New Center
Progress Report summarizes 22 completed projects
If you’re looking for ways to control weeds with
cover crops, compost manure, or find local sources
for prairie seed, check out the Leopold Center’s
latest publication.
These topics and more are covered in the 2004
Center Progress Report that features summaries
of 22 projects funded by the Center and completed in
2002 and 2003. For the first time, there are several
completed projects in one of the recently created
research categories, the Marketing and Food Systems
Initiative.
The Leopold Center has published this report each
year since 1992. The 2004 edition examines
Center-supported research and education projects
that run the gamut from local foods to black walnut
trees, winter grazing and manure management.
Researchers worked on problems of beef and swine
production, horticultural crops, and soil and water
quality. They also explain in the report how their
work will help Iowa farmers.
Summaries of the research and education projects
that finished their work in 2002 and 2003 are
contained in an illustrated, 82-page paperback. The
summaries are condensed from longer, more detailed
final reports submitted by the principal
investigators. The research and demonstration
projects were carried out on Iowa farms, at Iowa
State University’s outlying research farms, and in
urban/suburban areas of the state.
Projects are organized by category: Agriculture and
communities, Crop systems, Ecology, Livestock
systems, and Marketing and food systems.
To receive a copy of the 2004 Center Progress
Report, contact the Center at (515) 294-3711, or
leocenter@iastate.edu. Individual summaries also are
on the
Center's web site [look under Research/Programs,
then Completed Grants].
Road to
freshness
Leopold Center research will be featured in a
Japanese television program, “Wonderful Spaceship
Earth.” The show’s producers planned to send a film
crew to visit the Leopold Center and a local
supermarket in late September. They were interested
in the Center’s work on prototypes for food labels
that indicate how long a product took to reach the
store after harvest. The marketing research,
conducted by Iowa State University’s Business
Analysis Laboratory and Rich Pirog of the Leopold
Center, shows that 20 percent of consumers are
willing to pay 30 percent more for locally grown
produce and meat.
To see the most recent report,
Ecolabel
Value Assessment Phase II: Consumer Perceptions of Local
Foods, go to the Center’s web site [look under
Publications/Center staff papers].
Pirog’s work in “food miles” also was featured in the
Summer
2004 newsletter of the Hunger and Environmental
Nutrition group of the American Dietetic Association.
Marketing RFP
In July, the
Center’s Marketing and Food Systems Initiative
issued its second RFP, or Request for Preproposals,
which is the basis for competitive grants from the
Center for targeted work. The Leopold Center
received ideas for projects ranging from training
for farmers who want to tap emerging markets to
research about Iowa’s food heritage. Center staff
and advisory board members evaluated the 33
preproposals to determine which should be developed
into full proposals and potentially receive funding.
Great
response
Thanks to the many
people who returned a readership survey about the
Leopold Center newsletter. There’s been a good
response both to the written surveys and to the
on-line version. We’re in the process of analyzing
the information, which will be used to improve
The Leopold Letter and better meet the diverse
interests and needs of our readers. Look for a
report in an upcoming newsletter.
Model farming
A new Internet-based simulation program that was
unveiled at a field day in July can show a farm’s
impact on the environment. The program, called
I-FARM, was developed as part of a three-state
project that seeks to develop integrated farming
systems with both animals and crops. The Leopold
Center is an Iowa partner for the project,
Re-Integrating Crop and Livestock Enterprises in
Three Northern States. I-FARM is located on the web
at:
http://evo.ae.iastate.edu
Board
assignments
Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann has joined
the governing boards for the Food Alliance and Silos
and Smokestacks National Heritage Area. The Food
Alliance is a third-party certifier for sustainable
agricultural practices and products and operates a
Midwest affiliate in Minneapolis. Silos and
Smokestacks oversees a National Park Service program
covering 37 northeast Iowa counties.
Ethics in
agriculture
Leopold Center director Fred Kirschenmann wrote
about the development of agricultural ethics in
Agroecosystems Analysis, a monograph published by
the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science
Society of America and the Soil Science Society of
America. His paper, Ecological morality: A new ethic
for agriculture, includes a list of study questions.
To receive a copy, contact the Leopold Center, 209
Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 5001 or e-mail
leocenter@iastate.edu.
Center
explores 'Geography of Taste'
A new paper looks at Iowa’s geographical and
agricultural history to identify traditional foods
that may present opportunities for generating
additional income for Iowa farmers who help grow
them. Rich Pirog, program leader for the Center’s
Marketing and Food Systems Initiative, has written
“A Geography of Taste: Potential for Development of
Place-based and Traditional Foods in Iowa.” The
paper is available on the Center’s web site or by
contacting the Center at (515) 293-3711,
leocenter@iastate.edu
Voices of
Iowa Farm Women
October 7, 7 p.m., Brunnier Gallery, Scheman
Building, Iowa State University, Ames. The role of
women in agriculture will be explored in an
18-minute film featuring the oral histories of
several Iowa farm women and a panel discussion. The
event is sponsored by the Women, Food and
Agriculture Network and Practical Farmers of Iowa.
The Leopold Center will host a reception afterwards
Charlevoix
Lamb
October 28, 3:30 p.m., 2020 Agronomy, Iowa
State University, Ames. The Center’s Marketing
Initiative and the Midwest Agribusiness Trade
Research and Information Center (MATRIC) will host
this program about lamb raised in the Charlevoix
region along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. This
area will be the first place-protected food region
in North America.
Sustainable
design
The Leopold Center’s Ecology Initiative helped the
Iowa State University College of Design and its
Department of Landscape Architecture bring David Orr
to campus in September to discuss sustainable
systems. Best known for his work on environmental
literacy in higher education, Orr spent the day
meeting with students, and Leopold Center staff and
faculty working on ecology projects. Orr directs the
environmental studies program at Oberlin College in
Oberlin, Ohio.
“What you design is a portrait of you and your
values. Your designs need to be contingent upon the
local ecology, not irreversible and not
indestructible,” he told a class of landscape
architecture students.
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