Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Leopold Center awards 21 new competitive grants

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2012

Twenty-one new projects are beginning work this year, thanks to the Leopold Center’s long-running competitive grants program. The Center awarded the competitive grants, which total $1,201,290, in January.  

Six projects will complete their work in one year, while eight projects will run two years and seven projects will run three years. Combined with multiyear projects already in progress, the new grants bring the Leopold Center’s currently funded research to roughly $2.25 million.

The projects fit under all four of the Leopold Center’s initiatives—Ecology, Marketing and Food Systems, Policy and Cross-Cutting—and range from research on cover crops and bacterial resistance, to developing tools for local foods, to helping Iowa farmers understand and reduce their energy use.

“This year’s Leopold Center grants represent a broad array of science-based projects that will serve Iowa on many levels,” said Mark Honeyman, Leopold Center interim director. “The projects involve many fundamental topics: soil, water, crops, livestock, energy, food, farmers and land.  Collectively, these projects will continue to build the sustainability of Iowa’s agriculture and food systems.”

Ecology

Six new projects in the Ecology Initiative were awarded a total of $615,389. One study will investigate the fate and transport of pathogens on land that receives manure applications and address emerging issues in antibiotic resistance. Two others will focus on improving cropping systems by investigating soil organic matter and the effects of winter cover crops. The remaining three projects seek to understand the environmental effects of cattle grazing and incorporate sustainable grazing into Iowa’s agriculture.

Marketing

Eight new projects in the Marketing and Food Systems Initiative were awarded a total of $258,104. The Regional Food Systems Working Group, formed in 2003, will use competitive grant funding to continue convening. Representatives from more than 25 groups meet quarterly to coordinate efforts to build vibrant regional food systems across Iowa.

Another project will field-test a semi-automated mechanical weeder for vegetable crops. Lie Tang, ISU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, developed the weeder with previous grant funding from the Leopold Center.

Other marketing projects will create training programs, develop tools to procure local foods for farm-to-school chapters, and help small farmers and meat processors improve their management and profitability.

Policy

Three new projects in the Policy Initiative were awarded a total of $105,350. One grant will support research into how trust ownership impacts Iowa’s landscape, and another will continue the Sustainable Agricultural Land Tenure (SALT) Initiative. The SALT Initiative began two years ago as a partnership between the Leopold Center and Drake University’s Agricultural Law Center, with the goal of compiling resources for landowners about farm leases and sustainable practices.  The third project will be a planning grant to expand use of prairie conservation strips studied at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County.

Cross-Cutting

Four projects in the Cross-Cutting Initiative received $222,447 of competitive grant funding. This initiative, created in 2010, provides funding for research in multiple areas that will help balance competing economic, ecological, societal and political demands.

The Leopold Center awarded a grant to Practical Farmers of Iowa to prepare metered energy analyses for 25 Iowa farms. The project will analyze data both before and after the farmers have taken steps to adopt renewable energy or reduce their energy consumption.

With another Cross-Cutting grant, Iowa State researchers will raise awareness about the benefits of wild pollinators and natural pest enemies, and test the hypothesis that adding a refuge of perennial plants to cropland will improve the ecosystem services provided by beneficial insects.  Other grants look at farrowing pigs in circular insulated tents (or yurts) and help the University of Iowa develop a biorenewable fuel use and procurement plan.

Leopold Center 2012 New Competitive Grants

(Click on project title for complete description of work and who is doing the work)

Ecology Initiative

Marketing and Food Systems Initiative

Policy Initiative

Cross-Cutting Initiative

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2012