sustainable agriculture

Tag: sustainable agriculture

Organic Farming Legislation Lecture Closes Lawrence University Series on Sustainable Agriculture

The influence of the U.S. consumer market on federal legislation pertaining to organic agriculture will be examined in the final installment of Lawrence University’s four-part environmental studies lecture series on sustainable agriculture.

Amy Kremen, a former assistant at the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, presents “Federal Legislation on Organic Farming and Food Labeling” Thursday, Feb. 24 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

The address will provide a historic look at organic farming legislation at the federal level and the affects of that legislation in light of the October, 2002 transition to federal oversight of state and private organic certification of farms and food processors.

Kremen will share the results of a recent national survey of farmer’s market managers about the participation and eco-labeling strategies by, and consumer appreciation of, organic farmers at their markets. She also will discuss the meaningfulness of the organic label as compared to other marketing terms such as “natural,” which have become widespread in recent years.

A former chef at an organic foods restaurant and one-time manager of a farmer’s market herself, Kremen has worked as an assistant for the USDA’s Economic Research Service, tracking adoption of U.S. organic farming systems by crop and state. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in soil science at the University of Maryland, where her research is focused on nitrogen release from Brassica cover crops.

The sustainable agriculture lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl, and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

Organic Farming Focus of Lawrence University Address in Sustainable Agriculture Series

Jerry DeWitt, coordinator of the sustainable agriculture extension program at Iowa State University, discusses family farming operations of all sizes that have made significant changes in their operations and moved successfully towards sustainability in the third installment of Lawrence University’s environmental studies lecture series on sustainable agriculture.

DeWitt, professor of entomology in ISU’s agronomy department, presents “Organic Farming in the Midwest” Thursday, Feb. 17 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Focusing on diversification, entrepreneurial activities and creative production and management approaches, DeWitt will discuss ways farmers and ranchers have improved their operations through the use of specialty crops, organic agriculture, local networking and value-added strategies, among others.

A member of the ISU faculty since 1972, DeWitt grew up on a small family farm in Illinois and earned his Ph.D. in entomology at the University of Illinois-Champaign. In addition to his service with the ISU extension program, DeWitt works with the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program in Washington, D.C. An avid photographer, he has chronicled the traditional American farm and farm families with pictures for the books “People Sustaining the Land” (2001) and “Renewing the Countryside: Iowa” (2003).

The lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl, and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

Environmental Sociologist Discusses “Sense of Place” in Lawrence University Environmental Studies Series Address

The importance of maintaining one’s “sense of place” and the need to create human connections to physical spaces will be the focus of the second installment of Lawrence University’s environmental studies lecture series on sustainable agriculture.

Gregory Peter, assistant professor of sociology at UW-Fox Valley, presents “Who Grew Your Supper? Sustainability, Sense of Place and the Legacy of the Land” Thursday, Feb. 3 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Peter will examine the generational connections farmers have traditionally maintained with the land and how those relationships are becoming increasingly jeopardized. In an age of growing industrial agriculture — a go-big-or-go-home environment — there are fewer farms, fewer farmers and consequently, an ever-diminishing sense of connection to the land. He will offer suggestions on how community members, in their role as every day consumers, can help promote and support sustainable agriculture.

Peter joined the UW-Fox Valley faculty in 2003 after spending three years teaching in the sociology department at James Madison University. He has written widely on issues of sustainable agriculture, including co-authoring the 2004 book “Farming for Us All: Postmodern Agriculture and the Cultivation of Sustainability.” He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in sociology at Iowa State University.

The lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl, and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

Sustainable Agriculture Focus of Lawrence University Environmental Studies Lecture Series

Fred Kirschenmann, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, opens a four-part Lawrence University environmental studies lecture series that will examine issues related to sustainable agriculture.

Kirschenmann presents “Challenges and Opportunities Facing Agriculture in the 21st Century” Thursday, Jan. 20 at 4:45 p.m. in Science Hall, Room 102 on the Lawrence campus. The event is free and open to the public.

In the address, Kirschenmann will discuss the impending end of the current “neocaloric” state of agriculture and its heavy dependence on fossil fuels and other natural resources, suggest possibilities as to what agriculture will look like in the future and explore how these inevitable changes are likely to affect the way we relate to the world around us.

Appointed director of ISU’s Leopold Center in 2000, Kirschenmann is a national leader of the organic/sustainable agriculture movement and president of Kirschenmann Family Farms, a 3,500-acre certified organic farm in Windsor, North Dakota. He recently completed a five-year term on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Standards Board and has chaired the administrative council for the USDA’s North Central Region’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

Other talks in the series will include Gregory Peter, assistant professor of sociology at UW-Fox Valley discussing cultural connections to physical places and the future of farm land use (Feb.3); Jerry DeWitt, a University of Iowa extension coordinator addressing organic farming in the Midwest (Feb. 17); and Amy Kremen, a graduate student in the College of Argriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, speaking on federal legislation related to organic farming and food labeling (Feb. 24).

The lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl, and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.