Upgrading our life quality by eco-agriculture: Develop and conserve, live and save

---Address to at 2010 Sino-US Symposium on Eco-Agriculture

Claremont, Los Angeles, USA

May 12-19, 2010

Dr. Prof. Wang Yingkuan

Co-Chair of the Symposium on China Side

Editor-in-Chief of Agricultural Engineering International: CIGR Journal

Managing Editor of International Journal of Agricultural & Biological Engineering

Associate Editor-in-Chief of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, CAAE and CSAE

Drafted on May 11, 2010, Beijing, China

Delivered on May 13, 2010, Los Angeles, USA

Dear Mr. Chair Prof John Cobb, Prof Lester Young, Prof. Wang Zhihe, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Good morning!

I am every pleased and excited to speak here on behalf of all the Chinese participants. This symposium was jointly sponsored by Agricultural College, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, Institute for Postmodern Development of China, and International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (IJABE) co-sponsored by Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering (CSAE). The reason why we can successfully hold this meeting here today is because many organizations and experts made great efforts. Therefore, we must thank Prof Lester Young, the Dean of Agricultural College, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Prof Wang Zhihe, the Director of the Institute for Postmodern Development of China, and Mr. Bin Xi, the General Manager of Beijing Xinde Chuangye Culture Company. My special thanks go to Prof. Zhu Ming, the president of CAAE and CSAE for his great support to this symposium and warm greeting to all the experts and participants. Thank Prof Ruihong Zhang and Zhongli Pan from UC Davis, although they cannot come to Claremont to attend this meeting, they will welcome us at Davis. They help us to arrange a wonderful technical visit to UC Davis, and they will give us two wonderful presentations on May 18. Thank you all.

Although we spent no more than one month to organize the participants to attend this meeting, through our joint efforts, we still have attracted over 60 registrants, and 40 of them finally planed to attend this symposium. Unfortunately, we could make appointments from US Embassy to China for Visa interview for no more than 25 registrants. A few of them finally cancelled the interview and some failed to go with our delegation even after getting their Visas for all kinds of reasons. Therefore, our Chinese delegation has finally 17 members to come to US. If we were given more time, if we held the meeting in June, I am sure more participants would attend this meeting. Even so, we can say this is a good start. Well begun is half done. This first try will lay a good basis for our future cooperation.

Today, we are getting together here to discuss the frontier issues and latest progress in eco-agriculture. First, we need to make clear a basic question: What is eco-agriculture?

"Eco-agriculture" is a term first coined in 2000 (by Sara Scherr and Jeffrey McNeely, authors of the Future Harvest-commissioned report Common Ground, Common Future: How Ecoagriculture Can Help Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity) to convey a vision of rural communities managing their resources to jointly achieve three broad goals at a landscape scale — what are referred to as the “Three Pillars” of eco-agriculture:

Enhance rural livelihoods;

Conserve or enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services; and

Develop more sustainable and productive agricultural systems.

Eco-agriculture is both a conservation strategy and a rural development strategy. Eco-agriculture recognizes agricultural producers and communities as key stewards of ecosystems and biodiversity and enables them to play those roles effectively. Eco-agriculture applies an integrated ecosystem approach to agricultural landscapes to address all three pillars, drawing on diverse elements of production and conservation management systems. Meeting the goals of eco-agriculture usually requires collaboration or coordination between diverse stakeholders who are collectively responsible for managing key components of a landscape.

According to The Nairobi Declaration, we need to build a framework that seeks to simultaneously achieve improved livelihoods, conservation of biodiversity (genetic resources, ecosystem services and wild flora and fauna), and sustainable production at a landscape scale. This is the essence of eco-agriculture. However, the production of food, forest and wetland products as it is often practiced--in both intensive and extensive systems-- is one of the chief challenges to improved livelihoods, biodiversity and sustainability. In short, an eco-agricultural system should be landscapes for people, food and nature.

In this symposium, we have invited over ten keynote speakers. I am sure, they will provide wonderful speeches. There are also over twenty papers submitted for this meeting. Their topics cover a wide range of elements of eco-agriculture, including patterns for eco-farming system and production, conservation tillage, soil and water engineering, soil environmental protection, recycling agriculture, renewable energy, and sewage treatment for scaled swine farms. I believe in-depth exchange and discussion will increase the awareness and common understanding of eco-agriculture, which may inspire new ideas and thoughts.

In my opinion, eco-agriculture is A Must for China’s Agriculture. From the aspects of the practice, our eco-agriculture advocator should adopt a constructively Eco-friendly Lifestyle, going green, and living an environmentally friendly everyday life. We will seek and learn new ways on how to live well and save the planet. Our thought should be based on a comprehensive understanding of matter, an appreciation of the integration of mind, heart, and body; a harmony of science and society. Eco-agriculture emphases the ecological, the value of nature, the creative, the harmonious, and the sustainable; it advocates the education “for the whole mankind”.

Therefore, through this meeting, with the deep and personal conversations, we will share experiences, gain knowledge, build new partnerships, broaden awareness of the potentials of eco-agriculture, make friends and develop relationships to support our activities. We will harvest Knowledge, Wisdom, Friendship, Joyful Memories, and the Adventurous Spirit.

I wish this symposium a great success! I wish all the Chinese participants will enjoy your stay in US. Have a pleasant trip in the following days.

Thank you.