FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 25, 2005

CONTACT: Darcie Vandegrift, (515) 271-2840, darcie.vandegrift@drake.edu
Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

DRAKE STUDENTS TO EXPLORE AGRICULTURAL ISSUES SATURDAY

First-year students at Drake University will participate in a panel discussion on "The Pleasures and Challenges of Local Food" and join in a food tasting from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Metro Market at Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Woodland Avenue. The event is free and open to the public.

The students have been studying local agriculture, health and landscape aesthetics as part of three seminars for first-year students: Think Globally, Women’s Health and Re/Creation and Constructing the American Landscape.

The panelists will be David Schlarmann, owner of the Metro Market; Angela Tedesco, farmer and owner of Turtle Farms of Johnston; Teva Dawson, AS'97, coordinator of the Des Moines Community Garden Program; and Jeff and Jill Burkhart, owners of Burkhart's Picket Fence Creamery.

“I think the students will learn a great deal from hearing about the environmental and social issues surrounding local food production from people who are actually doing it," said Darcie Vandegrift, assistant professor of sociology and organizer of the event.

- 30 -