The University of Delaware’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) will host a panel discussion entitled “Building a Sustainable Agriculture” on Tuesday, Nov. 7, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Roselle Center for the Arts. The discussion is the first in a series initiated by CANR Dean Mark Rieger, who asked Ed Kee, an executive in residence with the college and former Delaware Secretary of Agriculture, to organize the speaker series.

The event is free and open to the public.

Doors open at 3 p.m. and a question-and-answer period will follow the speakers’ presentations.

The first panel discussion in the series will feature:

• Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, who has been nominated to serve as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation

• Bill Couser, an Iowa farmer who tills more than 5,000 acres, raises beef cattle, has been an early advocate of the ethanol industry in Iowa and the nation, and is a leader in adopting conservation practices that mitigate nutrient loading to Iowa's streams and waterways

The focus of the series will be farms, food, energy and the environment.

The speakers will address include their background and story, the scope of Iowa agriculture, food versus fuel concepts with regards to ethanol, water quality issues in Iowa that connect similarly with the Chesapeake Bay, challenges to the profitability in agriculture and the importance of Land Grant Universities and colleges of agriculture.

A reception featuring UDairy Creamery ice cream will follow.

Co-sponsors include the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) and the University of Delaware Energy Institute (UDEI).

The speaker series will return in the spring of 2018.