Jude Capper, PhD, will help answer this
controversial question during the seventh installment of the Upson Lecture
Series on November 19th at 7 p.m. in Forum Hall, located in the
K-State Student Union. Capper, an independent sustainability consultant, will
be sharing a message centered on beef industry sustainability and how we will
feed the world in 2050.The event is free, open to the public and will
be streaming live at LiveAuction.tv.
Serving in, professor
and affiliate positions at both Washington State University and Montana State
University, Capper is recognized for spending a significant amount of time
sharing her knowledge regarding the current and projected state of our
production agriculture systems with stakeholders. From the producer to the
retailer, policy-maker and consumer, she addresses every level.
I listened to an interview about this with Jude Capper on KFRM radio and it struck me the confusion around the issue of Sustainable Agriculture. I am ag and hear confusing remarks like in the interview. First there is no clear definition that is used universally for sustainable. In my mind sustainable means that you could continue doing what you are doing and it would be able to be sustained into the foreseeable future. Dr. Capper mentioned that livestock production is sustainable from 20 head herds to large commercial production. To me that misses a huge point. We irrigate huge amounts of land and my understanding is that the Aquifer will be depleted 70% by 2060. We have ag interests talking about how to feed world populations in 2050. So we keep going by putting down more wells and pumping more water on land to granted produce more crops but then we hit a wall and run out of water. To me this is unsustainable and yet we as a society don't have the will to limit water useage to insure sustainable production practices on the high plains of the bread basket of the world. Can someone help clarify this issue for me?
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