The urgency of transforming the Midwestern U.S. landscape into more than corn and soybean

The current agri-food system emerged out of a desire to provide an inexpensive and secure food supply. Yet even before COVID-19, the abundant agricultural production of the Midwestern United States was generated amid a backdrop of increasing farm bankruptcies, declining farm employment and rural communities, and climbing farmer suicide rates. The environmental costs of this system were well established and include Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, elevated sediment and nutrient levels in waterways, and impacts to air quality, biodiversity and climate change. The economic, social and environmental consequences of contemporary agriculture already indicated the need for a wholesale revisiting of the dominant agricultural paradigm of highly specialized and subsidized production.

Early analysis of the impacts of COVID-19 on this system show farmer sentiment about the agricultural economy declining amidst reports of potentially devastating financial impacts (Mintert and Langemeier 2020; Westhoff et al. 2020). Some have even suggested that the financial impact of COVID-19 on agriculture can be equated to the impacts of the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains (Hart et al. 2020). The devastating tragedy of COVID-19 forces all agricultural stakeholders—farmers, consumers, food companies, legislators, and others—to hasten the re-thinking of an already unsustainable production system that lacks resilience. This re-thinking needs to go beyond the voluntary incremental changes and tweaks to localized programs that farmers, NGOs and others are already attempting.

A re-envisioned Midwestern landscape can balance sustainability goals, build the adaptive capacities of rural communities, and strengthen resiliency against the system shocks that the COVID-19 crisis has laid bare. It can also address climate variability, changing consumer demands, and volatile markets that were already placing tremendous pressure on agriculture and rural communities before the ongoing pandemic. To accomplish these goals, we must increase the diversity of agricultural systems at farm, landscape, and market/supply chain levels so they are more resilient for farmers, rural communities, and the environment. Multifunctional working landscapes could include: incorporating small grains and/or forage crops into extended rotations; replacing some input-intensive corn-soybean acres with perennial bioenergy crops, including agroforestry; integrating grazed livestock into systems that may include feed grains, winter cover crops, or perennial crops/forages; horticultural food crops; and/or increased use of edge of field nutrient loss reduction practices targeted to less productive, highly vulnerable lands. This landscape diversification must be paired with development of local and regional processing infrastructure and markets to allow farmers and food businesses to be financially viable. There must be less reliance on the lengthy commodity supply chains and consolidated markets that the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing as fragile and vulnerable.

To increase diversification at this scale, we need drastic changes that go beyond a mere pivoting of priorities and focus. On the research side, we need more field research and modeling of landscape-level effects of diversification on soil, water and air quality, climate change, and economic and community resilience. We also need integrated research and engagement to understand what will motivate and support change along the agricultural supply chain. This research can inform policy changes that will be necessary to facilitate a transition to a more resilient system. We need to develop stakeholder-informed landscape scenarios at the local, state, and national levels that consider who we want to be as a society and what we value most. Our Extension programs need to support diversification, market development, and strategies to build capacity for resilient communities. This approach will require us to transform our colleges of agriculture to train a workforce to be flexible while also providing programs to local government staff and community development organizations to support a more diversified agricultural economy and landscape.

Of course, research, extension and education are necessary but not sufficient to achieve such large-scale changes. As noted by others (NRC 2010), governmental and non-governmental policy tools that incentivize diversification and de-prioritize the current culture of mono-cropping will be essential. Increased diversification will make the agricultural system more resilient to shocks like COVID-19 or plant/animal pathogens in the future and will contribute to economic, social, and environmental viability. A reimagined future for agriculture that embraces diversity as well as environmental and social wellbeing is one component of the social change this crisis has revealed as absolutely necessary. If not now, when?

Biographies

Linda S. Prokopy

is a Professor in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University; her research focuses on understanding farmers’ conservation decision-making.

Benjamin M. Gramig

is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Alisha Bower

is the strategic initiatives manager at Practical Farmers of Iowa, she works to develop markets and farmer-to-farmer peer networks for small-grain and forage legume crops in the Midwest.

Sarah P. Church

is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Planning in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University. Her current research focuses on studies of behavior change and processes of environmental learning, particularly in relation to water and climate change issues across urban and working landscapes.

Brenna Ellison

is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics and a faculty affiliate in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Philip W. Gassman

is an Associate Scientist at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, whose research is focused on applications of environmental models for agricultural systems.

Ken Genskow

is Chair and Professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he works in the areas of environmental planning and policy, watershed planning, and collaborative and participatory approaches to resource management.

Douglas Gucker

is an Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Educator at the University of Illinois focused on local food systems, natural resources conservation and farm management.

Steve G. Hallett

is Professor in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue University where he coordinates the Sustainable Food Systems major and runs the student farm.

Jason Hill

is a Professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he explores the environmental consequences of agriculture, food, and energy from a life cycle perspective.

Natalie Hunt

is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Kris A. Johnson

is the Deputy Director of the North America Agriculture Program of The Nature Conservancy and helps lead strategies to increase adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in row crops and grazing lands.

Ian Kaplan

is a Professor in the Department of Entomology at Purdue University who studies the ecology, behavior, and conservation of beneficial insects in agriculture.

J. Paul Kelleher

is associate professor in the Department of Medical History & Bioethics in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research employs the conceptual tools of moral theory and political philosophy to examine ethical issues in health and environmental public policy.

Hans Kok

is an Independent Conservation Consultant, and Project Manager at the Conservation Technology Information Center, focused on educating farmers and other stakeholders on conservation cropping systems.

Michael Komp

is the Executive Director of the Conservation Technology Information Center.

Peter Lammers

is an assistant professor of animal science at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville School of Agriculture; he teaches and studies animal nutrition particularly mixed crop and livestock farms.

Sarah LaRose

is an assistant professor of agricultural education at Purdue University where her work focuses on the preparation and induction of agricultural educators in secondary settings.

Mattew Liebman

is a professor of agronomy and the H.A. Wallace Chair for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, where he works with students and farmers to improve environmental quality and crop production while reducing dependence on agrichemicals and fossil fuels.

Andrew Margenot

is an assistant professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research group works on soil fertility and nutrient management.

David Mulla

is the Larson Chair for Soil and Water Resources and Director of the Precision Agriculture Center in the Department of Soil, Water & Climate at the University of Minnesota. His research focus is on ecosystem services in agricultural watersheds and strategies for precision conservation.

Michael J. O’Donnell

serves as an Organic & Diversified Agriculture Educator at Purdue Extension, where he works with farmers of all scales and enterprises looking to shift acres into certified organic and regenerative farming systems.

Alex W. Peimer

is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Northeastern Illinois University; he researches nature/society relations and environmental governance.

Elizabeth Reaves

is the Senior Program Director for Agriculture and Environment at the Sustainable Food Lab. She is supporting sector wide collaboration with food and protein companies and retailers to address the need for small grain markets in the corn and soy system in the US Midwest.

Kara Salazar

is an Assistant Program Leader and Extension Specialist for Sustainable Communities with Purdue University Extension and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. Extension programs focus on environmental planning and community development.

Chelsea Schelly

is an associate professor sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University.

Keith Schilling

is State Geologist and Director of the Iowa Geological Survey at the University of Iowa; his research is focused on hydrology and agricultural impacts on water quality.

Silvia Secchi

is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences at the University of Iowa; she studies agriculture’s environmental impacts.

Aslihan D. Spaulding

is a Professor of Agribusiness and Food Industry Management in the Department of Agriculture at Illinois State University; her research focuses on strategic agribusiness sales, farmer and consumer behavior, and survey research methodology.

David Swenson

is an Associate Scientist in the Economics Department at Iowa State University; he studies regional socio-economic change.

Aaron W. Thompson

is an assistant professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Center for Community and Environmental Design at Purdue University.

Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad

is an Assistant Professor of Community and Natural Resource Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology at Utah State University; her research focuses on the relationship between natural resource related trends or events and community making in rural places as well as the drivers of adoption and maintenance of conservation practices among agricultural producers.