Borlaug Hall room 306 & via Zoom
Join us Wednesdays at 3:30 for our fall departmental seminar series. This week's guests are Erin Meier and Aaron Reser of Green Lands Blue Waters.
Title: "Green Lands Blue Waters - Continuous Living Cover outreach and partnerships"
Abstract: What does it take to make change on the ground? Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW) is based at UMN and collaborates across sectors in the Midwest region to shift the agricultural landscape to more Continuous Living Cover (CLC). GLBW and partners are conducting essential research, improving the genetics of old and new crops, translating knowledge into CLC farming systems, developing new extension and outreach capacity, working in farm fields, shaping policy, building profitable markets for new crops, and changing the narrative around what’s possible through agriculture. Come learn about how we connect, collaborate, convene and communicate - and learn about ways to get involved.
Erin Meier is Director of Green Lands Blue Waters. Previously, Erin served for 14 years as Executive Director of the University of Minnesota Southeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership. She has over 20 years of experience and training in sustainable agriculture, local food systems, food access, natural resource conservation, clean energy, community engagement and development, and facilitating cross-sector work groups and networks. Erin holds an MS in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University with an emphasis on external costs and behavioral economics and is a geographer at heart with a BS in Geography from the University of Illinois and past experience as a cartographer and geographic information systems analyst.
Aaron Reser is the Associate Director for Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW). Based at the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, GLBW works with a wide network of partners across the Upper Midwest to increase continuous living cover on the agricultural landscape. In the past, Aaron led GLBW’s Watershed Initiative work and was the lead staff on early supply chain development work with Kernza™ perennial grain. Her expertise is in building and strengthening collaborative networks, linking key elements and individuals along the path from farm to market and illuminating all of the systems-support pieces that underlay that path. She brings 15 years experience in a whole-systems approach to building regional food systems. Aaron has an MPA from the UMN Humphrey School of Public Affairs.