SWCS Annual Conference reflections

Excerpt

This year's 66th International Annual Conference of the Soil and Water Conservation Society brought more than 500 conservationists to Washington, DC. For the 40 international participants from 15 countries and for conference participants from throughout the United States, it was an opportunity to visit the United States' capital city and examine global perspectives of conservation science and policy.

The plenary sessions concentrated on global efforts to address food security and agricultural land sustainability. The Fellows Forum featured a report from Mike Gangwer of the Foreign Agricultural Service on US efforts to assist postwar Afghanistan and Iraq in the restoration of agricultural infrastructure and production.

Former USDA Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman (1995–2001) delivered the H. Wayne Pritchard Lecture. He shared experiences from his service as Agriculture Secretary and also his current global agricultural development initiatives as cochair of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. A video of the Pritchard Lecture is available on the SWCS Web site. If you were not able to attend the 2011 conference, the video is a “must see.”

Jorge Delgado, USDA Agricultural Research Service Soil Scientist at Fort Collins, Colorado, presented the Society's science assessment of how soil and water conservation practices can contribute to the…