Norm Scott: Chair of Academy Village Sustainability Committee; Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering
Monday, December 4, 2023,
2:30pm-3:30 pm,
ASA Koffler Great Room and Zoom
No area of human activity is more essential to society than a sustainable Food and Agriculture System (FAS). Agricultural productivity has been a consistent and important focus during the 20th and 21st centuries, with good reason — to feed a growing world population. However, while providing safe and affordable food remains a driving force for the FAS, there are emerging and numerous factors that challenge our present and future FAS.
The Food and Agriculture System (FAS) has gone through deep transformations which have generated sustainability concerns that call for a profound acknowledgment that climate change, conflicts, disruptions, and wars globally impact the FAS. Science and technology have been key in generating the past transformation of food and agriculture systems, and will remain so. Yet innovation doesn’t always contribute to sustainable development! At the same time, there is currently a call for implementing sustainable and circular systems which significantly reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions. On the one hand, there exists much controversy surrounding disruptive technologies because of entrenched long-standing traditional local practices. On the other hand, there are concerns about the increasingly concentrated industrialized agri-food sector.
Scott conducted bioengineering research and teaching for more than 20 years prior to spending 20 years as a Cornell administrator (Department Chair, 1978-1984; Director of Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1984 – 1989; and Vice President for Research and Advanced Studies. 1989 -1998). Returning to the faculty in 1998, he focused on research and teaching in sustainable development and sustainable communities with emphasis on biologically derived fuels and renewable energy until retirement in 2011. He is past president, Institute of Biological Engineering (2001); past president, American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers (1993-94); chair, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources of the National Academy of Science; Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) from 2009-2015; Professor Emeritus, Cornell University.
Written by Norm Scott, Academy Village Volunteer
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