News & Notes | Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

News & Notes

Pirog panelist at Sustainable Foods Institute

Leopold Center Associate Director Rich Pirog was a panelist at Monterey Bay Aquarium’s fifth Sustainable Foods Institute May 20-22 in Monterey, California. The panel topic was “The True Cost of Food,” moderated by food writer Kim Severson of the New York Times. The 10-year-old institute involves celebrity chefs and members of the food media. It is an outgrowth of the nonprofit aquarium’s Seafood Watch program to raise consumer awareness about the connection between seafood choices and health of ocean ecosystems.

Kirschenmann participates in new conference held by Farm Aid

Fred Kirschenmann, the Center’s distinguished fellow, participated in a news conference held by Farm Aid on June 2. Farm Aid made a pitch for family farm-based economic growth which Kirschenmann has long championed. The press conference took place the day before the U.S. Department of Agriculture convened a conference on rural development in St. Louis. Kirschenmann pointed out that despite recent pushback, large-scale, low-cost commodity production can co-exist with regional and local crop marketing by the endangered midsize farms, and family farms can play a big role in promoting economic recovery in rural areas.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) valuable tool for gauging environmental impacts

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has become an increasingly valuable tool for gauging system-wide environmental impacts. LCA is being used to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service by compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; and interpreting the results to help the consumer make a more informed decision.

The Leopold Center collaborated on an LCA study with Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. Results of the project (“Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Three Beef Production Strategies in the Upper Midwestern United States”) have been published in the 2010 Agricultural Systems journal. A Question and Answer document about the project and the journal article are available on the Leopold Center web site.

Workshops to help local food producers and farmers build their own websites

The Northeast Iowa RC&D, with funding from a Leopold Center competitive grant, has been offering workshop sessions to help local food producers and farmers build (and maintain) their own websites that will allow them to sell their products on-line. The first workshops in Decorah and Creston included instructions on website design, hosting and development, updates and technical support. For more information, contact Lora Friest, lora.friest@ia.usda.gov. To participate in future workshops, contact Brad Crawford, brad@northeastiowarcd.org, (563) 864-7112.