Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Workshop to explore sustainability, resilience

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2011

By CORRY BREGENDAHL, Assistant Scientist

While most of us have been exposed to notions of sustainability in some form or another, very few of us have a deep or even passing understanding of resilience. We may commonly regard it as an individual’s ability to withstand a threat to its existence like a sapling bending − not breaking − in a strong wind, or the ability of marine life to survive a gradual warming of the oceans.

But how do we apply the idea to entire human or biophysical communities? What is a resilient ecosystem or human community? How will we recognize one when we see it? And perhaps even more challenging, how will we monitor and measure changes in both resilience and sustainability?

On May 25, the Leopold Center will host a workshop for current and future grantees to explore answers to these questions. Invited participants will discuss sustainability and resilience in terms of:

  • How it applies to the work they are doing,
  • How it informs desirable outcomes or results, and
  • Indicators and measures used to track progress and change toward resilience and sustainability.

This workshop is one of many critical steps the Leopold Center is taking to inform the way we conceptualize and evaluate the collective impact of our investments in Iowa through the work of our partners.

Besides learning how our partners are applying the notions of resilience and sustainability to their work, another focus will be to better understand ways our partners are measuring change in this arena. Words like “indicators” and “measures” are simply ways for us to understand whether some kind of investment (usually money or labor) is making a difference on desired outcomes or results.

Indicators “indicate” or suggest whether we are making progress toward our goals. Tracking indicators helps us answer questions such as: Did farmers become more knowledgeable about conservation practices as a result of the project? Did the project help reduce on-farm soil erosion? Did the project increase economic opportunities for vegetable growers? If yes (or no), how do we know?

Measures are multiple and concrete ways we know we are making progress. Measures provide specific evidence on how (or if) our work is making a difference and the magnitude of change.

For example, to measure increasing economic opportunities for vegetable growers (a key component of sustainable, resilient farming systems), we can track whether growers report greater on-farm income from one year to the next on their tax returns, sell farm products in more markets, or make new investments in their business. Each is just one way we can measure increasing economic opportunities for farmers, which in and of itself is simply one indicator we can use to monitor progress toward maintaining resilience and sustainability in Iowa’s agricultural systems.

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2011