Not to be missed: 2022 Annual Meeting opening keynote, plenary presentations

Richard Harris: Opening Keynote

Richard Harris, Veteran NPR Science Correspondent, will open the November 2022 International Annual Meeting with “Conveying the Truth in a World of Doubt.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how difficult it can be to convey important science-based information to a skeptical segment of the public. This disconnect is hardly news to scientists whose work intersects with climate change. Richard Harris will talk about how to communicate effectively in this treacherous landscape so that scientists can help neighbors, voters, and policymakers arrive at fact-based decisions.

Jo Handelsman: SSSA Plenary/Nyle C. Brady Frontiers of Soil Science Lectureship

Jo Handelsman, Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, will present “Soil Erosion and Public Engagement.” This lecture will discuss the soil erosion crisis and how scientists can engage with the public about it.

Soil is no longer a renewable resource. Many locations in the world are losing topsoil 10 to 100 times faster than it is generated. At current rates of erosion, large tracts of the world’s most productive farmland will be devoid of topsoil by the end of this century, rendering the earth unable to sustain food production for its burgeoning population. Moreover, soil is earth’s largest terrestrial carbon sink, which stockpiles three times as much carbon than the entire atmosphere and four times as much as all of earth’s vegetation. Given the loss of 133 billion tons of carbon from soil in the last two centuries, the soil offers a vast repository for carbon deposition, making it a key player in addressing climate change. Erosion is a problem we know how to address. As soil scientists, we have the responsibility to engage with the public, politicians, and international policymakers to find ways to implement soil conservation practices at the local and global scales.

Brady Deaton, Jr.: ASA Plenary/E.T. & Vam York Distinguished ASA Lectureship

Brady Deaton, Jr., McCain Family Chair in Food Security at the University of Guelph, will present “Institutional Alertness and Research on Land Use and Drinking Water Quality.”

In this presentation, Deaton provides an overview of his research and outreach efforts to understand and enhance the use of resources to improve human well-being. He defines “institutional alertness” and explains why it serves as the key conceptual compass he uses to navigate and focus his research. Deaton will provide specific examples from his research examining land ownership in rural regions of the United States, farmland rental arrangements in Canada, and drinking water sharing arrangements on First Nations located in Canada.

Jessica B. Harris: CSSA Plenary/Betty Klepper Endowed Lectureship

Jessica B. Harris, Professor Emerita, Queens College/CUNY, will present “Same Boat Different Stops: Culinary and Cultural Connections in the African Atlantic World.”

The plenary will present some ways in which the food and foodways of the African Atlantic World are inter-connected by examining several crops that have their origin on the African continent and discussing the culinary and cultural links that connect them to the countries of the American Hemisphere. Using visuals and selected references from works both culinary and literary, the presentation will give specific examples of dishes and highlight not only their use of the ingredient in question but also the ways in which culinary and cultural uses vary from country to country within the Americas.

Learn more at acsmeetings.org/speakers and register at acsmeetings.org/register. Early Bird registration ends 3 October!

Can’t join us in person? Join us virtually! The limited virtual option is a limited version of our in-person meeting and includes access to recordings of the opening keynote and Agronomic Science Foundation lectureship series along with hundreds of internationally contributed virtual oral and poster presentations.