About COSA

Tri Societies' Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture (COSA)

The Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agricultural (COSA) will celebrate its third birthday at the annual meetings for the Tri-Societies this November in New Orleans, Louisiana. COSA is one of the groups working in outreach under the tri-societies structure. As a committee, COSA is able to involve individuals who are not tri-society members in committee activities. This expands the impact of the societies while encouraging the membership to development of unique strategies for solving agro-ecosystem challenges. Last November the committee held it’s Annual COSA Roundtable Event which focused on systems research methods. The breakout sessions at this event discussed how to address the challenges of performing systems research and can be viewed on the COSA blog at http://www.cosagroup.blogspot.com under April 2007 on the sidebar.

The Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture also has several active subcommittees which discus topics such as systems research methods, participatory research methods, classical plant and animal breeding, and education/outreach for sustainable agro-ecosystems theory and research. The subcommittees work on planning events for the annual meetings or other relevant national meetings to educate members and the public about interdisciplinary and participatory research methods.

Committee membership involves a variety of researchers and non-profit colleagues who work with low input production management systems and environmental quality. The committee events engage multiple disciplines and encourage the use of agri-ecological principles to mitigate agriculture non-point source pollution, regulate pests with integrated biodiversity management, and utilize organic waste in the form of manure or plant and animal residue to reduce impact and/or need of amendments.

The Committee on Organic and Sustainable Agriculture (COSA) is seeking applicants for membership in the next three months (June-August). The committee currently consists of 17 members. COSA members work in a variety of geographic regions, professional vocations, and possess various levels of experience. The interdisciplinary nature of the collective members allows for a broad range of perspectives to be expressed during monthly committee conference calls and other activities.

If you are interested, please contact Kim Leval, COSA Chair, (541) 687-1490 or by email at kimlevalqwest.net if you have questions.

FACES OF COSA

In an effort to capture the many faces of COSA, sustaining members were asked to answer why they decided to apply for membership to COSA, what role do they think that COSA plays in guiding the content of scientific literature, what progress has COSA made since its inception, and what are their visions for the future.

  1. Why did you apply for membership to COSA?

    I started my involvement with the Tri-Societies as the Science Policy Intern with Karl Glasener in Washington, DC, and after that was finished, I did an internship with the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, DC. When I started graduate school, I really wanted to stay involved in policy issues, particularly related to sustainable agriculture and research, and the COSA group fit that interest perfectly. Julie Dawson

    Working at the federal level in research, education, and extension funding activities, I think it is important to provide outreach to our stakeholders. Since my area of work is related to sustainable agriculture issues, COSA provides a good opportunity to interact with researchers, educators, and extension personnel through the professional society sponsored programs.Diana Jerkins

    2. Stefan Seiter

  2. What role do the activities of COSA play in developing scientific literature?

    I think that literature written by the members of COSA is certainly influenced by our internal discussions. Our deliberations on systems thinking and participatory approaches contribute to a more holistic view of the agricultural science, and with that change the committee members' contribution to the scientific literature. Stefan Seiter

    I hope that the programs that COSA sponsors will help to answer and inspire questions related to organic and sustainable agriculture needs and past research efforts. Because these topics need to be looked at from a systems perspective, perhaps we can also help to bring people from different disciplines together to discuss potential future projects. By providing for symposiums that are directed to future important issues, this should guide or provide input into expanding current scientific projects and lead to addressing gaps in sustainable science. COSA can provide ideas and information for expanding results by stimulating research, education, and extension activities to be added to existing literature.Diana Jerkins

  3. Do you think that COSA has progressed since its inception? How or why not?

    Yes, I certainly think that COSA has progressed. We have become more comfortable working with each other. Committee members are enthusiastic and come with initiative as well as respect for others' opinions. There is more willingness to try out unconventional ways of organizing meetings and discussions. The committee work also has spawned various collaborations between individual members outside the COSA responsibilities.Stefan Seiter

    4. Diana Jerkins

  4. What do you envision in the future of the Committee?

    I would like to see more people involved in work related to sustainable and organic agriculture. It would be good if COSA could facilitate communication between scientists researching sustainable systems and farmers practicing sustainable agriculture. This would help us work together on research and policy initiatives. It is my hope that we are also able to expand our scope beyond the US to include scientists and farmers from other countries. Julie Dawson

    Tri-Society members had a chance to guide future committee activities with the interactive COSA poster at last year's annual meetings in Indianapolis. I think that we will continue to updating members on policy issues as well as organizing discussions and symposia at the annual meetings focused on one or two scientific issues. In the future I envision COSA taking the feedback from these discussions and developing "how to" type guidance documents and workshops so that Tri-Society members and others can use this information in their investigations of agricultural ecosystems. Stefan Seiter

    Each year we ask participants at the meetings for recommendation for future interest areas. Organic agriculture is continuing to expand in public interest, so research efforts will need to be broadened to meet the needs of producers and markets to meet this demand. Sustainable agriculture is beginning to refocus of specific issues such as biofuels production and ecosystem services. I think we should help researcher, educators, and extension personnel better understand how to apply the concept of sustainable agriculture, no matter what their disciplinary or scientific interest may be.Diana Jerkins