A diverse group of agriculture faculty has finalized plans to make Iowa State the first and only university to offer a graduate degree program in sustainable agriculture.Russell Mullen, sustainable agriculture faculty member and professor of agronomy, said the new graduate program is significant to the advancement of agriculture.”We really can’t afford to continue riding the horse of scientific discovery without programs, such as the graduate program in sustainable agriculture, that will help us to analyze and challenge — if warranted — our conventional practices,” he said. The new graduate program, a culmination of work by 50 faculty members from 10 departments, will begin classes in the fall. Ricardo Salvador, chairman of the sustainable agriculture graduate program and associate professor of agronomy, said sustainable agriculture at Iowa State has developed over a span of 10 years.He said the interest in sustainable agriculture began with a group of farmers who wanted alternative agriculture, and later with the establishment of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. “The Leopold Center has provided one-third of the funding for the graduate program, as well as a great deal of experience with sustainable agriculture,” Salvador said. He said the Leopold Center created an inviting environment for people interested in sustainable agriculture.”All of a sudden [Iowa State] looks like a place where students and people interested in sustainable agriculture can flourish,” Salvador said. The goals of the sustainable-agriculture program revolve around strong communicators with the hope graduates will play a major role in showing the public practical, alternative methods of agriculture. “The graduates will be translators between the science of sustainable ag and policy makers,” Salvador said. In the last month, 50 to 60 prospective students have shown interest in the program through the graduate program Web site at

www.sust.ag.iastate.edu/gpsa/. “International students and students across the U.S. have heard that there is a master’s and doctorate program here,” said Gretchen Zdorkowski, program assistant in agriculture administration.