August 7, 2013, Wednesday - A Sip of Science at Aster Cafe

Time: 5:30pm

Location: Aster Cafe, 125 SE Main Street

A SPECIAL ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA SIP OF SCIENCE:  Agricultural Change: Making a better Iowa, making a better world 
 
This special presentation of A Sip of Science is hosted by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), holding its 98th Annual Meeting August 4-9 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Learn more.
 
Want to stem biodiversity loss, enhance fresh water supplies, curtail climate change AND improve people's lives?

Then change modern agriculture.  Worldwide, agriculture is responsible for more habitat conversion, water pollution, and global warming potential than any other sector of the economy.  Furthermore, the current system of food production fails to provide adequate nourishment for one-seventh of the planet's human inhabitants.  Where do we begin this monumental task?  Iowa, USA.

Iowa's status as the leading producer of corn, soy, pork, and eggs and first-in-the-nation caucuses means the state has disproportionate influence on US farm bills - legislation that delivers food aid to the needy, incentivizes farming practices, and provides the bulk of conservation funding nationwide.  While focused within the nation's borders, farm bill legislation has a global ripple effect by tipping the economic playing field.  Thus, I posit, if you make a better Iowa, you make a better world.  How do we do that?  With perennials and partnerships.
 
About our speaker:
Lisa Schulte Moore studies coupled human and natural systems, working at the intersection of the ecological and social sides of sustainable land management through a combination of historical investigation, field studies, and modeling. Her lab has ongoing projects in agricultural landscape management, bioenergy development, oak restoration, and hemlock and pine forest management among others. For her graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and postdoc research the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station in  Grand Rapids, Minnesota, she worked in Midwestern forests. She adopted agricultural ecology as a part of her research portfolio after moving to Ames, Iowa to take a faculty position at Iowa State University in 2003.

A SIP OF SCIENCE bridges the gap between science and culture in a setting that bridges the gap between brain and belly. Food, beer, and learning are on the menu in a happy hour forum in which researchers pair with musicians, artists and storytellers to put science in context through storytelling.
  
This talk takes place during happy hour at the Aster Cafe - Food and Drink Available for Purchase.