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| Fred Kirschenmann |
If you missed the Nov. 10 lecture by organic agriculture leader Fred Kirschenmann, it is available on video. If your internet connection can not support the video, listen to an audio-only or downloadable mp3 version. Or read a short account of Kirschenmann’s talk published in edible Twin Cities.
An active, engaged audience of about 200 people heard Kirschenmann speak on “Water and the Challenges Facing U.S. and World Agriculture in the 21st Century.” The lecture at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Student Center was sponsored by the Freshwater Society and the university’s College of Biological Sciences.
Kirschenmann, who owns a 2,400-acre certified organic farm in North Dakota, is a distinguished fellow at Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
As he spoke, Kirschenmann peppered his talk with references to books and journal articles on environmental sustainability. Check out his recommended reading list.
Three Minnesota experts in sustainable agriculture appeared with him. They were:
- George Boody, executive director of the Land Stewardship Project.
- Mary Jo Forbord, who operates an organic beef farm in Starbuck.
- Dr. David Mulla, a professor in the university’s Department of Soil, Water, and Climate who has worked extensively in the fields of precision agriculture and precision conservation.
Kirschenmann’s lecture was the sixth in the Moos Family Speaker Series, which honors the late Malcolm Moos, president of the univesity from 1967 to 1974.
Other speakers in the lecture series have been:
Robert Glennon, a University of Arizona law professor who has written two books on water sustainability; Hedrick Smith, producer of the award-winning PBS documentary “Poisoned Waters;” Louis J. Guillette Jr., a Medical University of South Carolina reproductive biologist; Craig A. Cox, a senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group; and Gretchen C. Daily, a Stanford University ecologist who is a pioneer in an emerging effort to protect the environment by putting a price on all the services that ecosystems provide for humans.
View archived video of the past lectures.