Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Land Institute President and Founder Wes Jackson to speak on agriculture Nov. 9

Yoder Public Affairs Lecture: Wes Jackson – "The Necessity and Possibility of an Agriculture Where Nature is the Measure"
Date and time: Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.
Location: Goshen College Music Center's Sauder Concert Hall
Cost: Free and open to the public
Event sponsor: Yoder Public Affairs Lecture series
Website: www.landinstitute.org

GOSHEN, Ind. – Wes Jackson, president and founder of the Land Institute, is widely recognized as a leader in the international movement for sustainable agriculture. He will be giving the Goshen College Yoder Public Affairs Lecture about "The Necessity and Possibility of an Agriculture Where Nature is the Measure" on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Music Center's Sauder Concert Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Land Institute has worked for more than 30 years in agriculture in hopes of developing an agricultural system with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops.

Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Kansas Wesleyan, a master's degree in botany from the University of Kansas and a doctorate in genetics from North Carolina State University. He established and served as chair of one of the country's first environmental studies programs at California State University-Sacramento and then returned to his native Kansas to found The Land Institute in 1976.

Jackson is the author of several books, including New Roots for Agriculture and Becoming Native to This Place. He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar, in 1992 became a MacArthur Fellow and in 2000 received the Right Livelihood Award (called the "alternative Nobel prize"). Life magazine named Jackson as one of 18 individuals it predicted would be among the 100 "important Americans of the 20th century." In November 2005, Smithsonian called him one of "35 Who Made a Difference."

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

###

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, "Colleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S.News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.