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Biography |
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I received a BSc in biochemistry from California State Polytechnic University – San Luis Obispo in 1972 and PhD from Michigan State University in 1981. From 1982 to 1985, I was a Senior Research Chemist at Merck Sharp and Dohme Agricultural Research and Development, and part of the team that developed a new class of insecticides – the avermectins. In 1985, I joined the University of Massachusetts as an Experiment Station researcher, Extension Specialist, and Associate Director of the Massachusetts Pesticide Analysis Laboratory. In 1990, I joined the Agricultural Chemistry Department – now the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology – at Oregon State University. My current research activities include laboratory and field studies to examine the impact of pesticide use on air and water quality, studies designed to investigate human and wildlife exposure as a result of pesticide use in both agricultural and urban settings, studies which investigate the effect of sub-lethal exposures on fitness and survival, as well as surface water monitoring and watershed-scale ecohydrologic modeling and geospatial analysis to better characterize pesticide fate and patterns of exposure. Collaborative research investigates impacts of chemical use on individuals, populations, and ecosystems. This research is designed to reduce uncertainty is assessing pesticide risks that may assist in the development of technologies that mitigate adverse human and environmental impacts. Outreach activities include the development of pesticide risk assessment methodology, tools, and materials to communicate risks to the general public, stakeholders, and policy-makers. A primary goal is to translate scientific methods and findings to a broad and diverse audience. This outcome-driven approach strives to promote transparency and dialogue about risks associated with exposure to pesticides and other environmental agents and to improve use of risk information in individual decision-making and public policy. International efforts, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, have focused on capacity building in risk assessment methods applied to food security, food safety and defense, and human and environmental health. I am a Division Fellow of the American Chemical Society and President of the Toxicology Education Foundation.
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Abstract |
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A Systems Approach to crop production, food security, and protection of human and environmental health |
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There is increasing concern in the developed world that current large scale conventional agricultural practices rely too heavily on unsustainable technologies, to include synthetic chemicals often coupled with genetically modified crops. Sustainable practices espouse to balance profitability with enhancing environmental quality and protecting the natural resource base, while increasing the quality of life for farmers, farm workers, and society as a whole. With market-based restrictions, organic agriculture seeks similar goals. More recently One Health imperatives have broadened the focus; they contend that human health, animal health, and ecosystem health are inextricably linked, thereby resulting in additional concern that agricultural practices may degrade ecosystem services in new ways directly impacting human and animal health. Growing uncertainty has put governments under increasing pressure to reevaluate their environmental policies for agriculture, beginning with the supporting science and risk assessment methods. Consideration of robust integrated crop management practices that meet sustainability goals, as well as critical evaluation of chemical and molecular biology technologies that may be necessary to meet food security needs, requires a systems approach that is framed by production at watershed and regional scales, sufficiently conceptualizes the real world setting, and offers probabilities for alternative outcomes. An example using watershed-scale ecohydrology modeling of agricultural chemical use in the Pacific Northwest of the United States will be provided. |
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