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UPDATE: Watch the entire lecture below!

For the first time ever, Iowans can leave a legacy of healthy food to the next generation, making way for a cleaner planet, sustainable food farms and thriving rural economies. Suzan Erem, co-founder and president of the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT) will explain how this statewide nonprofit is creating a whole new way to own farmland and “feed the world.”

The talk, given as a part of the Sustainable Living department’s Distinguished Lecture Series will be held on April 27th at 7:30PM in Dalby Hall (at the Argiro Student Center on the MIU Campus) and is open to the public.

Suzan Erem is a lifelong community and union organizer as well as professional working writer. She graduated from the University of Iowa in the mid-1980s with degrees in Journalism and English, but soon became active saving family farms. Job opportunities eventually dragged her away from Iowa.

Suzan returned to 80 acres in Cedar County in 2010 to witnessed young people being locked out of farming at the same time the local food movement was growing exponentially. She and her husband Paul Durrenberger saw many worthy organizations training new farmers, building local food networks and supporting sustainable farming methods, but no one was tackling the daunting effects of land speculation on land causing it to either get paved over for development or plowed under for a larger commodity farming operation.

After two years of Suzan’s research and networking around the country and the state, the best minds in sustainable agriculture, planning, development and advocacy answered the call to launch SILT so future farmers can pursue a life of growing healthy food and local food fans can enjoy their farmers markets long after those farms change hands.