Source: UNIV OF MINNESOTA submitted to NRP
INNOVATION PATHWAYS FOR DIVERSIFICATION IN MIDWEST AGRICULTURE
Sponsoring Institution
State Agricultural Experiment Station
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
STATE
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1016375
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 1, 2018
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2023
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108
Performing Department
Agronomy & Plant Genetics
Non Technical Summary
The agriculture of the US Midwest is greatly important to the global food system, because of the region's unique endowments of soil, water and climate, and its financial, intellectual, and social capital. Looking forward, Midwest agriculture faces a complex mix of challenges and opportunities. World food demand will increase, as may demand for certain other services that agriculture can provide, such as carbon storage in soil. Thus, there will be demand for sustainable intensification of Midwest agriculture, defined as expansion in the quantity and range of agricultural commodities and ecosystem services produced by Midwest agriculture, while also meeting societal expectations for equity and justice in the distribution of these goods and services. Yet, anticipated changes in regional climate and other factors of production are expected to create many challenges. Many of these challenges and opportunities can be met through diversification of current Midwest crop production systems, by integrating additional crops that complement current major crops such as corn. If carefully designed and targeted, integration of such diversification crops can expand the overall productivity, resource conservation, social sustainability, and climate resilience of Midwest agriculture. For example, winter-hardy crops such as winter barley and the oilseed winter camelina can be grown during fall, winter, and spring in corn-soybean cropping systems. These "cash cover crops" have potential to provide substantial yields of high-value commodities, while also providing conservation benefits of cover crops.To realize the potential of carefully targeted diversification of predominant Midwest cropping systems, better understanding is needed of how to achieve efficient and cost-effective enhancement of these systems by diversification. The project will focus on an important pathway for cost-effective diversification, via using diversification to efficiently enhance biological and ecological processes occurring in soil that are critical to agriculture production, such as nutrient availability and management of biological stresses from pests and diseases. It is also necessary to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the wide range of innovation (R&D) needed to realize this potential, through fundamental advancement of the innovation process, which at this point is largely uncoordinated, exposing innovators and investors to large risks. The project will develop and evaluate novel coordinating institutions, termed "innovation platforms", that can enable innovators to coordinate activities and to manage and share risks of innovation. Finally, education by land-grant institutions has a critical role in developing new human knowledge and capability (human capital) that is needed to enable extensive diversification. The project will collaborate in develop, pilot, evaluate, and disseminate new curricula for undergraduate degree programs in food system sustainability. These degree programs are important vehicles for developing human capital needed to realize the benefits of agricultural diversification for society.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
20501991070100%
Knowledge Area
205 - Plant Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
0199 - Soil and land, general;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
1) Expand understanding of ecology and management of plant invasion in diversified cropping systems, by examining ability of putative 'nurse plants' (e.g., cover crops) to functionally modify soil microbial communities, so as to reduce invasion risk and facilitate establishment of agroecosystems based on herbaceous perennial plant species, evaluating the potential of landscape configuration (e.g., vegetative buffer strips) as a new method for managing the potential invasion of perennial biomass crops such as Miscanthus spp., and testing the potential of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi as broad-spectrum biocontrol agents for annual weeds in diversified cropping systems that contain perennial and winter-annual crops in addition to annual crops.2) Expand understanding of the agroecology of diversified cropping systems, by examining the value of 'precision zonal management' for adaptation to and mitigation of climate variability in maize/soy cropping systems with ridge- tillage and cover cropping.3) Development of systems of communication and learning that can support sustainable commercialization of perennial and winter-annual crops in diversified cropping systems, by developing 'Landlabs' as place- based areas of efforts that support sustainable commercialization of these crops by identifying and de-risking biomass production and supply-chain systems that provide economic value, multiple ecosystem services (e.g. water quality, wildlife habitat), and social benefits for farmers, landowners and rural communities.
Project Methods
1. Advancing an innovation platform for diversification of Midwest agriculture.Current understanding of coordinated innovation focuses on niche forms of agriculture, and on developing countries and Western Europe . Little work has addressed the dominant cropping systems of the Midwest, with its particular economic, cultural, and political circumstances. Work on this objective will advance understanding of effective and efficient methods for coordinating innovation across supply/value chains, from sustainable production to end-use and market development. Work will focus on a Commercialization Accelerator Project now being organized by the Forever Green Initiative (www.forevergreen.umn.edu), which will organize and support an innovation platform to shorten and "derisk" the process of commercializing promising diversification crops. In brief, this process will conduct assessments of market and value-chain opportunities and constraints for these crops, design and implement pilot supply/value chains, evaluate results and use these to focus further R&D activities and to obtain additional resources for further commercialization. This approach will encompass diversification crops that provide the most promising near-term opportunities for this approach. We will draw these crops selectively from among the following crops: intermediate wheatgrass, winter camelina, pennycress, winter barley, winter pea, hybrid hazelnut, alfalfa, and other crops as resources permit. We will focus on an ongoing examination of the individual and collective roles and activities of participants in the coordinating institution (innovation platform), as these behaviors and associated attitudes and mental models are key to the emergence of new governing institutions.. Specifically, we will use participatory action research (PAR) methods, engaging participants in a coordinating institution (i.e., an innovation "platform") in an ongoing examination of their individual and collective roles and activities as participants in the coordinating institution. PAR is explicitly designed to explore the conceptions and experiences of practitioners regarding challenging or innovative aspects of their professional practice. It is based on the use of qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and group (focus group) discussions, and interpretive analyses of results from these interviews and focus-group discussions. Key issues will be perceptions of the effectiveness and efficiency of the coordinating institution (innovation platform) and the particular activities that will be used to achieve coordination. These will include group gatherings for "co-design" and foresight activities that enable so-called anticipatory governance of new crops, cropping systems, and value chains that will be necessary for commercialization of diversification crops. These co-design activities will explore the design of supply/value chains, with the aim of identifying and coordinating innovations across supply/value chains, including production, harvesting, transport, and other intermediate stages, and end-use and marketing. Other coordinating activities will be one-on-one conversations between platform coordinators and individual investigators, to elicit key factors, opportunities and constraints relevant to each element of supply/value chains. Qualitative data will be gathered before the operation of the innovation platform begins and at several intervals thereafter, likely after 12 and 18 months. Data from interviews and focus groups will be analyzed using grounded theory and the listening method.2. Enhancement of soil-related ecosystem services in agroecosystems by microbial husbandry.This work will be exemplified by one ongoing project, which is representative of other work that may occur during the project period. The project explores the effects on arbuscular-mycorrhizal (AMF) and saprophytic fungal communities of a Midwest-adapted implementation of the soil-health building strategy of "conservation agriculture" (CA, i.e., reduced tillage, continuous soil cover, and diversification) for corn/soybean production systems. This project provides replicated soil samples across a five year time sequence (2011-2015) from experimental sites in MN, IL, MI, and PA. We will assess the individual and interactive effects of the component practices of this CA system on fungal communities, to test our prediction that these practices will develop fungal communities that provide a broader range of ecosystem services. Fungal DNA will be extracted from soil samples and plant root samples, and sequenced via ITS2 bi-directional sequencing. Sequences will be processed to determine taxonomic identity of fungi, and fungal community structure will be assessed using non-metric dimensional scaling (NMDS), canonical discriminant analysis; effects of cover cropping and ridge-tillage on fungal community structure will be explored via the non-parametric multivariate statistical test, PERMANOVA. 3. Developing human capital for diversification. As noted above, we have worked with collaborators to define a curriculum and pedagogical model for the core curricula of undergraduate degree programs in Sustainable Food Systems (SFS). We are aiming to enhance these programs, which we see as important to developing a workforce that can support agricultural diversification, and also to develop curricular elements that can be used in other degree programs relevant to food and agriculture. Based on our own work and the literature, this model identifies the following learning approaches as essential for developing students' capacities for systemic thought and action: (1) holistic and pluralistic ways of understanding sustainability challenges in food and agricultural systems (2) multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinarity, (3) experiential learning approaches and, (4) participation in collective action projects. We are now undertaking a new phase in this work, in recognition that the core curricula of our SFS programs (at UMN, Montana State, and U. British Columbia (UBC)) were not developed in full cognizance of this model and its underlying principles. Therefore, we are now undertaking to refine our core curricula in the light of the principles, goals, and practices that are central to our model. In this new phase, we will carry out a process of curriculum mapping, development, refinement, evaluation, and dissemination. We will begin by conducting curriculum mapping, and developing and administering evaluation tools to assess the existing core curricula of the SFS programs at MSU, UMN, and UBC, informed by our curriculum and pedagogical model. Curriculum mapping is a systematic analysis of a program of study and its component learning activities (semester courses, internships, and "co-curriculum") to elucidate the structure and key functional aspects of the curriculum. Each of our SFS programs has an existing curriculum map, or similar document, for its core curriculum; we will redevelop the curriculum maps of each of our SFS programs. This process will allow us to evaluate how each institution is currently approaching its curriculum. Secondly, we will collaboratively refine existing core curricula of SFS programs at MSU, UMN, and UBC based on gaps identified through Objective #1, striving to enhance key deficiencies and to more fully implement our model at each institution via targeted interventions in the courses that make up the core curriculum at each institution. We will collaborate further to implement and evaluate these interventions in the core courses of the SFS programs at MSU, UMN, and UBC. Finally, we will refine and widely disseminate adaptable four-year core curriculum models for Baccalaureate degree-level SFS programs.

Progress 07/01/18 to 06/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Diversification of current Midwest farm production systems is crucial to stewardship of soil and water in the region, and to meeting the challenges of a changing climate. Diversification is important to the agricultural industry in the region, and to rural and urban communities that are dependent on agriculture in economic and environmental terms. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Publications: Williams, A., Jordan, N., Smith, R., Hunter, M., Kammerer, M., Kane, D.., Koide R, and Davis, A. 2018. A regionally-adapted implementation of conservation agriculture delivers rapid improvements to soil properties associated with crop yield stability. Scientific reports, 8(1), p.8467. Muthukrishnan R, Davis A.S., Jordan N.R, Forester J.D. 2018. Invasion complexity at large spatial scales is an emergent property of interactions among landscape characteristics and invader traits. PLoS ONE 13(5): e0195892. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195892 Muthukrishnan, R., A.S. Davis, N.R. Jordan, and J.D. Forester. 2018. Use of simulation-based statistical models to complement bioclimatic models in predicting continental scale invasion risks. Biological Invasions, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1864-3 Flint S.A., N. R. Jordan, and R. G. Shaw. 2018. Plant community response to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) population source in establishing prairies." Ecological Applications 28: 1818-1829 Neve P., Barney J.N., Buckley Y., Cousens R.D., Graham S., Jordan N.R., Lawton?Rauh A., Liebman M., Mesgaran M.B., Schut M., Shaw J., et al. 2018. Reviewing research priorities in weed ecology, evolution and management: a horizon scan. Weed Research 58:250-258. Runck, B.C., Manson, S., Shook, E., Gini, M. and Jordan, N., 2019. Using word embeddings to generate data-driven human agent decision-making from natural language. Geoinformatica 23: 221-242. Li, M., Jordan, N.R., Koide, R.T., Yannarell, A.C. and Davis, A.S., 2019. Interspecific variation in crop and weed responses to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community highlights opportunities for weed biocontrol. Applied Soil Ecology 142: 34-42. Flint, S.A., Olofson, D., Jordan, N.R. and Shaw, R.G., Population source affects competitive response and effect in a C4 grass (Panicum virgatum). Restoration Ecology 27: 1317-1326 Jilling, A., Kane, D., Williams, A., Yannarell, A.C., Davis, A., Jordan, N.R., Koide, R.T., Mortensen, D.A., Smith, R.G., Snapp, S.S. and Spokas, K.A., 2020. Rapid and distinct responses of particulate and mineral-associated organic nitrogen to conservation tillage and cover crops. Geoderma 359: 114001, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.114001 Ebel, R., Ahmed, S., Valley, W., Jordan, N., Grossman, J., Byker Shanks, C., Stein, M., Rogers, M. and Dring, C., 2020. Co-design of Adaptable Learning Outcomes for Sustainable Food Systems Undergraduate Education. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4: 170. Jordan N, Gutknecht J, Bybee-Finley KA, Hunter, M., Krupnik, T.J., Pittelkow, C.M., Prasad, P.V.V. and Snapp, S., 2020. To meet grand challenges, agricultural scientists must engage in the politics of constructive collective action. Crop Science. 2020;1-8. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20318 Schwartz-Lazaro, L., Shergill, L., Evans, J., Bagavathiannan, M., Beam, S., Bish, M., . . . Mirsky, S. (2020). Seed shattering phenology at soybean harvest of economically important weeds in multiple regions of the United States. Part 1: Broadleaf species. Weed Science, 1-29. doi:10.1017/wsc.2020.80 Schwartz-Lazaro, L., Shergill, L., Evans, J., Bagavathiannan, M., Beam, S., Bish, M., . . . Mirsky, S. (2020). Seed shattering phenology at soybean harvest of economically important weeds in multiple regions of the United States. Part 2: Grass species. Weed Science, 1-19. doi:10.1017/wsc.2020.79 Wanger, T.C., DeClerck, F., Garibaldi, L.A., Ghazoul, J., Kleijn, D., Klein, A.M., Kremen, C., Mooney, H., Perfecto, I., Powell, L.L. and Settele, J., 2020. Integrating agroecological production in a robust post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4(9), pp.1150-1152 (Jordan among 366 signatory authors). Flint, S.A., Shaw, R.G. and Jordan, N.R., 2021. Effects of Selection Regime on Invasive Characteristics in an Emerging Biomass Crop, Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). Sustainability, 13(9), p.5045. Schwartz-Lazaro LM, Shergill LS, Evans JA, Bagavathiannan MV,Beam SC, Bish MD, Bond JA, Bradley KW,Curran WS, Davis AS, Everman WJ, Flessner ML,Haring SC, Jordan NR, Korres NE, Lindquist JL,Norsworthy JK, Sanders TL, Steckel LE,VanGessel MJ, Young B, Mirsky SB. 2021. Seed-shattering phenology at soybean harvest of economically important weeds in multiple regions of the United States. Part 3: Drivers of seed shatter. Weed Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/wsc.2021.74 Vink, S.N., Aldrich-Wolfe, L., Huerd, S.C., Larson, J.L., Vacek, S.C., Drobney, P.M., Barnes, M., Viste-Sparkman, K., Jordan, N.R., and Larson, D.L., 2022, Belowground mutualisms to support prairie reconstruction--Improving prairie habitat using mycorrhizal inoculum: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2022-1055, 18 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20221055. Perrone S., Grossman J., Liebman A.., Wells S, Sooksa-nguan T., and Jordan N. 2022 Legume Cover Crop Contributions to Ecological Nutrient Management in Upper Midwest Vegetable Systems. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:712152. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.712152 Jordan, N.R., Kuzma, J., Ray, D.K., Foot, K., Snider, M., Miller, K., Wilensky-Lanford, E. and Amarteifio, G., 2022. Should Gene Editing Be Used to Develop Crops for Continuous-Living-Cover Agriculture? A Multi-Sector Stakeholder Assessment Using a Cooperative Governance Approach. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 10. Scott E.I., Toensmeier E., Iutzi F., Rosenberg N.A., Lovell S.T., Jordan N.R., Peters T.E., Akwii E. and Broad Leib E.M. (2022). Policy pathways for perennial agriculture. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:983398. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.983398 Jordan N.R., Wilson D.S., Noble K., Miller K., Conway T.M. and Cureton C. (2023) A polycentric network strategy for regional diversification of agriculture: theory and implementation. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1012759. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1012759 Jordan N.R., Valley W., Donovan D., Clegg D.J., Grossman J., Hunt N., Michaels T., Peterson H., Rogers M.A., Sames A and Stein M. (2023) Scaffolding collective agency curriculum within food-systems education programs. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1119459. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1119459 Cureton C., Peters T.E., Skelly S., Carlson C., Conway T., Tautges N., Reser A. and Jordan N.R. (2023) Towards a practical theory for commercializing novel continuous living cover crops: a conceptual review through the lens of Kernza perennial grain, 2019-2022. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 7:1014934. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1014934 Wilson G.L., Mulla D.J., Jordan N.R., Jungers J.M. and Gordon B.A. (2023) Simulating the effect of perennialized cropping systems on nitrate-N losses using the SWAT model. Front. Agron. 5:1180232. doi: 10.3389/fagro.2023.1180232 Rabin, K. C., Johnson, G. A., Strock, J. S., Jordan, N. R., & Garcia y Garcia, A. (2023). Tillage and cover crop mixtures interseeded in maize-soybean in the upper Midwest. Agronomy Journal, 115(3), 1188-1201. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21322 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? First, we developed and assessed an innovation platform for diversification of Midwest agriculture. Regional-scale diversification in agriculture requires many different kinds of innovation: in crops, in farming methods, in supply-chain infrastructure, in product manufacturing, and in policy and finance, and these different forms of innovation must be coordinated. Innovation platforms are a novel system for supporting and coordinating this multi-faceted innovation. During the project, the Forever Green Initiative (FGI) has provided an innovation platform that enables a wide range of sectors (research, private enterprise, government, and advocacy groups) to collaborate in multi-faceted innovation in support of regional diversification. As we developed FGI as an innovation platform, we carried out a research project evaluating the platform. The evaluation methods used participatory action research, a relatively novel research tool that helps people working on a complex challenge to better understand their individual and collective efforts, and supports ongoing improvement to complex collaborative structures such as FGI and innovation platforms in general. Participants included people working on all activities conducted on the innovation platform, including crop R&D, commercialization of novel and emerging crops, and policy innovation. Second, the project explored the biological and ecological functioning of diversified cropping systems. This collaborative work has focused on the question of how the addition of crop diversity affects key aspects of crop production and resource stewardship in Midwest crop production systems, through a range of projects. These projects addressed key questions about the effects of cover crops on the health and fertility of soils, and weedy and invasive plants and their management. To address these questions, we used many innovative methods, including new approaches for studying microbiological communities in soil, the storage of nutrients in soils, and making predictive models of the spread of weedy plants in diversified landscapes. Collaborators included graduate students and other scientific collaborators in soil science, soil microbiology, agronomy, weed science, and plant ecology. Third, the project addressed the challenge of workforce development needed for regional diversification of agriculture. Diversification on this scale will provide many novel employment opportunities, for which a trained workforce is essential. During the project period, we continued work on developing and implementing new curricula for undergraduate degree programs that prepare students for addressing complex challenges in future food and agricultural systems. This was accomplished by a multi-institutional working group on curriculum and pedagogy for food-systems undergraduate degree programs (UMN, Montana State, and University of British Columbia). We continued to develop, implement, and refine common curriculum framework developed in a previous project period. We clarified key learning outcomes from our curricula, and created, implemented, and evaluated a novel curriculum to support development of capacities for collective agency among food-systems students. Collective agency can be defined as the shared understanding, will, and ability of a heterogenous group to take action and work together toward a common goal. We were motivated by the premise that collective agency is central to meeting the complex challenges inherent to 21st century food systems. Finally, we have collaborated with agroecology graduate students at the University of Minnesota in development of novel graduate agroecology curriculum frameworks. Efforts under our first objective (develop and refine an innovation platform) has resulted in four peer-reviewed publications during the project period describing the platform and key aspects of its operation. Also, we have developed the innovation platform itself, which integrates crop R&D on more than 15 novel and emerging crops for diversification, commercialization of these crops (supported by 6 FTE dedicated to commercialization), and development of supportive policy and cross-sector partnerships for regional diversification. The platform has attracted ca. $ 75 million in crop R&D funding during the project period, in addition to funding for our commercialization staff, and has attracted strong and sustained engagement from many partners in advocacy and public sectors focused on developing and scaling up new supply chains that link on-farm production and end-use markets for novel crops (Jordan et al. 2023). The platform has been recognized widely as an effective innovation for driving regional diversification, with much media coverage serving to achieve impact through changes in knowledge and behavior of stakeholders in many sectors as the address the challenge and necessity of regional diversification of agriculture. Efforts under our second objective have resulted in a total of 16 peer-reviewed academic publications addressing scientific questions about the processes and mechanisms by which agricultural diversification produces benefits in economic and environmental terms. Impacts of this work improved scientific knowledge of these processes and mechanisms among researchers and extension workers concerned with agricultural diversification. Efforts under the third objective have resulted in a total of three peer-reviewed publications on novel educational programs to develop the workforce needed for regional diversification, improving understanding of workforce development among a large community of interested educators. These curriculum innovations were implemented in degree programs in three universities, improving the educational experiences of many hundreds of undergraduate students.

Publications


    Progress 10/01/21 to 09/30/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Target audiences include rural communities,private-sector firms commercializing novel crops,farmers and landowners interested in these crops, conservation workers such as soil and water conservation district personnel, \investors in "regenerative and "climate-smart" agriculture, and policy makers in local, state and federal agencies. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Provided numerous seminars and other training and learning opportunities to a public/private/NGO partnership working to diversify Midwest agriculture. The project is supervising the work and professional development of 4 graduate students (3 doctoral, one M.S), and twopost-doctoral researchers.The project has also participated in a multi-institutional effort to develop undergraduate curricula in food systems and graduate curricula in agroecology, providing numerous training opportunities for participating graduate students, faculty, and post-doctoral researchers. Finally, the project participated in several USDA-AFRI SASCAP projects, again providing a variety of training opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Dissemination activities and events include: multiple public lectures, a wide variety of presentations and interactions with policymakers and private-sector partners including legislative testimony, an ongoing multistakeholder workshop addressing design and planning of sustainable land-use and supply/value chains that enable farmers to obtain economic benefits from diversified production systems, and an ongoing multistakeholder; engagement with a wide variety of public, private, and NGO stakeholders around their interests in sustainable protein, and an ongoing strategic communication effort to advance continuous-living-cover agriculture in the Upper Midwest Region. Products include: a wide variety of peer-reviewed publications from ongoing and initiating activities, and a variety of reports and other communications materials.? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Major goals for the current year are to continue development of a public/private/NGO partnership working collectively on a market-driven strategy to diversify Midwest agriculture, with emphasis onthe organizational/institutional structure of the this partnership;continue implementation of a comprehensive evaluation research project on that strategy;continue implementation of a sustainable protein scaling initiative (a public-private initiative to advance sustainable protein production systems spanning both plant and animal protein production);continue building support of the diversification and protein projects, via intensive engagement with state agencies, policy-makers, private firms, and philanthropies;and to continue developing food-systems and agroecology curricula for use at UMN and nationally.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? A set of ongoing interdisciplinary projects relating to diversification and intensification of Midwest agriculture was advanced, including: 1) implementation of sustainable commercialization project engaging many public and private sector participants, focusing on the development of sustainable supply chains for new crops that increase continuous living cover in Midwest agriculture, and organization and evaluation of a public/private/NGO network focused on supporting such new crops. On-ground implementation of such supply chains continued to advance for grassland agriculture (focusing on grazing dairy heifers), a perennial grain, and the winter- hardy oilseed crop camelina).The latter effort includeddevelopment of a USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities proposal ($32 million, not funded) to drive commercialization of winter camelina.2) Organization and implementation of a sustainable protein scaling initiative (a public-private initiative to advance sustainable protein production systems spanning both plant and animal protein production). This effort includedleading UMN component of $7.5 million sustainable protein scaling proposal as part of $57 million US EDA Build Back Better Regional Challenge proposal, and development of asustainable protein pre-proposal to NSF Regional Innovation Engine funding program. 3) Continuedfurther collaborative development of new curriculum for undergraduate degree programs in food systems and led development and submission of manuscript reporting development and implementation of a scaffoldedmulti-course curriculum on collective action on complex food-system problems, by a multi-institutional collaborative of food-system degree programs.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Jordan, Nicholas R., Jennifer Kuzma, Deepak K. Ray, Kirsten Foot, Madison Snider, Keith Miller, Ethan Wilensky-Lanford, and Gifty Amarteifio. "Should Gene Editing Be Used to Develop Crops for Continuous-Living-Cover Agriculture? A Multi-Sector Stakeholder Assessment Using a Cooperative Governance Approach." Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology 10 (2022).
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Perrone S, Grossman J, Liebman A, Wells S, Sooksa-nguan T and Jordan N (2022) Legume Cover Crop Contributions to Ecological Nutrient Management in Upper Midwest Vegetable Systems. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:712152. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.712152
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Jordan, N., Wilson, D., Noble, K., Miller K., Conway, T., Cureton, C. In review. A Polycentric Network Strategy for Regional Diversification of Agriculture: Theory and Implementation. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. - Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Jordan, N., Valley, W., Donovan, D., Clegg, D., Grossman, J., Hunt, N., Michaels, T., Peterson, H., Rogers, M., Sames, A., Stein, M. Scaffolding Collective Agency Curriculum within Food-Systems Education Programs. In review. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems


    Progress 10/01/20 to 09/30/21

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Target audiences include rural communities, bioeconomy entrepreneurs, farmers and landowners, conservation workers such as soil and water conservation district personnel, plant ecologists, investors in "regenerative and "climate-smart" agriculture, private-sector firms investing in supply chains for novel crops, and policy makers in local, state and federal agencies. ? Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Provided numerous seminars and other training and learning opportunities to a public/private/NGO partnership working to diversify Midwest agriculture. The project has also participated in a multi-institutional effort to develop undergraduate curricula in food systems and graduate curricula in agroecology, providing numerous training opportunities for participating graduate students, faculty, and post-doctoral researchers. Finally, the project participated in several USDA-AFRI SASCAP projects, again providing a variety of training opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Events include: multiple public lectures, a wide variety of presentations and interactions with policymakers and private-sector partners including legislative testimony, anongoing multistakeholder workshop addressing design and planning of sustainable land-use and supply/value chains that enable farmers to obtain economic benefits from diversified production systems, and an ongoing multistakeholder, multi-stage workshop to develop a pilot cooperative governance network to govern applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to crops for regenerative agriculture, such as cover crops. Products include: a wide variety of peer-reviewed publications from ongoing and initiating activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Major goals for the current year are to continue development of a public/private/NGO partnership working collectively on a market-driven strategy to diversify Midwest agriculture, continue implementation of a comprehensive evaluation research project on that strategy, continue implementation of a sustainable protein scaling initiative (a public-private initiative to advance sustainable protein production systems spanning both plant and animal protein production);organize several Climate-smart Commodity production pilot projects and pursue USDA funding for these projects,and to continue developing food-systems and agroecology curricula for use at UMN and nationally.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? A set of integrative, interdisciplinary projects relating to diversification and intensification of Midwest agriculture were advanced, including: 1) implementation of sustainable commercialization project engaging many public and private sector participants, focusing on the development of sustainable supply chains for new crops that increase continuous living cover in Midwest agriculture. This portfolio of projects was extensively advanced, by systematic engagement with supply-chain partners, and on-ground implementation in several instances (for grassland agriculture, a perennial grain, and the winter-hardy oilseed crop camelina) and including initiation of an extensive program of evaluation research made possible by new funding; 2) conclusion of the initial phase of activity of a pilot cooperative governance network to govern applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to crops for regenerative agriculture, such as cover crops, and preparation of a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication (now submitted for review) reporting findings from the initial phase; 3) Organization and implementation of a sustainable protein scaling initiative (a public-private initiative to advance sustainable protein production systems spanning both plant and animal protein production);4) further collaborative development of new curriculum for undergraduate degree programs in food systems and development of manuscripts reporting results for peer-reviewed publication.?

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Flint, S.A., Shaw, R.G. and Jordan, N.R., 2021. Effects of Selection Regime on Invasive Characteristics in an Emerging Biomass Crop, Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). Sustainability, 13(9), p.5045.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Schwartz-Lazaro LM, Shergill LS, Evans JA, Bagavathiannan MV,Beam SC, Bish MD, Bond JA, Bradley KW,Curran WS, Davis AS, Everman WJ, Flessner ML,Haring SC, Jordan NR, Korres NE, Lindquist JL,Norsworthy JK, Sanders TL, Steckel LE,VanGessel MJ, Young B, Mirsky SB. 2021. Seed-shattering phenology at soybean harvest of economically important weeds in multiple regions of the United States. Part 3: Drivers of seed shatter. Weed Science. https://doi.org/10.1017/wsc.2021.74
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Perrone, S., Grossman, J., Liebman, A., Wells, S., Sooksa-nguan, T., Jordan, N. 20xx. Legume cover crop contributions to ecological nutrient management in Upper Midwest vegetable systems. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, in revision.


    Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Target audiences include rural communities, bioeconomy entrepreneurs, farmers and landowners, conservation workers such as soil and water conservation district personnel, plant ecologists, investors in "regenerative and "climate-smart" agriculture, private-sector firms investing in supply chains for novel crops, and policy makers in local, state and federal agencies. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Provided numerous seminars and other training and learning opportunities to a public/private/NGO partnership working to diversify Midwest agriculture. The project has also participated in a multi-institutional effort to develop undergraduate curricula in food systems and graduate curricula in agroecology, providing numerous training opportunities for participating graduate students, faculty, and post-doctoral researchers. Finally, the project participated in several USDA-AFRI SASCAP projects, again providing a variety of training opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Events include: multiple public lectures, a wide variety of presentationsand interactions with policymakers and private-sector partners, an an ongoing multistakeholder workshop addressing design and planning of sustainable land-use and supply/value chains that enable farmers to obtain economic benefits from diversified production systems, and an ongoing multistakeholder, multi-stage workshop to develop a pilot cooperative governance network to govern applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to crops for regenerative agriculture, such as cover crops. Products include: a wide variety of peer-reviewed publications from ongoing and initiating activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Major goals for the current year are to continue development ofa public/private/NGO partnership working collectively on a market-driven strategy to diversify Midwest agriculture, continue implementation of a comprehensive evaluation research project on that strategy, conclude the pilot phase of the multisector cooperative governance of gene-editing project, andto continue developing food-systems and agroecology curricula for use at UMN and nationally.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? A set of integrative, interdisciplinary projects relating to diversification and intensification of Midwest agriculture were advanced, including: 1) implementation of "commercialization accelerator" project spanning numerous public and private sector participants, focusing on the development of sustainable supply chains for crops that increase continuous living cover in Midwest agriculture. This portfolio of projects was extensively advanced, by systematic engagement with supply-chain partners, and on-ground implementation in several instances, and including initiation of an extensive program of evaluation research made possible by new funding; 2) ongoing implementation, facilitation, and evaluation of a pilot cooperative governance network to govern applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to crops for regenerative agriculture, such as cover crops; 3) further collaborative development of new curriculum for undergraduate degree programs in food systems.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Ebel, R., Ahmed, S., Valley, W., Jordan, N., Grossman, J., Byker Shanks, C., Stein, M.,Rogers, M. and Dring, C., 2020. Co-design of Adaptable Learning Outcomes for Sustainable Food Systems Undergraduate Education. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 4: 170.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Jordan N, Gutknecht J, Bybee-Finley KA, Hunter, M., Krupnik, T.J., Pittelkow, C.M., Prasad, P.V.V. and Snapp, S., 2020. To meet grand challenges, agricultural scientists must engage in the politics of constructive collective action. Crop Science. 2020;18. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20318
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Schwartz-Lazaro, L., Shergill, L., Evans, J., Bagavathiannan, M., Beam, S., Bish, M., . . .Mirsky, S. (2020). Seed shattering phenology at soybean harvest of economically importantweeds in multiple regions of the United States. Part 1: Broadleaf species. Weed Science, 1-29. doi:10.1017/wsc.2020.80
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Schwartz-Lazaro, L., Shergill, L., Evans, J., Bagavathiannan, M., Beam, S., Bish, M., . . .Mirsky, S. (2020). Seed shattering phenology at soybean harvest of economically important weeds in multiple regions of the United States. Part 2: Grass species. Weed Science, 1-19.doi:10.1017/wsc.2020.79
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Wanger, T.C., DeClerck, F., Garibaldi, L.A., Ghazoul, J., Kleijn, D., Klein, A.M., Kremen,C., Mooney, H., Perfecto, I., Powell, L.L. and Settele, J., 2020. Integrating agroecological production in a robust post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4(9), pp.1150-1152(Jordan among 366 signatory authors).


    Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Target audiences include rural communities, agricultural entrepreneurs, private-sector firms in food and bioenergy manufacturing, farmers and landowners, conservation workers such as soil and water conservation district personnel, plant ecologists, policy makers in local, state and federal agencies. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project developed a public/private/NGO partnership to collectively use a market-driven strategy to increase continuous living cover in Midwest agriculture, providing numerous learning opportunities for participants. The project has also participated in a multi-institutional effort to develop undergraduate curricula in food systems and graduate curricula in agroecology, providing numerous training opportunities for participating graduate students, faculty, and post-doctoral researchers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Events include: multiple public lectures and interactions with policymakers and private-sector partners, and a multistakeholder, multi-stage workshop to develop a pilot cooperative governance network to govern applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to crops for regenerative agriculture, such as cover crops. Products include: a wide variety of peer-reviewed publications from ongoing and initiating activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Goals for the next period center around continued development of the Forever Green Initiative, as a novel "polycentric" governance system for rapid development and resourcing of supply chains for new crops that increase continuous living cover in Midwest agriculture. This effort will be undertaken and approached as both a practical matter and an academic research project, advancement of the Forever Green Initiative (FGI), and in particular its formalization as a robust. Other goals are to continue ongoing research projects in plant-soil agroecology, watershed-scale diversification strategies, cooperative governance of emerging biotechnology applied to regenerative agriculture, and a range of other collaborative projects.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? A set of integrative, interdisciplinary projects relating to diversification and intensification of Midwest agriculture were advanced, including: 1) implementation of "commercialization accelerator" project spanning numerous public and private sector participants, focusing on the development of sustainavble supply chains for crops that increase continuous living cover in Midwest agriculture; 2) organization, facilitation and evaluation of a pilot cooperative governance network to govern applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to crops for regenerative agriculture, such as cover crops; 3) collaborative development of new curriculum for undergraduate degree programs in food systems

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Runck, B.C., Manson, S., Shook, E., Gini, M. and Jordan, N., 2019. Using word embeddings to generate data-driven human agent decision-making from natural language. Geoinformatica 23: 221-242.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Li, M., Jordan, N.R., Koide, R.T., Yannarell, A.C. and Davis, A.S., 2019. Interspecific variation in crop and weed responses to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community highlights opportunities for weed biocontrol. Applied Soil Ecology 142: 34-42.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Flint, S.A., Olofson, D., Jordan, N.R. and Shaw, R.G., Population source affects competitive response and effect in a C4 grass (Panicum virgatum). Restoration Ecology 27: 1317-1326
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jilling, A., Kane, D., Williams, A., Yannarell, A.C., Davis, A., Jordan, N.R., Koide, R.T., Mortensen, D.A., Smith, R.G., Snapp, S.S. and Spokas, K.A., 2020. Rapid and distinct responses of particulate and mineral-associated organic nitrogen to conservation tillage and cover crops. Geoderma 359: 114001, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2019.114001


    Progress 07/01/18 to 09/30/18

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Target audiences include rural communities, bioeconomy entrepreneurs, farmers and landowners, conservation workers such as soil and water conservation district personnel, plant ecologists, policy makers in local, state and federal agencies. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has participated in a multi-institutional effort, now funded by USDA, to develop undergraduate curricula in food systems, in addition to providing training opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Events include: multiple public lectures and interactions with policymakers and private-sector partners, and a multistakeholder workshop addressing design and planning of sustainable land-use and supply/value chains that enable farmers to obtain economic benefits from diversified production systems. Products include: a wide variety of peer-reviewed publications from ongoing and initiating activities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Goals for the next period are centered around advancement of the Forever Green Initiative (FGI), and in particular its formalization as a robust public/private partnership that obtains, integrates, and leverages resources from a wide range of public, private and civil-society organizations. This project is interested in advancing such a partnership for two reasons. First it appears essential to moving novel crops for diversificationof Midwest agriculture crops toward extensive adoption, so as to create more diversified and multi-functional Midwestern cropping systems and agricultural landscapes. Second, the FGI partnership appears to have potential to offer one new model for the function of land-grant universities in relationship to grand challenge issues; while these are a major strategic priority nationally, there isneed for concrete organizational models for engaging agricultural science in such efforts. Other goals are to continue ongoing research projects in watershed-scale diversification strategies, cooperative governance of novel plant breed methods applied to the above model crops, and numerous other collaborative projects and associated peer-reviewed publications.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Multiple integrative, interdisciplinaryprojects relating to diversification and intensification of Midwest agriculture were advanced, and funding was obtainedfrom a wide range of sources for these efforts. Particular foci included these: 1) conceptual development and staffing for a collaborative "commercialization accelerator" project spanning numerous public and private sector participants. The project will organize collective action to commercialize novel continuous living cover crops; 2) Developing new models for farmer-led watershed scale integration of these novel crops in existing production systems, so as to enable efficient production and marketing of both commodities and water-related ecosystem services produced by diversified watersheds; 3) initiation of a project assessing applications of emerging breeding techologies (e.g., CRISPR) to continuous living cover crops, following the model outlined in our EMBO Reports publication.

    Publications

    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Muthukrishnan, R., A.S. Davis, N.R. Jordan, and J.D. Forester. 2018. Use of simulation-based statistical models to complement bioclimatic models in predicting continental scale invasion risks. Biological Invasions, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-018-1864-3
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Flint S.A., N. R. Jordan, and R. G. Shaw. 2018. Plant community response to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) population source in establishing prairies." Ecological Applications 28: 18181829
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Neve P., Barney J.N., Buckley Y., Cousens R.D., Graham S., Jordan N.R., Lawton?Rauh A., Liebman M., Mesgaran M.B., Schut M., Shaw J., et al. 2018. Reviewing research priorities in weed ecology, evolution and management: a horizon scan. Weed Research 58:250-258.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Williams, A., Jordan, N., Smith, R., Hunter, M., Kammerer, M., Kane, D.., Koide R, and Davis, A. 2018. A regionally-adapted implementation of conservation agriculture delivers rapid improvements to soil properties associated with crop yield stability. Scientific reports, 8(1), p.8467.
    • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Muthukrishnan R, Davis A.S., Jordan N.R, Forester J.D. 2018. Invasion complexity at large spatial scales is an emergent property of interactions among landscape characteristics and invader traits. PLoS ONE 13(5): e0195892. https://Muthukrishnan, R, Davis, N.R. Jordan, and J.D. Forester.