Cross-Cutting Initiative

The newest Leopold Center research program, the Cross-Cutting Initiative uses a systems approach and multiple research areas to balance competing and complementary goals of ecosystem health, productivity, economic and social well-being.

Objectives for the Cross-Cutting Initiative are to

• conduct research and support education and outreach
• increase the adoption of practices that satisfy needs for crops and livestock (feed, food and bioenergy)
• protect the environment
• improve agriculture's economic viability.

Key areas of interest are water, energy, soil and alternative farming systems. It has become clear as we enter this era of new agriculture that the research issues and solutions for problems have become more complex and difficult to understand.

Outcomes for Cross-Cutting Initiative projects

• Assessment of agro-systems beyond yield, by incorporating economics, environmental, policy and social aspects in research and outreach programs
• Increased knowledge of mechanisms that regulate processes within farms, fields and communities to optimize management using a multi-disciplinary research approach
• Identification of trade-offs and synergies among various farming options while quantifying the effects that these options have on soil, land, watersheds and communities. This is a comparative farming system research approach.

Initiative coordinator: Malcolm Robertson, (515) 294-1166, malcolmr@iastate.edu

Organic agriculture

The Leopold Center has been a strong supporter of the Long-Term Agroecological Research (LTAR) plots since their establishment in 1998 at the ISU Neely Kinyon Research and Demonstration Farm near Greenfield in Adair County. Currently, this work is supported by a competitive grant that is part of the Cross-Cutting Initiative.

More information about the Leopold Center's commitment is available on the Organic Ag page.