FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 5, 2005

CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu
Alan Winnikoff, (212) 679-2982, alan@sayleswinnikoff.com

DRAKE LAW PROFESSOR TO RECEIVE NATIONAL AWARD OCT. 14

Drake University law professor Neil D. Hamilton, director of Drake's Agricultural Law Center and chair of the Iowa Food Policy Council, will receive the Glynwood Harvest Innovator of the Year Award from the Glynwood Center on Oct. 14 in New York City.

This year's winners demonstrate how the movement to support regional farming and assure access to fresh, healthy food has matured and diversified since the Glynwood Center, a nonprofit group based in Cold Spring, N.Y., launched the annual Harvest Awards in 2003.

"This year's impressive roster of winners will further Glynwood's goal of inspiring others across the country to join this growing movement," says Judith LaBelle, president of Glynwood Center. LaBelle will present the awards along with Henry A. Jordan, M.D., a conservation leader who is a past chairman of The National Trust for Historic Preservation and currently chairman of Glynwood Center, and past Harvest Award winner Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch.

This year, the support of a number of sponsors has allowed Glynwood to expand its Harvest Awards programs and festivities. On Thursday, Oct. 13, winners will be treated to a dinner celebration at Glynwood sponsored by the Valley Restaurant at The Garrison. Valley Restaurant's Chef Jeff Raider has designed a menu featuring products from current and past Harvest Award winners and Glynwood Farm itself. Other activities will include a behind-the-scenes Greenmarket Tour in New York City followed by a brunch hosted by another sponsor, The Savoy Restaurant and Chef Peter Hoffman. Dinner for the winners following the Oct. 14 awards program will be hosted by the Marlon Abela Restaurant Corp., at its as yet-to-open new restaurant in Manhattan, featuring Chef Andrew Carmellini, winner of a recent James Beard Award.

The Glynwood Innovator of the Year is presented each year to an individual or organization that has helped move the food system forward in unique ways.

Professor Hamilton's 25-year career as a legal educator has been devoted to encouraging the development of a more sustainable agricultural system. He founded the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University Law School, the first such center in the country. He has helped thousands of students, farmers, consumers and officials, as well as lawyers, appreciate the critical role law plays in shaping the future of our local, regional and national food systems.

In1996 Hamilton articulated a new vision for agriculture in an article titled "Tending the Seeds of the New Agriculture" in which he described an effort to pull together the many disparate parts of alternative agriculture – from farmers markets to community gardening to organic farming and saving heirloom seeds – into one comprehensive, cohesive and optimistic movement.

His effort to nurture this new vision resulted in part from his increasing concern about industrial agriculture, which he addressed in a series of law review articles, including "Agriculture Without Farmers," "Who Owns Dinner" and "Why Own the Farm if You Can Own the Farmer and the Crop?" He helped assist farmers confronting these issues by writing books such as the "Farmers Legal Guide to Production Contracts" and by speaking out for the need for alternative marketing systems to support producers who want to maintain their independence.

In 1999 he wrote "The Legal Guide to Direct Farm Marketing," which is widely used by farmers throughout the country who need to understand legal issues involved in participating in this important form of marketing. He wrote the first law review articles analyzing sustainable agriculture and direct marketing for the larger legal community.

Hamilton's passion for helping people understand the issues facing society found an important outlet through guest editorials in the Des Moines Register. In the late 1990s he wrote more than 70 op-ed pieces for the Register that helped shape the public discourse on many issues including, perhaps most importantly, food and farming. His approach was perhaps best summed up with his challenge that before Iowa could become known as the "food capital of the world" it should become the food capital of Iowa. In recognition of Hamilton's leadership on this issue, Iowa Gov. Vilsack appointed him to chair the newly created Iowa Food Policy Council in 2000. The council has helped lead many important innovations in Iowa, including in the operation of state programs such as the delivery of the food assistance program, which received a Congressional Hunger Center Award in 2003.

Hamilton has effectively promoted better food policy at the national level as well. He was deeply involved in the effort that secured USDA support for food policy councils in more than a dozen states and the Hopi Nation. These councils have helped create new opportunities for thousands of farmers, including many from traditionally underserved populations such as minorities, women and specialty crop growers. Through his leadership, Drake has developed the State and Local Food Policy Project to coordinate and promote the work of the various state and local food efforts, including "Buy Fresh, Buy Local."
Bill Niman, founder of Niman Ranch, said, "Neil Hamilton has been an invaluable adviser to Niman Ranch and to me personally for many years. He was especially helpful when, some 10 years ago, we set up our Iowa-based network of family hog farmers. Neil's many bright ideas, moral support and boundless energy have been a very real part of our success."

Hamilton lives these ideas and values at home. He and his wife, Khanh, operate Sunstead, a ten-acre garden farm where they produce and market vegetables that appear on many menus in Des Moines. Their farm is a center for food and gardening activities. He also formed the Slow Food Des Moines Convivium, which now has more than 100 members; its largest annual event is the All Iowa Whole Hog Luau Pie Making Contest and Baked Bean Cook-off. In 2004 Hamilton raised more than $40,000 to develop the Greater Des Moines Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign, which has developed innovative approaches including a Buy Local Pledge that has been taken by more than 1,000 local consumers.

For the past two years, Hamilton has been researching and writing a book with the theme of Food Democracy, which examines how many of the issues that we see as simply involving food and farming are really about much more – they are the expression of democratic tendencies and their success or failure will in many ways reflect the health of our political system.

For more information about Glynwood Center and the winners of the 2005 Glynwood Harvest Awards, visit www.glynwood.org.

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