Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Iowa Learning Farms' September Webinar: Matt Liebman

Date: Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

Start: 11:30 am End: 12:15 pm

Location: Online webinar

Contact: John Lundvall, ILF field coordinator, 515-294-5429

The Iowa Learning Farms’ September webinar will feature ISU agronomy professor Matt Liebman. He will share his presentation initially prepared for the the 2012 Iowa Water Conference entitled “Keys to Agricultural Sustainability and Resilience: A Scientist’s Perspective.”

Agriculture in the U.S. Corn Belt is under increasing pressure to produce greater quantities of food and fuel while better protecting environmental quality. Key environmental problems in this region include water contamination by nutrients and herbicides emitted from cropland, a lack of non-agricultural habitat to support diverse communities of plants and animals, and high dependence on petrochemical energy. Additionally, projected changes in climate, which include an increasing frequency of floods and droughts, could make soil and water conservation more difficult. Two projects that address these challenges in central Iowa will be discussed: the Marsden Farm rotation experiment, and the Science-based Trials of Row-crops Integrated with Prairies (STRIPs) experiment.

Matt Liebman is a professor of agronomy and the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy. He received a B.A. in biological sciences from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of California-Berkeley. His research, teaching and outreach activities focus on ways to use ecological processes to maintain or increase agricultural production while reducing dependence on agrichemicals and fossil fuels. More information about his activities and responsibilities can be found at http://www.wallacechair.iastate.edu

The webinar is part of a series, hosted by ILF, held on the third Wednesday of each month. The webinars are held over the noon hour through Adobe Connect. All that is needed to participate is a computer with Internet access. The topics discussed will be beneficial for technical service providers, watershed project coordinators, Extension specialists and anyone else interested in the topic of the month.

Related information

Listen to webinar [Adobe Connect archive website]

View other ILF webinars  http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/page/webinars

About Iowa Learning Farms: ILF is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the US EPA (section 319); in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau.