Contact: Maridith Geuder
A Mississippi State sociologist is joining a national task force examining the future of urban agriculture.
Frank M. Howell, research scientist at the university's Social Science Research Center, is one of 15 experts joining the task force of university faculty members. Also participating are scientists at Clemson, Cornell, Florida, Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Texas A&M, and Virginia Tech.
Selected by the Ames, Iowa-based Council for Agricultural and Science Technology, the researchers will develop a report to be completed next year for presentation in 2002.
"It will be a significant undertaking and a significant report," said CAST executive vice president Richard E. Stuckey. "CAST has selected this report to model a communication effort for the public."
He added: "Such issues as urban-rural interface and markets at the fringes of agriculture will be examined. We'll look not only at food agriculture but also at urban landscapes because of the aesthetic contributions agriculture can make."
Howell was asked to participate because of his research to identify "metropolitan farming" in the United States. His work also focuses on social and economic changes in rural and urban areas and their impact on the environment, as well as land use patterns based on remotely sensed land-cover data.
As a task force member, he will chair sections detailing the nature and extent of the rural-urban interface, and the future of urban agriculture itself.
Established in 1972, CAST is a nonprofit organization of nearly 40 scientific societies, as well as individual, student, company, nonprofit, and associate members. It identifies food and fiber, environmental and other agricultural issues and provides scientific interpretation for use in policy decision making.