Program Highlights: Social Responsibility Initiative
Director’s Message: Social Responsibility Initiative Seeks a Delicate Balance
Some exciting things have happened with the Social Responsibility Initiative over the past year. With this newsletter — envisioned as an annual update of our activities — I’d like to share with you, who we are and what we have been doing.
The Social Responsibility Initiative (SRI) is a reaffirmation of the public service mission of the land-grant institution. In the past, land-grant institutions have helped farmers to produce low-cost, abundant, and readily available food — and the consuming public has benefited. While an inexpensive and plentiful food supply is still a priority, agricultural scientists increasingly recognize that today’s consumers are calling for safe, wholesome, and nutritious food produced ethically, humanely, and without adversely affecting the environment. As a result, socially responsible food and agricultural production involves recognition of the need to strike a delicate balance between people, profit, and planet.
Since the inception of the Social Responsibility Initiative in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State University in 2005, we have been engaged in a wide variety of activities to expand the purpose and mission of a socially responsible food and agricultural system. I am pleased to highlight a few of the projects and activities we have been working on over the past year. Stay tuned for more on the Social Responsibility Initiative in future newsletters and feel free to monitor our progress by bookmarking the SRI web site located at: sri.osu.edu.
Regards,
William Flinn
Director, SRI
