AAAS Symposium Session

1
AAAS Symposium Session Ecology, Trade, and
Sustainable Agriculture in the American Midwest
2
Talk 1
Introduction to the watershed From land to sea
R. Eugene Turner Whitney Broussard Louisiana
State University Baton Rouge, LA Nancy
Rabalais LUMCON Cocodrie, LA
euturne_at_lsu.edu
3
(No Transcript)
4
Forest Clearance
1620 1850 1920
5
(No Transcript)
6
Suspended sediment concentration at New Orleans
From Turner, R. E., and N. N. Rabalais 2003.
Linking landscape and water quality in the
Mississippi River Basin for 200 years. BioScience
53 563-572.
7
Land Under Drainage
1920
1960
8
Daily water-levels (m, msl) _at_ Illinois River mile
137 before/after water diversions and modern
navigation dams and watershed alterations.
B E F O R E A F T E R
9
Land use in the United States
Waisanen and Bliss. 2002. Global Biogeochemical
Cycles 16 1137.
10
Changes area in soybeans or corn
Soybeans
Corn
11
Small and Large Farm comparisons
Large farms compared to Small farms
are Area 4.2 X larger Production per
area 1.9 X greater Payments per farm 18.3
X greater Payments per acre 4.3 X
larger Payments per value 2.3 X larger
12
A land in transition and changes

• How to keep working lands working
• Communities
• Climate change
• Trade
• National policies, e.g., water quality, subsidy
  size and distribution
• Biomass conversion

13
Choices

• Are land-use activities degrading the global
  environment in ways that ultimately undermine
  ecosystem services, human welfare, and the
  long-term sustainability of human societies?
  (Foley et al. 2005)
• Will agriculture move more towards an industrial
  model that is more and more like a factory,
  which will ultimately fail society, or might we
  put more culture in agriculture and improve
  the nations food security and social welfare?

14

Thank you!