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Dr. Stuart Hill was the founder of Ecological Agriculture Projects (EAP), the successor to the
Macdonald-Stewart Institute of Agriculture that was active at McGill University in the early 1970's.The institute had a mission to promote the development of a resource efficient agriculture and produced a landmark and forward looking, two volume study for the Science Council of Canada, Canadian Agriculture in the Year 2001: Scenarios for a Resource Efficient Agriculture and an Eco-Agriculture. Stuart expanded on the idea of the Institute with the concept of EAP, a source of information on ecological farming and gardening, renewable energy, rural development, nutrition and health..
In 1974, David Stewart , a patron of the Macdonald Campus, wanted to have a feasibility study done to establish a centre for what he called biological agriculture and nutrition in human health, and he provided Stuart with the financial means to do a preliminary study, and get EAP off the ground.
At the time, a common complaint was that there was no information, no available literature on ecological agriculture, and this provided the motive for Stuart to start a resource centre to collect that literature and make it available to anyone who wanted to know how to do it.
In the early days heads would often nod in agreement when "ecological", "silly ideas", and "Stuart Hill" were mentioned in the same breath. But, things have changed, McGill now has academic programs in Ecological Agriculture, and EAP is recognized as an important source of information on all aspects of ecological agriculture.
After devoting two decades to EAP and McGill, in 1995 Prof. Hill left to take up a position as the Foundation Chair of Social Ecology, in the School of Social Ecology and Lifelong Learning at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Now retired, he remains an Adjunct Professor at the University and is Co-Editor of the Journal of Organic Systems
www.organic-systems.org/index.htmlNot long after Stuart left for Australia, EAP (Rod MacRae, Jeff Martin, Debra Viskilis, Jean Duval, and John Henning) embarked on a major project to develop a website and digitize a large volume of the works that had been done at EAP over the years. This included the work that was completed for the Agro-Bio project. This project provided extension support to Agronomes in Quebec who were working with organic farmers. All the fiches (mostly written by Jean Duval) are available on the website.
While the reference centre still exists, it is only open sparingly thanks to the efforts of the Macdonald Agro-Ecology Group.
To facilitate the establishment of food systems world-wide that are nutritionally sound, socially just, humane, economically viable and environmentally sustainable.
Since 1974, we have worked to accomplish that mission by collecting, organizing, and disseminating essential information, while conducting research, and providing expert analysis and advice to farmers, consumers, government, universities, agribusiness, and the media.
Ecological Agriculture Projects
McGill University (Macdonald Campus)
Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, CANADA
H9X 3V9