News Release August 2, 2017 

 

First Listening Session on Future of Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture Aug. 9 in Ames 

 

Contacts: Mark Rasmussen, Leopold Center director, 

515-294-3711, [log in to unmask] 

Carol Brown, Leopold Center communications, 

[log in to unmask] 

Ed Adcock, ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 

communications, [log in to unmask] 

 

AMES, Iowa - A listening session to gather input on the future of the
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture will be held Wednesday, Aug. 9,
at Iowa State University. 

 

The session, which is open to the public, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at
the Jeff and Deb Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center, 2508 Mortensen
Road. 

 

This is the first of several listening sessions to be held around the state,
led by a task force that is gathering input from the public.  The dates and
locations for other listening sessions will be announced later. 

 

Public comments also can be submitted online at the following website, 

https://www.leopold.iastate.edu/leopold-center-listening-sessions-feedback 

 

This spring, the Iowa Legislature passed legislation to defund and close the
30-year-old center at Iowa State University. Then-Governor Terry Branstad
used a line-item veto to remove language that would have closed the center,
but signed the bill that removed its state funding, approximately $1.7
million. As of July 1, the center's only new revenues come from earnings
from an endowment established by private giving. 

 

Wendy Wintersteen, endowed dean of the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences, and Mark Rasmussen, director of the Leopold Center, named a
visioning task force to hold the upcoming listening sessions. The 11-member
task force is co-chaired by Rasmussen and Doug Gronau, who chairs the
center's advisory board. The task force is hosting the listening sessions to
hear from attendees on how the center may move forward. Other task force
members are: John Gilbert, a farmer from Hardin County; Gail Hickenbottom of
Practical Farmers of Iowa; Patti Naylor, a farmer from Greene County; Bob
Riley of the Riley Resource Group, Pleasant Hill; Ann Robinson of the Iowa
Environmental Council; Ron Rosmann, a farmer from Shelby County; Lisa
Schulte-Moore, professor of natural resource ecology and management at Iowa
State; Suzanne Shirbroun, a farmer from Clayton County; and Cody Smith, vice
president of Iowa State University Student Government


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to [log in to unmask] Users of Listserv are subject to the Sierra Club's Terms and Conditions (http://www.sierraclub.org/terms). For more information, see our support site (http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp).