Local Foods Leader to speak at Clemson University

A national leader in the local foods movement will speak at Clemson University on Wednesday, March 6, offering a vision of how the nation can move toward a sustainable and secure future. Farmer, professor and author Philip Ackerman-Leist will explore local-scale food from a national perspective and propose strategies for creating more democratic and secure food systems in his presentation at 6:30pm at the Strom Thurmond Institute auditorium. The event is open to the public and free of charge. Author of “Rebuilding the Foodshed” and “Up Tunket Road,” Ackerman-Leist is a professor at Green Mountain College in Vermont, where he established the college’s farm and sustainable agriculture curriculum and is director of the Green Mountain College Farm & Food Project. He also founded and directs the college’s Masters in Sustainable Food Systems, the nation’s first online graduate program in food systems, which features applied comparative research of students’ home bioregions. The Clemson Sustainable Agriculture Program sponsors the presentation.  Barnes and Noble campus bookshop will have copies of Ackerman-Leist’s books, “Rebuilding the Foodshed” and “Up Tunket Road,” for sale at the program, after which there will be a book signing and refreshments.