August 24, 2012

Four former U.S. secretaries of agriculture — two with Nebraska ties — are the opening speakers when the second season of Heuermann Lectures begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at the Lied Center for Performing Arts in Lincoln.

 The four former agricultural secretaries — U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, Clayton Yeutter, John Block, and Dan Glickman — will discuss "The Land-Grant Mission of 2012 — Transforming Agriculture for the 2050 World."

Panel moderators are Jeff Raikes, chief executive officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Ronnie Green, University of Nebraska vice president and Harlan vice chancellor, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Heuermann Lectures in IANR at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln focus on providing and sustaining enough food, natural resources and renewable energy for the people of the world, and on securing the sustainability of rural communities where the vital work of producing food and renewable energy occurs.

Heuermann Lectures are free, but the Sept. 28 lecture requires tickets, which are available free from the Lied Center ticket office beginning Aug. 28.  Call 402-472-4747 in Lincoln or 1-800-432-3231 outside Lincoln to order. Unclaimed tickets will be released at 7:15 p.m. that night.

The Sept. 28 Heuermann Lecture will be streamed live at heuermannlectures.unl.edu, and broadcast live nationally on RFD-TV and RURAL TV.

This lecture is the highlight of a week celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act, which created land-grant universities. More information about the events scheduled for that week is at landgrant.unl.edu

Other Heuermann Lectures in the 2012-2013 season will be held at Hardin Hall, 33rd and Holdrege, Lincoln: 

• Thursday, Nov. 15 at 3:30 p.m. — "Where America Must Lead: Ensuring the World Can Feed its People" with Catherine Bertini, 2003 World Food Prize Laureate and professor of public administration and international relations at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and co-chair of the Global Agricultural Development Initiative, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. A 3 p.m. reception in the Hardin Hall lobby precedes the lecture.
   
• Friday, Nov. 30 at 3:30 p.m. — "Recent and Prospective Developments in Agricultural Trade Policies"  with  Kym Anderson, George Gollin Professor of Economics, The University of Adelaide, and professor of economics at Australian National University, and a former researcher at the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, with expertise in global food and agricultural policies and market trends. This lecture is jointly sponsored with the Clayton Yeutter International Trade Center Program funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration. A 3 p.m. reception precedes the lecture.
   
• Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. — "Improving Animal Welfare and Communication with the Public" with Temple Grandin, professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University and author of several books including "Livestock Handling and Transport" and "Thinking in Pictures." A reception will follow the presentation.
   
• Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 3:30 p.m. — "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food" with Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak. Ronald is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis, and director of grass genetics at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, while her husband Raoul Adamchak is market garden coordinator at the U.C. Davis Student Farm, where he teaches organic agriculture. They are co-authors of the book "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food." A 3 p.m. reception precedes the lecture.
   
• Tuesday, April 9 at 3:30 p.m. — "The Global Food System and Related Policy Challenges" with Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001 World Food Prize Laureate. He is H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship, and professor of Applied Economics at Cornell University.

Heuermann Lectures are made possible through a gift from B. Keith and Norma Heuermann of Phillips, long-time university supporters with a strong commitment to Nebraska's production agriculture, natural resources, rural areas and people.

IANR News