News & Notes, Spring 2002

Progressive Farmer magazine has named Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann one of its 2002 Leaders of the Year in Midwest Agriculture. The award, described in the February 2002 issue, has been given since the 1930s to people who have brought new ideas to agriculture. Kirschenmann was applauded for his efforts to carry on a national conversation about the need for a "new social contract" for agriculture. Attorney general Tom Miller received the 2001 Iowa award.

Accomplishments of the Leopold Center's Agroecology Issue Team are highlighted in a new four-color poster created by the National Resources Conservation Service in Des Moines. The poster, "Lessons Learned from Bear Creek," outlines the top 10 benefits discovered at the riparian buffer established along Bear Creek in Story County beginning in 1990. The area, now a National Restoration Demonstration Watershed, has attracted more than $3.14 million of federal and state funding. For more information, contact Tom Isenhart, ISU Department of Forestry, (515) 294-8056. Visitors to the team's web site, also can take a "virtual tour" of the area.

The Leopold Center's Alternative Swine Production Research Initiative, also known as the "Hoop Group," received the top award for agricultural research done by a team at Iowa State University. The award was presented during the ISU College of Agriculture's annual convocation on February 7. Team members include faculty and staff from the economics, animal science, sociology, agriculture and biosystems engineering, and veterinary medicine departments and three ISU research farms. They include co-leaders Mark Honeyman and James Kliebenstein, also Jay Harmon, Tom Richard, Brad Thacker, Clare Hinrichs and Steve Lonergan. Donald Lay, a member of the original team who no longer is at ISU, also was named to the award.

Policy makers and educators from neighboring states are looking to the Leopold Center for leadership in sustainable agriculture issues. Director Fred Kirschenmann testified at a February 21 hearing in Jefferson City, Mo., where legislators are considering a proposal that would fund a research center for food and sustainable agriculture. Kirschenmann also presented keynote addresses at sustainable agriculture conferences in Springfield, Illinois, and the annual meeting of the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society in Aurora.

Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann presented a plenary session address, "Protecting Water Quality or Redesigning the System," during Iowa State University's annual water quality conference March 4-6. The conference is sponsored by the ISU College of Agriculture, ISU Extension, Iowa State Water Resources Research Institute (ISWRRI) and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Conference proceedings are posted on the ISWRRI web site, http://www.water.iastate.edu.

The Leopold Center is pleased to help sponsor the second annual John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture March 26-27 coordinated by the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Highlighting the event are remarks by Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001 World Food Prize winner and director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C. The March 26 event is 2 p.m. at The Hotel at Gateway Center in Ames. A "town meeting" March 27 in Lewis features a 1:30 p.m. panel discussion that includes Pinstrup-Andersen, Leopold Center Advisory Board members Dave Williams and Neil Hamilton, and others The town meeting is at the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development.

The debate over genetically modified seed continues to capture national attention. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune saw an article in Winter 2001 Leopold Letter newsletter about Mike Duffy's research on the economics of using genetically-modified seed and wrote a news story. The item was picked up by the Associated Press and carried in a number of newspapers, including USA Today. The article was reprinted in the Food Traceability Report, a weekly trade publication for the food regulation industry, and referenced in a Monsanto Corporation online newsletter.