• GM crops and pesticides
  
• The GM debate
  
• Winter reading
  
• Sustainable agriculture on rented land
  
• The value of buffers
  
• Upcoming events
  

GM crops and pesticides

The Leopold Center was one of six organizations that helped fund an analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data on pesticide use by crop and state between 1996 and 2003. The November 2003 report, “Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pesticide use in the United States,” showed that use of GM corn, soybeans and cotton has increased overall pesticide use. It was prepared by Charles Benbrook, who directs the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center and operates the Ag Biotech InfoNet.

The GM debate

Information from a Dec. 1 presentation by Hungarian-born researcher Arpad Pusztai is available on the Leopold Center web site at <www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/pastevents/pusztai/pusztai.htm>. Pusztai’s seminar, “GM Food/Feed: Gaps in risk-associated research that need to be filled,” was sponsored by the Leopold Center’s ecology initiative and the ISU Bioethics Program. Pusztai worked more than 30 years at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, until he left in 1999 following publication of results from a controversial research project that linked GM potatoes with gastrointestinal growth and development abnormalities in rats. He is a consultant to the Norwegian Food Sciences Institute.

Winter reading
Two new publications for farmers and rural business owners are available from the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the outreach arm of the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. They are: Building a Sustainable Business: A guide to developing a business plan for farms and rural businesses, a 280-page notebook; and Opportunities in Agriculture: Transitioning to organic production, a 14-page bulletin. For more information, contact SARE at (802) 656-0484, sanpubs@uvm.edu, or on the web at <www.sare.org/publications>.

Sustainable agriculture on rented land
A new publication, Considering Sustainable Agriculture on Your Rented Land, PM 1947, is available from Iowa State University Extension. The project was a joint effort of Practical Farmers of Iowa and was supported by a grant from the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. Single copies of the publication are free at any ISU Extension office, or can be downloaded from the web at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1947.pdf

The value of buffers
Buffers have more than conservation value, they have a value in terms of water quality, also landscape diversity and habitat, and their use needs to be better targeted. If they were, we could have a remarkable impact on the state’s water quality.” – Jim Gulliford, Region 7 administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Kansas City that oversees Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

Gulliford was the featured speaker at the 2003 Shivvers Lecture hosted by Gamma Sigma Delta agriculture honorary and the Leopold Center on November 3.

He also warned state agencies that there would be no more exceptions to federal rules that require nutrient management plans for confined animal operations. “Livestock production has changed a lot in 20 years,” he said. “We need to find creative and better ways to manage them.”

Upcoming events

January 9 – “Ecolabels and the Food Market ” workshop during the 2004 Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference in Des Moines. Speakers include Larry Yee, who is working with the USDA to develop a national network of sustainable, local food systems; and Jim Ennis from the Midwest Food Alliance that has certified 65 farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota.

February 19 – Renewing the Countryside program, 7 p.m., Reiman Gardens, Ames. The program will feature many of the images and people highlighted in the book.

March 3 – Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture, 3 p.m., Oak Room, Memorial Union, Iowa State University, Ames. Daryll Ray from the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center at the University of Tennessee will present the annual address.

Back to Winter 2003 Leopold Letter

Published by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-3711
URL: www.leopold.iastate.edu