MN SWCS members:
Check out Dr. Kenneth G. Cassman's lecture this Thursday on "Can We Guide Agriculture towards Sustainable Food Security?". Then post your reactions below.
Here are the event details:
Dr. Kenneth G. Cassman,
Robert B. Daugherty Professor of Agronomy, and
Chair, Independent Science and Partnership Council of the CGIAR
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Thursday April 19, 2012
2:00-4:30 PM
335 Borlaug Hall
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN
This event is free and open to the public. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested. There will be light refreshments following the seminar in the hall outside 335 Borlaug. Live web-streaming available at https://umconnect.umn.edu/emergingissues/
Abstract at: http://minnesotaswcs.org/Activities/Emerging%20Issues%20in%20Soil%20&%20Water%20Lecture%202012.pdf
April 7, 2012
Chapter President's message
Well, here we are with my first blog message as Chapter President. I’ve been thinking for quite a while about what makes a person join any organization. The likely first thought is that people join organizations that they feel a connection to, which represents much of the same values they do. Ours is a professional organization, and it brings with it some differences from other types of organizations. Being a conservation society we generally represent a non-partisan view. The political winds of change move constantly and we have seen much of that over the past 30 years. The understanding of conservation in our society has grown continuously, the more we learn, the more conservation becomes embedded as a societal value being passed on to succeeding generations. Our organization represents a group of people concerned with conservation of natural resources, because the resources can’t speak for themselves, we must speak for them. We provide a forum where discussions about natural resource conservation can take place in a positive, non-partisan way that hopefully leads to common sense solutions to the challenges we face in the world today.
I don’t necessarily believe the old saying: “if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”. However, that old saying does have a point. Apathy to issues likely allows them to persist rather than be dealt with. For all of those who share a kinship with me in conservation, thank you for your commitment. Perhaps you know someone who isn’t a member and just needs to be asked. I would suggest that they would benefit greatly from joining our society, and we would also benefit greatly from their insight. Very much a win-win proposition. I hope to share my thoughts regularly over my two-year term as Chapter President. As a reminder, the entire Executive Committee is available for the membership. We have an outstanding leadership group for the chapter, so give us your feedback.
Yours in conservation, Dave
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