March 5, 2002
AMES, Iowa — Wes Jackson, president, and Stan Cox, senior research scientist, of The Land Institute in Salina will speak at Iowa State University March 11 and 12 about their work in agroecosystems.
The presentations are scheduled for 12:10-1 p.m. Monday, March 11 at the Sustainable Agriculture Colloquium in the Ensminger International Room, 1204 Kildee Hall, and 4:10-5 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, in 2050 Agronomy Hall.
The Land Institute's mission is to improve the security of food and fiber sources by reducing soil erosion, decreasing dependency on petroleum and natural gas and lowering agriculture-related chemical contamination of land and water. The institute's research investigates both native and modern agronomic systems based on ecological principles that use nature as a guide.
Jackson founded The Land Institute in 1976 to develop a farming system that is ecologically stable and produces yields comparable to other crops. He is a recent Pew Scholar, MacArthur Fellow and has received the Right Livelihood Award. His books include New Roots for Agriculture, Man and the Environment, Meeting the Expectations of the Land, Altars of Unhewn Stone and Becoming Native to This Place.
Stan Cox joined The Land Institute in July 2000 as senior research scientist to coordinate perennial crop breeding research with wheat, rye, sorghum, eastern gamagrass, sunflower and other crops. He earned a bachelor's in agronomy at the University of Georgia and a master's and doctorate in plant breeding at Iowa State University. He worked as a wheat geneticist in the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA in Manhattan from 1984-1996 and taught high school in Hyderabad, India, from 1996 until he joined The Land Institute.
Both presentations are open to the public and will focus on the "Natural Systems Agriculture: An Agriculture Where Nature is the Measure." The presentations are part of a seminar series for the Long-Term Agroecosystems Research and Education Station (LTARES) planning team. Co-sponsors include the ISU Office of the Provost, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, ISU Horticulture and Agronomy departments and the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture.