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News & Notes

Kirschenmann essays in paperback

A book of essays written by Leopold Center Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher (2010 University Press of Kentucky), is available in paperback. Acclaimed writer and fellow farmer Wendell Berry offers praise for the writings that span 30 years of Kirschenmann’s life. “The essays are thorough, and radical in the right sense of that word. I like them for their implicit goodness of heart,” Berry wrote. “I’m finding in almost every page something I need to know, or a needed clarification of something I already knew.” The paperback version is published by Counterpoint. Ag economist Connie Falk edited the essays, some of which have appeared in this newsletter.

ISU recognizes longtime partner

ISU animal science professor Jim Russell received the Dean Kolmer Award for Excellence in Applied Research from the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Russell, who joined the faculty 31 years ago, was honored for his work to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of beef cow-calf production in Iowa. He has been a longtime Leopold Center research partner. His most current projects focus on mob grazing (see page 6) and ways to minimize nonpoint source pollution of pasture streams.

Fearless Farm Finances

Craig Chase, interim leader of the Leopold Center’s Marketing and Food Systems Initiative and an ISU extension farm management specialist, is co-author of a new book on financial management. Fearless Farm Finances is published by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service based in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. Chase helped present two days of training based on the book in early December . Other authors are northeast Iowa farmer Chris Blanchard and Paul Dietmann, director of the Wisconsin Farm Center at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Brochure highlights organic research

A new Leopold Center brochure provides an overview of the Long-Term Agroecological Research (LTAR) Experiment at Iowa State University’s Neely-Kinyon Research Farm in Adair County. The project, begun with funds from the Leopold Center in 1997, is the longest-running side-by-side comparison of conventional and organic practices in the nation. Find the brochure, The LTAR Experiment, on the Center’s Pubs & Papers web page.

ILF offers free book

Iowa Learning Farms has published a new book, Water Quality Matters To Us All, that offers insight into Iowans’ views and practices with regard to water quality. Request a free copy by email, ilf@iastate.edu. The book is based on listening sessions conducted over three years with farmers, urban residents, Soil and Water Conservation District commissioners and agency field staff. Water Quality Matters To Us All diagnoses the current level of apathy toward improving water quality by recounting debates about conservation practices within the context of historic high corn prices, increased flooding and dramatic rain events, and decreased soil quality.

New pub about bioreactors

A new fact sheet based on Leopold Center-funded research is now available from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Woodchip Bioreactors for Nitrate in Agricultural Drainage (PMR 1008) explains how bioreactors capture and treat tile-drained water. The research, conducted by ISU grad student Laura Christianson and ISU ag engineer Matthew Helmers, showed that this tool could remove 15 to 60 percent of the nitrate in tile water (see stories in the summer issues of our 2009 and 2011 newsletters). Download the publication here, or watch an On the Ground video.