Browsing by Subject "Sustainable agriculture"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Biofuels and sustainable development: Perspectives on the farm and around the globe
    (2014-03) Sheehan, John Joseph
    The idea that biofuels can be sustainable has long been controversial. This research considers three land-related aspects of biofuels sustainability:1. The effect of local farm management practices on the sustainability of land used to produce corn grain as a biorefinery feedstock. 2. The relative sustainability of land used for producing corn and sugarcane as a function of latitude. 3. The land use implications for biofuels of global pasture-based livestock production systems. Local corn farm management choices can make the difference between net negative and net positive carbon footprints for grain delivered to biorefineries. Carbon footprints reported here are based on full life cycle assessments of each farm, including modeled soil emissions of greenhouse gases. For a cohort of farmers surveyed in southwest Minnesota, avoiding excess fertilizer use, adopting no till practices and replacing commercial fertilizer with animal manure leads to negative carbon footprints of up to -117 gCO2eq per ha. Globally, the choice of land managed for corn or sugarcane versus land maintained to support natural ecosystems is highly dependent on latitude. On average sugarcane produces three times more energy per unit area than does maize. Latitudes closer to the equator have higher net primary productivity (NPP), so there is a greater trade-off between biofuel production and ecosystem productivity in the equatorial zones. Sugarcane is still twice as productive on average compared to maize in the amount of biofuel energy produced per unit of NPP. Global pasture systems could reduce their land footprint by several-fold simply by closing the gap between poor performing and high performing pasture systems across climatically-similar parts of the world. Because pasture's global land footprint is so large, closing the performance gap could make vast amounts of land available for biomass feedstocks, with no new land clearing.
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    Duluth Farmers' Market Survey and Business Plan
    (2006) UMD Labovitz School of Business and Economics
    The Duluth Market Gardeners' Association worked with the Labovitz School’s research bureau to describe the history of the business, marketing financials, business operations, and an executive summary for the business plan. Information from the survey analysis was brought in to guide the marketing plan and to focus expectations for future fund raising and building projects. This is a economics and marketing survey with little insight into land use, water or natural resources.
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    Final project report for IonE MS-0006-11 "Sustainable Agriculture Project"
    (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2012) Hale, Cindy
    The goals of this project, as part of the newly formed Sustainable Agriculture Program at UMD < http://www.d.umn.edu/cscd/sap/main/index.php>, were to develop a set of courses that, in conjunction with course already developed (i.e. Urban Food System, Ethnobotany, Anthropology Senior Seminar, GIS in Sustainable Communities, etc.) would form the base upon which a Sustainable Agriculture certificate program or minor could be created. Three new courses were developed and are being offered during May and summer terms 2012. The courses are fully integrated with a student led organic farming initiative that currently includes vegetable and tree fruit production at the newly resurrected UMD Field Experiment station. These foundational courses will provide students with understanding of the social, historical, economic and geographic context that led to the development of our current food system. They will come to understand the multi-dimensional nature of this food system, explore the possible future for regionally adapted food systems and the opportunities and obstacles to change. Each course has hands-on and project based components that directly involve students in the formulation and implementation of business and farming models for sustainable and organic farming with clear links to the community and regional food system. Student learn not only the skills of farming but the ecological concepts that support sustainable farming and the social systems that are integral to vital, local food systems.
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    Growing Asparagus in Minnesota
    (2020-10-20) Klodd, Annie; Hoidal, Natalie; Rosen, Carl; Fritz, Vince; Tong, Cindy; Hutchison, Bill; Hahn, Jeffrey; Modderman, Chryseis; Keaveny, Theresa; Walker, Jason;
    This 24-page guide provides farmers and advanced gardeners with recommendations for growing asparagus in Minnesota. The practices described in this guide aim to support economically and environmentally sustainable asparagus production by Minnesota farmers, and are based in research and farmer experiences. The guide was produced as part of the Premium Minnesota Asparagus project, a collaboration between the Sustainable Farming Association and UMN Extension.
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    Regional Agricultural and Natural Resources Sustainable Development Partnership Guidelines and Operating Principles, Implementation Task Force Report, Working Document, February 19, 1998.
    (University of Minnesota , College of Agricultural Food and Environmental Sciences, 1998-02-19) University of Minnesota Extension Service; University of Minnesota, College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences; University of Minnesota, College of Natural Resources
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    Sustainable Agriculture At the University of Minnesota- 1991
    (Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, 1991) University of Minnesota. Agricultural Experiment Station
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    Teaching in Common: Reimagining Curriculum Development in Sustainable Food Systems Education
    (2023-07) Sames, Amanda
    To meet an increasingly complex set of global challenges, undergraduate programs need innovative, well aligned curricula that prepare students to effectively address those challenges. This is especially true in programs such as sustainable food systems education (SFSE) where students learn to think systemically, critically, and reflectively, and act collectively across difference. These developmental skills cannot be achieved in a single course, and thus require curricular cohesion and alignment. For this to happen, instructors in a program must work together to develop a collective understanding of the purpose of the curriculum, the intended student learning outcomes, and how each course contributes to the whole. Using that understanding, instructors must work collaboratively to deliver a coherent curriculum, adjusting their courses as needed and contributing to efforts to update or improve the curriculum. The research described here is the result of action research with three undergraduate SFSE programs working to engage in this kind of curriculum management in their own programs, and in collaboration across programs. First, curriculum mapping, a process of identifying how a program’s learning outcomes are addressed and assessed within and across courses, is explored. Curriculum mapping is a common undertaking in higher education, but descriptions of the specific processes used are hard to find. This work contributes to the literature by describing two highly participatory, instructor-driven methods based on experiences mapping at the University of Minnesota (UMN) and University of British Colombia (UBC). Next, mapping is considered as a process extending beyond the creation of maps to foster deep and productive discussions about curricula. Once created, curriculum maps can function as boundary objects, things that help groups of differently situated actors work across difference, so creating a map should be seen as the start of a larger process rather than an end goal. This research describes facilitated curriculum development workshops at UMN, UBC and Montana State University and observes that relational work, the effort people invest in managing their relationships with others, ideally in mutually growth supporting ways, is fundamental to managing curricula as cohesive wholes. Finally, curricula are theorized as a new kind of commons. Commons are resources shared by a group and subject to social dilemmas, just as curricula are shared resources whose management present challenges to time and resource strapped programs. Curricula posited as contributory commons, which are commons that rely on the willing, active, and ongoing contributions of producers (instructors) to maintain the shared resource (a curriculum). To address the challenges of managing curricula as contributory commons, six interconnected recommendations are offered, calling for investment of time and resources in curricula, and in the collective willingness and ability of instructors in a program to work together for curriculum management and innovation. To think of curricula as commons moves away from academia’s emphasis on individual teaching responsibilities and towards collective pedagogical interdependence, recognizing the importance and value of attending as much to relationships and pedagogy as to scholarly pursuits.
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    Understanding Cyanobacteria-based Biofertilizers in Soil-Water and Soil-Plant Systems
    (2021-10) Alvarez De La Hoz, Adriana
    Growing pressures to increase agricultural productivity amid rising environmental impacts and global climate threats call for critical strategies that preserve the soil resource and improve sustainability. Microalgae, including cyanobacteria, are emerging as promising platforms to enhance soil structure and fertility and reduce our reliance on chemical fertilizers. To advance applications, further understanding is needed with different strains, plants, agroecological regions and types of soil including Mollisols, which are among the most productive soils in the world. This dissertation reviewed aspects of microalgae that might be applied in agriculture and evaluated effects of soil inoculations with the dinitrogen (N2)-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena cylindrica UTEX 1611 on a Mollisol from the U.S. Upper Midwest. First, a comprehensive literature review supported microalgae as renewable resources for the potential development of biofertilizers, organic fertilizers, biostimulants, biocontrol agents, and soil conditioners. Furthermore, experiments with cyanobacterial soil inoculations described effects on soil structure and nutrient dynamics, soil loss and water nutrient levels after high-intensity rain simulations, and soil mineralization of cyanobacterial biomass. The results revealed changes in soil structural components that might be resistant to wind and water erosion, potential for reducing rainfall-induced soil loss, and a gradual nutrient release from the cyanobacterial biomass. High-intensity rain simulations also indicated depth-related positive changes in soil microbial dynamics that persisted after consecutive rains. Finally, experiments with a local variety of spring wheat consistently evidenced improvements in soil nutrients, microbial biomass, and microbial activity, and demonstrated that cyanobacteria, and a mixture with a local green microalga, supplied nitrogen (N) to support plant growth and partially replace urea. These findings provide insights on the positive role cyanobacteria might have as resources to enhance the sustainability and resiliency of agricultural systems.