A NEWSLETTER OF THE LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE VOL. 23 NO. 4 WINTER 2011

New director named for Leopold Center

microbiologist with the U.S. Food feed additives and INSIDE THIS ISSUE and Drug Administration will be contaminants in Athe newest director of the Leopold animal feeds. He Center in its 25-year history. Mark also worked 18 years Rasmussen, supervisory microbiologist as a scientist and and director of the Division of Animal and research leader at the Food Microbiology at the FDA’s Center for U.S. Department of Veterinary Medicine in Laurel, Maryland, Agriculture’s National will begin work no later than June 1. Animal Disease “Dr. Rasmussen brings to us a broad- Center in Ames, based background and exceptional including service as a collaborating faculty 6 scientifi c, agricultural and administrative member in Iowa State’s animal science strengths that will provide strong and biomedical sciences departments. leadership for the Leopold Center and for He has held research positions in private Iowa agriculture,” said Gregory Geoffroy, companies and has farmed full-time in president of Iowa State University. Nebraska. Geoffroy announced the appointment Rasmussen was raised on a farm in January 3 in a letter to the Leopold Center northeastern Nebraska west of Sioux City, Advisory Board, staff and a 10-member Iowa. He earned a bachelor’s degree in committee that conducted the national search. agriculture (1976) and a master’s degree in 8 At the FDA, Rasmussen has provided animal science (1979) from the University technical guidance and research support for regulatory decisions on drugs, DIRECTOR (cont. on page 2) Interim director: A Wallace Leopold Center strengthens ILF partnership outlook on agriculture 3 statewide program designed to successful in capturing the attention of Food and Farm Program 4 build a “Culture of Conservation” farmers and generating public awareness in Iowa will be working closely about practical ways that we all can A The 50-year farm bill 5 with the Leopold Center over the next improve our water and soil quality,” three years. said Mark Honeyman, Leopold Center The Leopold Center has strengthened interim director. “This new aspect of Cattle grazing for a better its partnership with the Iowa Learning our partnership will get Leopold Center environment 6-7 Farms (ILF), beginning in January and research fi ndings into the hands of farmers running through December 31, 2014. and increase the outreach and impact of Spencer Award winners 8-9 The Leopold Center is supporting the Leopold Center.” development of educational materials for The Iowa Learning Farms is an Revkin, Lappé visit campus 10 new audiences, including young people, outreach and education program and resources that can be used at ILF that brings together farmer and non- Meet the new RFSWG 11 fi eld days, workshops, classsrooms and farmer conservationists, educators, and the Conservation Station, the ILF’s mobile organization and agency personnel. Here’s Symphony of the Soil 12 learning center. a snapshot of their activities from the past “The Iowa Learning Farms has been PARTNERSHIP (cont. on page 10) The newsletter is on the web at: www.leopold.iastate.edu

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LEOPOLD LETTER MISSION On the Web: www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/results The mission of the Leopold Letter is to inform diverse audiences about Leopold Center programs and activities; to encourage increased interest in and use of sustainable farming Summaries practices and market opportunities for sustainable Easy-to-read summaries are available for these recently completed projects funded by products; and to stimulate public discussion about Leopold Center competitive grants. Find them on our current Research Results newsletter sustainable agriculture in Iowa and the nation. web page. Leopold Letter ISSN 1065-2116 • Agronomic, ecological and economic comparisons of conventional and low- LEOPOLD CENTER STAFF external-input cropping systems Interim Director Communication Mark Honeyman Specialist • Custom grazing contracts: Successful models to grow profi t, avoid pitfalls Laura Miller Distinguished Fellow • Building the Iowa wine culture through improved quality Fred Kirschenmann Outreach and Policy • Improving veterinary care for organic livestock systems Coordinator Ecological Systems Mary Adams • Routing foods into southeast Iowa Research Program Jeri L. Neal Administrative • Transitioning the Pork Niche Market Working Group to self-suffi ciency Specialist Secretary Karen Jacobson Blue Maas Scientifi c Journals Cross-cutting Marketing and Leopold Center-supported projects have produced these papers published in peer- Research Program Food Systems Malcolm Robertson reviewed journals. Check at a research library or the journal’s website for an abstract or Research Program Craig Chase (Interim) full report. Layout by • Hu, Guiping, Lizhi Wang, Susan Arendt and Randy Boeckenstedt (2011). An Melissa Lamberton optimization approach to assessing the self-sustainability potential of food demand Communications Graduate Research Assistant in the Midwestern United States. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development 2(1):1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2011.021.004 LEOPOLD CENTER ADVISORY BOARD This project included the redevelopment of the online tool, the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable John Olthoff, chair, Dordt College, Sioux Center Market Planner (see http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/cool_tools). Bill Ehm, vice-chair, Iowa Department of Natural Re- sources, Des Moines • Wilson, Henry, Rick Cruse and Lee Burras (2011). A method to adapt watershed- scale sediment fi ngerprinting techniques to small-plot runoff experiments, Journal of Keith Summerville, member-at-large, Drake University, Des Moines Soil and Water Conservation 66(5):323-328. Joe Colletti, Iowa State University, Ames This was a special project of the Leopold Center that studied in-fi eld conservation Dan Frieberg, Agribusiness Association of Iowa, West practices (see report in our Spring 2008 newsletter). Des Moines • Giovannucci, Daniele, Barham, Elizabeth and Pirog, Rich, Defi ning and Marketing Doug Gronau, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Vail Local Foods: Geographical Indications for U.S. Products (2010). Journal of World Maynard Hogberg, Iowa State University, Ames Intellectual Property. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1814566 Erin Irish, University of Iowa, Iowa City (4-2011 posted) Laura Jackson, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls NEW DIRECTOR CHOSEN FOR LEOPOLD CENTER Susan Jutz, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Solon DIRECTOR (continued from page 1) Paul Lasley, Iowa State University, Ames of Nebraska, a Ph.D. in dairy science Rasmussen was one of three candidates Aaron Heley Lehman, Iowa Farmers Union, Polk City (1986) from the University of Illinois and invited to the Iowa State campus for George Malanson, University of Iowa, Iowa City a master of business administration degree interviews. Other candidates were (1996) from Iowa State University. Abdullah Jaradat, a research leader Patrick Pease, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls His scientifi c expertise includes areas of at the USDA’s Agricultural Research John Sellers Jr., State Soil Conservation Committee, Corydon microbiology, food safety, animal health, Service in Morris, Minnesota; and Jennifer Steffen, Soil Conservation Committee, Birming- ruminant nutrition, veterinary medicine Thanos Papanicolaou, professor of civil ham and antibiotic resistance. He holds two and environmental engineering at the Maury Wills, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land patents related to his research, including University of Iowa. Stewardship, Des Moines food safety technology used on an Sharron Quisenberry, ISU Vice President estimated 20 percent of the beef carcasses for Research and Economic Development, The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture seeks to identify and reduce adverse socioeconomic and environmental impacts marketed in the United States. chaired the search committee that included four of farming practices, develop profi table farming systems that conserve natural resources, and create educational programs He has presented lectures in an animal members of the Leopold Center Advisory Board. with the ISU Extension Service. It was founded by the 1987 health management course at the University They were Bill Ehm, Dan Frieberg, Jennifer Iowa Groundwater Protection Act. The Leopold Letter is available free from the Leopold Center at 209 Curtiss Hall, Iowa State of Maryland. While in Ames he taught Steffen, and Keith Summerville. University, Ames, Iowa 50011-1050; (515) 294-3711. graduate courses in rumen microbiology and Mark Honeyman, who coordinates ISU lectured on agricultural technology. Research and Demonstration Farms, will Before joining the FDA in 2009, continue as interim director at the Leopold

Iowa State does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, he worked for a biofuels company in Center until June 1. The Leopold Center’s religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, Minnesota. He also worked briefl y as a fi rst director was Dennis Keeney, followed marital status, disability, or status as a U.S.veteran. Inquiries can be directed to the Director of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, research scientist for Eastman Kodak after by Fred Kirschenmann and Jerry DeWitt. 3210 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612. fi nishing graduate school.

2 LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 WITH INTERIM DIRECTOR MARK HONEYMAN

Voices from the past: Iowa’s Wallace family

his fall, Jean Wallace Douglas Secretary of Commerce. His life was and preacher of agricultural scientifi c passed away at the age of 91. She chronicled in 2001 by J. Culver and J. advancement. “A revolution in corn Twas a leader in conservation and Hyde in the book American Dreamer. breeding is coming that will affect environmental issues and a generous Here are excerpts about Henry A. every man, woman, and child in the contributor of advice and support to the Wallace from American Dreamer: corn belt within 20 years,” he wrote in Leopold Center. She was the last of her the mid-1920s. generation – the children of Henry A. From an early age, and for the Wallace. Some have called the Wallaces remainder of his life, a central With the passing of Jean Wallace Iowa’s “premier agricultural family.” Her characteristic of Henry A. Wallace’s Douglas, I have been thinking about the great-grandfather was “Uncle Henry” personality was independence of Wallaces and our current times. It seems Wallace, the white-bearded pastor who mind. He was open to any idea that what is needed now in agriculture is started Wallaces Farmer in 1895. The farm however silly sounding, until he could a Wallace viewpoint or outlook. A Wallace paper’s motto was “Good Farming, Clear test its validity. He was prepared to outlook combines science, passion, voice, Thinking, Right Living.” test any idea, no matter how broadly civic duty and community responsibility to Uncle Henry’s son was Henry C., or accepted, that would not stand the generate leadership that brings about long- “Harry,” Wallace who took over Wallaces weight of inquiry. term change. This remarkable combination Farmer in 1916. He was a champion for Wallace’s senior thesis (at Iowa is key to policies, science and business that progressive agricultural issues including State) was a 40-page treatise entitled will help ensure a sustainable and resilient fair freight rates for livestock farmers. “Relation between Livestock Farming Iowa agriculture. Harry was named U.S. Secretary of and the Fertility of the Soil.” It was Agriculture by President Harding in 1921. a technical analysis and a call for His term was cut short when he died in progressive reform (related to soil 1924. A memorial to Henry C. Wallace conservation). He stated that “We was placed on the ISU campus by the have our choice between that (soil American Country Life Association — a conservation) and ruin.” granite boulder with a plaque among nine Only a handful of men in 1924 hard maple trees west of the Campanile. understood what was about to It states that he “worked for a richer and happen. Foremost among them happier rural life” … that he “provided an was Henry A. Wallace. He was the economic service for the American farmer” prophet and evangelist, the teacher and that he “led the vanguard in the battle for equality for agriculture” and “as prophet he saw in the fertile lands of the corn belt the bases of a rural civilization fi ner than any the world has yet known.” Harry’s (Henry C.) son, Henry A. Wallace, was born on a small farm in Adair County, Iowa, in 1888. Henry A. Wallace, perhaps Iowa’s greatest agricultural mind and leader, graduated from Iowa State University in 1910, and took over Wallaces Farmer management early because of his father’s public service and then death. He was an early developer of hybrid seed corn and a co-founder of the Pioneer Hi-Bred Company in 1926. In 1933, H.A. Wallace Left: Henry A. Wallace. Right: Wallace with his daughter Jean, his wife Ilo, and dog was named Secretary of Agriculture and Brutus. Photos courtesty of the Wallace Centers of Iowa. later served as Vice President and then

LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 3 What’s happening with the Local Food and Farm Program?

he new statewide Local Food and and fi nancial assistance; processing; “We have a couple examples of food Farm Program is moving ahead on food safety; issues relevant to beginning, hubs, sometimes called aggregation points, Tseveral fronts, each led by people minority and transitioning farmers; where anyone who wants to provide already working on similar programs program assessment and implementation products can do that, from conventional throughout the state. Craig Chase, of local food incentives. Leaders are corn-soybean farmers looking to diversify Iowa State University Extension farm assessing current challenges and successes, for extra income to the fi ve-acre strawberry management specialist and interim leader identifying what’s needed, and suggesting grower interested in an institutional of the Leopold Center’s Marketing and future activities. They will present a market,” he said. Food Systems Initiative, is coordinator of preliminary report to the legislature in Chase also will meet with a newly the new program approved by the Iowa early 2012. appointed Local Food and Farm Program legislature in late July. “Some recommendations from the plan Council in January. Members and the “The Iowa Local Food and Farm have been accomplished, such as adding organizations they represent are: Maury Plan that the Leopold Center prepared a farmer member to the Iowa Food Safety Wills, Iowa Department of Agriculture and for the legislature, and is the basis Task Force. Others will require more Land Stewardship; Rick Hartman, Iowa for this program, had 29 operational attention, such as the food safety training Farmers Union; Warren Johnson, RC&Ds recommendations divided into six that already has begun in northeast Iowa.” of the Natural Resource Conservation sections,” Chase said. “We’re looking at Chase said aggregation, storage, Service; Teresa Wiemerslage, local food major barriers to developing a vibrant food processing and distribution of locally industry; Andrea Geary, Regional Food system in Iowa and then at what we could grown food are among the larger issues, Systems Working Group; and Barb Ristau, do to eliminate these barriers.” but he’s confi dent those efforts will grow, Iowa Farmers Market Association. The six areas are: business development too.

Lynn Heuss – local food incentives Andrea Geary – assessing programs Nick McCann – food processing Lynn is the Local Andrea is the Local Nick has an MBA in Food and Farm Program Food Program Manager Operations Management assistant coordinator, and at the University and an MS in Sustainable a program coordinator of Northern Iowa’s Agriculture from ISU, at the Women, Food and Center for Energy where he also was Agriculture Network. At and Environmental a graduate research the National Sustainable Education. She currently assistant for the Leopold Agriculture Coalition serves as Iowa’s state Center Marketing she worked for the passage of the Farm coordinator for Buy Fresh Buy Local, and and Food Systems to School legislation within the Child coordinates the Northern Iowa Food & Initiative. Nick previously has worked Nutrition Act. She also has worked Farm Partnership. Andrea completed her in agricultural production, processing with Buy Fresh Buy Local, the Farm to undergraduate degree at the University of and marketing in both domestic and School National Network, and the Iowa Iowa in 2001, and owned and operated international markets. His research and Farmers Union, and recently was elected a scratch bakery using local foods from practical interest is working with small and to serve on the board of the Tallgrass 2004 to 2007. In her spare time, she enjoys midsize agricultural businesses to improve Cooperative Grocery. In her spare time being led on adventures by her two young profi tability, return on investment and cash she enjoys gardening, biking, reading, daughters, outdoor activities, reading, and fl ow. He currently works as the Region food preservation, and taking care of her growing and preserving food. 4 Food Value Chain Coordinator for ISU backyard chickens. She has three children, Extension. two graduated from Iowa State and one Jason Grimm – beginning, currently at DMAC. transitioning and Andy Larson – business development/ minority farmers fi nancial assistance Teresa Wiemerslage – food safety Jason is the Food Andy is a program Teresa is the Program System Planner for Iowa specialist in Small and Communications Valley RC&D. Jason has Farm Sustainability Coordinator for ISU degrees in landscape for ISU Extension and Extension and Outreach architecture and Outreach, as well as state in northeast Iowa. She environmental studies sustainable agriculture coordinates the work of from ISU, with an emphasis in regional and coordinator for Iowa’s the Northeast Iowa Food urban food system design and planning. SARE Professional Development Program. & Farm Coalition (NIFF), Jason and his wife live in Coralville where He earned an MBA with a minor in including its Farm to School Chapter. they practice urban agriculture in their Sustainable Agriculture from ISU. A former She holds degrees from ISU in biology yard and work on their family’s small Leopold Center intern, he leads the Grass- and plant pathology, and lives on a fourth diversifi ed farm south of Williamsburg, Based Livestock Working Group. Andy generation cow-calf operation along the raising corn, alfalfa, small grains, black grew up on his family’s dairy and grain Minnesota border where they fi nish 180 beans, produce, beef and poultry. farm in northwestern Illinois. head of natural beef annually.

4 LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 Backcasting to resilience

It comes down to this, friends: Can we keep ourselves fed? Can we save the stuff, the soil and water, of which we are made? All of us are just stopovers between soil and soil. – Wes Jackson

arl Stauber, president and CEO of the Danville Regional process that develops a short-term policy every fi ve years for 50 Foundation, has suggested that we have become an years, the 50-year farm bill would ask what changes need to be in K“instant-oriented” society. We tend to see all of our place 50 years from now to achieve a resilient, “sustainable” food problems as challenges to be solved instantaneously, and all of system, and then “backcast” from that point to determine what our advantages as opportunities to be seized immediately. Such policies and research priorities need to be instituted every fi ve an instant-oriented culture, of course, assumes that we always years over that 50-year period to achieve its goal. know all we need to know, in an instant, to make wise decisions, The 50-year farm bill plan acknowledges some of the and that we always can accurately predict that our instantaneous preliminary research that the Green Lands, Blue Waters project actions will serve our long-term interests. There is little evidence already has conducted, which can achieve some of the objectives from history to substantiate those assumptions. for such a new future. The work of the Green Lands, Blue Waters Unfortunately, such an instant-oriented scenario largely project (carried out by 17 universities and non-profi t organizations dominates our food and agriculture policy pursuits so now would and initiated by the Leopold Center almost a decade ago) and the seem to be a perfect time to rethink that strategy. We began that research that The Land Institute has done during the past 35 years instantaneous practice in 1965 by instituting a “farm bill” every together provide a beginning template for practical directions that fi ve years. It is a strategy that inevitably leads us to ascertain what a “50-year” food and farm policy initiative could sponsor. will work productively and politically for the next fi ve years. By At the heart of this new design for our agriculture-of-the- 2015 this will have been our policy strategy for 50 years! future lies Aldo Leopold’s observation that “the true problem of It would appear that this “instant-oriented” approach to agriculture, and all other land-use, is to achieve…permanence,” in shaping our food and farm policy was inaugurated to provide our other words, to achieve resilience. It is only a resilient, largely self- nation with a “sustainable” food and agriculture plan. There is renewing agriculture that will provide us with a “sustainable” food ample evidence to suggest that this approach has utterly failed to system over the next 50 years. achieve that objective. This policy approach has contributed to an agriculture that has produced a thousand dead zones in our seas – one of the largest in the Gulf of Mexico – and seriously depleted the biological health of our soils. It also has contributed to the disintegration of our rural communities and seriously eroded one of the most important resources of a thriving agriculture – its human capital. Seventy-fi ve percent of our total gross sales from Wes Jackson, 2011. “Between Soil and Soil,” The Progressive, December 2010/ agriculture (as of 2007) are now produced by just 192,442 farms, January 2011. and 30 percent of our farmers are now over age 65 and only 6 Karl Stauber. Submitted by e-mail. percent are under age 35. (Duffy) Mike Duffy. Based on ERS 2007 farm census data, confi rmed by e-mail. All of this is particularly disturbing when we anticipate the challenges confronting our food and agriculture enterprises in the Aldo Leopold, 1999. For the Health of the Land, Previously unpublished essays decades ahead: the end of cheap energy, rapid depletion of mineral edited by J. Baird Callicott and Eric T. Freyfogle. Washington, DC, Island Press. resources (particularly rock phosphate and potassium), decreasing For a detailed description of the “50-year Farm Bill” plus Wes Jackson’s and supplies of fresh water, degradation of soils, and more unstable Wendell Berry’s opinion piece, “A 50-Year Farm Bill,” published in the New climates. These are just a few of the imminent challenges that our York Times, January 4, 2009, see www.landinstitute.org. food and agriculture enterprises will need to address. And they cannot be addressed using short-term, instant-oriented policy Learn more: strategies. In June 2009, The Land Institute based in Salina, Kansas, Green Lands Blue Waters suggested an intriguing alternative to the current series of fi ve- www.greenlandsbluewaters.org year plans. Based on information gathered from some of its own research scientists and from 10 meetings that the Institute The Land Institute sponsored coast-to-coast with farmers and other citizens, they www.landinstitute.org proposed a “50-Year Farm Bill.” Instead of continuing with a

LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 5 Research explores mob grazing for healthier pastures

By MELISSSA LAMBERTON, Communications research assistant Watch the video: www.leopold.iastate.edu/ our times a day, Margaret Dunn Farm can help close this gap. The project news/on-the-ground/ walks out to a fi eld at the Iowa State compares three types of management- cattle-grazing-healthier-pastures FUniversity Beef Nutrition Farm, intensive grazing systems: mob, strip and strings electric wire around a new strip of rotational. Each 10-acre tall fescue pasture, pasture, and whistles for the cows. seeded with red clover, is stocked with Dunn is an ISU graduate student 10 fall-calving Angus cows in the spring. producers about the costs and rewards researching the effects of mob grazing, Mob grazing cattle move to a new strip of of mob grazing and other management- a strategy for improving the quality of pasture four times a day, compared to strip intensive systems that aim to create a pasture by stocking a large number grazing (once daily) and rotational grazing successful, sustainable operations in Iowa. of cattle for a short period of time. The (once every few days). project, led by ISU Department of Animal Dunn explained that the cattle in each Science professor Jim Russell, received experiment receive the same amount of funding from the Leopold Center’s Ecology forage each day, but at different times. In Initiative in 2010. mob grazing, she said, “they get four meals “One of the keys to sustainability is to a day as opposed to one big meal a day, or have perennial forage on the ground,” a whole acre of land every several days.” Russell said. “In order to maintain and The researchers monitor the weight of increase the amount of land that we have the cows and calves, take forage samples, planted in perennial forage, we need to and measure the selectivity of grazing. fi nd ways to increase the profi t that we can They also sample the soil to assess carbon obtain by it.” content, compaction and water infi ltration. Profi table cattle production offers an Studies suggest that mob grazing improves incentive to landowners to keep land the quality of the pasture by increasing planted in perennial forages, which offer legumes, evenly spreading manure, year-round benefi ts for soil, water and air minimizing soil erosion and maximizing quality. However, grazing management is carbon sequestration. In another Leopold key. In continuous grazing systems, cattle Center project at the ISU McNay Research will select the most palatable plants to eat, and Demonstration farm in south-central resulting in a decline in forage productivity. Iowa, Russell is studying the potential of Cattle graze less selectively when they mob grazing to improve wildlife habitat. “mob” a small pasture. This “high-intensity, “In the end, this has to make economic low-frequency” system provides more sense,” Dunn said. The research will help balanced pasture utilization and fosters provide vital information to cow-calf plant diversity. Management-intensive grazing systems are increasing in Iowa. In 1992 only 1 percent of the state’s cow-calf producers used a grazing system that required cattle movement once a week. That number has risen sharply in some regions of Iowa, according to a recent survey of 27 cow-calf producers conducted by one of Russell’s graduate students, Angela Richardson. Richardson found that 60 percent of the surveyed producers in western Iowa graze intensively, as do 75 percent in northeast Iowa. Richardson points out that rotational grazing has the potential to ease the strain of limited land availability because it increases forage production and allows higher stocking rates. In southeast Iowa, all of the surveyed producers cited the lack of available land as the most important factor limiting their expansion, but only 14 percent of the surveyed producers rotate Top: Margaret Dunn, ISU graduate student. Bottom: Cattle “mob” a new strip of pasture cattle in intensive grazing systems. at the ISU Beef Nutrition Farm with intensive grazing. Russell’s project at the ISU Beef Nutrition

6 LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 Project fi ne-tunes cattle on native grasslands

By MELISSSA LAMBERTON, Communications research assistant Watch the video: www.leopold.iastate.edu/ news/on-the-ground/grazing- anagers at Whiterock grazing by buffalo and elk. Today, the few native-grasslands-at-whiterock Conservancy are learning remaining protected or restored grasslands Mhow native grasslands can in Iowa often lack the disturbances provide both environmental benefi ts and that once kept them healthy. Managed nutritional cattle grazing, thanks to a properly, cattle can help return benefi cial Preliminary results suggest that 2009 competitive grant from the Leopold disturbance to a landscape. In one native grasslands offer good grazing Center’s Ecology Initiative. example, the landowner might manage opportunities. That might make grasslands The project team will provide cattle so they selectively graze for cool- an economically viable option for landowners and cattle producers with season grasses, creating more room for landowners, providing a fi nancial return information about the ebb and fl ow of wildfl owers to fl ourish. while protecting environmental benefi ts nutrient availability in prairies, savannas “We understand that grazing is a such as improved soil health and wildlife and warm-season grasslands by creating really important part of the historic habitat. a Grazing Native Grasslands Calendar. The disturbance regime of these restored In the fi nal stage of the project, calendar will align nutritional data with the grasslands,” said Elizabeth Hill, a former researchers will develop a Prescribed grazing needs of cattle herds and effects Whiterock Conservancy ecologist who is Grazing Plan and put it into practice at on the environment. Tolif Hunt, executive now pursuing her master’s degree at the Whiterock Conservancy. A 5,400-acre director of Whiterock Conservancy, leads University of South Dakota. “We want to nonprofi t land trust in west-central Iowa, the project. be able to integrate the grazing component Whiterock Conservancy is sponsored by Hunt hopes to develop a management into our prairie lands purely for the the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, plan for grazing restored native grasslands function of it.” Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, that will help create viable options for To gather data about the nutritional Leopold Center, Practical Farmers of Iowa, rural Iowa. He said the work helps forge quality and bulk quantity of forage, Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Saving Our partnerships between conservation researchers collect biweekly samples from Avian Resources (SOAR), Creating Great organizations, cattle producers and three types of grassland – reconstructed Places and Iowa Environmental Council. government agencies. “This project already prairie, restored oak savanna, and Partners on this research include Mary has had that impact,” he said. “We’re grassland dominated by warm-season Wiedenhoeft, associate professor in collectively looking at grasslands as an grasses. They sort the vegetation into agronomy at Iowa State University; Joe endangered resource that we all have a various types, such as warm-season grasses, Sellers, ISU Extension; Pat Corey, tenant stake in.” cool-season grasses, sedges and legumes, and cattle producer; and Rachael Odhe, In the Midwest, vast grasslands to calculate nutrient availability at different ISU graduate student. developed with the help of fi res and times of year.

ISU graduate student Rachael Odhe and undergraduate Katy Darrah sample prairie grasses at Whiterock Conservancy to analyze forage biomass and quality. Photo credits (left to right): Guan Lai, Rachael Odhe, and Emily Babin.

LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 7 Farm superintendent, organic farmer share Spencer Award

Bernie Havlovic technician in 1975, and the ISU Research helped it open in 1993. The fi rst ISU farm hat do you do with four semi- Farms network in 1979. As superintendent he managed was the Northern Research truckloads of biochar? It’s all on one of ISU’s 15 farms, he oversees 50 to Farm at Kanawha. Then in 1987 he moved Win a day’s work for Bernard 75 research experiments or demonstrations to Washington County where he helped “Bernie” Havlovic. every year. Like other superintendents, open and manage the ISU Southeast Havlovic manages the Iowa State he also organizes and writes annual Research Farm. He also opened the Neely- University Armstrong Research and progress reports, and meets with farmers Kinyon Farm in 1994. A native of central Demonstration Farm in Pottawattamie in the region to determine what research Nebraska, he has a farm operations degree County and the ISU Neely-Kinyon questions they want ISU to answer. from Iowa State. Research and Demonstration Farm in Adair “Bernie is an ‘out of the box’ thinker and Building trust – with extension staff, County and will receive the 2011 Spencer constantly strives to inform the farmers of project leaders, members of the local Award for Sustainable Agriculture. Having southwest Iowa about the many options community – has been one of Havlovic’s spent 32 years working with countless available to them beyond the corn and strong points, according to many who have research projects on four ISU farms, soybean rotation,” said Hancock farmer worked with him. He was part of the fi rst Havlovic knows how science works – in a Russ Brandes in a letter of support for the high tunnel built at an ISU farm (used practical sense – in Iowa agriculture. award. for fruit and vegetable crops, even tulips) As far as the 70 tons of fi ne black ash Havlovic worked with the Soil and Water and has been active in the farm’s home from Kansas, Havlovic was fortunate Conservation District, where Brandes was demonstration gardens, a popular program that it arrived in southwest Iowa on a a commissioner, to install buffer strips, that can draw 350 people to a summer calm November day so that he could terraces, waterways, rotational grazing and fi eld day. immediately spread it over fi ve acres of test wetlands on the Armstrong farm. They “At heart I’ve always been a researcher,” plots, all Class 3 (steeply sloped, erodible) recently added a biodigester to trap and Havlovic said. “It’s been the best of both land. The application was part of a multi- remove nitrate from groundwater as well as worlds. In many ways, I get to be much state research project on amendments a soil pit for use at fi eld events. like a farmer, living with the same weather to improve marginal soil. Biochar, a ISU horticulture professor Paul and cropping problems. But I also get to do byproduct of renewable energy production, Domoto said he appreciated Havlovic’s experiments and really see the other aspect has a very long life in the soil, possibly extra effort with grape trials and a season of agriculture, why things happen the way more than 100 years. extension project growing raspberries and they do.” “It’s an interesting study and I’ll be blackberries in high tunnels, funded by the And that’s where sustainability enters the anxious to see what is learned,” he said. Leopold Center. picture. “This approach has been quite effective on “On three occasions, high winds tore off “Farmers are basically the same no some of the world’s really poor soils, but the high tunnel covering at the Armstrong matter where you go in Iowa,” he said. we don’t know how it will work here on Farm, but Bernie was able to take these “They realize that they don’t own the land. what we call marginal land.” tragedies and turn them into learning Their legacy is operating the farm and Havlovic will add observations about experiences,” Domoto said in a letter of passing it on to another generation.” this project to many, many others support. he’s helped conduct since joining the Havlovic has been superintendent and AWARD (cont. on page 9 ) ISU Department of Agronomy as fi eld lived on the Armstrong farm since he

Left: Bernie Havlovic checks the raspberries in his high tunnel. Right: At the ISU Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm, Bernie sets up an experimental trial with tomatoes. He shares the Spencer Award this year with Michael Natvig.

8 LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 Michael Natvig realized that farm chemicals, as well as ichael Natvig’s 420-acre organic becoming increasingly expensive, were farm exemplifi es the meaning making him sick. Mof diverse. He grows an organic “I thought there had to be a better corn, soybean and a small grain mixture way to spend my life than trying to use called succotash. He maintains hayfi elds toxic chemicals,” he said. and pastures alongside of native prairie, He certifi ed the farm as organic in oak savanna and woodland. He raises 1998 and began restoring native prairies beef cattle and hogs. He even conducts and wetlands on the property. He also research on his land, committed to learning took advantage of an opportunity to and sharing all he can about sustainable graze cattle on a streamside pasture on agriculture. the Norman Borlaug Heritage Farm, Natvig will receive the Spencer Award the birthplace of the man credited with for Sustainable Agriculture at a ceremony starting the “Green Revolution.” No on March 1. The award was established cattle had grazed there for the previous the in 2002 to honor farmers, educators or decade, so Natvig carefully monitored researchers who have made a signifi cant the water quality and vegetation along Mike Natvig hangs out with another PFI farmer- contribution toward the stability of family the stream. He discovered that as long cooperator, Dan Specht, at a fi eld day. Photo farms in Iowa. as he rotated cattle through the pasture courtesy of Practical Farmers of Iowa. “There are no trade secrets in Michael’s every few days, the stream habitat mind,” wrote Luke Gran of Practical remained healthy. Award. Farmers of Iowa when he nominated Natvig is a longtime member of Practical “He really does good farming and thinks Natvig for the award. “He is open to Farmers of Iowa, a partnership that helps deeply about how to make it better,” wrote sharing what is working and what is not him conduct on-farm research into non- the institute’s research director, Walter and is eager to know why.” GMO corn varieties, organic methods of Goldstein. He added that his work with Natvig farms in Howard County, on the parasite control in livestock, and other the Borlaug Farm has been an important same land where he grew up. He credits studies that will help him run a better part of the sustainable farming movement. his father for inspiring him to practice farm. “Mike has had to show what sustainable, good stewardship. “He always had a really In 2002, he was one of 12 Iowa farmer- organic farming can do in the face of a strong conservation ethic,” Natvig said. “I cooperators who conducted on-farm different mindset,” Goldstein wrote. remember when I was a young kid he built research trials to compare soil organic Natvig said that it takes a whole new terraces on some of our farmland and put matter and nutrient use on organic and set of management skills to make organic in waterways and had a good crop rotation conventional farms. The work was part farming work. “You’ve got to have the on our farm, which all contributes to soil of a more comprehensive project that belief that it’s the right thing for you to do, health.” included farms in Illinois and Wisconsin the right thing for your farm and the land,” Natvig continues that tradition as a and involved several agencies, foundations he said. “For the long-term health of the fi fth-generation farmer. In the late 1980s and the Michael Fields Institute, which soil and the land, and the farm in general, he began transitioning to organic when he recommended Natvig for the Spencer it worked out well for our family.” Scenic Valley Produce connects local growers, summer camps

ids in summer camps across central Agricultural Communications and the fi rst between the amount the growers could Iowa enjoyed fresh, local produce intern for the project. “We wanted them to provide and what customers required. Kon their plates at lunchtime, thanks know what they’re eating is local stuff and “While it took a while to get product to to a new entrepreneurial program called it came from fi ve miles down the road.” match our needs, the quality of the food Scenic Valley Produce. Growers delivered their produce to a was always impeccable,” said Will Shelton, Scenic Valley Produce began collecting central facility in Ogden that had been the program coordinator at Camp Hantesa. and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables converted from an old convenience store. “We enjoyed the opportunity to engage earlier this year with a small special There, Scenic Valley Produce staff washed with our local growers, and to support a project grant from the Leopold Center’s and packaged it before making deliveries to greener central Iowa.” Cross-Cutting Initiative and the City of camps and other facilities. Joe Monahan of Scenic Valley Produce hopes to continue Ogden. The program, created by the Value Heavy Hooves Farm noted that combining the program for at least fi ve years. The Added Agriculture Program at Iowa State produce harvests makes it easier for small growers involved for the program’s fi rst University Extension, began with fi ve farms to create a reliable, consistent supply. year included Heavy Hooves Farm, growers and fi ve summer camps in central “As a group we can come a lot closer to Swanson Family Farm, Healthy Berry Iowa. It focused on using high tunnels – meeting the needs of large-scale consumers Farm, Rinehart Family Farms, Wilber’s simple plastic-covered structures heated by much more effi ciently than any one of Northside Market and Nature Road Farm. sunlight – to extend the growing season. us would be able to do individually,” The summer camps involved were Camp “We wanted kids to be aware of local Monahan said. Hantesa, 4-H Camp, Camp Sacajawea, foods outside of the school system,” said In its fi rst year, the program encountered Hidden Acres Camp and Sunstream Retreat Molly Foley, an undergraduate in ISU several challenges with coordinating Center.

LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 9 Lappé brings message of hope to farm, food audiences f hope could be extracted, bottled and spiral of powerlessness. “bring out the worst in us”: concentrated sold, Frances Moore Lappé would be “With an eco-mind, it’s all about power, lack of transparency and blaming. Iits celebrity spokesperson on the late- connection throughout the natural world, To avoid these conditions, she urged night infomercial. where there is listeners to support efforts In October, nearly 40 years after she continuous change and programs that lead to wrote Diet for a Small Planet that changed and creation,” she continuing dispersion of the way Americans view global hunger and said. power, transparency and natural resources, she brought her message She noted mutual accountability. of hope to central Iowa. Lappe spoke that this positive “We have much more in Ames and at the Iowa Environmental mindset in power than we thought Council annual conference in Des Moines the local food we did,” she said. “In fact, about the newest of her 18 books, movement and the only choice we don’t EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to efforts to view have is whether to change Create the World We Want. Her appearance farming as part the world. Because every was supported by a small grant from the of a larger, act with an eco-mind, Leopold Center’s competitive educational agro-ecological somebody’s watching, support program. system. She somebody is affected, some Lappe encouraged her audiences to offered numerous reaction is happening – and become involved in big issues, and stressed examples, taken even our inaction changes that the way they think about those big from her book, things around us, often in issues may be key to solving them. She where people are Credit: Iowa Environmental Council a way we don’t wish, but explained that the most common way to working together nonetheless, it’s power.” view global hunger or climate change is to to re-forest a landscape, add to their food More in the Agriculture for Life website focus on individuals who must compete security and recycle wastes to keep local of the Iowa Environmental Council: http:// for fi nite resources resulting in conditions economies strong. www.iaenvironment.org/conference/ that lead to scarcity, fear, lack of trust and a She warned against three conditions that Annual_Conference.php. Information, inspiration focus of 2011 Pesek Colloquium ptimism for the role of universities videos create an interactive discussion technologies allow students and experts and the power of information about climate change, population growth around the world to connect, converse and Ofi lled Andrew Revkin’s talk for the and sustainability. inspire one another. 2011 Pesek Colloquium on Sustainable “My opinion is that science matters,” “The ability to shape and share ideas Agriculture. Revkin, author and award- Revkin said. “On issues where science leads has never been greater,” Revkin said. To winning blogger on environmental issues, to complexity, complexity matters.” He prove his point, Revkin showed a video of spoke at Iowa State University on October described Dot Earth as a “reality-centered” an earthquake-resistant building design, 24 on the question, “9 Billion People + 1 blog that helps readers sift through the played the sound of ice cracking on the Planet = ?” wealth of available information – from North Pole, and spontaneously Skyped Revkin is a senior fellow and lecturer YouTube videos to scientifi c studies – and with Rusty Schweickart, the NASA at Pace University’s Academy for Applied raises meaningful questions about the astronaut who piloted Apollo 9 in 1966. Environmental Sciences and a former future of the planet. Read Revkin’s blog at http://dotearth. science reporter at the New York Times. He Revkin pointed to the powerful role blogs.nytimes.com. writes the Dot Earth blog, which examines that universities can play as centers of The Leopold Center co-sponsors the efforts to balance human affairs with the knowledge, places to learn and share skills, Pesek Colloquium, which honors John planet’s limits. Readers of the blog foray and global leaders for change. Twitter, Pesek, Iowa State University emeritus into a world where words, images and Facebook, Skype and other networking professor of agronomy.

FIELD DAYS, PUBLICATIONS AMONG ILF’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS PARTNERSHIP (continued from page 1) year: • 24 fi eld days attended by 1,100 people coordinated by Leopold Center director • Monthly webinars on various topics, • 80 Conservation Station events attended Jerry DeWitt from 2007 until his retirement including research supported by the by over 13,000 people in mid-2010. ILF funding partners are Leopold Center Among the new resources will be the Iowa Department of Agriculture and • Five workshops on cover crops, no-till educational materials that look at prairies, Land Stewardship, ISU Extension, Natural planters and strip-tillage wetlands, food systems and the Iowa Resources Conservation Service, Iowa • Creation and distribution of three new landscape for the youth education program Department of Natural Resources and the how-to videos on adding a cover crop and the Conservation Station. Leopold Center. Cooperating partners are to a corn-soybean operation, using grass ILF began as a research and the Conservation Districts of iowa and waterways and manure management demonstration project in 2005 and was Iowa Farm Bureau.

10 LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 • • • Iowa Learning Farms has published a new book, Water Quality Matters To Us All, that offers insight into Iowans’ views and practices with regard to water quality. A book of essays written by Leopold pollution of pasture streams. Request a free copy by email, ilf@iastate. Center Distinguished Fellow Fred • • • edu. The book is based on listening Kirschenmann, Cultivating an Ecological Craig Chase, interim leader of the sessions conducted over three years with Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher Leopold Center’s Marketing and Food farmers, urban residents, Soil and Water (2010 University Press of Kentucky), is Systems Initiative and an ISU extension Conservation District commissioners and available in paperback. Acclaimed writer farm management specialist, is co-author agency fi eld staff. Water Quality Matters and fellow farmer Wendell Berry offers of a new book on fi nancial management. To Us All diagnoses the current level of praise for the writings that span 30 years Fearless Farm Finances is published by apathy toward improving water quality of Kirschenmann’s life. “The essays are the Midwest Organic and Sustainable by recounting debates about conservation thorough, and radical in the right sense Education Service based in Spring Valley, practices within the context of historic of that word. I like them for their implicit Wisconsin. Chase helped present two days high corn prices, increased fl ooding and goodness of heart,” Berry wrote. “I’m of training based on the book in early dramatic rain events, and decreased soil fi nding in almost every page something I December. Other authors are northeast quality. need to know, or a needed clarifi cation of Iowa farmer Chris Blanchard and Paul • • • something I already knew.” The paperback Dietmann, director of the Wisconsin Farm A new fact sheet based on Leopold version is published by Counterpoint. Ag Center at the Wisconsin Department Center-funded research is now available economist Connie Falk edited the essays, of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer from Iowa State University Extension and some of which have appeared in this Protection. Outreach. Woodchip Bioreactors for Nitrate in newsletter. • • • Agricultural Drainage (PMR 1008) explains • • • A new Leopold Center brochure how bioreactors capture and treat tile- ISU animal science professor Jim provides an overview of the Long- drained water. The research, conducted by Russell received the Dean Kolmer Award Term Agroecological Research (LTAR) ISU graduate student Laura Christianson for Excellence in Applied Research from Experiment at Iowa State University’s and ISU ag engineer Matthew Helmers, the ISU College of Agriculture and Life Neely-Kinyon Research Farm in Adair shows that this tool can remove 15 to 60 Sciences. Russell, who joined the faculty County. The project, begun with funds percent of the nitrate in tile water (see 31 years ago, was honored for his work to from the Leopold Center in 1997, is the stories in the summer issues of our 2009 improve the economic and environmental longest-running side-by-side comparison and 2011 newsletters). Download the sustainability of beef cow-calf production of conventional and organic practices in publication at www.leopold.iastate.edu/ in Iowa. He has been a longtime Leopold the nation. Find the brochure, The LTAR pubs, or watch an On the Ground video Center research partner. His most current Experiment, on the Center’s Pubs & Papers at www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/on-the- projects focus on mob grazing (see page web page: http://www.leopold.iastate. ground. 6) and ways to minimize nonpoint source edu/pubs. Regional Food Systems Working Group revitalizes efforts f attendance at the last meeting of the happening when people Regional Food Systems Working Group take ownership and pitch in I(RFSWG) is any indication of its future, according to their strengths count them in. and resources,” she said. Local food representatives from Nearly all of the 16 throughout Iowa fi lled the Campanile local food groups had Room at the Iowa State University representatives at the Memorial Union on December 8. The meeting. Jessica Burt, who group is transitioning to a new leadership works with Iowa Valley structure because funding ends in 2011 Resource Conservation & for its umbrella organization, Value Chain Development in Amana, Partnerships. is serving as the RFSWG “This whole process – when the meeting coordinator. steering committee was formed and we Joanna Hamilton, Leopold started laying the groundwork – has been Center intern last summer, Steering team (left to right) for the RFSWG’s next phase: reaffi rming to me,” said Andrea Geary, met with all group leaders Jan Swinton, Detra Dettmann, Andrea Geary, Jan Libbey, who co-leads the group with Jason Grimm. to identify key lessons and Sherry McGill, Jason Grimm and Teresa Wiemerslage. More Geary works with the Northern Iowa Food discuss where they hope to about the local groups at: www.leopold.iastate.edu/ and Farm Partnership at the University be in the next fi ve years. Her marketing/regional_food_system of Northern Iowa. “I see good things report will be available soon.

LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011 11 LEOPOLD CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE 209 CURTISS HALL IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY AMES, IOWA 50010

More details, events Check Leopold Center Web calendar: www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/calendar Learn about how to get support for events: www.leopold.iastate.edu/grants/ Spencer Award Leopold Weekend activities across Winners of the 2011 Spencer the country. The Ames group National award Award for Sustainable Agriculture celebrates its fi fth anniversary of Leopold Center Distinguished Fellow Fred will be honored in a special coming together to read out loud from Kirschenmann (right) poses at a press briefi ng in presentation March 1 during the Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. The New York City after he received the James F. Beard quarterly meeting of the Leopold event will take place Sunday, March 4 Foundation’s Leadership Award. He and nine other Center Advisory Board. The at the Ames Public Library. “food pioneers” were honored for their dedication presentation will begin around to sustainable food and farming systems. With him 11:30 a.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn Symphony of the Soil is New York chef and foundation board member in Ames. Read about this year’s dual The Leopold Center and Dan Barber, who works with Kirschenmann at the winners, Mike Natvig and Bernard UNI’s Center for Energy and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. “Bernie” Havlovic, on pages 8-9. Environmental Education will bring award-winning fi lmmaker 2012 Shivvers Lecture Deborah Koons Garcia to Iowa for Acclaimed author, biologist and the screening of her newest work, cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber Symphony of the Soil. The feature- will present “Environmental length fi lm explores soil from its Pollution, Climate Change and Our birth and many creatures making Health” on Sunday, March 4 at 7 up the soil community to nutrient p.m. in the Sun Room of the ISU cycling and our relationship with Memorial Union. Her latest book is soil to the latest research on how Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in soil can help solve environmental an Age of Environmental Crisis. problems. Garcia and assistant Jessica Beckett will lead discussions Ames Reads Leopold after the Cedar Falls screening on The focus will be youth for this March 27, and the Ames screening annual event that is part of Aldo on March 28.

12 LEOPOLD LETTER • VOL. 23 NO. 4 • WINTER 2011