Richard Moore is the recipient of the 2017-18 Anthropology in Public Policy Award. The AAA Committee on Public Policy was particularly impressed with Moore’s cross-disciplinary research, outreach to high school and college students through a new curriculum, and influence on water quality programs and overall environmental policy. Indeed, the committee felt that his work on these issues truly represents the sort of policy contributions that deserves recognition through this award.
Moore, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and The School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University, conducted theoretical and applied work on grassroots participatory groups that resulted in a water quality trading project that has been a pioneering model program both in Ohio and nationally. It was cited as the "poster child of water quality trading" at the 2014 Congressional hearing of the House Transportation Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment where Moore was asked to testify.
The success of his water quality trading plan started in 2007 and has resulted in making the Alpine Cheese Nutrient Trading Plan the longest continuous water quality trading plan used as part of an EPA NDPES pollution permit in the United States. Within Ohio it has spread to 22 of Ohio's 88 counties. In addition to saving the factory money, the plan improved the water quality in the Middle Fork of Sugar Creek while giving Amish farmers an opportunity to implement conservation measures paid for by the factory without using federal funds which Amish are prohibited from using because of their cultural restriction on paying social security taxes.
Before retiring in 2015 Moore was Executive Director of the OSU Environmental Sciences Network and former director of the OSU Environmental Science Graduate Program.
Learn more about the inner workings of the AAA in the Association Business section of Anthropology News.
