Sustainable
Farming In The 21st Century
Focus Of New Study
National Research Council Appoints
Ann Thrupp Fetzer Organic Expert
Adds Expertise To Seek Sustainable Solutions
Washington
D.C. (Feb. 11, 2008) - Dr. Ann Thrupp,
who leads Fetzer Vineyards sustainability and
environmental efforts, has been appointed to the National
Research Council's Committee on 21st Century Systems
Agriculture. Operating as part of the National
Academy of Sciences, the NRC committee will produce
a study that will ideally lead to increasing environmental awareness
and understanding and adoption of sustainable agriculture practices
worldwide.
Fetzer
Vineyards is part of Brown-Forman Beverages. Dr. Thrupp was
the first Managing Director of the California Sustainable
Winegrowing Alliance, where she served in addition
to overseeing Fetzer's organic development and sustainability
activities, working closely with growers. Earlier, she worked
with the Environmental Protection Agency's Agriculture Initiative
and for much of the 1990's she was the Director of Sustainable
Agriculture at the World Resources Institute,
where she worked extensively on international agriculture and
natural resource management issues, particularly in Latin America.
The
NRC Committee, which includes experts from
a variety of universities and leading sustainable agriculture
companies and think tanks, will build on an earlier report called
Alternative Agriculture, which, upon its publication in 1989,
led to the adoption of then unconventional farming practices
such as integrated pest management, conservation tillage and
crop rotations. The study is sponsored, in part, by the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation.
The
Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources
(BANR) is the major program unit of the National Research
Council (NRC) responsible for organizing and overseeing
studies on issues of agricultural production and related matters
of natural resource development, including forestry, fisheries,
wildlife, and land and water use. For more information, visit
the web at http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=48873
Fetzer
Vineyards has been the leading producer of Earth-Friendly
Wines™ from sustainable practices for more than two decades.
To learn more about Fetzer's broad array of environmental initiatives,
visit Fetzer on the web at www.Fetzer.com
