| HIGHLIGHT EVENTS OF THE LEOPOLD CENTER |
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Why don't we have sustainable agriculture now?
It's not for lack of knowledge about sustainable practices, or research, contends Richard Levins, professor emeritus of applied economics at the University of Minnesota, who presented the 2009 Shivvers Memorial Lecture March 1 in Ames.
"I think we would be closer to answering these questions if we face the fact that farmers no longer sit in the driver’s seat of our contemporary food system," he told the audience of about 250 people.
"We are entirely too quick to say, for example, that we have problems with farm chemicals because farmers use them, not because farm chemical companies develop, manufacture, and promote them …the economic environment in which farmers work is increasingly established by agribusiness and retailers, not by farmers."
He offered the nation's current banking crisis as an example, and asked the audience to start considering solutions for the nation's food system. "Are we going to just keep propping up the system or are we going to try something different?" he asked. "These are the opportunities that are going to take place over the next five years and we need to start thinking about these questions."
Read his prepared remarks and listen to his full presentation
2008 Spencer Award presentation
“I always thought it would be in my best interest to spend a day with Steve walking his pastures, enjoying the abundance of wildlife that calls his farm ‘home’ and just talk cows and grass. But I haven’t done it yet and it is my loss.”
—Russ Brandes, a southwest Iowa farmer who presented the 2008 Spencer Award to Steve Reinart of Carroll County
In photo: Leopold Center Director Jerry DeWitt (front right) presents the 2008 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture to Steve Reinart in January. Also participating in the event were Russ Brandes, a southwest Iowa farmer; and Leopold Center Advisory Board Chair Laura Jackson.