News & NotesThe Leopold Center-funded spring sustainable agriculture seminar will open its sixth year with a focus on alternative marketing. The series will run ten Wednesday nights, beginning at 7 p.m. Jan. 19, on the Iowa State University campus and numerous Iowa Communications Network sites throughout the state. Featured speakers include Diane Endicott, who has successfully marketed Rainbow Farms "natural" beef in the Kansas City market, Iowa producers who are part of the Precision Beef Alliance and several organic growers. Other sessions highlight the certification process, green labeling, electronic marketing and institutional use of local foods. The program is open to the public without charge except for students who are enrolled for credit. For more information, contact ISU professor Jim Russell at (515) 294-4631, or jrussell@iastate.edu.
Three members of the Leopold Center Advisory Board were recently named to the Governor's Agriculture Task Force. They are Craig Struve, Calumet, who represents the Iowa Agribusiness Association of Iowa; Villisca farmer David Williams; and Wendy Wintersteen, who heads ISU Extension's agricultural outreach programs. Their first task was to provide specific ideas for the new federal farm bill.
Leopold Center Advisory Board member Robert Sayre has edited a new book, Recovering the Prairie, a 224-page collection of essays, photographs and illustrations about America's vast inland sea of grasses. The book brings together people from many fields to consider the connections between landscape and culture. The book is published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and includes a previously unpublished essay by Aldo Leopold.
Leopold Center director Dennis Keeney has been named to an advisory committee that will study the impact of industrial animal production. The project is a partnership of the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University and the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). He also will be serving on the advisory committee for Iowa's Center for Agricultural Safety and Health (ICASH), located at the University of Iowa.
The Iowa Local Food Task Force, which included members from Leopold Center staff, advisory board and several Leopold grant project leaders, recommends establishment of an Iowa Food Policy Council and appointment of a full-time local food systems coordinator. Iowa agriculture secretary Patty Judge appointed the task force to study ways to expand local markets for Iowa farmers. The group's report is at the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship web site, http://www2.state.ia.us/agriculture/foodtaskforce.htm.
Return to Winter 1999 Leopold Letter index |