National Sustainable Agriculture Oral History Archive Launched

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

For Presence Marketing Newsletter, July 2018
By Steven Hoffman

A rich trove of video interview recordings featuring pioneers and legends of the sustainable and organic agriculture movements has been unveiled by the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) at the University of Minnesota.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Oral History Archive captures interviews from such luminaries as poet, author and farmer Wendell Berry; Jill Auburn, former program leader of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture; organic agriculture policy advocate Roger Blobaum; Kate Clancy of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health; Environmental Working Group president and cofounder Ken Cook; former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin; Land Institute founder Wes Jackson; Kathleen Merrigan, Director of Sustainability for George Washington University; and others.

“Through a series of video-recorded interviews, this oral history archive documents the development and evolution of public policies to advance sustainable and organic agriculture going back to the 1970s. The women and men whose stories were recorded for this archive are among the key leaders and advocates who played significant roles in devising and promoting the laws and government programs that continue to undergird efforts to achieve a sustainable farming and food system in the United States,” said Ron Kroese, senior fellow in the Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota and project leader for the Sustainable Agriculture Oral History Archive.

To view the complete collection of video interviews, visit https://www.misa.umn.edu/publications/sustainableagoralhistoryarchive.

Steven Hoffman is Managing Director of Compass Natural, providing brand marketing, PR, social media, and strategic business development services to natural, organic and sustainable products businesses. Contact steve@compassnaturalmarketing.com.