February 14, 2005
The fifth John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture, which honors Pesek, a retired Iowa State University agronomy professor, will be March 9-10.
Hunter Lovins will be the featured speaker at two events. She is the president of Natural Capitalism Inc., a Colorado-based company that helps businesses, government, academic institutions and communities become more profitable and environmentally and socially sustainable.
Lovins' presentation is titled "Energy and Sustainable Agriculture." Her first talk will be from 2:30 to 4 p.m. March 9 in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union on the Iowa State campus in Ames.
The second event will be a lecture and town meeting from 2 to 3:30 p.m. March 10 on the Indian Hills Community College campus in Centerville.
Both lectures will be followed by comments from invited guests and questions and discussion from the audience. Both sessions are free, open to the public and will be followed by receptions.
For more than 30 years, Lovins has advocated sustainable development through creation and management of several companies and corporations that promote sustainable resource use and management. She has taught at various universities, advised citizen groups, governments and corporations and is the author of nine books.
In 1982, Lovins founded the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit resource policy center and startup incubator that now has a 50-person staff and $7 million budget. She helped found and is a professor at Presidio World College business school in San Francisco, which offers the first accredited MBA in sustainable management.
The colloquium honors John Pesek, who 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 use less pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and fuel can be productive and profitable.
The Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture is the primary sponsor of the Pesek Colloquium. The colloquium is cosponsored this year by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, along with several other ISU programs, including the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, ISU Extension Sustainable Agriculture, Office of Biorenewables Programs, Global Agriculture Programs and the College of Business. Other cosponsors are the Iowa Energy Office, Alliant Energy, Indian Hills Community College, Practical Farmers of Iowa and the Women, Food and Agriculture Network.
Lovins will participate in two other events in Ames during her time in Iowa.
The ISU Model United Nations student club is sponsoring a banquet on March 9 with Lovins as the featured speaker. The event will be held at The Basil at 6400 West Lincoln Way. A reception and silent auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. with dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets must be purchased in advance and cost $20 for the public, with students paying $15. To purchase a ticket, contact club president Zach Paskiet at 319-850-1664 or zpaskiet@iastate.edu. Tickets must be purchased by March 3.
Also, a roundtable discussion will be held March 10 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. The topic for discussion is "The Iowa State University BioEconomy Initiative and the Role of Biomass in a Sustainable Future." The discussion session will be in 1951 Food Science Building, with ISU faculty, staff, students and the general public encouraged to attend.