By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia
Dennis Avery, director of the Center for Global Food Issues at
the Hudson Institute, will deliver the 2003 D.W. Brooks Lecture
Oct. 6 in Athens, Ga.
Avery will speak on the topic, “Has America Already Lost High-
Yield Agriculture?” The annual lecture will be at 11 a.m. on the
University of Georgia campus, in the Mahler Auditorium in the
Georgia Center for Continuing Education.
A former agricultural analyst for the U.S. Department of State,
Avery was responsible for assessing the foreign-policy
implications of food and farming developments worldwide. He is a
senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a research and policy
think tank in Indianapolis.
At the Hudson, Avery monitors developments in world food
production, farm product demand, the safety and security of food
supplies and the sustainability of world agriculture.
As a staff member of the President’s National Advisory
Commission on Food and Fiber, he wrote the commission’s landmark
report, “Food and Fiber for the Future.”
Avery studied agricultural economics at Michigan State
University and the University of Wisconsin. He holds awards for
outstanding performance from three government agencies and was
awarded the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement in
1983.
He is the author of “Global Food Progress 1991” and “Saving the
Planet with Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental Triumph of
High-Yield Farming.”
He is also the editor of Global Food Quarterly, the newsletter
of the CGFI, and writes a weekly column for The BridgeNews
Forum. Avery has been quoted in publications ranging from Time
and The Washington Post to The Farm Journal. Avery’s
article, “What’s Wrong with Global Warming?” was published in
the August 1999 issue of Reader’s Digest.
Avery has testified before Congress and has appeared on most of
the nation’s major television networks, including a program
discussing the bacterial dangers of organic foods on ABC’s
20/20.
Recognizing excellence
His lecture will follow the presentation of this year’s Brooks
Awards winners. The awards are given annually to UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty members who
excel in teaching, research, extension and public service.
The teaching award was established in 1981 to recognize
excellence in the teaching program of the CAES. In 1983, the
awards expanded to include research, extension and county
extension programs. An award for international agriculture was
added in 1988 and is given in alternate years.
The D.W. Brooks Faculty Awards for Excellence include a framed
certificate and a $5,000 cash award. The lecture and awards are
named for the late D.W. Brooks, founder and chairman emeritus of
Gold Kist, Inc.
Brooks was an advisor to seven U.S. presidents on agriculture
and trade issues. He started Cotton States Mutual Insurance
Companies in 1941 to provide farmers with insurance.
His many honors for contributions to agriculture include being
the first inductee into the UGA Agricultural Hall of Fame,
earning the Distinguished Agribusiness Award from the Georgia
Agribusiness Council and being named Progressive Farmer
magazine’s “Man of the Year in Agriculture in the South.”
The CAES sponsors the annual lecture series in his memory.
