2010 Shivvers Memorial Lecture: David Mas Masumoto, Wisdom of the Last Farmer
Date: Sunday, February 28th, 2010 
Start: 7:00 pm
Location: Ames, Iowa
Wisdom of the Last Farmer
Why Memory Matters: Transformative Farming and Flavors
We need to think of ourselves as growing public food. The public has the ability to recognize the complete story, that this isn’t just a commodity that came from some unknown and we just simply eat it. It’s the idea that this is something that nourishes us in many ways and then people will want to know more. In that sense, all farmers are what I call cultural workers.
David Mas Masumoto is a third-generation Japanese-American farmer and author of eight books. He grows organic peaches, nectarines, and grapes on his 80-acre farm in Del Rey, California. He is perhaps best-known for Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm. His latest book is Wisdom of the Last Farmer: Harvesting Legacies From the Land. Masumoto is a self-described artist farmer, capturing the stories of family and the land through literature. Every year he hosts an Elberta Peach Tree Adoption program in hopes of educating others about the joy of heirloom produce and the realities of organic farming. He spoke at the 2010 Shivvers Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Leopold Center, the ISU chapter of the Gamma Sigma Delta Honorary Society for Agriculture and the ISU Committee on Lectures.
Related information
Listen to podcast [MP3, 59 min]
Leopold Letter article - Spring 2010
Learn more about the Shivvers Memorial Lecture Series
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture |
Ames, Iowa 50011 |
(515) 294-3711 |
leocenter@iastate.edu