Recent budget cuts have raised serious questions aboutthe future of the Leopold Center. It is a challenging environment, but weare still working for a sustainable agriculture, our charge from the IowaLegislature in 1987. This special issue addresses what has happened in recentmonths, what we're doing, and where we are headed.
Vital signs
The Renewed Leopold Center
Our legislative mandate
Budget drain
Points of Pride
Penny wise, pound foolish?
A critical point for Iowa
Words of support
Vital signs
Thanks to judicious budget management, we have the funds to continue all research projects that were in progress when the fiscal year began July 1, 2002. This includes 37 competitive grants - 24 in their second or third year, and 13 first-year projects that we had already made commitments tobefore the budget cuts occurred.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to start work on the first phase of a food systems project in which the Leopold Centerhas a leadership role. The grant is one of eight in the United States.
Discussions are taking place on some "big-picture" projects, too. The Leopold Center aims to become a national player for long-term change in agriculture.
More than a dozen environmental and sustainable agriculture organizations gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of the Leopold Center at a dinner in Des Moines. The October 21 event also launched a major fundraising effort for the Leopold Center in cooperation with the ISU Foundation.
Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy has pledged his support to restore funding to the Leopold Center. In his September 23, 2002, convocation address, Geoffroy said the Center's programs have some of the "greatest potential for improving Iowa's economy."
During the past two years, we have listened to and worked with the people of Iowa to develop a new vision for Iowa agriculture. This agriculture would enable farmers to retain more value on the farm while restoring the natural resources on which all agriculture depends.
Achieving this vision will require:
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more effort, not less, -
directed research to "connect the dots" between what we already know and where we want to go, -
more partners, not fewer, in the university, agricultural and broader communities to move new ideas into practice, and -
additional funds beyond those from the Groundwater Protection Fund, to provide our partners with adequate resources to do the job.
To be effective, the Leopold Center needs a more secure foundation. Weneed your help to maintain our legislative funding. We will use the moneydesignated for the Leopold Center in the Groundwater Protection Fund toleverage the additional resources needed to be successful in fulfillingthe mandate given to us by the Iowa Legislature. We will continue to developpartnerships in Iowa and beyond to create programs and projects that enhanceIowa's economic development and provide for a stable and secure agriculture.
During the observance of the 50th anniversary of Aldo Leopold's death in 1998, biographer Curt Meine reflected on the Leopold Center's connectionwith the land ethic. He said:
A hundred years from now, we may look back and see this as the LeopoldCenter's most significant contribution: helping us to learn to live wellon the land that produces not only our food and fiber, but our sense of placeand our sense of belonging; helping us to find ways to live not as conquerorsof the land, but as citizens with, and within, the land. If this be the legacyof the Leopold Center, then it has truly lived up to the vision of Aldo Leopold.
The Renewed Leopold Center
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
explores and cultivates alternatives that secure
healthier people and landscapes
in Iowa and the nation.
The Leopold Center believes that agriculture in Iowa can support families on farms, contribute to a healthy environment and maintain resilient communities. New ways of thinking about agriculture must involve new markets for Iowa farmers,a better understanding of local ecosystems, public policies and economicpractices, and partnerships with consumers.
To bring about this kind of agriculture, the Leopold Center has identified three program areas:
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Marketing and food systems: promotion, development and discovery of markets for food, fuel and fiber that support vibrant local communitiesand protect natural resources, -
Ecology: development of ecologically friendly systems thatare more resilient and less costly to farmers, communities and the environment, and -
Policy: analysis and development of new food, agricultural and natural resource policies that are community, farmer and environment-friendly.
This new direction is the result of a planning process that started in 2000 and involved hundreds of farmers, educators, researchers, business people and national leaders in sustainable agriculture. The Leopold Center began its transition in September 2001 by issuing its first call for projects and partners.
Many of the Center's original programs are being tailored to better fitthe needs of each program area. We're still involved in conferences, workshops and research as they relate to our three program areas. We are continuing to work with partners and issue teams to leverage our funds for projects.
For more information, contact the program leaders in your area of interest:
Our legislative mandate
The Leopold Center was created by the Iowa Legislature as part of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987. The Center is mandated to
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Identify and reduce negative impacts of agricultural practices, -
Contribute to the development of profitable farming systemsthat conserve natural resources, and -
Cooperate with Iowa State University Extension to informthe public of new research findings.
Budget drain
On May 28, 2002, the Iowa Legislature voted to transfer $1,000,000 out ofthe Leopold Center's account in the Groundwater Protection Fund to the state'sGeneral Fund. The transfer removed 86 percent of what the Center had receivedfrom that account in previous years. The fund is replenished annually bystate fees on sales of nitrogen fertilizers, and on registration and useof pesticides.
The Leopold Center also receives nearly $500,000 directly from the legislature'seducation appropriations. This funding source received the same percentagecut as other Iowa State University units - about 10 percent.
Over the past two years, budget reductions in both sources of funding forthe Leopold Center have totaled about $1.3 million.
Points of pride
A local food project in the Cedar Falls area generated more than $8 of incomefor local food producers for every $1 invested by the Leopold Center. Infour years, nine institutions and restaurants purchased approximately $590,000of locally grown and processed fruits, vegetables and meat.
The Leopold Center's $900,000 investment in the Bear Creek Demonstration Watershed over 10 years has attracted more than $3.7 million of federal,state and private funding. It is now a national model for protecting waterquality on farms.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship used wetlands researchinitiated by the Leopold Center to develop Iowa's new Conservation ReserveEnhancement Program (CREP) in 2001. CREP is providing $38 million over threeyears to construct and restore up to 8,000 acres of wetlands and buffersin 37 targeted counties.
The Leopold Center built three hoop barns in 1996 to study alternative swineproduction and management options to help producers faced with decliningmarkets. By 2001, 770 Iowa farmers had built more than 2,100 hoop barns thathoused more than a million hogs. In 2002, the Leopold Center secured $187,000from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the ISU hoop research team tocontinue its work.
The Leopold Center's investment of $10,000 and leadership in forming thePork Niche Market Working Group (PNMWG) in January 2002 has leveraged anadditional $208,000 from other partners and grant sources.
Penny wise, pound foolish?
Iowa will devote less than one penny of every state dollar this year to waterquality, soil conservation, environmental education, natural areas, wildlifehabitat and trails. According to the Environmental Council of States, Iowaranked last in staffing per capita for environmental programs, 40th in expenditures, and 37th in spending per capita (based on 1998 figures, the most recentavailable).
A critical point for Iowa
Among all states, Iowa ranks
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third in income from farms, -
second in the number of farms, and -
first in percentage of land under cultivation.
With the most altered landscape in the world, Iowa is a good starting placefor initiating change in agriculture. What works here also may work in otherregions or farming systems. Many people believe that the impact the LeopoldCenter and its partners are capable of making in Iowa is transferable ona national scale.
We also may be at a critical time for changes in the landscape. Fossil fuelresources are becoming depleted, and there's a growing awareness of the environmentaldamage caused by 50 years of industrialized farming practices. The LeopoldCenter and eleven other sustainable agriculture institutes in the land grantuniversity system know more about sustainable land practices than they did10 years ago.
Words of support
Working on a Leopold Center issue team has changed the way I dothings, resulting in research that I never would have considered. We've lookedat whether or not we could do winter grazing in Iowa, what happens to soilproperties and subsequent crop production when cows graze cornstalks, andthe effects of spring pasture conditions on seasonal forage production. Allwere questions posed by members of the issue team, which included scientists,extension and agency personnel, as well as farmers and others close to theland.
Jim Russell, ISU researcher, grazing field day, Winter 2001
I do not think that we would be in the pork business if it werenot for the workings of the [Leopold Center's Hoop Group] team... They lookedat the economics of the farm but also investigated the welfare of the animaland the effect that this kind of facility had on the farm family.
Tom Frantzen, New Hampton farmer, letter of support, October 2, 2000
The use of hoop buildings in the last five to six years in the Midwest has been a revolution in alternative swine production ... The driving force has been the Leopold Center initiative.
Dave Williams, Villisca farmer, letter of support, Oct. 9, 2000
The Leopold Center has provided a safe haven for scientists to carefullyand rigorously study what makes a successful and sustainable farm tick ...The systems-based, farmer-driven research that is the hallmark of the LeopoldCenter will become even more valuable to farmers in the years ahead.
Chuck Benbrook, former director, National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture,May 22, 2002, letter to Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack
In times of crisis it is even more "vitally necessary," as you say, to work proactively to create a vision for a better future. Agriculture hasbeen in crisis for years; all the old formulas for successful farming arefailing. The only real ray of hope is coming from the vision and leadership of people like the folks at the Leopold Center, who are working to create an Iowa agriculture that is sustainable--economically and environmentally.
Francis Thicke, Fairfield farmer, May 28, 2002, letter to Iowa legislator
We have come to value the Leopold Center's leadership and innovativeresearch as it has worked with farmers to illustrate to Iowans and the restof the country that food can be produced in ways that do not jeopardizepeople's health or diminish the capacity of future generations to feed themselves.
Margaret Mellon, Union of Concerned Scientists, May 24, 2002, letter to Iowa legislator
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture is a beacon of hopeto farmers and communities who are fighting to survive. The center provides leadership and direction to those who resist becoming serfs on their ownland, refuse to pollute their neighbor's water and air, and reject tradingtheir community's future for short-term gain.
Mary Swalla-Holmes, Madrid, May, 2002, letter to the Des Moines Register
In the months ahead, our place in the world may be even more critical.Experts here in plant sciences, in the National Animal Disease Center orin the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture are just the kinds of peoplewho can help to feed populations, to put foreign economies back on theirfeet, to guard against threats from enemies, or reduce our dependence onforeign oil supplies.
Ames Tribune editorial, September 11, 2002
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