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Fields of study
Tropical agroecology, conservation biology, political ecology, ecological economics
Research interests
I am examining the ecology of agricultural ecosystems, and the social and ecological effects of agriculture and food policies. I am specifically interested in conservation and development issues in Latin America, such as deforestation, biodiversity, traditional, alternative, and organic agriculture, and sustainability, and the complex dynamics of agroecosystems from an ecological economics perspective. My research will concentrate on the food and agricultural programs of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and the ecological effects of its Municipal Secretariat of Food Supply/Security (SMAB: Secretaria Municipal da Politica de Abastacimento) in the local agroecological landscape, which is composed of agriculture and fragments of the mega-diverse Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest.
Advisor
John Vandermeer
Lab Web site
Vandermeer Lab
News
Dear “Farmer in Chief”
In a recent New York Times Magazine article, author and food activist Michael Pollan wrote an open letter to President-Elect Barack Obama about what he thinks he can and should do to remake the way we grow and eat our food. He cites the organic agriculture study by Professors Catherine Badgley and Ivette Perfecto, and M. Jahi Chappell, EEB Ph.D. student, and others in SNRE, in the article “Farmer in Chief.”
On Page 5, the article says, “First, bear in mind that the average yield of world agriculture today is substantially lower than that of modern sustainable farming. According to a recent University of Michigan study, merely bringing international yields up to today’s organic levels could increase the world’s food supply by 50 percent."
It’s Cornell for Chappell
M. Jahi Chappell has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. Chappell will spend two years in the Department of Science and Technology Studies beginning in December 2008. He will contribute to the scholarship, research, and teaching at S&TS and spend time in EEB, collaborating and possibly teaching there. Congratulations!
Organic food can help poor
A widely picked up Associated Press wire story released 5/5/2007 “Switch to Organic Crops Could Help Poor” cites U-M research done by Professor Catherine Badgley and Michael Jahi Chappell, Ph.D. candidate.
Their economic models suggest that a global shift to organic agriculture may be able to not only provide enough food for the planet, but do so in a much more environmentally-friendly way. A number of students from the School of Natural Resources and Environment and Professor Ivette Perfecto, SNRE, co-wrote the article with Badgley and Chappell. It will be published in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems this month.
Recent publications
Badgley, C., J.K. Moghtader, E. Quintero, E. Zakem, M.J. Chappell, K.R. Avilés Vásquez, A. Samulon, and I. Perfecto. 2007. Organic agriculture and the global food supply. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22(2):86-108.
Badgley, C., I. Perfecto, M. J. Chappell and A. Samulon. 2007. Strengthening the case for organic agriculture: Response to Alex Avery. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22(4):323-324.
Vandermeer, J. H., I. Perfecto, S. M. Philpott and M. J. Chappell. 2008. Reenfocando la conservación el el paisaje: La importancia de la matriz, in C. A. Harvey and J. C. Saénz (eds.), Evaluación y conservación de biodiversidad en paisajes fragmentados de Mesoamérica. Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica: Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio)
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