Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Agricultural economist Richard Levins headlines Shivvers lecture March 1

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January 30, 2009

AMES, Iowa -- As Americans debate the wisdom of nationalizing and/or propping up a variety of ailing industries, many of us wonder about the role of our current agricultural system. Do we view it as a public utility or a purely private enterprise? Can an unregulated market system lead us to a truly sustainable agricultural system?

Richard Levins, professor emeritus of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, will look beyond the farm gate to scan the nation’s economic landscape as he answers these questions in the 2009 Shivvers Memorial Lecture at Iowa State University. Levins will present "Why Don’t We Have Sustainable Agriculture Now?” on Sunday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in the Sun Room of the ISU Memorial Union in Ames.

"We have made great advances in understanding how farming is part of a larger ecological system," says Levins. "But we have made nothing close to that progress in understanding how farming fits into a larger economic system. Until we do, the goal of a more sustainable agriculture will not be achieved."

A native of Florida, Levins received his B.A. in mathematics and his M.S. in food and resource economics from the University of Florida. Later at Mississippi State University, he earned a doctorate in agricultural economics. Levins spent time as a faculty member at the University of Maryland and the University of Florida, before joining the economics department at the University of Minnesota in 1988.

Levins has written several books, including Willard Cochrane and the American Family Farm, which won the American Agricultural Economics Association Quality of Communication Award. In total, he has authored or co-authored more than 150 papers, articles, books and presentations. He has contributed to Successful Farming and Hoard’s Dairyman and has appeared on CNN’s popular "In the Money" program.

The annual lecture series honors John Shivvers, who farmed near Knoxville, Iowa, for many years. It is coordinated by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and co-sponsored by the ISU Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta Honorary Society for Agriculture and the ISU Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB).

The lecture is open to the public. 

For more info contact:

Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center Distinguished Fellow, (515) 294-5588, leopold1@iastate.edu

Richard Levins, (612) 625-5238, dlevins@umn.edu

Laura Miller, Leopold Center Communications, (515) 294-5272, lwmiller@iastate.edu

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