Leopold Center for Sustainable
Agriculture
2-27-07
Contact: Fred Kirschenmann, (515) 294-3711,
[log in to unmask]; or Laura Miller,
(515) 294-5272, [log in to unmask]
AUTHOR
TO ARTICULATE ABOUT AGRICULTURE APRIL 15
AMES, IA -- Nationally
known farmer, writer, conservationist and philosopher Wendell Berry promises
to tackle a host of contemporary agriculture issues as he delivers the 2007
Shivvers Memorial Lecture on Sunday, April 15, at Iowa State University's
Memorial Union.
Berry's rare public appearance is sponsored by the
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture as part of its 20th anniversary
observance. Berry's daughter, Mary Berry Smith, will join him for this lively
session.
The 7 p.m. event will feature a discussion moderated by Laura
Jackson, Leopold Center board member and University of Northern Iowa biology
professor, joined by two well-known Iowa organic farmers, Francis Thicke,
Fairfield grass-based dairyman; and Laura Krouse of Mount Vernon, who grows
organic seed corn and vegetables for a community supported agriculture
enterprise and teaches biology at Cornell College.
"Wendell is one of
the great literary treasures of our time," said Leopold Center Distinguished
Fellow Fred Kirschenmann, who helped arrange Berry's ISU appearance. "His
practical wisdom shared through his poetry, essays and novels has withstood
the test of time. We are deeply honored that he and his daughter Mary have
agreed to come and help us celebrate our 20th anniversary at the Leopold
Center."
Both Berry and his daughter farm in Harris County, Kentucky
where their forebears farmed for five generations. Berry is a prolific poet,
essayist and novelist and has taught English at New York University and the
University of Kentucky. Central themes for his work include responsiveness to
one's place, sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural
communities, reverence and the interconnectedness of life.
Berry is
especially well known for his essays and provocative writings about
agriculture and food. He has called eating "an agricultural act" and minces
few words about the current direction of agriculture.
The annual
Shivvers Memorial Lecture in memory of John Shivvers, who farmed near
Knoxville, by is cosponsored Gamma Sigma Delta Honorary Society for
Agriculture and the ISU Committee on Lectures.
##
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Iowa State University/209
Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-3711; FAX: (515)
294-9696
All news releases also are posted on our web site: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu
-------