One of the first activities that took place with the Thriving Ag project Stakeholder Advisory Board members, was envisioning desired futures for agricultural systems in urbanized landscapes over a 25-year period. Topics for this envisioning exercise included: (1) What does the term “sustainable agriculture” mean to you? (2) What would agricultural systems in urbanized landscapes need to look like to be sustainable? (3) How would we know if the desired futures have been achieved?
Following the envisioning exercise will be scenario-building exercises with the Board and project team. Scenarios will be used to explore alternative approaches to achieving the long-term economic and environmental sustainability for agriculture in urbanized landscapes. Scenario storylines are designed to illuminate different visions of what the future could hold; they are not predictions. One scenario will be a business-as-usual scenario of how agriculture in urbanized areas of the U.S. may evolve over the next 25 years if current trends continue, as a basis against which other scenarios will be assessed. Other scenarios will be normative and participatory, framed around desired futures for agriculture in urbanized landscapes and shaped by the Board, while retaining scientific realism.
Scenarios will be used to evaluate the results of the project’s research, extension, and education activities at the landscape and watershed scales using a set of performance metrics derived from the project’s 25-year goals and stakeholder goals. The research process in this project will be iterative in nature. Modelling, experiments, surveys, and demonstrations will examine the recommended technologies, management strategies, and tools for policy-makers coming out of the scenario-building exercises; the results will be brought back to the Stakeholder Advisory Board; and additional work will be carried out based on feedback from stakeholders. This may lead to a rethinking and revision of the original scenarios, or the Board may feel that the results generally validate the vision of the original scenarios. In either case, the project research teams will carry out additional work based on stakeholder feedback.
Director of Watershed Restoration, Stroud Water Research Center
mehrhart@stroudcenter.org
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Director of the Agriculture and Environment Center, Penn State
mzr154@psu.edu
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Professor of Agricultural Economics, Penn State, and Project Director
dga2@psu.edu
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Professor, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech
bosch@vt.edu
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Research Technician, Penn State
bxb258@psu.edu
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Extension Educator, Penn State
Jay.Eury@psu.edu
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Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State
caitlin.grady@gwu.edu
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Professor of Agricultural Economics, Penn State
ecj3@psu.edu
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PhD Student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State
mmk5750@psu.edu
Distinguished Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry, Penn State
jpk12@psu.edu
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Professor and Graduate Studies Chair in the Department of AEDE, Ohio State
klaiber.16@osu.edu
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Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Extension Education, Penn State
auk259@psu.edu
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Postdoc, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State
wlisenbee@psu.edu
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Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Penn State
yul459@psu.edu
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PhD Student, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn State
msl5511@psu.edu
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Assistant Director, Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology Inc.
nnunn@umd.edu
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Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Penn State
craj@psu.edu
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Research Technician & PhD Candidate, Penn State
zps10@psu.edu
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Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Environmental Economics, Penn State
jshortle@psu.edu
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Professor of Environmental Economics, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
wainger@umces.edu
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Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management, Penn State
cmw29@psu.edu
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Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, Penn State
dhw121@psu.edu
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Project funded by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Copyright Thriving Agricultural Systems in Urbanized Landscapes – 2023