Leopold Center benefits
from interns
The Leopold Center has been
fortunate to employ two Iowa State University
students who bring enthusiasm and new perspectives
on sustainable agriculture to their work.
The new interns are Zach Paskiet, a junior majoring
in management information systems, and Drew Larson,
a sophomore student in accounting at the ISU College
of Business. Both joined the Center at the start of
the Spring 2004 semester, and will continue their
internships during the summer and into the 2004-05
academic year.
Paskiet grew up in Burlington and said he knew
little about agriculture when he applied to work
with the Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable
Agriculture (VCPSA) food systems project. He was
interested in the position because it involved
helping to manage the project’s web site,
www.valuechains.org. He also does some
event-planning, research and clerical work.
“I’m really glad to be learning about sustainable
agriculture and our food system,” he said. “We
always used to stop at local food stands or shop at
farmers markets when I was growing up, but you don’t
always think about it as part of our food system.”
Paskiet is working on a minor in technical
communication and will graduate in May 2005.
Larson is helping associate director Mike Duffy with
research, entering data from the annual land value
and cash rent surveys, among other things.
His most recent project involved a comparison of
land investments to investments in the Dow Jones
market. Larson said he was surprised to learn that
land investments outperformed stocks in quite a few
of the years studied.
Although he was not raised on a farm, Larson grew up
in LeClaire, a rural community near Davenport.
“All my friends were farmers so I’ve done a few
chores,” he said. “I really like this job because
it’s helping with research and doing something new.”
In addition, two graduate assistants are working
with the VCPSA project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation. Norm McCoy has been assisting Rich Pirog
with activities of the Regional Food Systems Working
Group. McCoy is working on an MBA in the ISU College
of Business, the first MBA student also to receive a
minor in sustainable agriculture.
A second graduate assistant will begin work in the
Fall 2004 semester. For more information about the
position, contact Gretchen Zdorkowski, email:
gretzdor@iastate.edu, (515) 294-6061.
New Leopold Center
report on pasture-raised beef, dairy
A marketing survey conducted for the Leopold
Center’s Marketing and Food Systems Initiative shows
that Iowa consumers not only understand the benefits
of pasture-raised beef and dairy products, some of
them are willing to pay a premium for these
products.
Rich Pirog worked with the Business Analysis
Laboratory at Iowa State University to conduct an
Internet survey of consumers in Iowa and the Omaha
and Quad City metropolitan areas. The purpose was to
look at the perceptions Iowa consumers hold about
pasture-raised beef and dairy products and to
determine their level of awareness and interest for
those products.
The report, “Consumer perceptions of pasture-raised
beef and dairy products,” is available on the
Leopold Center’s web site at:
www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/pasture/pasture.htm,
or by contacting the Center at (515) 294-3711.
Workshops look at
local opportunities
A series of workshops will explore sustainable and
entrepreneurial agriculture opportunities in central
Iowa. The workshops are offered by Iowa Valley
Continuing Education in cooperation with the Leopold
Center and Practical Farmers of Iowa.
They will be:
• June 24: Introduction to Biological Pest Control
by plant pathologist Dean Reynolds;
• July 13: Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants by plant
pathologist Dean Reynolds, and
• July 24: Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture
by Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann.
To register for the first two workshops at the Iowa
Valley Continuing Education Center in Marshalltown,
call (641) 752-4645. The third workshop will be
offered twice during the PFI field day at the Grimes
Farm in Marshall County; there is no registration
fee.
A July 17 field day on goat meat production is
planned at the Eric Finch farm near State Center. A
presenter at a May 4 workshop in the same series,
Finch is a founding member of the Iowa Meat Goat
Association.
New Zealand system
The Leopold Center and the USDA’s North Central
Initiative for Small Farm Profitability funded a
project that examined the potential for locating
other industries near a small, multi-species
livestock slaughter plant. A group of Iowa
producers, Upper Mississippi Family Meats, is
interested in a “New Zealand-style” meatpacking
plant to process animals for natural and organic
markets. The report, prepared by Iowa State
University Extension’s Value-Added Agriculture
Program, is on the web at www.farmprofitability.org/research/slaughter/slaughter.htm.
The project was supported by a competitive grant
from the Center’s Marketing and Food Systems
Initiative.
GMO contamination of seed
supplies
Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann says a
report by the Union of Concerned Scientists makes a
strong case to protect non-engineered seeds.
Kirschenmann participated in a news conference in
January about the report that received international
coverage in the media. The report is “Gone to Seed:
Transgenic contaminant in the traditional seed
supply.” Kirschenmann’s comments and a link to the
full report are on the Leopold Center web site at:
www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/speech/files/middle_0104.pdf.
Consider sustainability
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
Southern Iowa series
A three-month series at the Indian Hills Community
College campus in Centerville focused on new markets
for farmers in Iowa. Leopold Center director Fred
Kirschenmann and marketing initiative leader Rich
Pirog were featured speakers in “Land Management in
Southern Iowa: Sustaining agriculture, conserving
resources and revitalizing the rural economy.”
A future in biofuels
Iowa State University engineer Robert Brown leads a
tour of the Iowa Energy Center’s Biomasss Energy
Conversion (BECON) facility in Nevada. The tour was
part of a site visit by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
for the Value Chain Partnerships project at the
Leopold Center.
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