Community agriculture and food systems offers many inviting opportunities for communities of varying sizes. This project engaged in efforts to increase and enhance local food options in three Iowa communities.

An array of equipment is available to help fruit and vegetable growers with specialized production and processing tasks. This study examined ways for these small operators to share equipment and maximize their use of the shared implements.

This project aimed to promote the implementation of cover crops and no-till on acres that have had manure application with the goal of reducing the loss of nitrogen, phosphorus, and soil and improving soil health. Working with producers, the project set up demonstration sites and field days as well as small scale farmer-to-farmer meetings to create opportunities to share knowledge of first-hand experiences related to small grains, cover crops, and cropland conversion to pasture. The field days and meetings helped educate producers and landowners about the economics and erosion associated with cropping steep, marginal cropland with the goal of converting it to pasture or hayland. Work was also done to promote the addition of a small grain to a corn-soybean rotation and educate landowners and producers about how conservation provisions included in farm leases can help to encourage and facilitate conservation practice implementation.

This is a summary of an 18-page report: 2013 Economic Impacts of Iowa's Regional Food Systems Working Group. The report looks at the statewide impact of the local foods sector on Iowa's economy, based on data collected in 2012 and 2013 by local food coordinators who are part of RFSWG.

The development and use of targeted conservation practices was the subject of modeling, interviews and support tools researched by the project investigators.

The Leopold grant supported a need in northwest Iowa and neighboring states. Beekeeping and pollinator habitat now have presence in the region that did not exist three years ago. A positive outcome of this project is the observed encouragement of beginning beekeepers of one another, social interaction for a common cause, and seeing that they do is making a positive difference in their community.

Change associated with nitrogen deposition in the soil will alter ecosystem function and diversity. This study looks at precisely how plants and soil will interact to respond to the addition of N at various levels and in different forms.

Machinery and equipment needs are far different for vegetable farms than for commodity production units. This project explored the unique machinery access options for small and mid-sized horticulture operations.

Iowa’s expanding Latino population patronizes tiendas (groceries) that offer products specially chosen for their cultural and culinary needs. This project explored how Iowa’s increasing local food production potentially could become a part of the produce offerings at these specialty stores.

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a key gasotransmitter in agriculture and has been reported to increase the growth of plants in the first two weeks and to mitigate the effects of environmental stressors. GYY-4137 is widely used in these studies because it slowly releases H₂S, but there is disagreement as to whether it requires enzymes to release H₂S. In this article we describe the release of H2S in water without enzymes and that it releases H₂S faster in organic solvents than in water or when mixed in topsoil. Furthermore, we describe the long-term effect of dosing pea, radish, and lettuce plants with GYY-4137 for up to six weeks. The effect of GYY-4137 on plant growth for six weeks was either positive or negative depending on the loading of GYY-4137 and how it was applied to plants. The addition of GYY-4137 to lettuce plants via potting mix resulted in reduced growth and death of the plants. In contrast, application of GYY-4137 to the leaves of lettuce plants increased the harvest weight of the leaves by up to 86%. Our results demonstrate that GYY-4137 can have a positive, important effect on the growth of plants but that this effect is dependent on several factors.