A Son of Grizedale e-flyer Extra

By Dr Derek Lynch

On Monday 28th May 2012 at 6.00pm 

Coniston Institute.

Yewdale Road, Coniston, Cumbria  LA21 8DU

“Globally, agriculture has never been more important nor had more of an impact environmentally and ecologically. Historically, we are at a critical juncture in which a remarkable convergence of stakeholders are calling for a fundamental redesign of agriculture and food systems.”

Derek Lynch, PhD PAg
Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair, Organic Agriculture
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

Drawing upon over twenty years theoretical and applied research in organic and sustainable agriculture and recent studies of urban agriculture, Dr. Lynch will outline why a transformative agriculture (which combines a fundamental redesign of agro-ecosystems and our communal relationships to food) appears to be emerging just when it's needed more than ever.

In his talk Dr Lynch will provide a global overview of transforming agriculture, providing information on specific case-studies of the benefits of organic farming drawn from his own studies and those of others, with a number of these having practical applications (nutrient issues, soil carbon storage, energy use and efficiency etc.). In addition to Canadian farms, (including new urban agriculture examples), he will draw on some work on organic and low input farm production issues internationally, in West Africa and Nepal, plus examples from farms in Cuba and France.

Dr. Derek Lynch is Canada Research Chair in Organic Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. His teaching and research interests include organic and sustainable agricultural systems, environmental/ecological impact of farming system, and soil quality and fertility management. His BSc (Agronomy) and MSc (Plant Physiology) were obtained from McGill University while his PhD (on composting and soil organic matter dynamics) is from the University of Guelph. 

Dr Lynch has been actively involved over the past ten years nationally in Canada in the development of the new national organic standards and regulations. He also served for many years on the executive of the Canadian Society of Agronomy. In a previous career, he ran two consulting businesses, one providing advisory and testing services on optimizing soil and resource/byproduct use for producers and industry in Atlantic Canada, the other developing backyard composting programs for regional municipalities. 

Dr Lynch grew up in suburban Dublin. At the age of 13, he dug up the backyard and planted vegetables, which he later sold. This was a decidedly odd act in a family with no farming or gardening history, but was based on a vague, at the time, conviction that food and food growing was somehow important. Many years later, he still holds that conviction and increasingly believes that cities, and their rapidly growing residential populations, have now more than ever a central role to play in transforming agriculture and our relationships to, and via, food and food growing.