About Us

OUR MISSION

To foster environmentally sound agricultural innovation.

Agriculture is a system of production of food, feed and fiber for humankind. It is one of, if not, humankind’s greatest innovation(s). The process of agriculture requires physical, chemical and biological disturbance of natural environments.  For agriculture to be successful on a long-term basis, it must be environmentally sound. This mandates that appropriate amounts that clean air, freshwater, healthy soil and diverse biological resources be readily available.  They (the resources) must be managed in a way that achieves a dynamic  equilibrium. This requires highly skilled individuals capable of responding rapidly and properly to changes in the environment. In a world of almost ten billion people, these individuals are modern-day heroes.

Professor Bird’s Condensed CV

George W. Bird is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Entomology at Michigan State University. He is a native of New England where he spent part of his childhood on a poultry-dairy farm in southeastern Vermont and his teen years in the apple growing community of Granville, Massachusetts. Dr. Bird received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Rutgers University and the Ph.D. from Cornell University. Before coming to Michigan State University in 1973, he was a Research Scientist with Agriculture Canada and an Associate Professor at the University of Georgia. In 2022, Professor Bird conducts soil health biology research and teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses. He served as National Director of SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program), is a Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society, Fellow of the Society of Nematologists and a member of the Rodale Institute Board of Directors. Among George’s honors are the Michigan State University Distinguished Faculty, Michigan Vegetable Council Associate Farmer, Melvin Jones Humanitarian Services, North Central Sustainable Agriculture Hero, and Howard/Lili Ann Camden Teacher/Scholar awards. His books include a memoir entitled, Pioneering in 19^th, 20^th and 21^st Centuries: from a Covered Wagon to an Anthropocene,  Ecosystem-Based Agriculture: the Pillar of Global Food Security and Developing and Extending Sustainable Agriculture: A New Social Contract. Although the needs of his students and Michigan farmers were his top priority, he also participated in research and education programs in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Japan, Caribbean Islands/South-Central America and Zimbabwe. He prefers his adopted Central Asia name of Professor Geroge.

Board of Directors