El día 30 de enero de 2014 se inaugura el Ciclo de Conferencias organizado por el Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales de Aragón con la conferencia «UWA FUTURE FARM 2050 – THE PROJECT» impartida por el Prof. Graeme B. Martin (University of Western Australia – UWA)
LUGAR: Facultad de Veterinaria. Sala de Grados
HORA: 12.00 h.
ABSTRACT:
This presentation introduces the UWA Future Farm 2050 Project. The mission is to develop innovative farming practices so the world can feed 50% more people by the year 2050 without destroying the planet. The Future Farm thus promotes environmental management and biodiversity conservation, whilst maintaining a primary focus on enterprise profitability, remembering that agriculture is the world’s biggest industry and that food is a major part of the economy of most countries.
To achieve this aim, the University of WA bought a 1600 ha farm in 2008 and developed a project that draws on expertise from the agricultural sciences, resource economics, architecture, landscape architecture, electronic engineering (solar energy), and landscape ecology. Importantly, future farms must be good neighbours, contribute to the local economy, and serve as a link between the city and the country … while addressing the biggest issue facing humanity.
BRIEF BIO:
Graeme B Martin BSc(Agric) PhD
Winthrop Professor, Chair in Animal Science. The University of Western Australia
Deputy Director, UWA Institute of Agriculture
Deputy Program Leader, Animal Production Systems http://www.ioa.uwa.edu.au/research/animal
Chair, UWA Future Farm 2050: http://www.ioa.uwa.edu.au/future-farm-2050
Graeme Martin grew up on a farm in Western Australia (WA) and completed his BSc (Agriculture) and PhD at the University of WA (UWA). He then spent 2 years in France (Institut National de al Recherche Agronomique, Tours) and 3 years in the UK (Medical Research Council, Edinburgh) before returning to WA in 1987. He was promoted to Professor (Chair) at UWA in 2001 and has just completed a 7-year term as Head of the School of Animal Biology. He is currently Deputy Director of the UWA Institute of Agriculture, and on sabbatical leave at the University of Oxford.
His research team mostly works on brain function, reproduction and metabolism, with a particular focus on how environmental factors influence the reproductive system of sheep. He also supervises projects on reproduction in emus, ostriches, marsupials, dogs and African mammals.
He has won $4m research funding, primarily from the Australian Research Council, the National Health & Medical Research Council, the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation, and Meat & Livestock Australia. He has supervised 25 PhD students to completion and published over 275 international peer-reviewed papers. Over the past 5 years, he has pioneered the concept of clean, green and ethical (CGE) systems of animal production and promoted it nationally and internationally. CGE management of livestock forms the foundation of his undergraduate teaching and his postgraduate program.
He is also committed to science communication and teaches the theory and practice at his university. His work has featured at least 170 times in mass media. Recognising the need to feed 50% more people without destroying the planet, he established ‘UWA Future Farm 2050’, a major project with the vision: An Ideal Farm for 2050 – Do It Now.