5th Annual Edward and Nancy Dodge Lecture
April 1, 2003

A False Hypothesis: Implications for Agriculture and Society if it’s True

Wes Jackson, PhD
President and Founder, The Land Institute

Agenda

"The hypothesis is this: Beginning with agriculture 10,000 years ago, humans have produced no technological product or process without drawing down the earth's capital stock. By stock, I mean that which is necessary for plants to capture carbon using contemporary sunlight. This utterly dismal hypothesis is not being offered to suggest that we stop all science and technology, but to encourage our thinking about an ecological rather than technological baseline for sustainability." Wes Jackson

Background

Wes Jackson is widely recognized as a leader in the international movement for a more sustainable agriculture. He established and served as chair of one of the country's first environmental studies programs at California State University-Sacramento. In 1976 he returned to his native Kansas to found The Land Institute. He is the author of several books including, New Roots for Agriculture, Becoming Native to This Place, Man and the Environment, Meeting the Expectations of the Land (edited with Wendell Berry and Bruce Colman) and Altars of Unhewn Stone. In 2000 Wes Jackson received the Right Livelihood Award (called the "alternative Nobel prize").