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Other projects
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The Leopold Center serves as a
catalyst and convener to bring people together to
tackle agriculture's social,
environmental and economic challenges in
creative ways. The Center has been involved in a
variety of special projects featuring research
that is unique, timely or does not fit into one of the three
initiatives. |
Iowa Learning Farm
The Leopold Center administers this five-year
conservation education and outreach project established in
2005 to improve Iowa's water quality through increased use
of conservation systems among Iowans who operate midsize to
large farms. The Iowa Learning Farm promotes active learning
by involving producer partners in addressing the impact of
conservation practices on water quality. The project also
sponsors several research and demonstration projects
throughout the state. Leopold Center Director Jerry DeWitt
coordinates the learning farm team at Iowa State University.
Institutional partners are the Conservation Districts of
Iowa, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land
Stewardship, ISU Extension, the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources and the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation
Service.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/
Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture
The Center directs this project with a grant from the Henry
A. Wallace Center at Winrock International. (Original
funding came from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, as part of
the Kellogg Food and Society Initiative.) Core partners are
Practical Farmers of Iowa, ISU Extension, the Henry A.
Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and the
ISU College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The project
oversees several working groups: the Pork Niche Market Working
Group, the Regional and Local Food Systems Working Group,
the Small Meat Processors Working Group and the Fruit and
Vegetable Working Group.
http://www.valuechains.org/
Green Lands Blue Waters
Green Lands, Blue Waters is a long-term comprehensive effort
whose mission is to support development of and transition to
a new generation of agricultural systems in the Mississippi
River Basin that integrate more perennial plants and other
continuous living cover into the agricultural landscape. The
Leopold Center Ecology Initiative also directs an Iowa
coordinating committee and stakeholder learning group that
is helping to define an Iowa role in the GLBW consortium.
http://www.greenlandsbluewaters.org/
Whiterock Conservancy
The Leopold Center, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and
Iowa Department of Natural Resources are the founding
organizations of the nonprofit Whiterock Conservancy, formed
in December 2004 to manage a 1,290-acre conservation area
along the Middle Raccoon River in west central Iowa. The
area eventually will include 5,000 acres donated by the
Garst family of Coon Rapids. The land will be used for
research, education and multi-function agriculture to
complement other economic development activities in the
community.
http://whiterockconservancy.org/
ISU Agricultural Systems Initiative
The Leopold Center is a partner in the ISU College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences Agricultural Systems
Initiative. Projects will focus on improving soil and water
resources and associated landscapes through designing
systems that make better use of ecological relationships to
improve economic and/or resource use efficiencies.
http://www.agron.iastate.edu/centers/agsystems/ABOUT.htm
Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture
The
Center supports several students in this first-in-the-nation
advanced degree program that began at ISU in 2001. Center
staff also helped in the program's planning stages and now
participate in seminars and presentations.
http://www.sust.ag.iastate.edu/gpsa/
Practical Farmers of Iowa
Since 1999, the Center has provided direct support for PFI's
on-farm research demonstrations and field days. The support
has allowed PFI cooperators to pursue unique and
cutting-edge research questions, leverage additional
research funding, and facilitate their collaboration with
ISU scientists on additional projects.
http://www.practicalfarmers.org/
Agriculture of the Middle
Center Distinguished Fellow Fred Kirschenmann was one of the
organizers in 2003 of a multi-state task force that sought
more public funds for research to renew America’s
disappearing mid-scale farms and related agricultural and
food enterprises. In 2005, the group launched the
Association of Family Farms to help create markets and
supply chains for products from midsized farms.
http://www.agofthemiddle.org/
http://www.familyfood.net/
John Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable Agriculture
The Center supports this annual forum created in 2000 to
honor contributions John Pesek made to the field of
alternative or sustainable agriculture and to bring about a
wider public discussion of sustainable agriculture issues.
The two-day colloquium, usually held in the spring, features
a lecture on the ISU campus by a nationally recognized
speaker, followed by a town meeting in an Iowa community.
http://www.wallacechair.iastate.edu/endeavors/pesekcolloquium/
Organic agriculture
The Center has funded a number of long-term studies of
organic crops with economic potential for Iowa farmers. The
Center began its Long-Term Agro-ecological Research (LTAR)
program in 1997 with a commitment to provide operating funds
for ISU’s first full-time researcher in this area. Most of
the organic program research is conducted at ISU’s
Neely-Kinyon Farm near Greenfield.
http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/organicag/
Hoop Group
The Center created the Alternative Swine Production Research
Initiative in 1997. The team, also called the Hoop Group for
its work with hooped barns, conducted comparative research
of conventional and alternative swine production systems.
After conclusion of the initiative program in 2002, the
Center has continued to help the group obtain federal funds
to explore other ways to use the low-cost,
environmentally-friendly structures in agriculture.
http://www3.abe.iastate.edu/hoop_structures/
Midwest Grape and Wine Institute
Grapes were once a highly successful crop in Iowa, as the
Center pointed out in a widely-read 2002 report on “Grape
Expectations.” In 2005, the Center joined with ISU, the Iowa
Grape and Wine Development Commission, the Iowa Department
of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and the state’s grape
and wine producers to launch a program to address research
issues, educational needs, and opportunities for the growth
of Iowa’s grape and wine industry.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Wine/
Bear Creek
The original Leopold-Center funded Agroecology Issue Team,
started in 1990, was an interdisciplinary team made up of
farmer/landowner cooperators, scientists from six Iowa State
University Departments, USDA, ARS, NSTL, natural resource
professionals from state and federal land management
agencies and NGOs. The highly successful, award-winning
program has worked with landowners in the Bear Creek
Watershed to install riparian buffers to reduce erosion,
nitrate runoff, improve wildlife habitat, and aesthetics.
http://www.buffer.forestry.iastate.edu/HTML/demosites.html
Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for
Sustainable Agriculture
The Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable
Agriculture was established in 1997 with continuing Leopold
Center support to promote the philosophical and practical
ideas of Henry A. Wallace. The Center has been involved with
several programs administered by the HAW Chair and
anticipates much greater interaction in the years ahead.
http://www.wallacechair.iastate.edu
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