Seminar: Landcare as an Ideology - Introducing Landcare to the USA

Dr Jerry Moles presents "Landcare as Ideology: introducing landcare to the USA"

Dr Jerry Moles from the University of California will be presenting a talk at Charles Darwin University on the experience of introducing the Landcare movement originating in Australia to the USA.

RIEL Seminar - Landcare as Ideology
Friday, January 13, 1 - 2pm
Charles Darwin University, Casuarina Campus
Building Yellow, Room 1.1.39 

Abstract

In early 2000s, the USA Department of Agriculture became intrigued with Landcare in Australia and requested that the ideas be explored. Faculty at the land grant university, Virginia Tech, suggested that communities consider exploring the possibility. A local land trust sent a facilitator to several counties (squires) along the Blue Ridge Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains to introduce the concept of Landcare. For 11 years, people have worked together in developing educational programs, plans for new infrastructure, and developing markets for local farmers. New husbandry practices for sheep and cattle have been adopted increasing incomes and new working relations have emerged among entrepreneurs, government agencies serving agriculture, businesses, universities, and local governments. The presentation focuses on the means used to achieve these ends and the joining together of people from many walks of life to produce the results enjoyed.

Biography

Faculty University of California, Davis and Pomona College; Invited Lecturer University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University; Community organizer and program designer, Action For Appalachian Youth (Kanawha County, West Virginia); Co-founder, NeoSynthesis Research Centre, Ltd. (Sri Lanka) developing financially beneficial and environmentally sensitive enterprises; Founding Board Member, Watershed Research & Training Center Inc. (Trinity County, California) developing collaborative ventures among local entrepreneurs, state and federal agencies, local governments, and financiers; Founder, Grayson LandCare, Inc.; Founding Board Member, SustainFloyd, Inc., and International Analog Forestry Network (Costa Rica); and on advisory boards and committees to the Secretariat for International Landcare, Ltd. (Australia) and the International Landcare Centre (Kenya) and, at Virginia Tech, the Appalachian Foodshed Project, Virginia Beginning Farmer & Rancher Coalition, and Center for Natural Resource Evaluation and Decision Support. Wrote the successful proposal, designed outreach program, and organized meetings for the United Nations effort in protecting global natural resources to include the world’s indigenous peoples. With a doctorate in anthropology from Stanford University focussing on cultural ecology, the relations of people to their biological and physical environments, Dr. Moles has designed research and community action programs empowering people to benefit through economically and environmentally sound practices.