Writings by Fred Kirschenmann

Columns from the Leopold Letter -  Speeches and presentations - Other writings

Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center Distinguished Fellow, has received international recognition for his writing on sustainable agriculture and land ethics. Check your local library for his book of essays, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher (2010) and his contribution to the essay collection Farm Aid: A Song For America (2005).

Columns from the Leopold Letter

Toward a Sustainable Future

NOTE: Columns published Summer 2008 and earlier are available only as PDFs.

Winter 2012 - The challenge of ending hunger
Fall 2012 - Anticipating the future?
Fall 2012 ONLINE EXTRA - Rethinking sustainability after the drought
Summer 2012 - On 'being there'
Spring 2012 - From commodities to communities
Winter 2011 - Backcasting to resilience
Fall 2011 - Two wake-up calls
Summer 2011 - Getting to resilience - reordering our priorities
Spring 2011 - The debate on feeding the world
Winter 2010 - The food and agriculture landscape of our future
Fall 2010 - Imagining resilience
Summer 2010 - Anticipating changes
Spring 2010 - Some things are priceless
Winter 2009 - Rethinking the politics of food
Fall 2009 - Can we afford the future?
Summer 2009 - The dangers of too much certainty
Spring 2009 - The foundation of any farm's success
Winter 2008 - On the propagation of bad ideas
Fall 2008 - Redefining sustainability: 'Greening' to self-renewal
Summer 2008 - By itself, free market will not lead to sustainability
Spring 2008 - Feeding the world, creating more problems?
Winter 2007 - Rethinking soil
Fall 2007 - Thinking like a community
Summer 2007 - How long will we continue to fiddle while Rome burns?
Spring 2007 - Managing with less Part II: Reinventing the human
Winter 2006-07 - It's all about market power, stupid
Fall 2006 - Managing with less energy
Summer 2006 - Agriculture needs a new ethic
Spring 2006 - Aldo Leopold and 21st Century agriculture
Winter 2005 - Adapting to changes

From the Director

Fall 2005 - Expanding the scientific mission
Summer 2005 - The death and rebirth of everything
Spring 2005 - Meeting the challenges ahead
Winter 2004 - Overcoming the Great Divide
Fall 2004 - Challenges come home to roost
Spring 2004 - Our food system: 'Supersize' vs. 'Have it your way'
Winter 2003 - It's time for another Country Life Commission
Fall 2003 - Getting beyond 'scratch and sniff'
Summer 2003 - Second open letter to Iowa's citizens
Spring 2003 - Can we save 'agriculture of the middle'?
Winter 2002 - Getting a head start on the next 10 years
Fall 2002 -  An Iowa View from the North Dakota Plains
Summer 2002 - Farming: '... an industry like any other'?
Summer 2002 - An open letter to Iowa's citizens
Spring 2002 - Farmers are not 'insignificant'!
Winter 2001 - Observations after a year on the job
Fall 2001 - What should we do about Rural America?
Summer 2001 - Balancing ecology and technology
Spring 2001 - Taking a long look at short supplies
Winter 2000 - How many farmers will we 'need'?
Fall 2000 - It's time to continue our journey

Speeches and presentations

Sustainable Agriculture: The Key to Health and Prosperity - Overheads from presentation at USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum, Washington D.C., February 2009.

Sustainability in the 21st Century: From Greening to Resilience - Overheads from presentation to the Graduate Program of Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, Iowa, April 2009.

It Starts with the Soil and Organic Agriculture Can Help - Presentation and paper for the 16th International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements Organic World Conferene, Modena, Italy, June 2008.

Meeting Agriculture's Challenges in a Rapidly Changing World - Streaming video of hour-long keynote presentation at Focus on Farming Conference, Lynnwood, Washington, November 2007.

Meeting the Agricultural Challenges of the 21st Century with a Little Help from Liberty Hyde Bailey - Presentation and paper for the Ag History Society Conference, Ames, Iowa, June 2007.

Revitalizing Rural Communities: How Churches Can Help - Speech for the Northern Plains Conference of the United Church of Christ, Bismark, North Dakota, June 2006.

The Pleasure of Good Eating - Keynote address for Food Alliance annual meeting, Portland, Oregon, February 2006.

Other writings

Putting Meat on The Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, Final Report of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, 2008

Food, Farming and Health - Essay published in the Summer 2006 Gleanings newsletter of Glynwood Center, Cold Spring, New York, August 2006.

Pleasure and process: A recipe for good eating - Essay published in the Center for Ecoliteracy's "Thinking Outside the Lunchbox" program, April 2006.

Potential for a New Generation of Biodiversity in Agro-ecosystems of the Future - Paper prepared for the 2005 Trisocieties (ASA-CSSA-SSSA) International Annual Meetings, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2005.

Spirtuality in Agriculture - This paper, prepared for the Concord School of Philosophy, considers how the scientific revolution has resulted in a fragmented approach to agriculture, and the need to refocus one ecological relationships. October 2005

Why worry about the agriculture of the middle? - Fred Kirschenmann, Mike Duffy and others prepared this paper for the Agriculture of the Middle project. June 2004.

Download his full bio [PDF] or read more from when he joined the Leopold Center [PDF]