Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Leopold Center appoints Pirog associate director

Back to News Release Archive

February 16, 2007

AMES, Iowa -- The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has a new associate director, Rich Pirog, who has been with the Center since 1990.

The appointment was announced by Director Jerry DeWitt, who praised Pirog for his leadership of the Center's successful Marketing and Food Systems Initiative and the Value Chain Partnerships project.

"The Center has historically had one or more associate directors but has been without a person in this position since Mike Duffy left in June 2005," DeWitt explained. "After serving as director for a year, it became clear to me that it is important to have someone on staff to offer the administrative and programmatic support that an associate director is able to provide."

Pirog will continue to be marketing initiative program leader, direct the Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture project and lead the Regional Food Systems Working Group. He will provide leadership in the Center's annual competitive grant process, conduct assessments on the impacts of Center programs and coordinate special research projects and the preparation of white papers.

Pirog joined the Leopold Center in 1990 as its first education coordinator, and became program leader for the Center's new marketing initiative in 2000. He is well-known nationally for his work on "food miles," including a 2001 research paper that outlined some of the environmental costs attached to transporting fresh produce hundreds of miles from farms to centralized distribution sites.

In 2004, Pirog received the ISU College of Agriculture's Professional and Scientific Staff Award for Achievement and Service. He also received the 2003 Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa, where he served as associate director in 2004. He has been a member of the Iowa Food Policy Council since 2000.

Pirog has a master's degree in agricultural meteorology from the University of Missouri and an undergraduate degree in earth science from Kean University in New Jersey. 

For more info contact:

Jerry DeWitt, (515) 294-7836, jdewitt@iastate.edu

Rich Pirog, Marketing and Food Systems Initiative, (515) 294-1854, rspirog@iastate.edu

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

Back to News Release Archive