March 5, 2002
AMES, Iowa - The second John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture will take place March 26 and 27, with the winner of the 2001 World Food Prize as the featured speaker at two events.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen is director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute. His address March 26 is titled, "Toward a Sustainable Global Food System: What Will it Take?" It will begin at 2 p.m. in the South Prairie Room at the Gateway Center in Ames.
Following his presentation, comments will be made by Cornelia Flora, director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, and Marcia LaCorbiniere, graduate student in agronomy from St. Lucia.
A town meeting format will be used for the second event at 1:30 p.m. on March 27 at the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development near Lewis in southwest Iowa. Pinstrup-Andersen will deliver a shorter presentation on global sustainability. It will be followed by a panel discussion.
The panel will include Denise O'Brien, farmer and 2001-2002 Kellogg Food and Society Fellow; David Williams, farmer and chair of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture advisory board; Catherine Woteki, dean of the ISU College of Agriculture; Neil Hamilton, director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University; and Alison Carpenter Tarr, graduate student in agronomy from Illinois.
At both events, questions and discussion from the audience will follow the formal program. The sessions are free, open to the public and will be followed by receptions.
The colloquium honors John Pesek, who was head of Iowa State's agronomy department from 1964 to 1990. He served terms as president of both the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America. His research led to a better understanding of the effects of farming practices on the environment.
In the late 1980s, Pesek chaired a National Research Council committee that produced Alternative Agriculture, a groundbreaking report that documented how farming systems that used less pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and fuel could be productive and profitable.
The Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture are the main sponsors of the Pesek Colloquium, along with several other ISU programs, including the North Central Regional Rural Development Center, ISU Extension and Global Agriculture Programs.