C-CHANGE has received a one-year grant from the Walton Family Foundation to advance an innovative value chain to address challenges facing U.S. Corn Belt. The value chain is based on the production of renewable natural gas (RNG) and associated bioproducts through the anaerobic digestion of herbaceous biomass combined with manure.

C-CHANGE was awarded a $10 million Sustainable Agricultural Systems grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute for Food and Agriculture. The grant expands C-CHANGE beyond Iowa State University to a multi-institutional consortium that includes Penn State University, Roeslein Alternative Energy, FDCE Inc., and the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment. The team will advance a new biobased value chain based on the production of renewable natural gas and associated bioproducts through the anaerobic digestion of diverse feedstocks.

Several C-CHANGE team members are among the winners of the 2020 SWCS awards from the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS).  Awards are presented annually to individuals and organizations who have made outstanding contributions in advocating and advancing the conservation of soil, water, and related natural resources.

C-CHANGE’s J. Arbuckle won two 2020 SWCS awards from the Social and Water Conservation Society.

C-CHANGE team member Emily Heaton was featured in Parade’s 2020 listing of the best Earth Day activities across America. Heaton is shown in her research field of Miscanthus giganteus being filmed by a crew from Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, producers of the  This American Land series.

Lisa Schulte Moore, C-CHANGE director, is the winner of the 2020 College of Business innovationENTREPRENEUR Award from innovationIOWA. Schulte Moore won the honor through her work on developing a novel and strategic system called Science-Based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips using the integration of prairie strips into a landscape defined by row crops of corn and beans. Learn more about the award

Omar de Kok-Mercado, project coordinator for C-CHANGE and natural resource ecology and management, received the 2020 Professional and Scientific Outstanding New Professional Award from Iowa State University. De Kok-Mercado coordinates and communicates the activities of the Science-based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips (STRIPS) as well as C-CHANGE.

Iowa State University’s Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE) is hosting its inaugural Conference on Agriculture, Technology and Innovation virtually on October 19, 2020. Read the release at Iowa State’s Office of the Vice President for Research site or visit the conference web page for more information.

In this article by Neil Hamilton, Matt Liebman, Silvia Secchi, Chris Jones, Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy has a solid scientific foundation, but it relies on farmer altruism. It’s clear this approach will require generations to produce measurable improvements.

U.S. farmers will be able to collect federal conservation payments for installing prairie strips on their land, and C-CHANGE-affiliated researchers from Iowa State University helped bridge the gap between the latest science and federal policy.

Lisa Schulte Moore, Iowa State University

Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses bring the state a lot of political attention during presidential election cycles. But in my view, even though some candidates have outlined positions on food and farming, agriculture rarely gets the attention it deserves.

In this video from Iowa State’s Office of the Vice President for Research, C-CHANGE Director Lisa Schulte Moore explains the C-CHANGE initiative.

The work of C-CHANGE investigator, Dr. Dara Wald, is highlighted in this issue of Link magazine.