Welcoming Comments by

Purdue University Dean of Agriculture

Vic Lechtenberg

Good morning, thank you Vince. It’s a pleasure to welcome all of you who have come to join us from other parts of the country. We are delighted to have all of you with us this morning. This is truly a special day. Vince, I hadn’t thought about it, I tried to rationalize the rain this morning, now I know why we have it – to help commemorate soil erosion.

This truly is a most special day to commemorate the historic development in efforts to combat soil erosion. Humankind has struggled to feed itself starting way back in time when people gave up hunting and gathering and began to settle in one place – there’s always been a tension between producing food and forces of nature that are at least a bit more aggressive when one tills the soil. Too often, nature has won the battle and I think that the Soil Loss Equation – the Universal Soil Loss Equation development and the science and technology associated with (?) agriculture has been a big hit, a tool in our ability to win some of these battles.

I also think back when I think about the Soil Loss Equation and the work that has gone on here and other places and the tremendous partnership relationship that was unleashed by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 – when in one year, he created in one year two acts of Congress: the United States Department of Agriculture and the Land Grant Universities system. Probably the most powerful alliance that’s ever been created to harness the science and technology to help people around the world, particularly in this country.

When you think about applications of science and harnessing of the scientific method in solving problems, probably, in fact, I say and refer to you as the most significant accomplishment of the past millennium in terms of benefit to humankind. It is not just agricultural, but the application of the scientific method to control disease, to control the forces of nature that work against the interest of people.

In a lot of ways, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the old Soil Conservation Service have made a fantastic team. If you want to think of this in a football analogy, we’ve played some great games together. An outstanding example of teamwork, there were some fantastic players added to this team in 1887 when the Agricultural Research System was established, in 1914 when this team acquired the Cooperative Extension Service – a lot of points have been scored, and certainly the Universal Soil Loss Equation is a touchdown. It came at a very critical time in our efforts to fight soil erosion.

There have been a lot of other points scored too. Vince mentioned the Soil Erosion Lab, and I think that score, if not a touchdown, was at least a field goal; and I happened to be able to stand in a place a lot like this dedication many years ago. I think it has truly lived up to our expectations as yet another example of cooperation and the cooperative efforts between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the university system in harnessing science and technology to contain the forces of soil erosion.

The Soil Loss Equation, in my opinion, is one of the most significant accomplishments of the research team to fight against the forces of nature and I appreciate the opportunity to welcome all of you to salute all of you who had a hand in developing this fantastic tool, or nurture those who did. Gary (Isaacs), I know you were here at the time and said that you didn’t understand what was happening, but certainly you stood at the sidelines and cheered.

Congratulations to all of you who had a hand in this special welcome and congratulations to those who have come to celebrate. We are delighted to have you here. Thank you very much for this opportunity to say hello.