Ecology Initiative

Our vision is of a "new generation" food and agricultural system that meets the challenges of the 21st century with more productive and profitable farms, ecologically resilient landscapes and healthy rural communities.

We support a wide range of research, demonstration and outreach anchored in the development and adoption of 'ecologically friendly' production systems. Our work generally falls in one of two categories: doing it better or doing it differently. We prefer to be where the two merge, where we do agriculture differently AND better. This is where we think sustainability begins to happen and this is the reason FOR the ideas of a "new generation."

Outcomes of immediate interest for the Ecology Initiative (one or more may apply):

New actions: Adoption of on-farm or landscape practices that

• Reduce movement of sediment, nutrients and pesticides to surface or groundwater
• Increase levels of soil organic matter or roots in the soil
• Increase water-holding capacity and year-round water management on Iowa farms
• Reintegrate livestock - including multiple species systems - to incrase diversity within crop, land and farm management systems

New knowledge: Identifying on-farm systems and practices that lead to

• Improved carbon retention and sequestration and nutrient cycles with less leakage
• Reductions in net energy and increased profitability

Increased awareness ─ of costs, incentives and policy associated with sustainable systems:

• Innovative models for farm/landscape designs that show how livestock, complementary crops and farmers remain as integral elements in future Iowa agricultural landscapes
• Producer, landowner and policy maker knowledge of conservation costs and benefits

Aldo Leopold's definition of conservation: "Our effort to understand and preserve the land's capacity for self-renewal."

Initiative leader: Jeri Neal, (515) 294-5610, wink@iastate.edu