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Fred Magdoff is
Professor of Soils in the Department of Plant and Soil Science at the
University of Vermont. He received his degrees from Oberlin College (BA)
and from Cornell University (MS and PhD). Magdoff was Plant and Soil
Science Department Chair for 8 years (1985-1993), a member of the National
Small Farm Commission (1997-1999, USDA), and is the Coordinator in the
12-state Northeast Region for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education Program. He is a Fellow of the American
Society of Agronomy.
Magdoff's area of specialty is soil fertility and management. He has
worked on problems of sodic and saline soils, acid soils, use of manures
and sewage sludges, phosphorus soil tests, nutrient cycling, and he developed
the first reliable soil test for nitrogen availability to corn for the
humid regions of the U.S. This test, called the Pre-Sidedress Nitrate
Test (PSNT) and the Spring or Late Spring Nitrate Test, is now used throughout
much of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwestern states as well as
in eastern Canada. It has also been adopted for use with a number of
vegetable crops.
Magdoff has oriented his outreach activities to explaining how to apply
ecological principles to agricultural production. His book, Building
Soils for Better Crops (2000, Harold van Es, co-author), is an
ecologically-based approach that explains how to work with and enhance
the inherent built-in strengths of plant/soil systems. Magdoff is also
interested in political and economic issues surrounding agriculture and
was senior editor of Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat
to Farmers, Food, and the Environment (2000, Monthly Review Press,
NY). |