Former California ag secretary to deliver Heuermann Lecture

Former California Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Gen “A.G.” Kawamura will discuss water and global resources during the next Heuermann Lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The free lecture, sponsored by the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, will be at 4:30 p.m. April 12 at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center, 2021 Transformation Drive.

A third-generation fruit and vegetable grower and shipper from Orange County, Kawamura was California’s secretary of agriculture from 2003 to 2010. He is co-chair of Solutions from the Land, a project that is developing a sustainable roadmap for 21st century agricultural systems. He is also a national steering committee member of “25x25” a renewable energy coalition of farm, forest, conservation and environmental leaders focused on the multiple benefits and contributions that can be delivered from the agricultural and rural sectors of America.

As a progressive urban farmer, Kawamura has a lifetime of experience working within the shrinking rural and urban boundaries of southern California. He has stayed involved in policy areas of education, hunger and nutrition. Through his company, Orange County Produce, Kawamura is engaged in building an interactive urban agricultural exhibit at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California.

The lecture will be held in conjunction with the eighth annual Water for Food Global Conference, which will examine the work being done to ensure water for food security from local to global scales. The international conference is organized by the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute.

The Heuermann Lecture series focuses on providing and sustaining enough food, natural resources and renewable energy for the world’s people, along with securing the sustainability of rural communities, where the vital work of producing food and renewable energy occurs. The lectures are funded by a gift from B. Keith and Norma Heuermann of Phillips. The Heuermanns are longtime university supporters with a strong commitment to Nebraska’s production agriculture, natural resources, rural areas and people.

Lectures are streamed live here and air live on campus channel 4. Lectures are archived after the event and are later broadcast on NET2.