Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Leopold Letter Archive

Back to Newsletters

This is our quarterly 12-page newsletter. Below is a description of what you'll find in each issue. Click on issue date for links to newsletter articles, download a PDF by clicking on the newsletter image, or sign up to receive the Leopold Letter by email or in your mailbox.

View our current newsletter issue here.

Read columns written by Fred Kirschenmann

2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997
Download PDF
Download PDF

Leopold Letter Winter 2008

Surviving Mother Nature

What did we learn from last summer’s floods? Also learn how one Iowa farmer works with Mother Nature to run a successful business. Director Jerry DeWitt shares how the workshop inspired him, and Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann contemplates the ecology of bad ideas - and when they become lethal.

Other features: Local food comes of age, a Des Moines shopping center has a new local food venue, how the Leopold Center is informing the hypoxia discussion, an exciting new on-line tool, and a docudrama about the changing rural landscape.

Read articles in this issue.
Download PDF
Download PDF

Leopold Letter Fall 2008

Saving our soil

Here are two projects dedicated to saving our soil - strategically placed prairie strips in cornfields, and extending the grazing season to help farmers in southern Iowa. Director Jerry DeWitt explains the Center's Policy Initiative, while Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann talks about whether "going green" really leads to sustainability.

Other features: Results of a nationwide consumer survey on local foods, the growing number of local food efforts throughout Iowa, a research project about the Leopold Center, and a sad farewell to one of the Center's longest serving advisory board members.

Read articles in this issue.
Download PDF
Download PDF

Leopold Letter Summer 2008

For the sake of the land

Director Jerry DeWitt speaks for the land after seeing flood-ravaged fields in eastern Iowa. The Leopold Center helps launch a new group to promote Iowa's grass-based livestock industry, and Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann explains why the free market does not lead to sustainability, and offers insight on the Pew livestock report.

Other features: Current research to help Iowa apple growers, alternative cropping systems for the bioeconomy, a new web site devoted to the science of organic agriculture, and a new tool for finding how far produce travels.

 

Read articles in this issue.
Download PDF
Download PDF

Leopold Letter Spring 2008

New projects, old problems

This issue highlights 20 new projects this year, while Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann explains how "feeding the world" may be creating the problems we had hoped to solve. Director Jerry DeWitt tells how technology is used to share research results, and you'll learn more about a new partnership with a sustainable ag center outside New York City.

Other features: Managing grassed waterways, food facts, historic Leopold family photos, a report from the Center's third marketing workshop, a search for farmers who have used cover crops.
 

Read articles in this issue.