A Fresh Start: In pursuit of a "nature-based" agriculture

(11/10/08) Today we begin a week-long series called "A Fresh Start." We've asked some big thinkers to make recommendations for president-elect Barack Obama on key issues for the North Country. Our first is agriculture, an issue that rarely came up during the presidential campaign. Wes Jackson is a nationally recognized advocate of a new food and farm policy based on crop diversity rather than monocultures of corn, soybeans, and wheat. He's founder and president of The Land Institute, based in Kansas. Jackson will speak at Clarkson University Thursday at noon and at Gardenshare's annual dinner Thursday night at 6 in Canton. Jackson told David Sommerstein he was heartened to read an interview with Obama in Time Magazine. Obama said he was paying attention to the work of Jackson's fellow food reform advocate, Michael Pollen, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma.