Across My Desk Archive
Leopold's concept of "biotic community" is beautifully expressed and explored in an NPR post by Robert Krulwich
!!!Timeless!!! # Everything is connected to everything else # Everything must go somewhere # Nature knows best # There is no such thing as a free lunch #
Follow title link to nice NYT cover for Barry Commoner, who made - and will continue to make - a big difference in helping us understand how we relate to the world.
Risk Management for Drought - the ground beneath our feet
Humble and unheralded, having living, functioning soil is the key production risk management tool for drought. Read, Farming in the 21st Century A Practical Approach to Soil Health
Spider-stressed grasshoppers respond by loading up on carbs (almost human)! But when they die, their carb-loaded carcasses contain less nitrogen and impoverish the next critical players - the soil microbes whose work gives us healthy soils. More science revealing how Intriguing ecological -biological relationships sustain us all!
Many Little Hammers Pound Superweeds
Successfully managing weeds REQUIRES "many little hammers"...one big hammer (new herbicide-resistant crops) puts commodity crop productivity, food crop production and the environment at unacceptable risk... Read more about why little hammers work on our Leopold Center website.
Food for Thought - Renewable energy goes beyond biofuels and energy export to how we manage and source our daily use. Every farmer, business owner and individual homeowner knows this. Is community-based energy supply part of the answer? What are the researchable policy questions regarding the fit of FIT (feed-in tariffs) for Iowa? Also read our recent news release about FIT.
"If soil is alive, can soil die?" This is the first question posed by a video series from South Carolina NRCS and the University of SC's Earth Sciences and Resources Institute.
Really NICE. The hard copy has a sturdy ring binder and it's easy to flip through. I just shared the buffer chapter with a landowner (farm rental Loess Hills) and feedback was positive. You can download it free, or purchase printed copy.
Agroforestry has my attention – opportunities galore - not just for the Northeast ...
View the 12-minute video from South Dakota farm manager Dan Forgey.
Watch a video on an inventive way to seed cover crops, from our friends at the Midwest Cover Crops Council.
Farm from ethanol-for-all: Comments by former Leopold Center director Dennis Keeney in the Ames Tribune
Joshua Cooper Ramo offers creative thinking about where we are and how we go from here. "I like the idea of dealing with our complicated and often insecure living through 'community immunity.' "
From the Sustainable Development Commission: "Prosperity is about things going well for us-- in accordance with (pro- in Latin) our hopes and expectations (speres). Wanting things to go well is a common human concern. It's understood that this sense of things going well includes some notion of continuity.
This story on nitrogen and soil interactions leave me wondering how synthetic nitrogen can feed, fuel and clothe the world if it doesn't enhance the living soil? The soil biotic community is a sophisticated resource, not likely a one-stop shop.
There is a lot of talk about saving the world with biochar. I'm guessing there are no free lunches on our way to the pyrolosis plant. Here's an article in the June issue of Ecologist.
I hear that we lack the appropriate economic incentives to encourage and/or reward folks for 'right' environmental behaviors, mostly because we 'can't afford it.' How can we change that? Check out these video clips from the Gund Institute.
Additional funds are available through this program, which is new to me, but Iowa still has 25,000 acres we put into this 90% cost-share program. Check it out!
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture |
Ames, Iowa 50011 |
(515) 294-3711 |
leocenter@iastate.edu