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Student-Run Environmental Sciences Symposium Draws a Crowd
February 1, 2012
By: Danny Jefferies, SES Student Representative
The University of Guelph hosted its 18th Annual Environmental Sciences Symposium (ESS) Saturday January 21. The non-profit, student-run event focuses on current environmental issues and this year’s theme was “Environmental Outlook on Agriculture: A Public Perspective.”
The symposium, open to both students and the public, was designed to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application by showing research that has been translated into industry practices. Approximately 170 attended for lectures and workshops in the Science Complex and MacNaughton building. A number of OAC faculty members participated and the major theme of the day was sustaining food production into the future. Many challenges were identified, workable solutions were presented, and successes were highlighted.
Ralph Martin, Loblaw Chair in Sustainable Food Production, provided the morning keynote presentation. During his lecture he raised issues on food production, health and ethics. He offered a vision of sustainable food production which included producing enough food to meet dietary needs today, while preserving productive capacity for future generations of people and other species. Martin also stressed the importance of expanding the kinds of plants that are edible, and minimizing the waste of human food resources if we are to have a chance at providing enough food for our growing world population.
The event was held the same day as the FarmSmart Conference in order to work towards bringing food producers and consumers closer together. Overall organizers were happy with the success of the day, would like to thank all faculty and presenters who participated, and all who attended the conference. Organizers hope that all participants go forward now to continue communication among food researchers, producers and consumers in order to allow for implementation of workable solutions in sustaining food production.
