Casey Hoy
Kellogg Endowed Chair in Agricultural Ecosystems Management

Agroecosystems management integrates economic, ecological and social values to tackle challenges and find opportunities. It takes a broad view that ranges from the ground under your feet to your neighboring farms and communities, and from farm to market to consumer.

• To a farmer it means finding a style of farming that pays the bills, that the neighbors and community want to support and protect, and that your kids want to continue.
  
• To a scientist it means operating at the intersection of the agricultural disciplines, together with farmers. It means considering agriculture as a system, and seeing both problems and opportunities as properties that emerge from the system rather than one of its parts.
  
• To a student interested in agriculture, it means the framework for all of your courses and experience, no matter how broad your studies are, and the connection between your focused courses and Ohio agriculture. 

Contribute now and double your impact!

Like our meeting,
life is then short, so
let us give only to
each the best right now.
I ask only to be made a gift
for this land from which I grew.
Keep this promise and let me come
now into sweet rest
so I can grow again
through you and the land on where we stand.

~ Ben Stinner (1954-2004)

In the year and a half since its inception, the Ben Stinner Endowment for Healthy Agroecosystems and Sustainable Communities has raised over $300,000 to sustain Ben’s vision and work toward healthier agroecosystems. A limited-time challenge has been offered to match up to $100,000 in contributions, and we are more than halfway to meeting this goal. Maximize the impact of your giving and help the fund meet the challenge before time runs out by making a contribution online here or print form!

Learn more about the endowment

• To an environmentalist it means a system of agriculture that enhances environmental qualities like biodiversity and is economically successful as well.
  
• To a businessperson it means entrepreneurial opportunities that enhance social and environmental bottom lines with equal importance to the economic one.
  
• To a consumer it means an agriculture that can be trusted to provide healthy food from a healthy ecosystem with a fair return to the farmer. 
  
• To a policy maker it means that long-term simultaneous gains in environmental, social and economic dimensions outweigh short-term gains in any one area.

How do we do it? Take a look at the projects we have going for some examples, and don’t hesitate to share your own ideas. We thrive on partnership.