Sep 20, 2013

2013 Sustainable Ag Colloquium: Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations | Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture


September 10, 2013

AMES, Iowa – This fall, take part in a presentation and discussion of solutions to global soil erosion with geologist David R. Montgomery, who will present the 2013 Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University on September 23.

Montgomery, the author of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, will demonstrate how soil use and abuse has shaped societies from Mesopotamia to China to the American West. “There’s still time to live up to our name,” says Montgomery of human beings, the thinking ape, “if only we stop treating our soil like dirt.”

A MacArthur Genius Award recipient and professor at the University of Washington, Montgomery is the author of several books, including King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon and The Rocks Don’t Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah’s Flood. He studies the evolution of the earth’s topography and how this influences ecological systems and human societies.

This event is free and open to the public. It will be held at ISU’s Memorial Union in the Great Hall on September 23 at 8 p.m. Event details may be found at: www.lectures.iastate.edu/lecture/30320.

The Pesek Colloquium is coordinated by the Wallace Chair for Sustainable Agriculture with a number of sponsors, including the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Agronomy, Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, and Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at ISU; Practical Farmers of Iowa, the Plant Sciences Institute, and the Committee on Lectures funded by the Government of the Student Body.

The colloquium has been presented since 2001 in honor of ISU Emeritus Professor of Agronomy John Pesek.

Listen to Montgomery discuss his book, The Rocks Don’t Lie, in a National Public Radio On Being interview with Krista Tippett: origin-www.onbeing.org/program/reading-the-rocks/5851.

- See more at: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/09-10-2013/2013-dirt-erosion-civilizations#sthash.PTdaPr6e.dpuf

Links:
Podcast ---> http://realserver.ait.iastate.edu:8080/ITS/Podcasts/Montgomery_9.23.2013.mp3
http://hines.blogspot.com/2012/12/dirt-erosion-of-civilizations-david-r.html
2013 Sustainable Ag Colloquium: Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations | Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

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