Edward N. Ballard, Retired Animal Systems Educator, University of Illinois Extension. B.S. Agriculture Economics, Southern Illinois University, M.S. Agricultural Extension, University of Illinois. Ed was an animal systems educator who works with producers and industry groups to enhance farm profitability and sustainability. His areas of specialization include forages and grazing management, nutrition, environmental management, animal care, energy conservation, nutrient management and economics.

Ed has taught over 250 Management Intensive Grazing Schools for Illinois producers. Ed is co-author of the Illinois Grazing Handbook, and National Extended Grazing Publications. Ed has made grazing presentations at the Ohio Forage Council, Western Ohio Grazing School, The Ohio State Extended Grazing Conference, Heart of America Grazing Conferences, Great Lakes International Grazing Conference, University of Kentucky Grazing School, 3 times, 2nd National Grassland Grazing Conference, Nashville, TN, 3rd National Grazing Conference, St. Louis, MO, Wisconsin Grazing Conference, Missouri Grazing Conference, Missouri Livestock Symposium and Michigan Forage Council.

Ed coordinated the forage and grazing research and demonstration projects for the University of Illinois Animal Systems team. He represents the University of Illinois on the Great Lakes Grazing Council and the Illinois Grasslands Conservation Initiative Committee.

He currently serves as liaison and farm manager for the University of Illinois Dudley Smith Farm.

is a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota. Dr. Bane has been a private veterinary practitioner, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, and a swine technical consultant for a pharmaceutical company. Currently Dr. Bane operates his own veterinary research and consulting business, and produces natural pork, lamb, beef, chicken and turkey on the family farm near Sidney, IL. His current research focus includes objective assessment of animal health and wellness.

Self employed crop consultant (“The Crop Doctor”) working with farmers, golf course superintendents, and home owners on all aspects of crop and grass production to minimize inputs and to maximize profits and plant health. Expertise in soil fertility, aeration, and plant nutrition. Have own nematode diagnostic lab. Have developed own comparative analysis of plant tissue results for remedial action and management strategies. Certified Crop Advisor and Nutrient Management Technical Service Provider.

Dr. Becker is also Research Director, Central Illinois Agricultural Research Farms, Inc. Founder, secretary, and research director of not-for-profit organization to research and teach sustainable agricultural techniques. Have successfully developed a system to reduce nitrogen and to eliminate phosphorus fertilizers, and to improve soil structure and water infiltration. Have been responsible for coordinating large research plots on at least five research farms every year for 15 years. Received and completed a three-year sustainable agriculture grant from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Have ongoing systems research projects with the Illinois Department of Agriculture at the Henry White Experimental Farm near Belleville. Continuing investigations on limiting factors, water infiltration, remineralization, nematode control, and biological farming. Have been an invited speaker at several conferences including some in Australia, giving talks about sustainable agriculture and the benefits of earthworms. Developing a working model farm for organic vegetables and fruits.

Dr. Becker has a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology, University of Illinos, an M.S. Botany, Western Illinois University, and a B.S. Zoology, Western Illinois University.

He currently resides in Springfield, IL, is a member of Slow Food Springfield, a member of Buy Fresh, Buy Local Springfield Chapter, and a member of the Illinois Local Food, Farm, and Jobs Council.

Prior to earning her DVM at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, Jen Burton worked for ten years in human healthcare including rural emergency response, farm rescue and hospital care. Her medical training builds on a Bachelor's degree in Ecology to create a focus on sustainable medicine and food systems. Her veterinary interests lie at the intersection of food animal medicine and public health, and include alternative livestock systems, integrative medicine, occupational health for producers and production animals, and ecosystem health. In addition to her veterinary housecall practice, Dr. Burton works with the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct ecological research using agent-based modeling. She teaches undergraduate, graduate, and veterinary students and community members in topic areas relating to sustainable food systems and integrative medicine. Dr. Burton founded and currently advises the Student American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, and also serves this organization as a committee chair.

John D. Caveny has over 40 years experience in grass farming focusing on grass and animal based agricultural production systems. As president of Environmentally Correct Concepts, Inc., (ECCI) www.agricarbon.com, Caveny began development of practical climate change mitigation strategies using agriculture and forestry activities in 1997. ECCI uses deliberately managed landscapes to create saleable products and store carbon. Caveny developed the technology to measure carbon that is removed from the air and stored (sequestered) by terrestrial plants grown for food, fiber and renewable fuel. The Illinois corporation was the first to patent the only climate change mitigation technology based on the fact that atmospheric CO₂ is the only source of carbon for use by green, growing terrestrial plants during photosynthesis.

ECCI has been granted three United States patents and corresponding foreign patents in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and eighteen European countries for certain terrestrial landscape management activities that remove and store (sequester) non point carbon dioxide and for methods to quantify greenhouse gas offsets from such activities.

• US Patent No. 5,887,547 was granted for processes that sequester carbon from the atmosphere into grassy and herbaceous plants and the soil they grow in; also for methods to measure and quantify amounts of greenhouse gases removed from the air on an annual basis.
• US Patent No. 5,975,020 was granted for processes that sequester atmospheric carbon in the controlled growth of woody plants, the soil they grow in and the humification of animal waste and plant material other than roots as well as methods to measure and quantify such amounts of sequestered carbon.
• US Patent No. 6,115,672 was granted for a method of measuring carbon credits to be sold to a purchaser of carbon credits or the equivalent

Through licensing agreements in the United States and the United Kingdom, ECCI’s licensees can quantify certain air pollution reductions that occur as a consequence of growing plants in specific verifiable ways for feed and fuel and other uses. These reductions are commonly referred to as carbon credits. ECCI’s patented carbon quantification technology and licensee network is validating, facilitating and expediting carbon credit trading around the world.

In 2002, ECCI, the University of Illinois Department of Crop Sciences and Dynegy Midwest Generation, were recipients of three grants from State of Illinois funded renewable energy programs to assess the feasibility of growing Miscanthus x giganteus. Miscanthus, a cool season relative of sugar cane, was planted on Caveny Farm in May 2002. At the end of a successful 3 year research period, remaining Miscanthus reverted to Caveny Farm. In 2008, Caveny Farm and Speedling, Inc. www.speedling.com came to an agreement whereby Speedling propagates and sells plugs of the Illinois Clone of Miscanthus originating from Caveny Farm.

Lynn Clarkson founded Clarkson Grain Co., Inc. in 1874 and continues to serve as its president. Clarkson Grain supplies selected conventional, non-GMO and organic grains and oilseeds and certified organic soybean oil, meal and lecithin to processors of foods and feeds in Asia, North America and Europe. It contracts with farmers across the United States to produce chosen varieties in specific ways. It chooses grains and production systems to deliver specifc process and product characteristics that give clients competitive advantages and favorable market access.

Born on a farm in central Illinois, Mr. Clarkson served in the US Navy before forming Clarkson Grain. He holds a JD from the University of Wisconsin, a Masters in Political Science from Tulane University and a Bachelors from Knox College. He has served on various University and USDA boards and works closely with researchers at several other universities and research facilities. He has served as a director of the Organic Trade Association for the past 7 years.

Relevant Publications

Clarkson, Lynn. Selecting Soybeans for Food Applications. In Soy Applications in Food, Chapter 13, Pp 249 - 266. edited by Mian N. Riaz, 2006, Boca Raton, CRC Press

Jerry R. DeWitt is a long-time sustainable agriculture leader at the state, regional and national levels. He was appointed Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture for a three-year interim term beginning January 1, 2007. He had served as Interim Director from November 2005 through December 2006. He also coordinates the Iowa Learning Farm and Iowa State University Extension's Sustainable Agriculture Program.

An entomologist by training, DeWitt has been a faculty member at Iowa State University since 1972, about half that time as an administrator in the ISU College of Agriculture and Iowa State University Extension. Prior to joining the Leopold Center, he coordinated ISU Extension's Pest Management and the Environment Program as well as ISU Extension's Sustainable Agriculture Program.

In 2009, the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences honored DeWitt with the George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award. During his ISU tenure, he has served as associate dean in the College of Agriculture, assistant director for ISU Extension, interim director for ISU Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension, and state liaison for the National Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On three occasions between 1993 and 2004, he was interim national program leader for the USDA-SARE program and has worked on special outreach projects for the agency.

In 1998, DeWitt was instrumental in establishing the nation's first tenured organic agriculture faculty position at Iowa State University. He also is credited with making the connection for a unique partnership between ISU and the grassroots organization, Practical Farmers of Iowa. During the late 1980s, he worked with farmer groups to develop on-farm demonstrations on energy conservation, and PFI members continue to do on-farm research today.

DeWitt also is an accomplished photographer and has visited many farms throughout Iowa, nationally and internationally. His photographs have been published in two books: People Sustaining the Land (Vagnetti and DeWitt, 2002), and Renewing the Countryside - Iowa, a 2003 project supported by the Leopold Center.

He received the 2005 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture, the 1994 Epsilon Sigma Phi Regional Distinguished Service Award in Extension, and the Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award in 1991 from Practical Farmers of Iowa.

He was a member of the Leopold Center's first advisory board from 1987 to 1997. He also is a member of the North Central Region SARE Administrative Council, and the governing boards for the Organic Farming Research Foundation and National Center for Appropriate Technology. He has authored more than 105 publications, pamphlets and videotapes, and continues to be a frequent speaker.

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture was created by the Iowa Legislature to develop sustainable agricultural practices that are both profitable and conserve natural resources.

A native of Southern California, Dr. Donoghue received her B.S. from San Diego State University her M.S. from Texas A&M University and her Ph.D. in Physiology from the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She was a post doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution before joining the Germplasm and Gamete Physiology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, as a Poultry Research Physiologist in 1993. Dr. Donoghue conducted basic research to identify and elucidate factors which influence or alter sperm function in poultry including investigating sperm competition between males and its relationship to genetic paternity, and determining the effects of liquid or cryopreservation on sperm function. Her strategy was to understand how sperm characteristics influence sperm storage and paternity efficiency under the conditions used for commercial turkey production. Dr. Donoghue became Research Leader in June 2000 for the Poultry Production and Product Safety Research Unit, ARS, USDA within the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas and continues to serve in this capacity. The Unit’s research focus is on enhancing the food safety of poultry, reducing metabolic disease which impacts poultry production and developing environmentally-friendly methods to utilize poultry manure. Her research here has focused on developing alternatives to antibiotic use in poultry and developing strategies to reduce or eliminate pathogen contamination. Dr. Donoghue has published more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, invited proceedings or book chapters. She has received over $4 million in grants as PI or co investigator. She received numerous honors including the Distinguished Young Scientist for State of Maryland by the Maryland Science Center, the USDA, ARS, Hebert L. Rothbart Outstanding Early Career Research Scientist of the Year; the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; the HyLine International Research Award; the Helene Cecil Leadership Award; the National Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium and the ARS Outstanding Technology Transfer Award. She has served as an associate editor for the Journal of Poultry Science, Physiology and Reproduction Section 1995-2006, the Journal of Applied Poultry Research (2004-present); and the Journal of Andrology. She served on the Poultry Science Associations Board of Directors (2003-2006); Long Range Planning Committee (2004-2007); and PSA Hatchery Committee 2006-2008). She is a member of the National Food Safety Alliance, the National Animal Germplasm Program, Poultry Committee and the Avian Genetic Resource Task Force.

Alan Guebert was raised on an 800-acre, 100-cow southern Illinois dairy farm. After graduation from the University of Illinois in Dec. 1980, he served as a writer and editor at Professional Farmers of America, Successful Farming magazine and Farm Journal magazine.

He began his syndicated agricultural column, The Farm and Food File, in June, 1993; it now appears weekly in more than 70 newspapers throughout the US and Canada. He also writes ''Letter from America,'' a monthly column on U.S. agriculture and ag policy for magazines and newspapers in Europe and Asia.

In 1997, the American Agricultural Editors' Association honored him with its highest awards, "Writer of the Year" and "Master Writer."

Alan and his wife Catherine, a social worker, reside in Delavan, IL. They have two children, Mary Grace, of Washington, DC, and Paul, an officer in the US Navy.

is a mixed-animal practitioner with a swine focus. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine and has been in private practice for the last 15 years, working with herds of all sizes in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. Dr. Lehman's research includes elimination of diseases from swine farms. Dr. Lehman resides on his farm near Sullivan, IL.

• H. Fred Troutt, Jr.
• Professor
• Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine
• College of Veterinary Medicine
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Urbana, Illinois

Dr. Troutt has a B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University, a VMD from University of Pennsylvania, an MS from Purdue University, and a PhD from University of Missouri where his study emphasis was in pathology, nutrition and physiology. He is board certified with the American College Veterinary Nutrition and the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. Dr. Troutt has been a private veterinary practitioner in a mixed practice in Pennsylvania; a staff clinician in Food Animal Medicine and Surgery at Purdue University; an Assistant Professor of Food Animal Medicine and Surgery at Purdue University; a Research Associate with the National Institutes of Health Special Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Missouri; an Associate Professor at University of Georgia, College of Veterinary Medicine; and has held professorship positions at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, University of California-Davis and (currently) the University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine.

At UC-Davis, Dr. Troutt was Director, Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center. At Illinois, he was Head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine from 1988-1998 and Chair of the Food Animal Production Medicine Consortium (a Six University Consortium funded by the Pew Foundation); and Program Coordinator, Strategic Partnership Illinois: Safe Food, Air and Water.

Since 1968 Prof. Troutt has served as a consultant regarding food animal health issues or veterinary education programs or food safety concerns to industry, academic institutions, and to various state agencies and to the United States Department of Agriculture. He has served a consultantship to the World Bank. He has served on numerous occasions as Panel Member and Reviewer for a variety of scientific and extension programs sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture, academic institutions and professional societies. He has served as chairman of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) – Council on Education, and as a member of the AVMA Strategic Planning and Council Selection Task Force Committees. He has served as chairman of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, Animal Production Food Safety committee and on the board of directors of the American Association of Food Hygiene Veterinarians. He has received recognition by numerous professional societies including American Association of Bovine Practitioners, an Award for Excellence in Preventive Veterinary Medicine (Dairy), and Founders’ Recognition, American Board of Veterinary Practitioners.

Over the course of his academic career Dr. Troutt has taught courses in both the clinical sciences (physical diagnosis, food animal medicine, food animal surgery; bovine nutrition) and the pre-clinical sciences (pathology, physiology of digestion, ruminant anatomy and general nutrition).

His present instructional responsibilities include basic nutrition for veterinary students and food animal medicine. He lectures in epidemiology and in public health courses to veterinary students and on animal health issues to undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois. His research interests include the epidemiology of Salmonella infections in cull dairy cattle, zoonotic diseases, and metabolic diseases of dairy cattle. Over the course of his career Dr. Troutt has presented more than 245 lectures domestically and internationally dealing with a variety of clinical and scientific subjects, and has authored or co-authored approximately 60 papers and reports dealing with a variety of clinical and research topics. In addition to scientific presentations Professor Troutt has worked internationally on veterinary issues or programs in Australia, Canada, England, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand and Uganda.

Will Winter graduated in veterinary medicine from Kansas State University in 1975. He also received a degree in Animal Nutrition and completed post-graduate studies and conducted research in Veterinary Toxicology. After graduating he moved to Minnesota, specializing in surgical referrals and opened an emergency clinic. In 1980 he created what became one of the largest and most successful holistic veterinary practices in the United States.

In 1983 he co-founded the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA). He writes for several veterinary and agricultural journals and web sites and has served as the veterinary advisor to the International Alliance of Sustainable Agriculture (IASA) since 1984. He is the author of THE HOLISTIC VETERINARY HANDBOOK (2nd ed. out soon) and manufactures and markets Rescue Animal Products as well as Restoration Raw 100% Grass-Fed Pet Food.

In 1999 he sold his practice and the Sojourner Farms Pet Food Company to become a free-lance journalist and lecturer, teaching about holistic veterinary livestock issues, sustainable agriculture and traditional nutrition. He has recently founded the American Holistic Livestock Association. He is the chapter leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation for Minneapolis-St. Paul, distributes farm-fresh dairy products, pastured pork, grass-finished bison and farm food in the Twin Cities area He moderates several web discussion groups such as Traditional Foods MN and in 2008 opened the Traditonal Foods Warehouse and Buying Club. He works as a free-lance independent holistic herd heath consultant for grass-based livestock producers and, since 2005, has been the herd consultant for the Thousand Hills Cattle Company of Cannon Falls, MN.

• Thousand Hills Cattle Co
• Traditional Foods MN
• 3116 Holmes Ave. So
• Minneapolis, MN 55408

• home 612-827-1549
• cell 612-756-1232
• wk 507--263-4001
• www.willwinter.com
• holistic@visi.com