Iowa Heartland Resource Conservation and Development

Funding was received from the Iowa department of agriculture and land stewardship through a specialty crop block grant to connect larger employers in the des moines metro area with community supported agriculture (csa) businesses. Csa's are a form of direct marketing in the us. There is a great deal of variation and flexibility in how csa's are organized and run but the most common features are an established share price for the members and a set number of weekly deliveries for the growing year. The share price for a csa will vary depending on the quantity of food provided each week and the number of weekly deliveries promised. Most csa's provide for around 20 weekly deliveries during the growing season with share prices averaging around $500. Most csa's are premised on the idea of "community" with the subscribers being considered members of the farm. Csa's often include weekly newsletters and recipes with the deliveries and may hold regularly scheduled open houses on the farm. Some csa's even allow members to work a certain number of hours during the year as part of their share price. The csa would deliver fresh produce from the farm to the corporation employees at an agreed upon time and place. Iowa Heartland rc&d wrote the grant in partnership with matt russell and drake university agricultural law center to act as the facilitator/marketer between the csa and the company/institutions. Csa's can be a powerful tool to put more fruits and vegetables on the plates of employees.

This project was made possible through a grant awarded to the Iowa league of rc&ds through the usda farmers market promotion program. The majority of local food producers are great at growing produce and some are excellent marketers, however many of the local food producers are so focused on the production that they often do not tell their story to the customer. The idea for this project is to facilitate a stronger connection between the local food producer and the customer by telling their story. Iowa Heartland rc&d is interviewing local food producers and taking photographs of their operation and produce to make an attractive story board and/or poster that can be displayed at their farmers market booth or other point of sale to create a "face of the farmer".

In partnership with the Iowa department of natural resources, Iowa Heartland rc&d hired trained experts to perform visual surveys of ash trees to evaluate tree health and look for indicators of emerald ash borers (eab). Eab adults lay their eggs in ash trees and the larvae feed on the inner bark of ash trees. This disrupts the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients. In all likelihood, eab arrived in the u.s. on wood packing material via cargo ships and/or planes. Since the time they were found in the united states in about 2001 and in Iowa in 2010, eab have killed tens of millions of ash trees in the u.s. a second invasive species of concern for Iowa's forests is the gypsy moth. Through a dnr partnership, gypsy moth traps were set, collected after a set period of time and evaluated for the presence of gypsy moths. Unfortunately, the numbers of gypsy moths in Iowa seems to be steadily increasing. Gypsy moths damage trees and shrubs when the larvae (caterpillar stage) eat the leaves. They can defoliate (remove all the leaves) an entire tree, which can kill the tree.working to slow the spread of gypsy moth and emerald ash borer infestations are very important to the health of Iowa's trees.