The ISU Leopold Center is trying to promote agricultural awareness through a series of meetings set in various locations around Iowa.

The center has organized meetings in Sioux City and Des Moines to see what urban and suburban communities think about the future of agriculture in Iowa.

“From the standpoint of their own environment and landscape, we think Iowans would be interested in knowing where their food comes from,” said Rich Pirog, program coordinator for the Leopold Center, an institute created by the Iowa Legislature’s Iowa Groundwater Protection Act in 1987.

“Agriculture, regardless of what kind, has an impact on the landscape,” said Fred Kirschenmann, director of the Leopold Center. “The landscape is primarily being impacted by the farmers whose farms have been in their families for generations. They see their farms as part of the family and have a high level of motivation for taking care of the farm and the land.”

The Leopold Center has concerns about the shift from midsize farms to industrial complexes.

“If we go to large, industrial complexes, land will essentially be absentee-owned. Managers will be managing to meet the interest of the industry and owner, not the interest of the community or natural resources,” Kirschenmann said. “That will potentially change rural landscape.”

The Leopold Center wants to promote education about Iowa’s landscape through these meetings.

“We want to know if they are interested in clean air, clean water and the land that they travel across,” Pirog said. “We would like to find out what issues of agriculture are of interest to them and what concerns they have. We want to find links between urban and suburban and rural Iowans.”

The meetings will open with a presentation of the current state of agriculture and food systems, Kirschenmann said.

“What we would like to do is have a conversation with urban and suburban Iowans about where agriculture is heading in Iowa,” Pirog said. “We want to create awareness about how midsize farms in Iowa are disappearing and how this changes our landscape and communities.”

Kirschenmann said the center will generate feedback to hear concerns and discuss ways Iowans can become involved.

“As we’re looking at current data around what’s happening to production in agriculture, it appears to us that we’re in danger of losing agriculture in the middle,” Kirschenmann said. “The larger small farms and the middle-sized farms are vulnerable because they will not get access to markets because they aren’t big enough.”

The meetings are open to the public. The center hopes people will come with an open mind, Pirog said.

The next meeting will be in Des Moines on March 18 at 7 p.m. It will take place at Grace Lutheran Church, 3010 52nd Street.