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ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE PROJECTS:

by Jeff Johnston

Ecological Agriculture Projects (EAP), the large sustainable agriculture resource library based at Macdonald College of McGill University is the creation of Dr. Stuart Hill, a well known proponent of ecological agriculture, EAP almost closed its doors due to lack of interest from McGill faculty and a funding crisis after Dr. Hill moved to Australia in 1995. Luckily, Rod MacRae, who runs the Toronto Food Policy Council, took over the reins at EAP. He was able to secure funding for EAP to continue providing valuable information to organic and conventional farmers.

With input from COG executives and others, Rod submitted a proposal to the Canadian Farm Business Management Council to create a World Wide Web site. This web site will allow users to:

The EAP staff also hope to use the site to offer distance education courses on ecological agriculture.

The web site is just part of the services EAP is making available to users. Other services include:

The CFBMC grant will allow EAP to launch the web site and convert many of its papers to electronic files. Unfortunately, the grant does not cover annual operating costs such as salaries, rent and telephone and EAP does not receive any government funding. Therefore, the on-line database is being set up as a membership organization.

Part of the web site will be freely accessible to anyone browsing the web; on it will be general information about EAP and other organizations (such as COG), information about the site, samples of what is contained in the members-only part of the site, and the catalogue of EAP resource center holdings. Members will have access to, and receive discounts on, all the services mentioned above. Non-members will have access to only certain of these services, and will pay for them at the full rate.

I am excited about the opportunities that the EAP electronic information services represent for many reasons. First, Canadian farmers and growers finally have access to information that can help them reduce costs and increase their income. Second, information about ecological agriculture will now be widely accessible by anyone with a computer. Third, EAP is doing what many people believed impossible – creating an information clearinghouse for sustainable agriculture. And the staff are doing it for considerably less money than experts thought possible.

The EAP web site will also mean more exposure for COG. Back issues of COGNITION, excerpts from the Organic Field Crop Handbook, clips from the OFCH videos and the reference series and membership information will all be available on-line through EAP.

Individual memberships begin at $40 per year for basic services, which gives you unrestricted access to the resource center, the monthly informed commentary for free, and 1/4 to 1/3 off other information services, including literature searches, syntheses, current contents, and fees for EAP’s speakers and trainers.

The full membership package at $100 adds full access to the information available in the web site. Since the web site won’t be fully functional until April 1, 1997, if you sign up now you’ll receive basic membership services until then for free, followed by a year of the full membership services.

If you’d really like to help support EAP, you can become a sustaining member for $500 per year. You’ll receive a tax receipt for half that amount, plus several other services, including six hours of literature search time.

For organizations using the services, membership packages are $60, $165 and $1,250 (with a tax receipt of $625)/yr.

If EAP’s services appeal to you, you can reach them by:

e-mail:

eap@agradm.lan.mcgill.ca

Mail to:

Ecological Agriculture Projects, McGill University (Macdonald Campus), 21,111 Lakeshore, Ste-Anne de Bellevue,
QC H9X 3V9;

Phone:

(514) 398-7771 fax: (514) 398-7621

Copyright © 1997. Jeff Johnston.

Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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Ecological Agriculture Projects, McGill University (Macdonald Campus)
Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC,  H9X 3V9 Canada
Telephone:          (514)-398-7771
Fax:                     (514)-398-7621

Email: info@eap.mcgill.ca

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