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Vol. 04 Issue 1, Winter 1999

New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Responding to Pressing Issues
The Ribbon 

The Ribbon recently had the opportunity to speak with Daryl B. Lund, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University (CALS), about the College's role and responsibilities with regard to current issues, such as those that arise with the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) (see related articles in this newsletter). Dean Lund is a food scientist by training, whose career thus far has included a wealth of experience in university teaching, research, extension, and policy. In addition, he is currently Chair of the Board on Agriculture, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, Science and Technology Policy Committee.

CALS supports sixteen fields of study at the undergraduate level, and numerous graduate programs, including the range of earth, animal and plant sciences, Entomology, Communication, Food Science, Landscape Architecture, and Rural Sociology. What are the common themes that bring these fields together? "Traditionally," Dean Lund tells us, "the unifying theme has been the food system. The food system has provided the link between these fields, from production agriculture through and to the consumer."

"However," Dean Lund says, "more recently, we have expanded the horizon beyond food production. I endorse the perspective that the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council - of which Cornell is a member - has identified as their vision for the future of agriculture. In the broadest sense, a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is not only about food systems, but also the production of chemicals, biochemicals, raw ingredients, fiber, and biofuels - materials that go well beyond the nourishment of animals and humans. In essence, we provide a research and education base for production of renewable resources for the planet, some for food and some for other uses. CALS and other colleges of agriculture and related sciences have a very big role to play, in this broadest approach, to the ultimate survivability of humankind and the health and vitality of the planet. To complement production agriculture in this activity, we must support enhanced understanding of the basic life cycles and functions of plants and animals, including a focus on environmental sciences."

In addition to its activities on the Cornell campus, CALS supports two state experiment stations and many more off-campus research facilities, as well as statewide extension and outreach programming. On-campus research is integrated into these programs in a variety of ways, and the flow of information to and from the various researchers, educators, policymakers, industry representatives, farmers, and members of the public occurs in many forums. Firstly, explains Dean Lund, "I believe every CALS faculty member has outreach responsibility. As an employee of Cornell University, for which funding is coming from the State of New York, there is a responsibility to perform outreach functions for the State of New York. One mechanism to perform that outreach is to assure that good science is the basis for personal and policy decisions." The science emerging from CALS provides the backbone for diverse kinds of decision-making in the public realm - from personal decisions to those that effect entire ecosystems or economies - and researchers should participate in the necessary forums to help with the "extension" and interpretation of the science for that decision-making.

A recent example is the highly interactive yearly symposium of the Cornell University Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, which draws diverse groups of participants. This past year's topic, "Emerging Issues in Food Safety: Identifying and Meeting the Challenges of the Next Millennium," featured CALS faculty and other scientists sharing information and perspectives on current issues of foodborne pathogens, pesticide and antibiotic residues in foods, and topics in which farming and water quality intersect. One current and one past CALS faculty member also each addressed some aspects of the FQPA.

For the provisions of this new wide-reaching environmental policy, the FQPA, science-based information is needed from agricultural crop protection researchers and agriculture extension personnel, food scientists, nutritionists, toxicologists, and water quality specialists. Within CALS, a coordinating role is being played by George Good, Director of the Pesticide Management Education Program (PMEP) (see his article on FQPA in this newsletter). Dean Lund says, "Although much of the responsibility for FQPA in New York lies with the state agencies, we have a role to play with regard to data assembly and other science-based feedback; for example, crop usage data. George Good has been facilitating discussion amongst faculty and staff across disciplines in Geneva and Ithaca over the last six months."

Aside from providing response to EPA's need for information, PMEP is helping those in agriculture understand the provisions of, and progress carrying out, the legislation, and its impact on the pesticide user. Reassessed pesticide tolerances, for example, will have an immediate effect on the user. On PMEP's World Wide Web site there is a searchable index of pesticide active ingredients and trade names of some of the pesticides affected by the FQPA. This database allows users to find active ingredient information if they only have trade name information, or to find some of the common trade names that contain a specific active ingredient. (see PMEP's FQPA Pesticide Database http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/piap/fqpa-list.html

Another example is CALS involvement with BCERF. This relationship characterizes well the ways that CALS contributes to confronting contemporary, complex, science and public policy problems. Likewise, the Water Resources Institute (WRI), also an interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach program and also part of the Center for the Environment, engages many CALS faculty in its approach to water problems. Dean Lund points to WRI's innovative New York City Watershed projects as a particularly valuable example of bringing together those involved in environmental issues, biology, natural resources, agriculture, and community and rural development. "These programs," says Dean Lund, "illustrate how a college could and should respond to pressing issues, and I compliment the way this college and individuals step forward and establish the kind of collaborations that lead to solutions."

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