Whether Neil Hamilton is presenting his research to a group of lawmakers or working in the gardens on his vegetable farm, a passion for agriculture drives this “unusually proactive” man.

Hamilton, the director of the Drake University Agricultural Law Center and chairman of the Iowa Food Policy Council, feels at home in many different settings, and he works with students, farmers, consumers and lawyers to help them appreciate the role law plays in shaping the future of food systems.

Last month, Hamilton received national recognition for his 25-year career when he was given the Glynwood Harvest Innovator of the Year award. The Glynwood Center, which promotes community stewardship, presents the award to an individual who “has helped move our vision of the food system forward in unique ways.”

But Hamilton wouldn’t describe his accomplishments as unique, but as a natural response to problems he has seen around him.

As a law student, when Hamilton thought the legal education system wasn’t giving enough consideration to the importance of agricultural law in the law school curriculum, he wrote a widely circulated article about the issue. When he saw that farmers lacked good sources of information on topics affecting them, he wrote two books to help them. When he felt that states could benefit from the discourse of food policy councils, he promoted the idea for the Iowa Food Policy Council to Gov. Tom Vilsack and helped secure funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to launch similar organizations in about a dozen states.

“Neil is an unusually proactive person,” said David Walker, the dean of Drake University Law School. “Some people have ideas that they never quite get to market, but not Neil. He is effective and proactive in getting them implemented.”

Farm beginnings

After graduating from high school in Lenox in southwestern Iowa, Hamilton left his family’s to attend Iowa State University, knowing that he wouldn’t be returning to take over the 200-acre spread. He wasn’t sure what career he would eventually pursue, but he knew it would be shaped by his love for the outdoors and concern for environmental issues.

“You are what you experience, and I love the fact that I grew up on a small farm and grew up in rural Iowa and appreciate agrarian life and agriculture,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton enrolled in ISU’s forestry program. His fascination with politics drew him to add a major in economics and become involved with the campus chapter of Young Democrats. At the time, Hamilton planned to go to law school to study environmental law. But his focus changed after working as an intern in Sen. Tom Harkin’s office in 1974. This experience exposed him to issues relating to agricultural policy and farm bills.

When Hamilton enrolled at the University of Iowa Law School, the school had no agricultural law program and few professors who handled agricultural law topics. So Hamilton tailored most of his independent writing projects and work as a research assistant to the dean to issues related to this area.

Through his forestry education, Hamilton found his own lens through which to study agricultural law issues.

“The line between forestry and agriculture isn’t particularly bright,” Hamilton said. “Forestry is a part of agriculture, but with forestry education, you take a longer-term planning approach instead of that crop-to-crop timeline. In many ways, the training I had with forestry was useful in looking at sustainable agriculture and looking at alternative crops and alternative uses.”

Finding his niche

Not yet considering becoming a professor, Hamilton’s first job out of law school in 1979 was in Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller’s office. Hamilton was one of the first attorneys Miller hired for his newly created farm division, and it wasn’t by coincidence. When Miller was running for office, Hamilton paid close attention to his platform of creating this division, and he stayed in close contact with Miller in hopes of later working for him. And his proactive approach worked.

About a year and a half later, Hamilton was recruited by the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, which was planning to create a graduate program in agricultural law. Hamilton took the job and moved out of state, returning two years later when Drake created its own agricultural law program.

Walker, a law professor at the time, served on the search committee for Drake that ranked Hamilton as the top candidate to lead the new Agricultural Law Center. He said Drake was impressed with Hamilton’s vision of developing the center into something that would not only benefit Central Iowa but have a broader reach.

According to Walker, Hamilton has successfully recruited students and scholars from around the world to Drake’s Agricultural Law Center and secured funding to start an agricultural law journal.

“Neil has a powerful, consistent, growing vision about the role of agriculture in our society and an understanding of its importance to everyone,” Walker said. “He has been a very active scholar, and he writes and speaks regularly across the country on issues related to food and agriculture. He is a tremendous asset, not only to Drake, but to all of Central Iowa and agriculture and trade everywhere.”

Getting the job done

Larry Cleverley, a Mingo farmer, thinks his friend Hamilton accomplishes what he sets out to do is because he’s “a glass-half-full type” who sees opportunities, not obstacles.

“When Neil wanted to start a local chapter of the Slow Food Convivium a few years ago, he came to me and asked me to get involved, and I said, ‘Neil, I have enough on my plate. I don’t need any more work.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry. We already do all this stuff. This just puts a name to it.’ The group has now grown to more than 100 members, and it has really been a great way to share our message with others.”

Mark Holub says Hamilton has a gift for “infecting others with his passion for agriculture.” Holub worked with Hamilton on food events through his former restaurant and art gallery, ArtHouse.

“You can see where his passion for agriculture comes from when you see his gardens,” Holub said. “He’s a brilliant guy who is a farmer at heart. He’s been a great advocate for the farmer by making us look at the food system differently.”

Hamilton and his wife, Khanh, live on a 10-acre garden farm near Waukee called Sunstead. They raise a diverse range of vegetables for their own consumption and to sell to Greater Des Moines restaurants.

“We do it in part because we have a market for it, and we enjoy eating the produce and sharing it with other people at our farm,” Hamilton said. “And I suppose we do it in part to show that it can be done.”

Hamilton sees his farm as proof that there is room in the agricultural system for more farmers. Iowa doesn’t have to be a state that only produces corn, soybeans, hogs and cattle, he said.

“It’s not an either-or matter,” Hamilton said. “To say that we need to raise more alternative crops isn’t saying that we need less of anything else. It’s saying that we need room in Iowa’s agriculture system for both of these things.”