This post originally appeared as a letter to the editor of the Des Moines Register on April 16th, 2017.

I read with dismay about the state Legislature’s proposed budget that would eliminate funding for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Ames  [More cuts weighed to education spending, April 12]. As a Ph.D. student in agronomy at Iowa State, I received Leopold Center funding for two research projects related to long-term impacts and farmer adoption of cover crops.

The center serves farmers, scientists, organizations and all Iowans who have an interest in a healthy farming system and clean, safe drinking water. For three decades, its transparent competitive grant programs have helped uncover solutions for a more economically and ecologically sustainable agriculture in Iowa in myriad ways, while gaining a national reputation of excellence along the way. And contrary to a statement in your article, our Leopold Center-funded research recently found that Iowa farmers are still in need of information and technical support for sustainable practices such as cover crops.

The Leopold Center has a 30-year history of promoting transformative change that the public can trust. Let’s keep it that way.

— Andrea Basche, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, D.C.