It was about growing green farms. Building sustainable communities. And helping keep more people fed.
Ohio’s ninth annual Stinner Summit was Oct. 16, and anyone interested in healthy land and clean water — including such issues as local food, urban farming, food security and sustainable agriculture — was welcome to attend. Hosting the event was OARDC’s Agroecosystems Management Program (AMP).
Participants in the summit brainstormed and planned projects to enhance healthy agricultural ecosystems and sustainable communities, said Matt Porter, an organizer of the event and a graduate administrative assistant with AMP.
At the end of the day, the participants decided how to use up to $15,000 in funding from Ohio State’s Ben Stinner Endowment for Healthy Agroecosystems and Sustainable Communities, along with their own time and effort, to put their new plans into action.
Successfully managing an agricultural ecosystem takes a combination of social, economic and ecological values and keeping them in balance.
Balancing values, honoring roots
- An agricultural ecosystem, or agroecosystem, includes all the living and nonliving parts of a farm and its neighboring communities, and how all the parts interact.
- Successfully managing an agroecosystem takes a combination of social, economic and ecological values and keeping them in balance, according to an AMP webpage.
- The endowment and annual summit are named in honor of the late Ben Stinner, who was a pioneer in agroecology and sustainable agriculture at OARDC. He was the leader of AMP and was the first holder of the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Agricultural Ecosystems Management at the time of his death at age 50 in a 2004 car crash.
- A report on the summit’s projects will be available at amp.osu.edu.
- To contact the source: Matt Porter at porter.801@osu.edu.