Sara Scherr - Part 1 of 5 part series.

Presentations from the Quivira Coalition's 9th Annual Conference, November 10-12, 2010, in Albuquerque, NM
The Carbon Ranch: Using Food and Stewardship to Build Soil and Fight Climate Change

Right now, the only possibility of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere is through plant photosynthesis and other land-based carbon sequestration activities. Strategies include: enriching soil carbon, farming with perennials, employing climate-friendly livestock practices, conserving natural habitat, restoring degraded watersheds and rangelands, and producing local food. Over the past decade, many of these strategies have been demonstrated to be both practical and profitable. A carbon ranch bundles them into an economic whole with the aim of creating climate-friendly landscapes that are both healthy ecologically and the source of healthy food. In this conference we explored this exciting new frontier and heard from carbon pioneers from around the world.

About the speaker:

Sara J. Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist whose career has focused on agricultural and forest policy in tropical developing countries. She is founder and President of Ecoagriculture Partners, an NGO that supports agricultural communities who manage landscapes both to increase production and incomes, and to enhance wild biodiversity and ecosystem services. She is a member of the United Nations Environment Program Advisory Panel on Food Security, the Policy Advisory Group for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, and a member of the Board of Directors of The Katoomba Group. She recently served on the Board of the World Agroforestry Centre and the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger. She formerly held senior positions at Forest Trends, the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; and the World Agroforestry Centre, in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Scherr received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in International Economics and Development at Cornell University. She has published over 37 articles in refereed journals and 13 books, including Ecoagriculture: Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity (with Jeff McNeely), A New Agenda for Forest Conservation and Poverty Reduction: Making Markets Work for Low-Income Producers(with Andy White and David Kaimowitz),and Farming with Nature: The Science and Practice of Ecoagriculture (with Jeff McNeely).

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Quivira Coalition Conference
• lecture series
• November 10-12
• 2010
• Albuquerque
• NM
• The Carbon Ranch
• Food
• Stewardship
• Build Soil
• Fight Climate Change
• humanity
• removal of greenhouse gase
• atmosphere
• plant photosynthesis
• enriching soil carbon
• farming
• livestock
• conserving natural habitat
• climate-friendly practices
• producing local food
• ecological healthy
• healthy food
• carbon pioneers.