Twenty-year-old Leopold Center looks to 'Horizons' in 2007 annual report

2-14-08

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD LEOPOLD CENTER LOOKS TO 'HORIZONS' IN 2007 ANNUAL REPORT

AMES, Iowa -- The FY2007 annual report from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University surveys the year’s activities, public events, outreach efforts and scientific achievements.

The report also takes note of the distance the Center has traveled since it was created under the auspices of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act in 1987. Twenty years of accomplishments are celebrated in remarks from partners and investigators who have worked with the Center. A timeline of events in the Center’s two-decade history anchors the narrative.

Considerable coverage is devoted to the work done by the Center’s initiatives, through their competitive grants research and special projects in policy, ecology and marketing and food systems. Among the Center’s 2007 significant involvement and investments: grassland agriculture; regional and local food systems; a multi-state collaboration, Green Lands, Blue Waters; micro-enterprise loans; Boone River Watershed research; food, energy and fuel use; and a survey of Iowa’s organic food producers. The Center supports research, education and demonstration activities throughout Iowa.

The publication also includes reports from the some of the “strategic investments” funded by the Center beyond its extensive competitive grants program: Iowa’s Grape and Wine Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa on-farm demonstrations, promising students in the Graduate Program for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State, long-term organic crop research all over the state, and the Agricultural Systems Initiative in ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Also in 2007, Director Jerry DeWitt championed six new core issues for the Center’s advisory board and staff to evaluate, and took on leadership of the Iowa Learning Farms project. Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann continued his extensive speaking and writing career while making connections with other sustainable agriculture groups (from Agriculture of the Middle to the Whiterock Conservancy) in Iowa and nationwide.

To get a copy of the 56-page, illustrated report, contact the Leopold Center at (515) 294-3711 or by email, leocenter@iastate.edu, or view it on-line at: www.leopold.iastate.edu.