Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Iowa welcomes Rasmussen 'back home'

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Iowa’s sustainable ag community welcomed the Leopold Center’s fourth and newest director at a reception on September 6. The event was in addition to meetings that Mark Rasmussen has participated in throughout the state and on campus since he began work June 1. He has met with leaders of farm and conservation organizations, members of the Leopold Center Advisory Board and university administrators and attended numerous field days to acquaint himself with Iowa agriculture.

Advisory board chair Bill Ehm said he likes Rasmussen’s “practical approach to agriculture.” Both Ehm and Rasmussen have been full-time farmers: Ehm in southern Iowa and Rasmussen in northeast Nebraska.

“I knew I’d like him from the start – he knew what it was like to have dirt and grass under his fingernails,” said Ehm, who now directs environmental services for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

When he was farming in the 1980s, Ehm said he always looked to the Leopold Center as “a place to find different ways to approach agriculture,” a role even more important for the center today.

Fred Kirschenmann, former director and now Leopold Center Distinguished Fellow, said he could relate to Rasmussen-the-farmer as well as Rasmussen-the-leader.

“I am convinced he has the vision we need at this point to face the incredible new challenges that will change the way we do things, something that at the Leopold Center we call resilience,” said Kirschenmann, who also oversees his family’s farm in North Dakota.

Joe Colletti, senior associate dean in the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said Rasmussen not only brings farming experience to the job, but also a successful scientific career and skills for working with government and technology transfer.

Rasmussen said he was glad to be in Ames where he spent 18 years at the National Animal Disease Center. “Iowa State always was the center of the universe as far as agriculture was concerned,” he said, noting the connection his family had with ISU for livestock information.
 

Back to Leopold Letter Fall 2012