The Center for Global Metropolitan Studies presents:

Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge: New Ruralism and other Strategies for Sustainable Development

A symposium to be held
April 5-6, 2007
University of California, Berkeley

Call for Presentations
Due December 1, 2006

The New Ruralism Symposium, a project of the Agriculture at the Metropolitan Edge Program (AME), will bring together researchers, practitioners, producers and policy makers involved in bridging sustainable agriculture and smart growth. The symposium will explore systems and placed-based issues affecting the urban-rural interface.

We are inviting proposals for presentations, papers, and sessions that relate to the four themes below. Suggested topics follow each theme. We encourage proposals about best practices and innovative projects.

Urban Edge Land Use Policy and Economics
- role of regulations and incentives, value of interfacing with green-space, approaches to planning agricultural edges

Environmental Services and Impacts of Urban Edge Agriculture
- appropriate technology, energetics, quantifying ecological services, water rights and reuse

Vitality of Rural Communities in Metropolitan-influenced Areas
- social mobilization issues, slow cities movement, socio-economics of agriculture on the edge

Emerging Urban-Rural Compact
- local food systems, role of culture and tradition, intersection with public health

Abstracts of contributed papers, presentations, and panel discussions are due December 1, 2006. Late proposals will be considered only on a space-available basis. Notification about acceptance of proposals will be made byJanuary 10, 2007.

All abstracts should be 250 words or fewer. Abstracts for sessions and panel discussions should describe the session's content and include the name, affiliation, and address of the moderator, and a tentative roster of panelists or other participants.

If you have questions about the symposium or the proposal process, or would like to request the information and abstract form, please contact: Sibella Kraus, AME Director (sibellakraus@berkeley.edu) or Alethea Marie Harper, Graduate Student Researcher for AME (alethea_marie@berkeley.edu). Once you complete the two-page information and abstract form, submit to the following email address: alethea_marie@berkeley.edu.