Gary W. Fick
Forage Crops and Crop Ecology

507 Bradfield Hall 607-255-1704 E-mail: gwf2@cornell.edu B.S. 1965 (University of Nebraska) Dip. Agric. Sci. 1968 (Massey University - New Zealand) Ph.D. 1971 (University of California at Davis) Gary W. Fick is a professor of agronomy who joined the Cornell faculty in 1971. He specializes in crop ecology and works mainly with perennial forages and agricultural sustainability, including the intersection of land management and local food systems that provide balanced human diets. He has taken sabbatical leaves to study systems modeling at Lincoln College in New Zealand (1977-1978), animal nutrition at Cornell (1986), and teaching of sustainable agriculture (14 institutions, 1994-1995). During his most recent leave in 2003-2004, he worked on a yet-to-be-published book manuscript entitled Food, Farming, and Faith. Dr. Fick also has served as the faculty advisor for several undergraduate student organizations at Cornell University.

Departmental Teaching Leader Research Program Forage crops are important contributors to sustainable land management through their role in reducing soil erosion and improving soil structure, fertility, and organic matter content. With forage management as the starting point, we have been modeling the broader issues of sustainable land management and the development of local food systems. Sustainable local food systems that balance the human diet are being analyzed for carrying capacity (the human population they can support), for the size of the foodshed (distance food must travel), and the kinds of crops and livestock systems that can be supported in such systems. So far, work has focused on New York State. We are also continuing to develop procedures that will allow the nutritional quality of alfalfa to be calculated and economically evaluated in simulation models driven by weather data and forage quality analyses. Most recently, we have been working in conjunction with the Land Institute in Kansas to develop a deeper understanding of the biology and quantitative relationships of the nitrogen cycle in native grasslands and cropping systems derived from them. Courses Taught Sustainable Agriculture: Food, Farming and the Future (CSS 190) Forage Crops (CROP 312) Special Topics: Food, Farming, and Faith (CSS 494) Scientific Method in Practice (CSS 690)

Selected Publications Barnes, R.F., C.J. Nelson, and G.W. Fick. 2007. Terminology and classification of forage plants. In R.F. Barnes, C.J. Nelson, Michael Collins, and K.J. Moore. (ed.) Forages -- an introduction to grassland agriculture (Volume 2). 6th ed. Blackwell, Ames, IA. (in press) Fick, G.W. 2005. Farming by the book: Food, farming, and the environment in the Bible and the Qur-án. CSS Teaching Series No. T05-1, Dep. of Crop and Soil Sci., Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY. [Also available at http://hdl.handle.net/1813/2550] Peters, C.J., A.J. Lembo, and G.W. Fick. 2005. A Tale of Two Foodsheds: GIS Approaches to Mapping Local Food Production Capacity Relative to Local Food Requirements. In 2005 annual meeting abstracts. [CD-ROM]. ASA, CSSA and SSSA, Madison, WI. Peters, C.J., J.L. Wilkins, and G.W. Fick. 2004. The fat of the land: Impact of butter, oil, and meat on land resource requirements. In 2004 annual meeting abstracts [CD-ROM]. ASA, CSSA and SSSA, Madison, WI. Gauch, H.G., Jr., J.T.G. Hwang, and G.W. Fick. 2003. Model evaluation by comparison of model-based predictions and measured values. Agron. J. 95:1442-1446. Peters, C.J., G.W. Fick, and J.L. Wilkins. 2003. Cultivating better nutrition: Can the food pyramid help translate dietary recommendations into agricultural goals? Agron. J. 95:1424-1431. Fick, G.W., and S.C. Mueller. 1989. Alfalfa: Quality, maturity, and mean stage of development. Cornell Coop. Ext. Information Bull. 217. Alfalfa Bulletin