Kirschenmann receives Seventh Generation award

The Center for Rural Affairs and the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education have named Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann as their 2001 recipient of the Seventh Generation Research Award.

He received the honor in October at the annual meeting of the Tri-Societies (American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America and Crop Science Society of America) in North Carolina.

The award highlights innovators in agricultural research whose work furthers sustainable food and farming systems that are practical, productive, and environmentally sound. It is named after the philosophy and tradition of the Iroquois people and other North American tribes to plan current activities (agriculture, hunting, fishing) with seven generations (150 years) of beneficiaries in mind. Kirschenmann is the second recipient of the award.

Kirschenmann came to the Leopold Center in July 2001, and is still involved in managing his family's 3,500-acre North Dakota farm. The farm is a natural prairie livestock grazing system that combines a nine-crop rotation of cereal grains, forages, and green manure. It has been used in a number of research studies and has been headquarters for Farm Verified Organic, an internationally recognized organic certification agency that Kirschenmann helped found and was president of for 10 years.

In the nomination, Kirschenmann was commended for the way he has "brought together practical needs for a more ecologically-friendly agriculture, academic needs for interdisciplinary research strategies, and national needs for sustainable economic policies that strengthen the entire food and agriculture system."

Established in 1973 the Center for Rural Affairs is a private, nonprofit organization located in Walthill, Nebraska.