Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics & the Future of Food

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak

Thursday, 03 Dec 2009 at 7:00 pm – Sun Room, Memorial Union

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak are the authors of Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food, which discusses the potential combination of biotechnology and sustainable farming methods. Pamela Ronald is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis. Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding. Raoul Adamchak has grown organic crops for twenty years and has served as an inspector for California Certified Organic Farmers. He now works at the University of California, Davis, as the Market Garden Coordinator at the certified organic farm on campus. Part of the Women in STEM Series.

An informal discussion with Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak has been scheduled for 12:00 p.m. in the Gold Room, Memorial Union. Bring your lunch!

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Pamela Ronald is Professor of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis, where she studies the role that genes play in a plant's response to its environment. Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding, both of which are serious problems of rice crops in Asia and Africa. She also serves as Vice President for the Feedstocks Division and Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute.

Her work has been published in Science, Nature and other scientific periodicals and has also been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Popular Mechanics, CNN and on National Public Radio.

Ronald was a Fulbright Fellow from 1984-1985 and was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2000. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a 2008 Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. In 2008 she and her colleagues were recipients of the USDA 2008 National Research Initiative Discovery Award for their work on submergence tolerant rice. In 2009, they were finalists for the 2009 World Technology Award for Environment and nominees for the Biotech Humanitarian Award.

Raoul Adamchak is the Market Garden Coordinator at the University of California, Davis, Student Farm. The Market Garden provides experiential learning opportunities to students interested in organic agriculture. Adamchak's educational activities include programs in organic vegetable crop production, operating a CSA (community supported agriculture project), participating in farmers markets, organic green house production, vegetable variety trials, on-campus sales, equipment operation, and student-directed internships.

Adamchak worked for many years as a partner in Full Belly Farm and as an inspector of organic farms, and has served as the president of the board of California Certified Organic Farmers. He has an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from UC Davis. His career has been dedicated to the expansion and development of organic farming.

Cosponsored By:

• Agronomy
• Agronomy Graduate Student Organization
• BBMB Undergraduate Club
• Bioethics Program
• Center for Plant Responses to Env. Stresses
• Ecology, Evol & Organismal Biology
• Genetics Development & Cell Biology
• Grad Students in Sustainable Agriculture
• Interdepartmental Genetics Graduate Program
• Molecular, Cellular & Dev Biology
• NREM Graduate Student Organization
• Plant Pathology
• Plant Sciences Institute
• Student Organic Farm
• Sustainability Council
• Wallace Chair in Sustainable Agriculture
• Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)