May 6, 2026
A paper co-authored by Joan Nassauer, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), has been selected for the 2026 Editor’s Choice Award by the Soil and Water Conservation Society’s Board of Directors for “its broad community value in the way it examined trends of the past 25 years and makes recommendations for today’s policy.”
The paper, “Conservation practices in 2025 scenarios: Implications for future US agricultural policy,” was co-authored with SEAS alumnus Robert Corry (PhD ’02). It was published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation in 2025.
“This paper pulls no punches in characterizing current effects of Corn Belt agricultural practices, and noting that there are other, better choices (some of which we described in our early papers and the book that followed, ‘From the Corn Belt to the Gulf: Societal and Environmental Implications of Alternative Agricultural Futures,’” said Nassauer.
“It is research I initiated in 1995 and completed with my then SEAS PhD student Rob Corry, and that he, now a professor at Guelph University, has continued to investigate as a matter of current policy.”
The Soil and Water Conservation Society focuses on the practice and advancement of the science and art of natural resource conservation, and is highly involved in affecting and implementing agricultural policy.
Read more about the article in this Q&A with Nassauer.
Specialization
Landscape Architecture