policy support."

Smith is professor of sustainable agriculture policy in the Department of Resource Economics and Policy at the University of Maine. His research focuses on understanding alternative farming systems and the reasons why farmers adopt them. He is a strong proponent of family farms and is interested in the impact of sustainable agriculture systems on local communities.

Smith currently directs a USDA-funded project that involves faculty and staff at Iowa State University, the University of Maine, and Michigan State University. The project has examined the potential impact of integrating livestock and crop enterprises in those three states.

"Integration of livestock and cropping brings benefits in water quality and soil conservation, and it can improve local economies," Smith said. "Whether individual farm families also benefit depends on their resources and creativity, how markets are structured, and the economic messages sent by farm policies. This project sheds new light on how sustainable agriculture principles might fare better in the public policy arena."

Smith also directs the Maine Sustainable Agriculture Society and is a member of the Farms for the Future Advisory Council. He has been a senior economist with the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, and is a former Maine agriculture commissioner and past associate administrator of the USDA Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. He farmed near Exeter, Maine from 1961 until 1977.

The lecture is sponsored by the Global Agriculture and Science Policy Initiative of the ISU Department of Agronomy, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). Smith will visit Iowa to address the PFI annual conference in Des Moines January 14-15.