Co-Producers of this years conference:


Kansas City, KS Community College

Wyandotte County Health Department

870days since
3rd Annual Conference
Agenda‎ > ‎

Sustainable Food Production and Vegetarianism






Curtis V. Smith, Professor of Biological Sciences at Kansas City Kansas Community College. This is a photo of him in the Peruvian Amazon









Elisabeth Kasckow is a full-time instructor of biological science at Kansas City Kansas Community College. She holds an M.S. Degree in biology from Baylor University and lived for 20 years in the Colorado Desert of southeastern California where she worked as an R&D Biologist for two different biotechnology/aquaculture operations. She previously served in Peace Corps with the fish project in Senegal, West Africa. Her current research interests involve the services, such as air and water purification, that nature provides for us. Here she is two summers ago on the Galapagos Islands.



January 9, 2010 ~ 10:00-11:45 AM

Sustainability 101 – Food Production and Vegetarianism
By Professors Elisabeth Kasckow, Ernie May, and Curtis Smith
From Kansas City Kansas Community College


Outline of 90 minute presentations – theme “problem global – think local”

I. Maladaptive evolutionary behaviors: What is unsustainable about the way North America grows food?

  • Large agricultural enterprises are biggest resource users and polluters
  • Energy overuse (20% of all U.S. Energy for growing food)
  • Clearing too much land loss of prairie, wetland, forest, wildlife, & fish.
  • Too much CO2 production currently (need to reach magic 550 number)

II. What is wrong with the way we are planting crops in the U.S.?

  • The way we deal with soil nutrient loss (herbicides).
  • Pesticides
  • Irrigation systems
  • Lack of plant species diversity
  • What can you do as a consumer?  Vegetarianism.  What fruits, vegetables and other crops have smallest environmental footprint?  

III. What is wrong with the way we are growing livestock?

  • Land damage: soil erosion, water depletion, desert formation
  • Animal waste
  • Grain for animals
  • What can you do as a consumer?  What animal products have the least environmental impact?   Grass fed versus grain feed beef.

IV. Fishing

  • Nets and filament lines
  • Overfishing
  • Energy intensive industry
  • Mercury in fish
  • What can you do as a consumer?  

V. Waxman – Markey Bill:  the Political Economy of Food.


This session is sponsored by:
Kansas City Kansas Community College