Leopold Center charts new path

After more than a year of contemplation and conversation with hundreds of farmers, educators, researchers, business people and national leaders in sustainable agriculture, the Leopold Center is issuing a call for projects and partners to support three new initiatives.

"These initiatives represent a new direction for the Leopold Center that will attempt to use what we have learned about sustainable agriculture during the past 12 years to bring about meaningful change in Iowa," said Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann.

Kirschenmann said it is critical that discussions about projects and partnerships begin immediately. In a series of community conversations with more than 200 Iowans last spring, there was a sense of extreme urgency to help midsize farmers and processors who are struggling to survive under difficult economic conditions.

The call for projects, partners and research replaces the Leopold Center's call for competitive grant projects, formerly issued in July. Calls for new projects were put on hold this year in response to a 15 percent cut in the Center's annual operating budget that occurred during the 2001 legislative session. Grants that fund 42 research projects already underway will be honored at least through June 30, 2002.

Also related to budget cutbacks, Kirschenmann said the Center is exploring new relationships with its successful multi-disciplinary issue teams. Leopold Center support for two long-running issue teams and two research initiatives will end June 30, 2002.

When the issue team concept was initiated in 1989, the teams received approximately $50,000 per year for research projects, and partial salaries for team leaders. Issue teams were renewable every three to five years, with progress reviewed on an annual basis. Each team had an advisory committee of farmers, conservationists and researchers from other institutions.

"We are grateful for the wonderful work that has been accomplished by our issue teams and the international recognition it has brought to the Leopold Center," Kirschenmann said. "They have shown that it's essential to work with the farm community and involve more than one academic discipline in effectively addressing the problems of Iowa agriculture."

The change affects the Leopold Center's Agroecology Issue Team begun in 1991, the Animal Management Issue Team begun in 1990, the Swine System Production Alternatives Initiative that started in 1997, and the Long-Term Agroecological Research (LTAR) Initiative that was added in 1998. Kirschenmann said Leopold Center staff are working with team leaders to identify new opportunities for funding and ways that the team's work can be integrated into the new initiatives.

In May, the Leopold Center received a $250,000 reduction in agriculture appropriations from the Groundwater Protection Fund, plus a $35,000 cut in educational appropriations from Iowa State University.