20th Anniversary By the Numbers
What we heard from participants
Read our reports from selected sessions
View materials from 16 breakout sessions on conference web site

Blue skies, unseasonably cool weather and nearly 350 people helped the Leopold Center celebrate its 20th anniversary at a July 11 conference in Ames.

Setting the tone for a day full of festivities, demonstrations and discussions, keynote speaker Mark Ritchie challenged participants to more aggressively move the Leopold Center into the policy arena for its next 20 years.

Story County Conservation director Steve Lekwa (left foreground) studies materials during the Biomass for Biofuture pre-conference tour.

ISU ag engineer Mark Hanna (in red hat) explains innovations in fertilizer applicators, a technology that his team began with a Leopold Center grant. It was recently named one of the top 10 best new technologies over the past 20 years. The equipment was set up in the Scheman courtyard during the 20th Anniversary conference.

Another demonstration in the courtyard: Lois and Jerry Rigdon learn about groundwater movement at this display during the 20th Anniversary celebration.

Rich Pirog (left) narrates this cooking demonstration by ISU Dining sous chef Kevin Streiff during a conference session. Streiff was preparing heirloom tomatoes for a salad.

"The Leopold Center has shown that we can be very, very productive and make changes that are better for people and the environment," said Ritchie, an Iowa native elected Minnesota Secretary of State in 2006. "You have shown by your presence and your actions that the status quo is not the best way, nor is it inevitable," but he added that the future will require active partnerships and a bold vision.

Ritchie said this vision will be even more important as agriculture prepares for a future affected by water shortages, climate change and depletion of fossil fuels.

"The work you have done for the last 20 years has made the planet a better place," he said. "The work that you do for the next 20 years might just decide the survival of the planet."

Ritchie, a long-time proponent for rural communities, founded the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He told conference-goers that speaking in Ames was like coming home since he grew up in Nevada and graduated from ISU in 1971.

Another speaker, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), offered congratulations via videotape.

"The Leopold Center has changed the landscape of Iowa over the past 20 years and accomplished everything we had hoped it would and more," he said. "It has shown that there needs to be no conflict between profitable farming and conservation; they can and should go hand-in-hand, just as Aldo Leopold taught us."

Lunch was served outdoors, featuring Iowa pork, chicken and dairy products, and produce from seven Iowa farms. The Onion Creek Cloggers performed on an outdoor stage, surrounded by exhibits ranging from using worms to compost household waste and an electric truck to deliver vegetables, to a biostover combine and on-farm biodiesel unit.

Paul Johnson spoke to supporters at a pre-conference event. He reflected on helping to write the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act that created the Leopold Center in 1987.

"We gave the Center Aldo Leopold's name for a reason," Johnson said. "Aldo Leopold talked about our relationship to the land, with conservation being the harmony between people and the land. That's what the Leopold Center is all about – people caring for the land and making sure that the land can still care for people."

Breakout sessions followed four "hot issue" tracks: the Bioeconomy, Food and Health, People on the Land and Natural Resources.

20th Anniversary Conference By the Numbers

87      People registered for five pre-conference tours
          (46 full-day; 41 half-day)
341    People registered for day-long conference
23      Conference breakout sessions (panels,
          presentations, fish bowl discussions, films)
16      Conference presentations, handouts available
          on conference web site
20      Exhibits at Midday Outdoor Festival
41      Research posters displayed at the conference
24      Partner displays at the conference
70      Downloadable Leopold Center reports,
          publications on conference CD
13      Media outlets attending conference (including a
          local TV station and independent filmmaker)

What we heard from participants

One of the goals for the 20th Anniversary Conference was to use the discussions to help set the stage for the Leopold Center's next two decades. A question we asked at all breakout sessions: how could information from this session be used to direct future work of the Leopold Center? These comments come from those evaluations.

• Transition in ownership and operation of land owners the next 10-20 years is going to be huge – here's opportunity to look at less traditional ways that support all parties.

• [Building] the potential for niche/specialty crops and markets -- as well as diversifying farm products -- is essential to sustainability.

• There was lots of participation here from very young prospective farmers. Think about how you can reach out to these young people.

• Appeal to the general public about the benefits of diversity. [We need a] resilient economy, food security, a valued landscape, [and we know that] change is coming.

• Promote perennial grass-based farming.

• The growing support and awareness for sustainable ag is an opportunity. The risk is in becoming comfortable with our own limited success – and the real opportunity is to keep a sense of urgency and to keep ‘pushing the envelope.’

• [Youth education is a] critically important topic for “the land’s” future. It must become a national priority or much of what we do won’t matter to a generation who won’t care.

• Laura and Mike DeCook’s beef-raising practices are an excellent paradigm for other producers to shift away from expensive inputs and corn-fed beef … The Leopold center can contribute to public education about ecosystem function services (that are not provided by paved parking lots.)

• The Leopold Center must educate “the public” about how we use the land for foods, energy and wildlife, and we must make the land resilient.

• [The Center needs to help people understand] how local buying and production is economic development for rural areas.

• The Center needs to develop the capacity and infrastructure for diverse, small and mid-scale farms. Do not fall into the trap of trading attitudes like organic vs. local – it all matters as part of [creating] two better food systems.

• Continue to tie into health and policy.

• The Center needs to promote a culture within “sustainable ag” movements to get outside of one’s knowledge circle – always expand upon our understanding of reality, and discourage generalizations and “we/they” attitudes.

• Farmers are all individuals with similar but unique situations, so it is important for the Center to continue building relationships.

• Leopold Center could lead the way in predicting consequences for ag, energy and food policy.