After the keynote speaker and panelist responses, breakout sessions to generate input and ideas were …  

• How Can We Build Best Practice into Policy? Sustaining Farming and Informing Policy How can agriculture contribute to producing renewable energy as an integrated part of the agricultural landscape – and what this requires in terms of overall agricultural and private land policy? Resource person: Margaret Krome; opening reflections and moderation: Andy Johnson, Mark Rasmussen, and Pat Leavenworth

• How Can We Support Innovators and Build Partnerships? Cultivating the Cultivators What actions, both public and private, to help foster and support the next generation of farmers and their partners and consumers in cities and towns? Resource person: Keefe Keeley; opening reflection and moderation: Suzan Erem and colleagues

• What Would Paul Say? Building a Vision and Scholarship for a Private Land Ethic of the Future How can we build upon past work and thinking (Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Paul Johnson, etc.) for the next generation of thought leadership and action? Resource person: Ricardo Salvador; opening reflections and moderation: Curt Meine, Jackson Newman, and Neil Hamilton

Speakers’ bios:

Tom Harkin served as U.S. Senator for the state of Iowa from 1985 through 2014, where, among many other things, he chaired the Senate Agriculture committee from 2001-2003 and again from 2007-2009. After retiring from the Senate, he established the Tom and Ruth Harkin Institute at Drake University, whose promise is “to improve the lives of all Americans by giving policymakers access to high-quality information and engaging citizens as active participants in the formation of public policy.” Senator Harkin keynoted the launch of the JCLSP in October 2021 and at that time offered to host the first annual Center forum on public policy around Paul’s vision for land stewardship.

Tom Vilsack is the US Secretary of Agriculture under President Biden, a position he also held under President Obama. He previously served as Iowa’s governor, where he appointed Paul Johnson to serve as the Director of the Department of Natural Resources. Secretary Vilsack oversees Ag’s new $20-billion investment in the Inflation Reduction Act to foster climate sustainability in agriculture. He is a member of the Climate Task Force President Biden established during his first week in office.

Margaret Krome oversees the Michael Fields Agriculture Institute policy program in Wisconsin and coordinates the annual national grassroots campaign to fund federal programs supported by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Over many years, Margaret has collaborated to create and sustain funding initiatives supporting environmentally sound, profitable, and socially responsible agriculture. In addition to policy work, she conducts workshops nationwide on grant writing and using federal programs to support sustainable agriculture. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Appropriate Technology. sits on the Wisconsin Board of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. and writes a bi-weekly editorial column for Madison’s Capital Times.

Keefe Keeley serves as Executive Director of the Savannah Institute, which works to adopt resilient, agroforestry that integrates trees, crops, and livestock for climate stability, ecological resilience, economic prosperity, and vibrant communities. Keefe’s experience includes farm business, research, public agency, and civil society initiatives. He has degrees in biology from Swarthmore College and in agroecology from University of Wisconsin, and a year on farms on four continents as a Watson Fellow.

Ricardo Salvador serves as the senior scientist and director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists and has four decades of experience working with citizens, scientists, economists, and politicians to transition our current food system into one that grows healthy foods while employing sustainable and socially equitable practices. Before coming to UCS, Dr. Salvador served as a program officer for food, health, and well-being with the Kellogg Foundation. Prior to that, he was an associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. While at ISU, Dr Salvador taught the first course in sustainable agriculture at a land-grant university, and his graduate students conducted some of the original academic research on community-supported agriculture.

Pat Johnson and Andy Johnson, Paul’s spouse and son, serve on the JCLSP Board. Andy works, and Pat continues to live on, the Johnson farm near Decorah (northeast Iowa). Pat is an emeritus social work professor at Luther; Andy is the founding director of the Winneshiek Energy District and, now, the Association of Clean Energy Districts. 

Curt Meine is Director Emeritus of the Aldo Leopold Foundation and, with JCLSP intern and fellow Jackson Newman, is compiling and curating the writings of Paul Johnson for a subsequent collection of his works.