Along with his co-author Barry Goodwin, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University, who's the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, Arizona State University Agribusiness Professor Ashok Mishra published their research, “Farm Income Variability and the Supply of Off-Farm Labor,” in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics in 1997. The paper, which has been referenced more than 420 times in the literature, has received the 2020 Publication of Lasting Impact award from the Agricultural Finance and Management section of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA).

The Publication of Lasting Impact award is granted to encourage excellence in publications in fields consistent with the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. One award is given each year for a publication with the publication date falling at least 10 years before the year of recognition. Entries are judged based on the enduring quality of the publication to the profession. The award is made by the Agricultural Finance and Management section of the AAEA, and a committee of applied economists from the AAEA selects the article from all nominations.

In our June Sustainability Strategist newsletter, we highlight the interconnection between social justice and sustainability, introduce our new Sustainability Strategist Snippets video series, and the launch of a free, online learning portal - Sustainable Earth.

"Sustainability is founded on the principles of social justice..."

ASU School of Sustainability Dean Chris Boone connects the dots between sustainability and social justice, and the need to "stand up to racism and stop discrimination."

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ASU's Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks, or TOMNET, is a Tier 1 University Transportation Center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation to explore public outlook on the evolving transportation landscape. The center is led by sustainability scientists Ram Pendyala, Deborah Salon and Sara Khoeini.

Designs, concepts and prototypes for technologies to make transportation more efficient and economical are under development in many research labs and automotive industry facilities. But innovations that improve performance and broaden options for transport are not enough to ensure progress in those efforts will fulfill their potential.

The success of technologically advanced means of automated movement of people, products and services depends just as much or more on public attitudes, values, perceptions and willingness to embrace new and different things.

Autonomous vehicles offer a particular case in point, explored in this ASU Now article.

This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Dr. Angel Cruz. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Angel is the academic and extension initiatives manager at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) at NC State University where she champions sustainable ag education and career development across North Carolina. 

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The National Science Foundation has issued a solicitation for Dynamics of Integrated Socio-Environmental Systems (DISES). This solicitation is an update of the program previously known as CNH and CNH2. Full proposals are due November 16, 2020.

In the last five years, the state of Arizona has received a total of seven CNH-L and CNH2 awards; two of those awards have been to ASU sustainability scientists.

The DISES program acknowledges a continuum of environments from those with very limited human populations (e.g. polar regions) to those in which human systems and processes fully dominate (e.g. densely populated megacities). There are integrated systems operating in all these spaces, and many can be considered as domains for DISES study.

For the purposes of this solicitation, NSF defines the "socio" or human component of the system as one predominantly governed by human decisions, actions, and behaviors, and we define the "environmental" component of the system as one predominantly governed by biological, physical, and chemical processes. DISES projects can include research that investigates integrated socio-environmental systems in agricultural as well as in urban settings.

An international group of philosophers of science (Michiru Nagatsu, University of Helsinki; Taylor Davis, Purdue University; C. Tyler DesRoches*, Arizona State University; Inkeri Koskinen, Tampere University; Miles MacLeod, University of Twente; Milutin Stojanovic, University of Helsinki; Henrik Thorén; University of Helsinki) recently wrote an article entitled “Philosophy of Science for Sustainability Science" on the nature and significance of sustainability science. This article is forthcoming in the journal Sustainability Science.

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This article was written by William Walker VI, a junior in the School of Sustainability

As environmentalists and caretakers of the earth, it is our duty to ensure the prosperity of all environments as well as the built environment around us. But what if the environments we have built have a story of systemic racism, prejudice, redlining, exploitation, and marginalization of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) communities? Is it possible to include conservationists, economists, urban planners, sustainability professionals, and social activists in the reformation process? To this question, I say that we should recognize the systemic racism in our society as an environmental issue and that racial equity should be the focal point for sustainable development.

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COVID-19 has birthed a new podcast club, which provides a unique way to talk about the things that make us human. The series is founded by sustainability scholar Neal Lester, founding director of Project Humanities.

It’s essentially an extension of the award-winning initiative's event series and is designed to keep community conversations going during summer 2020. For this new programming, Project Humanities has selected popular podcasts that are accessible, provocative and linked to topics related to past and future Project Humanities events. These one-hour virtual conversations will be co-facilitated by a Project Humanities team member in partnership with community members, supporters and partners.

The hour-long podcast discussions will occur every other Thursday at 6 p.m. (MST) and will be broadcast via Zoom and Facebook Live. Topics include corporeal punishment and African American parenting, death and dying, youth mental health as related to academic pressures, menstrual equity, and police departments and neglected rape kits.

Surdax Investments goes beyond sanitizing offices — it is creating a new environment for economic growth in Zimbabwe. Intending to eradicate poverty, Surdax offers positions for women and youth to support their families and stimulate the local economy through outsourcing labor. Currently, this organization supports the environment by safely disposing of its sanitary waste. It intends to continue growing so that it can include the safe disposal of other waste produced in Zimbabwe.

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Led by her passion for empowering communities through sustainable development, Master of Sustainability Solutions student Abigail Johnson worked in the western African country of Togo on a documentary film about homegrown sustainability solutions. By amplifying marginalized voices and showing grassroots sustainability initiatives, Johnson counterbalanced the prevalent narrative that sustainability in Africa can only be done with non-African resources and people.

“Oui, Nous Pouvons” (translation: Yes, We Can) opens with Abby’s narrative, “I came to Togo as a Peace Corps volunteer, but just to be clear this is not my story. It’s a story about the people I met here and about the stories they tell themselves and each other.” And the story she tells focuses on a Togo community member named Aposto who has put his master’s degree in sociology to good use by creating homegrown solutions to local sustainability challenges.

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In the latest thought leader piece from the Global Futures Laboratory, "Societies in Conflict," Craig Calhoun — University Professor of Social Sciences in the School of Sustainability — draws parallels between recent racial justice protests in the United States and 1989 protests for democratic freedoms in Tiananmen Square, China.

You can read the piece on Medium. To ensure you don’t miss any Global Futures Laboratory Medium posts, follow our Medium channel directly, or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn where we announce all new posts.

This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Brandee Kitzmiller. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Brandee is a garden educator for the nonprofit Island Grown Schools.

During our time on Capitol Hill our cohort was able to have a meeting with the chair of the Committee on Rules, Jim McGovern. This was our only meeting in the Capitol building and, as our badges stated, it was official business. We rode the connecting tram from Rayburn building into the Capitol and headed to the Committee on Rules.

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ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber will be delivering a virtual talk on Thursday, June 11, 2020, titled “A Global Strategy for Preventing the Next Pandemic.”

This webinar will take place via Zoom at 12:00 p.m. AZ Time and 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US and Canada).

While the media and the public are focusing on the wildlife trade as the main factor for COVID-19, Gerber believes it is only one part of the equation. During this talk, she will discuss her proposal for combating future infectious diseases by implementing a global body backed by science, which she calls the Zoonotic Disease Commission.

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With the current climate crisis comes the realization that infrastructure built on climate models of the past is no longer sufficient for weather events today. The concept of stationarity will need to give way to more flexible and adaptable engineering approaches that embrace deep uncertainty. In the Vice News article Our Infrastructure is Being Built for a Climate That's Already Gone examples of failed infrastructure are illustrated.

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Meet Doctor of Philosophy in Sustainability alumna Neda Mohaved. Her work is centered around international development as human development, and most recently “how we wear water.”

“Throughout the project, I worked with water metaphorically to equate the process of learning with embracing change. Paradigm shifts needed for sustainability require transformative learning where one is open to being shaped by new knowledge and experience," Movahed said. Read more in her Q&A.